Monday, January 4, 2010

Top Updates: week of January 4th, 2010


Friday's employment report could be breakthrough for U.S. job market

By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 7, 2010
As evidence mounts that the labor market is starting to improve, the most definitive sign of whether it's turned the corner could come Friday morning with the scheduled release of a closely watched employment report.

Conflicting housing, factory data show fragility of economic ecovery
By Renae Merle and Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
>The rebound in manufacturing showed further signs of promise for the economy in the coming year, according to government data released Tuesday, even as housing, another key driver of the country's nascent recovery, offered new cause for worry.

D.C. region's unemployment rate dropped to 6.1 percent in November
By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
>The unemployment level in the Washington region dipped in November to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent the previous month, according to government data released Tuesday, further evidence to some economists that the area has weathered the worst of the recession.

IRS to regulate paid tax preparation
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
>The Internal Revenue Service plans to test, register and screen people who get paid to prepare tax returns, stepping into a virtually unregulated business on which millions of Americans depend for crucial financial services.

Defense titan Northrop Grumman to leave Los Angeles for D.C. area
By Dana Hedgpeth and Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
>Northrop Grumman said Monday that it plans to move its corporate headquarters from Los Angeles to the Washington area by 2011, solidifying the growing importance of Washington as a center for the defense industry and other businesses.

Top Washington business stories of 2009
By Dan Beyers
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 4, 2010
Last year is probably one best forgotten by many local businesses, given the nation's economic woes. But a scan of some of the top stories offers reason to hope for better times.
Fairfax Ascendant.
County scored a number of high-profile coups in 2009. Hilton Hotels and the government contracting giant SAIC formally relocated their headquarters to Tysons Corner, and a $200 million genetic research facility calling itself the Ignite Institute for Individualized Health announced it would locate along the Route 28 corridor near Dulles, after being enticed by millions of dollars in tax breaks...

Fannie, Freddie moves
The executive shuffle continued at mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Michael J. Williams, Fannie's chief operating officer, was named chief executive after Herbert M. Allison Jr. was tapped to run the Treasury Department's financial recovery program.

Dulles extension
The first phase of a $5.2 billion project to extend rail service to Dulles International Airport won federal approval last spring, heralding a new era of development in Tysons Corner.


Fed chief Bernanke urges better financial regulation to prevent crises
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 4, 2010
Better regulation is the key to avoiding future financial excesses, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said Sunday, arguing that the Fed's low-interest-rate policies early in the decade were not a major cause of the housing bubble.

Cash-rich real estate investors trigger bidding wars, frustrate other buyers
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Investors have reemerged with brute force in the Washington region's real estate market over the past few months, triggering bidding wars in some neighborhoods teeming with foreclosed properties and hindering traditional home buyers such as Melissa Diggins.


Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers
By Neil Irwin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 2, 2010
For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.


FDIC considers proposal to get piece of failed-bank buyers' stock gains
By Binyamin Appelbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 2, 2010
The share prices of some companies that bought failed banks from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in recent months have climbed rapidly, suggesting that investors think the buyers are getting good deals.

Despite ghastly start, stocks finish 2009 with strong gains
By Tomoeh Murakami Tse
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 1, 2010
NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks ended a mercurial year with a nearly 24 percent gain, rebounding from the biggest loss since the Great Depression with a rally many investors had not seen in their lifetime.

In sign of rebound, D.C. population set to surpass 600,000
By Carol Morello and Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The District is on the verge of a watershed in its turnaround, with the city's population set to break 600,000 for the first time in almost two decades. Recently released Census Bureau statistics show that the city is just a few hundred residents shy of the mark, with an estimated population of 599,657 as of July 1. That reflects a gain of almost 9,600 over the previous year.

U.S. takes majority stake in GMAC, giving lender $3.8 billion more in aid
By Binyamin Appelbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 31, 2009
The federal government said Wednesday that it will take majority control of troubled auto lender GMAC and provide an additional $3.8 billion in aid to the company, which has been unable to raise from private investors the money it needs to staunch its losses.
The Treasury Department has said for months that GMAC would need more federal money, but the decision to increase the government's ownership stake came as a surprise, cutting against the grain of the Obama administration's recent efforts to wind down its bailout of large banks.


Support grows for tackling nation's debt
By Elaine S. Povich and Eric Pianin
The Fiscal Times Thursday, December 31, 2009
Senate action late last week that increased the limit on the government's credit card to a record $12.4 trillion gave a significant boost to a proposal to appoint a special commission to make the tough decisions that will be required to dig the nation out of debt.
President Obama has voiced support for such a plan, and 35 Democratic and Republican senators have signed on to legislation that would create a bipartisan commission with broad power to force painful spending cuts and tax increases through Congress.

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