What's Going On?
These are all news articles, about our economy, from this week. I think the direction of our economy is fairly solid and would have occurred in much the same manner under Republican, Mitt Romney. The only difference is that President Obama will now get more of the credit and a Democrat will. probably, be elected following President Obama, whereas, if Mitt Romney had been elected, Republicans would more than likely gotten the credit, and would more than likely have been elected after a President Romney. After the facts are presented, there are two analyses about what might happen over the next 4 years. One, David Brooks, is a conservative view. The other, Paul Krugmans, is a more liberal view. I think they are both correct!
Stocks end higher, giving indexes a third straight week of gains; S&P 500 at highest since '07
- Article by: Associated Press
- Updated: January 18, 2013 - 3:12 PM
NEW YORK - Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, closing out a third straight week of gains.
General Electric led the Dow Jones industrial average higher after reporting a strong quarter thanks to growth in emerging markets.
The Dow rose 53 points to end at 13,649 Friday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index reached another five-year high, rising five points to close at 1,486.
Rising stocks outnumbered falling ones two to one on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was in line with the recent average at 3.7 billion shares.
Consumer Price Index
January 16, 2013On a seasonally adjusted basis, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers was unchanged in December after decreasing 0.3 percent in November. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.1 percent in December, the same increase as in November.
January 16, 2013, 7:57
Bolstered by Investments, Goldman Sachs’s Profit Soars
Mario Tama/Getty ImagesGoldman Sachs’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
A persistent complaint from analysts has been that since the financial crisis, Wall Street banks have mainly relied on slashing costs — everything from people to paper cups — to increase profits and performance.
On Wednesday, Goldman Sachs released financial results that demonstrated it was not only benefiting from cost-cutting, but it also finally had a significant rebound in its core businesses.
Goldman’s fourth-quarter profit of $2.89 billion, or $5.60 a share, was not only well ahead of last year’s performance, but it also handily beat analysts’ expectations of $3.78 a share, according to Thomson Reuters
Lucky 2013: A case for economic good times
January 18, 2013: 5:00 AM ET
It's easy to predict gloom and doom for the U.S. economy. But strong growth and job recovery are no pie-in-the-sky fantasies.
By Geoff Colvin, senior editor-at-large
FORTUNE -- In your sleep you can name 10 reasons 2013 will be lousy for business and the economy. So can I. But analyzing only the downside is a bad habit; missing a boom is at least as dangerous as missing a bust. So let's imagine the good-news scenario that absolutely no one is talking about. Is it likely? I dunno. Plausible? Absolutely. Here's what gets us to a 4% growth rate, rising incomes, and low unemployment by year-end:
The revolution in American oil and gas increasingly spreads its benefits through the economy. Our crude-oil production, after declining for the past 20 years, is suddenly rocketing and will keep doing so for the rest of the decade, says the Energy Information Administration's just-released outlook. Natural-gas productionwill boom for at least the next three decades. A resulting industrial renaissance is already under way. Chemical and plastics makers -- Dow (DOW), Mitsubishi, and others -- are building new plants around the country, a stunning turnaround for an industry that has been shutting U.S. plants for years. The Timken Co. (TKR) is expanding a mill in Ohio to make specialty steels for the oil and gas industry. Railroads are adding cars to haul the rising output of many industries. Best of all, much of the new production will be exported -- shrinking our trade deficit and bringing jobs and GDP growth to the U.S.
The 113th Congress, spooked by the loathing rightly heaped on the 112th, finally acts on its three most important priorities: reforming the tax code by lowering rates and closing loopholes, making Medicare sustainable, and fixing immigration laws to attract and keep the world's best and most ambitious.
President Obama, finished with running for office and envying Bill Clinton's extraordinary stature domestically and globally, decides to go for a statesman legacy rather than a progressive-hero legacy. He gets behind tax reform by emphasizing its fairness; stresses that Medicare isn't being cut but saved; and negotiates a procedure for legalizing illegals as part of immigration reform. Photos of him signing landmark legislation with leaders of both parties behind him build his image as a pragmatic doer rather than a far-left class warrior.
The economy builds steam, and hiring picks up. In response, Washington lets hyperextended unemployment benefits revert to normal duration. Those special 99-week benefits, while helpful to many, also distort labor markets by encouraging nonwork, though it's politically incorrect to say so. Getting back to normal frees up another of our greatest strengths, our flexible labor markets.
The virtuous circle that drives all growing economies gains power. Increased economic activity creates confidence, which spurs more activity. Entrepreneurs, managers, and consumers start to believe again.
It could happen, or part of it. No one knows if it will, but we need to be ready for it. And if you think this whole scenario is nonsense, please remember a lesson of history: When everyone believes it can't possibly happen, that's when it happens.
This story is from the February 4, 2013 issue of Fortune.
BlackRock 4th-Quarter Profit Rises 24% on Higher Assets Under Management
Published January 17, 2013
Dow Jones Newswires
BlackRock Inc.'s (BLK) fourth-quarter profit rose 24%, helped by rising popularity of its market-dominating iShares exchange-traded fund business.
Results from the world's largest money manager beat Wall Street expectations. BlackRock raised its quarterly dividend by 12% to $1.68 and increased its stock buyback program.
The shares rose 3.6% to $230.30 in light early trading.
The firm is the biggest provider of exchange-traded funds in the U.S. ETFs--mutual funds that typically track an index but are traded on an exchange--have surged in popularity in recent years as investors seek out lower-cost investment products.
The iShares ETF business took in $35.7 billion in the fourth quarter, putting its total assets under management at $752.7 billion, or about a third of BlackRock's long-term asset base.
Across the industry, U.S. ETF assets ended 2012 at $1.35 trillion, up 27% from the year earlier, according to investment-research firm Morningstar.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.
Jobs and Housing Reports Show Resilience in Recovery
By REUTERS
Published: January 17, 2013
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits hit a five-year low last week and residential construction surged in December, the latest signs that the American economic recovery remains on track.
The reports on Thursday showed the economy was weathering an uncertain fiscal environment surprisingly well. Still, growth in the fourth quarter was most likely subdued, and only a modest pickup was expected in the first three months of this year.
“While growth has been slow, the damage done from the uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff was not sufficient to topple the recovery,” said Millan Mulraine, a senior economist at TD Securities in New York.
The fiscal cliff refers to deep government spending cuts and tax increases, many of which were avoided after a last-minute agreement in Congress. A fight over raising the government’s borrowing limit looms.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the lowest level since January 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday. It was the largest weekly drop since February 2010, ending four straight weeks of increases.
While problems adjusting the data for seasonal fluctuations might have exaggerated the size of the decline, economists said the report still suggested an improvement in the labor market and the economy as a whole.
“Having taken a pinch of salt, however, we would suggest that the trend in claims generally show no pickup in layoff activity around the turn of the year,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.
A separate report from the Commerce Department showed housing starts jumped 12.1 percent last month to their highest level since June 2008. Permits for home construction were also the highest in about 4 1/2 years.
The data was confirmation that the housing market was improving, aided in part by favorable weather, with gains in home building across all four regions in the survey. Groundbreaking increased for both single-family homes and multifamily units.
Housing appeared to no longer be a drag on the economy and residential construction was expected to have contributed to growth last year for the first time since 2005.
The jobs and housing data helped United States stocks surge. The reports came on the heels of data this week showing solid retail sales and manufacturing growth in December.
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