Feb 05 Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%, but 2009 Was Worse Than Reported Employers cut 20,000 jobs in January, but the unemployment rate surprisingly fell to a five-month low of 9.7 percent, according to the Labor Department's monthly report on Friday. The jobless rate was 10 percent in November and December. The… Continue reading
Feb 05 What Is Needed to Spur Job Creation? By Carolyn O'Hara With the unemployment level still hovering near double digits, the PBS NewsHour asked a handful of economists and small business owners for their thoughts on the one thing Washington should do to jumpstart job creation. Continue reading
Feb 05 Watch Jobless Rate Drops, but Fuller Recovery Still Appears Distant The economy shed 20,000 jobs in January, but there were new hopes of economic growth as the nation's unemployment rate ticked down to 9.7 percent. Jim Lehrer speaks with a pair of experts about the latest numbers, as well as… Continue watching
Feb 05 Watch News Wrap: Toyota President Apologizes for Recall In other news Friday, Toyota's president Akio Toyoda apologized for the brake problems that triggered a worldwide recall, and at least 40 people are dead in Iraq from two bomb blasts targeting Shi-ite pilgrims. Continue watching
Feb 05 Watch Reagan Budget Chief Offers a 'Gunslinger' Defense of Obama's Bank Reforms With President Obama pushing a bipartisan deal on reforming banking regulations, Paul Solman talks with David Stockman, former Reagan budget chief and Wall Street "gunslinger," about the proposal to tax banks on their size and amount of risk. Continue watching
Feb 04 Karl Case's (Poetic) Reflections on the Housing Market We've been interviewing Wellesley economics professor Karl 'Chip' Case since the last housing crash here in Boston in the late '80s, and as recently as a few weeks ago with his well-known collaborator Bob Shiller. He… Continue reading
Feb 04 Karl Case's (Poetic) Reflections on the Housing Market Paul Solman: We’ve been interviewing Wellesley economics professor Karl ‘Chip’ Case since the last housing crash here in Boston in the late ’80s, and as recently as a few weeks ago with his well-known collaborator Bob Shiller. Continue reading
Feb 04 Bank of America Faces Fraud Charges New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed civil securities fraud charges Thursday against Bank of America*, its former CEO Ken Lewis, and former CFO Joe Price. The suit alleges that the bank and the two executives first misled… Continue reading
Feb 04 Reflections on the Housing Market By Carolyn O'Hara Economist Karl Case co-developed the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, today the most widely watched source of housing market prices in the U.S. Here, in a PBS NewsHour online exclusive, is his summation of the housing crisis -- in verse form. Continue reading
Feb 04 Watch Stand-up Economist Finds the Light Side of a 'Dismal Science' Economics isn't exactly a side-splitting discipline, but at a recent economics convention in Atlanta, self-proclaimed "stand-up economist" Yoram Bauman showed it's possible to infuse the sober science with monetary mirth. Continue watching