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23 Feb 2010 09:37

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Biz: Hey! Some minorly bad news. Home prices went down in December

  • 0.2% decrease in home prices in 20 metro areas source

22 Feb 2010 09:42

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U.S.: Some people in this recession lose jobs, never get them back

  • 6.3 million long-term unemployed as of January; Jesus source

21 Feb 2010 10:41

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Biz: The first meal of the day for many unemployed people? Lunch

  • 4% dip in fast-food breakfast traffic as joblessness hit 10% source

20 Feb 2010 11:19

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Biz: A leading inflation indicator dipped for the first time in ages

  • -0.1% decrease in the core consumer price index, a leading indicator of inflation
  • 1982 the last time that the price index decreased at all source

18 Feb 2010 21:02

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Biz: The feds raise the interest rate, but claim it’s not a big thang

  • .5% the interest rate between December 2008 and today
  • .75% the interest rate as of today; not much else changes source

18 Feb 2010 11:02

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Biz: Jobless claims, prices increase, make investors super-depressed

  • 31,000 new jobless claims this week, which was way higher than expected
  • 1.4% increase in farm and factory prices, caused by higher energy costs source

17 Feb 2010 12:05

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Politics, U.S.: New York Times: The stimulus bill an unheralded success

  • The program has had its flaws. But the attention they have received is wildly disproportionate to their importance. To hark back to another big government program, it’s almost as if the lasting image of the lunar space program was Apollo 6, an unmanned 1968 mission that had engine problems, and not Apollo 11, the moon landing.
  • New York Times journalist David Leonhardt • In an analysis piece describing why the stimulus program actually worked. The numbers are somewhat inconsistent, but he points out in his article that yes, the stimulus has actually improved the job picture. People disagree on the details and Republicans will use it as a good excuse to trash Obama, but the numbers, Leonhardt argues, favor Obama. One point worth noting: In most worldwide financial crises this century, it generally takes five years for jobs to bounce back to normal numbers. Obama’s already doing better than that, Leonhardt says. source
 

17 Feb 2010 11:08

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U.S.: How much did the stimulus help? Depends on who you ask

  • 1.5+ million jobs have been saved already, according to Obama’s chief economic adviser, who used a mathematical formula
  • 500,000 jobs have been saved so far, according to the CEO of Onvia, a contractor-advising company that tracks government spending source

17 Feb 2010 10:58

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08 Feb 2010 20:26

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Biz: Another dumpy day for the Dow: It FINISHED below 10,000 again

  • 9,908 the Dow’s closing level today, due to troubles abroad and possible regulation at home
  • 11/04/09 the last time the Dow closed this low, which was just a couple of months ago, by the way source