Cut to food stamps

Food stamp benefits will be cut, starting last Friday.

The cuts, totaling $5 billion, will mean less money for groceries for millions of people who rely on food stamps. It's a tough time to have less food on the table, just a few weeks before the start of the holiday season.

Congress has the power to halt the cutback. However, experts say it's highly unlikely at a time when Republicans are calling for even more drastic cuts to food stamps.

Food stamp benefits were bumped up in the midst of the recession. The temporary provision expired Nov. 1.

READ MORE:  http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/25/news/economy/food-stamp-cuts/index.html?iid=s_mpm

Most Americans accumulating debt faster than they’re saving for retirement

A majority of Americans with 401(k)-type savings accounts are accumulating debt faster than they are setting aside money for retirement, further undermining the nation’s troubled system for old-age saving, a new report has found.

Three in five workers with defined contribution accounts are “debt savers,” according to the report released Thursday, meaning their increasing mortgages, credit card balances and installment loans are outpacing the amount of money they are able to save for retirement.

The imbalance is expanding even as policymakers are encouraging people to set aside more by offering generous tax breaks and automatically enrolling workers in retirement accounts that in some cases automatically escalate the amount of money over time.

Currently, workers with retirement savings accounts put aside more than 11 percent of their pay for retirement — 5 percent in their own accounts, and 6.2 percent in Social Security.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/many-americans-accumulating-debt-faster-than-theyre-saving-for-retirement/2013/10/23/b7a9c85e-3b3e-11e3-b6a9-da62c264f40e_print.html

In more homes, the roof overhead is rented

In the aftermath of a historic housing bust, rented single-family homes are on the rise in communities from coast to coast.

At least a fifth of all occupied single-family homes were rentals last year in 32 of the nation's top metropolitan regions, according to a USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. That's up from seven metros in 2006.

Rates: National average on 30-year mortgage falls to 4.5%

The growth reflects changes brought by the housing boom and bust and the enduring financial hardships imposed by the recession. Millions of homeowners lost homes to foreclosure and were forced to become renters, while others delayed homeownership.

READ MORE:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/20/single-family-homes-turned-rentals/2939243/

Youth Unemployment: 15 Percent Of American Youth Out Of School And Work, Study Finds

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost 6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday.

That's almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which wrote the report.

Other studies have shown that idle young adults are missing out on a window to build skills they will need later in life or use the knowledge they acquired in college. Without those experiences, they are less likely to command higher salaries and more likely to be an economic drain on their communities.

"This is not a group that we can write off. They just need a chance," said Mark Edwards, executive director of the coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, policy experts and nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing economic mobility. "The tendency is to see them as lost souls and see them as unsavable. They are not."

But changing the dynamic is not going to be easy.

READ MORE:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/21/youth-unemployment_n_4134358.html

White House sees “deterioration” in Oct. labor market signs

Forget September's jobs report; Jason Furman, chairman of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, is already worried about October.

In an interview Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street," Furman cited "solid progress" in the U.S. job market but admitted economic growth could be stronger.

"We would like to see private-sector job growth strengthening at a time like this," Furman said. "There's no question that things like the sequester, brinkmanship, all of that are getting in the way of this happening."
In September, 148,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy, missing expectations of 180,000. The unemployment rate fell 1 percentage point to 7.2 percent, its lowest rate since November 2008.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/101132900

Security check now starts long before you fly

The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment information.


While the agency says that the goal is to streamline the security procedures for millions of passengers who pose no risk, the new measures give the government greater authority to use travelers' data for domestic airport screenings. Previously that level of scrutiny applied only to individuals entering the United States.

The prescreening, some of which is already taking place, is described in documents the T.S.A. released to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals' data, but the details of the program have not been publicly announced.

READ MORE: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101132836

Murky jobs picture likely to keep Fed on hold

The Fed is expected to keep easing at full throttle well into next year, after September's tepid jobs report showed the impact of a painfully slow growing economy on employment.

The economy added 148,000 nonfarm payrolls, compared with expectations for 180,000, and a revised 193,000 in August. The jobless rate fell to 7.2 percent, from 7.3 percent.

The report, delayed by the government shutdown and released Tuesday morning, showed surprisingly low growth in the private sector of just 129,000 jobs and a weakening trend in the past several months. While August jobs were revised to 193,000 from 169,000, the July report was revised down to 89,000 from 104,000.

READ MORE:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/101132507

Study: 15 percent of US youth out of school, work

WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost 6 million young people are neither in school nor working, according to a study released Monday.

That's almost 15 percent of those aged 16 to 24 who have neither desk nor job, according to The Opportunity Nation coalition, which wrote the report.

Other studies have shown that idle young adults are missing out on a window to build skills they will need later in life or use the knowledge they acquired in college. Without those experiences, they are less likely to command higher salaries and more likely to be an economic drain on their communities.

"This is not a group that we can write off. They just need a chance," said Mark Edwards, executive director of the coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, policy experts and nonprofit organizations dedicated to increasing economic mobility. "The tendency is to see them as lost souls and see them as unsavable. They are not."

READ MORE:  http://bigstory.ap.org/article/study-15-percent-us-youth-out-school-work-0

Down and out: the French flee a nation in despair

The failing economy and harsh taxes of François Hollande's beleaguered nation are sending thousands packing - to Britain's friendlier shores 

 By Anne-Elisabeth Moutet

7:00AM BST 20 Oct 2013

A poll on the front page of last Tuesday’s Le Monde, that bible of the French Left-leaning Establishment (think a simultaneously boring and hectoring Guardian), translated into stark figures the winter of François Hollande’s discontent.

More than 70 per cent of the French feel taxes are “excessive”, and 80 per cent believe the president’s economic policy is “misguided” and “inefficient”. This goes far beyond the tax exiles such as Gérard Depardieu, members of the Peugeot family or Chanel’s owners. Worse, after decades of living in one of the most redistributive systems in western Europe, 54 per cent of the French believe that taxes – of which there have been 84 new ones in the past two years, rising from 42 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 46.3 per cent this year – now widen social inequalities instead of reducing them.

READ MORE:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/10390571/france-hollande-taxes-socialist-farrage.html

London’s Low Taxes Lure Foreign Companies as Banks Retrench

London's corporate tax rate will soon be half the U.S. rate

The Swiss town of Baar boasts clean air, easy access to ski slopes and some of Europe’s lowest personal taxes. London? Traffic and perpetual drizzle

Yet executives at Noble Corp. (NE), a provider of deepwater oil drilling rigs, are in the process of moving headquarters from Baar to the British capital, citing the talented workforce and easy airline connections from Heathrow, Europe’s busiest international airport. On top of that, the U.K. tax rate is now competitive with Switzerland’s historically corporate-friendly tax regime.

Noble is part of a wave of overseas companies moving head offices to London, lured in part by the country’s declining corporate taxes. The relocations underscore Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to make the country more attractive to foreign companies -- and may help London become less dependent on the financial services industry, which has been retrenching since the 2008 crisis.

READ MORE:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-17/london-luring-foreign-companies-with-low-taxes-as-banks-retrench.html

Networks blamed shutdown on GOP in 41 stories --- 0 for Dems

Republicans never expected to get a fair shake in the Big Three networks' coverage of the 16-day government shutdown, but the final tally of stories blaming the GOP is stunning: 41 stories blamed Republicans and zero blamed Democrats.

Nightly, 20 million Americans heard “a version of the shutdown story that could easily have emanated from Barack Obama's own White House,” said the new report from the Media Research Center.

The report, provided to Secrets, found that a total of 41 stories blamed Republicans for the shutdown. None blamed the Democrats. Another 17 blamed both sides.

READ MORE:   http://washingtonexaminer.com/networks-blamed-shutdown-on-gop-41-stories-0-for-dems/article/2537363

U.S. surges past Saudis to become world's top oil supplier -PIRA

Oct 15 (Reuters) - The United States has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become the world's biggest oil producer as the jump in output from shale plays has led to the second biggest oil boom in history, according to leading U.S. energy consultancy PIRA.

U.S. output, which includes natural gas liquids and biofuels, has swelled 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) since 2009, the fastest expansion in production over a four-year period since a surge in Saudi Arabia's output from 1970-1974, PIRA said in a release on Tuesday.

It was the latest milestone for the U.S. oil sector caused by the shale revolution, which has upended global oil trade. While still the largest consumer of fuel, the rise of cheap crude available to domestic refiners has turned the United States into a significant exporter of gasoline and distillate fuels.

READ MORE:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/15/us-oil-pira-idUSL1N0I51IX20131015

A Staff of Robots Can Clean and Install Solar Panels

RICHMOND, Calif. — In a dusty yard under a blistering August sun, Rover was hard at work, lifting 45-pound solar panels off a stack and installing them, one by one, into a concrete track. A few yards away, Rover’s companion, Spot, moved along a row of panels, washing away months of grit, then squeegeeing them dry.

Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Rover, a robot, placing a solar panel in a track at Alion Energy, which is looking to shave labor costs.

But despite the heat and monotony — an alternative-energy version of lather-rinse-repeat — neither Rover nor Spot broke a sweat or uttered a complaint. They could have kept at it all day. 

That is because they are robots, surprisingly low-tech machines that a start-up company called Alion Energy is betting can automate the installation and maintenance of large-scale solar farms. 

READ MORE:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/business/energy-environment/putting-robots-to-work-in-solar-energy.html?_r=2&

The crisis with an on/off switch

On Thursday, the Treasury Department will have only cash on hand and any money coming in -- which varies day to day -- to pay the U.S. government's bills.

What's up with the debt ceiling?

 

And the bills will exceed the revenue and cash at some point after that. So something will have to give. Someone, perhaps seniors due their Social Security payments, won't get paid on time. It's that simple.
In addition, the reaction in markets will likely be bad. The only question is how bad.

Stocks will probably plunge. The U.S. government's incredibly cheap borrowing costs could jump. In a worst-case scenario, the gears of the financial system could gum up because Treasury debt is such an important lubricant.

Some economists fear a jobs-killing recession if a debt ceiling crisis persists. That's because the effective result of not raising the debt ceiling would be a massive and abrupt cut in federal spending.


The only good news is that this latest Washington-made crisis has an obvious on/off switch. It's not too late -- lawmakers can flip the "off" switch now.

READ MORE:  http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/13/news/economy/debt-ceiling-congress/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Debt-ceiling breach would push economy into free fall, without a government safety net

The Obama administration will have to decide whether to delay — or possibly suspend — tens of billions of dollars in Social Security checks, food stamps and unemployment benefits if negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling are not resolved this week, experts say, one of the many difficult choices officials will have to make at a time when the government will essentially be running on fumes.

The government will begin Monday with about $30 billion cash in the bank and a little more room to borrow as a result of extraordinary measures launched in the wake of the debt-ceiling crisis. By Thursday, administration officials say they will exhaust all borrowing authority and have only that cash on hand.

Experts on federal finances say that money might be enough to make payments for a few days, but certainly not for more than two weeks. In any event, they say, President Obama will have to make untested decisions about who and what to pay because daily tax receipts will make up only about 70 cents of every dollar of necessary spending.

Economists roundly agree that no matter which course Obama chooses, a drop in federal spending that large would exert a huge drag on economic growth. And in contrast to what happens during a traditional downturn — the safety net expands to help the vulnerable — assistance to seniors and low-income people could be delayed or reduced if Congress doesn’t raise the debt ceiling.

READ MORE:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/debt-ceiling-breach-would-push-economy-into-freefall-without-a-government-safety-net/2013/10/13/a4efd588-3287-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html?hpid=z1

Delaware Gov. Markell back on hot seat over economy

As Gov. Jack Markell concludes a series of town hall meetings tonight in New Castle County, a new report echoes recent bad news for Delaware’s economy, which has been a topic at Markell’s earlier public forums around the state.

His final meeting tonight is scheduled for 6 p.m. inside the auditorium at Delcastle Technical High School near Newport. Markell will take questions from the public.

Cathy Rossi, a Markell spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the governor looks forward to “discussing his plans to support more start-up and innovation businesses, focus on manufacturing, provide workforce training and expand on our strengths in financial services, agriculture and other key industries.”
READ MORE:  http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20131010/NEWS02/310100051/Delaware-Gov-Markell-back-hot-seat-over-economy?nclick_check=1

General Motors Executive Warns of Impending Auto Bubble

General Motors of Canada President Kevin Williams is warning that subprime loans could doom the auto industry just as it did the housing industry in 2007.

Williams told the editorial board of Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper on Monday that record Canadian auto sales could be attributed to cheap credit loans.

“The real question is, are you going to run the business the way you ran it in the past in order to drive market share exclusively. The answer is that’s not our intent because it [led to] a failed company,” Williams said.

Using subprime loans and easy credit to move cars off the lot may not be GM Canada’s goal, but its parent company, bailed-out, Detroit-based General Motors, has been moving in that direction, as the Washington Free Beacon reported in February. Nearly 90 percent of loans issued by GM Financial were subprime.

READ MORE:  http://freebeacon.com/general-motors-executive-warns-of-impending-auto-bubble/

Shutdown halts federal regs (Video)

By Ben Goad and Julian Hattem - 10/06/13 12:07 PM ET

 

The government shutdown has all but turned off the regulatory spigot, reducing the flow of new rules from federal agencies to a trickle. [WATCH VIDEO]

Regulators and proponents of stronger protections warn that rule-making delays would jeopardize public safety and health. But some conservatives say the reprieve from red tape is welcome, even if it doesn’t last long.

“We’re very pleased that the Obama administration’s ongoing efforts to wreck the U.S. economy with more and more heavy-handed and colossally expensive regulations has been put on hold,” said Myron Ebell, director of the right-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute’s energy and environment center.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/regwatch/administration/326667-shutdown-halts-federal-regulations#ixzz2hELkbNfk

Obamacare's winners and losers in Bay Area

Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.

Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.

Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.

READ MORE:  http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_24248486/obamacares-winners-and-losers-bay-area

Enrollment In Obamacare's Federal Exchange, So Far, May Only Be In 'Single Digits'

On October 1, Obamacare’s subsidized insurance exchanges went live. Most of the exchange websites crashed on the first day, a development that led some of the law’s supporters to conclude that there was overwhelming demand for Obamacare’s insurance products. But the Obama administration isn’t releasing figures as to the number of Americans who have actually signed up for exchange-based coverage. “Very, very few people that we’re aware of have enrolled in the federal exchange,” said one anonymous insurance industry official to the Washington Post. “We are talking single digits.”

Exchange agencies walk back high-traffic hype

Other exchanges have had to pare down their initial statistics. Covered California, that state’s subsidized insurance exchange, initially claimed that its website had received 5 million hits on October 1. They later had to revise that number down 87 percent, to 645,000. KUSI-TV in San Diego is reporting that not one policy has yet been sold on the California exchange.

READ MORE:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/10/03/enrollment-in-obamacares-federal-exchange-so-far-is-in-the-single-digits/