The American economy lost another 240,000 jobs in October, the government reported Friday morning, the 10th consecutive monthly decline and a clear signal that an accelerating slowdown is assailing households and businesses.
The unemployment rate climbed to 6.5 percent , the highest level since 1994 and up from 6.1 percent the month before.
Adding to the gloom was a steep downward revision in payroll numbers for September. The Labor Department said that employers slashed 284,000 jobs that month, far higher than the 159,000 that was initially reported.
Americans went to the polls on Tuesday to choose the next president of the United States, deciding whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator John McCain was better suited to guide the nation through an economic crisis at home and two wars abroad.
In voting booths in every corner of the land, the people were collectively writing the ending to a political saga that has been unfolding for nearly two years, during a tumultuous, uncertain period of American history in which record numbers of people expressed concerns that the country was heading down the wrong track.
NYTimes: “Mr. McCain, whom we chose as the best Republican nominee in the primaries, has spent the last coins of his reputation for principle and sound judgment to placate the limitless demands and narrow vision of the far-right wing”
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for U.S. president on Thursday, saying he had “met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change.”
The Times posted its endorsement on its Internet site on Thursday evening and was to publish it in Friday editions of the newspaper.
Earlier this year, the newspaper endorsed New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, but it said Obama had long ago erased the reservations that led it to make that decision.
We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
By the time the recession is in full force, Democrats will probably be running the government. Barack Obama will probably be in the White House. Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the House and will control between 56 and 60 seats in the Senate.
The rallies came after central banks flooded the financial system with billions of dollars in liquidity, throwing out the traditional financial playbook in favor of a series of moves that officials hoped would get banks lending again.
The markets made a comeback on Monday.
Last week’s stock sell-off gave way to a big rally as countries around the world took steps to ease the financial crisis, ushering in a drastic reshaping of the banking industry even as doubts lingered about its long-term effects.
The Dow Jones industrial average opened 400 points higher and headed north, led by big gains in financial stocks. Minutes before the close, the blue-chip index was up almost 900 points or 10.6 percent.
The decision to remove North Korea from the terror list was a dramatic moment for President Bush, who had called the country part of an “axis of evil”
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration announced on Saturday that it was removing North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, in a bid to salvage a fragile nuclear deal that seemed on the verge of collapse.
Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said that the United States made the decision after North Korea agreed to resume disabling a plutonium plant and to allow some inspections to verify that it had halted its nuclear program as promised months earlier.
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives gave final approval on Friday to the $700 billion bailout for the financial system, reversing course to authorize what may be the most expensive government intervention in history.
At 1:21 p.m., applause and cheers echoed through the House chamber as the number of “aye” votes crossed the threshold needed for passage with just seconds remaining in the official 15-minute voting period. The vote was 263 to 171.
The financial system remained on edge as another week dawned on the embattled canyons of Wall Street.
Stocks opened sharply lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials down more than 300 points in the first half-hour of trading, even as federal lawmakers hammered out an agreement on the government bailout plan and Citigroup snatched up the core business of Wachovia, the ailing banking giant.
IF, as Steve McQueen said in the film “Le Mans,” “Racing, it’s life,” then the organizers of the 24 Hours of LeMons would appear to take a very dim view of existence. According to Jay Lamm, the creator of LeMons, the race is “nasty, brutish and not short enough.”
Conceived in 2006 in mock homage to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, the LeMons is likewise a marathon of man and machine. But unlike the gentlemanly Gallic race, LeMons is a 24-hour brawl and, more defining, nice cars are not welcome. The rules say that teams can spend no more than $500 on their vehicles before adding safety gear.
PARIS — North Korea has barred international inspectors from a nuclear reprocessing plant that produces weapons-grade material and intends to restart activity there in a week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday.
The decision by North Korea comes as the Vienna-based nuclear agency also announced it had completed on Wednesday the removal of all seals and surveillance cameras from the reprocessing plant, one of several sites at its vast Yongbyon nuclear complex. The removal was carried out following a formal request to the agency by the North two days ago.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks plummeted Wednesday, with the Dow industrials falling 449 points in its second worst session of the year, as the government’s emergency rescue of AIG amplified fears about the stability of financial markets.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 449 points, or 4% and fell to the lowest level since November 2005. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) index lost 4.7% and fell to its lowest point since April 2005. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 4.9% and ended at its lowest point since August 2006.
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow U.S. special forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for Al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, as well as an American view that Pakistan lacks the will and ability to combat militants, the paper said.
“The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable,” said a senior U.S. official who spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity. “We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued.”
MOSCOW — Georgia on Wednesday accused Russia of attacking and occupying the central Georgian city of Gori and effectively severing the country in two. Georgia said Russia’s actions were in flagrant defiance of an agreement struck only hours earlier to end the war that flared up last week.
News agencies reported that a column of Russian tanks had left Gori and was on the road toward Tbilisi, the Russian capital, although these could not be independently confirmed.
This article was reported by Andrew E. Kramer, Anne Barnard and C. J. Chivers, and written by Ms. Barnard.
TBILISI, Georgia — Russian tanks and troops moved through the separatist enclave of South Ossetia and advanced on the city of Gori in central Georgia on Sunday night, for the first time directly assaulting a Georgian city with ground forces after three days of heavy fighting, Georgian officials said.
The transfer of secrets
By claire on November 6, 2008, 4:10 pm
wonder when how long before you (you=president elect) get to find out about the sekrit to turning thin air into...
We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
The New York Times, “
