economy

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the current economic "situation"

We were going to call this page "The Crumbling Economy" but didn't want to contribute to the alarmism that leads to a, well, crumbling economy. There's no doubt the US financial world is feeling fairly tumultuous these days - and there are increasingly few economists who think we can avoid a recession - but how long and deep of a recession the turmoil on Wall Street will cause is still an open question.

Still, the Federal Reserve (the US's lending arm which tries to keep the economy on an even keel) and Congress are not waiting to find out before intervening in ways they hope will cushion a hard crash. Through interest rate tweaks, stimulus plans, new regs and "bail-outs" they're hoping to give the economy enough bounce to avoid falling into a deep recession.

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business & economy bills 2008

Bills in Brief

Congress kicked off its year working on an economic stimulus plan, but it could get to other business-related bills left hanging from '07 later in the year.

Housing: With everyone blaming the subprime market for turning the economy sour, Congress started last year looking for ways to keep foreclosures to a minimum while taming the subprime market from future excess. It didn't get far, but this year the pressure is on to wrap up a series of bills introduced last year - from expanding federal loans to making it harder for brokers to sign off on risky loans. See our "Housing Jitters" page for more.

Food and Oil Futures: with gas and food prices on heady upswings, Congress is moving to tame commodities' future markets, which some believe are helping to nudge prices up.

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economy booster

what's up

With economists, Wall Street and Americans increasingly leery a recession was on the horizon, DC hustled to put a "stimulus" plan in place to give the economy a little pre-emptive boost in early '08. Other measures to shore up the economy - by  tossing life lines to homeowners and financial institutions - followed later in the year. Now Congress is contemplating a second stimulus package, but probably one it won't be able to deliver until the next administration moves in.

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business bills 2007

Bills in Brief

The new Democratic Congress continues to work on business issues that dogged last year's Congress - at the same time as giving a Democratic twist to new and old issues.

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