Fed Keeps Interest Rates at Record Low

Matt Taibbi says bankers are still overpaid

(NEWSER) - Matt Taibbi was incredulous when he read a recent New York piece in which Wall Street denizens whined that Dodd-Frank was limiting their bonuses. "I watch what I spend," one banker lamented, "but my girlfriend likes to eat good food," which adds up fast. "Quelle horreur!" Taibbi quips in Rolling Stone , before shredding the argument. Actually, bank compensation is falling because of the European debt crisis. Bankers he knows are saying things like, "If the ECB doesn't come up with a Greek bailout package, I'm going to have to sell my children for dog food." And at some banks (like Goldman Sachs), bonuses are actually up relative to earnings. More»

But most remain upbeat about their future: Pew survey

(NEWSER) - The economy is doing a number on those aged 18 to 34, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center :

• Half say they have taken a job they didn't want.
• More than a third have gone back to school because of the job market.
• Nearly a quarter have taken unpaid work to gain experience.
• About a quarter have moved back in with the folks.
• More than 1 in 5 have postponed having a baby, and about the same number have put off getting married.

Benchmark rate is probably staying put for a long time

(AP) - The Federal Reserve assured consumers and businesses today that they'll be able to borrow cheaply well into the future. The Fed said it's unlikely to raise its benchmark interest rate before late 2014, extending its time frame by at least a year and a half. The Fed said record-low rates are still needed to help boost an improving but still sluggish economy. More»

Financial giants refuse to die, Steven Davidoff explains

(NEWSER) - You might remember Lehman Brothers from its starring role in kicking off 2008's financial crisis by declaring bankruptcy, and hence, you might think it is dead and buried. But you'd be wrong, writes Steven Davidoff in the New York Times : Lehman is actually still shambling around, zombie-like, and what's more, it's trying to get bigger. Courts are still trying to work through Lehman's bankruptcy, the biggest in history, and in the meantime Lehman's estate is trying to buy apartment firm Archstone-Smith. More»

Banks took in billions of dollars, even as they claimed to be healthy

(NEWSER) - For more than two years, the Fed and the banks it bailed out during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis have kept many of the details of the massive, multi-trillion-dollar bailout a secret. But, thanks to Freedom of Information Act requests, 29,000 pages of bailout details are pouring out of the Fed at last, and those details are explained in an extended and damning report by Bloomberg Markets magazine. Among the biggest revelations:

• $7.77 trillion: the total amount doled out in aid by the Fed to all the banks, as of March 2009, which Bloomberg notes surpasses 50% of the value of "everything produced in the US that year." In comparison, the $700 billion TARP "at least had some strings attached," says one House Democrat. "With the Fed programs, there was nothing."