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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: national debt

national debt stories: 20 news summaries

Wanna Buy the Chunnel? Get it Now From Slash Gordon

Brown mounts $25.3B asset sale, including underwater rail link

Oct 12, 09 3:38 AM CDT
(Newser) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is launching a massive $25.3 billion sell-off of Britain's assets, ranging from student loans to the Chunnel linking England and France, in order to reduce record deficits and maintain public expenditures. As the British election draws nearer, the Labor Party is attempting to burnish... More »

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Gordon Brown • privatization • national debt • Eurostar • Channel Tunnel • public goods • public land

OPINION

Don't Fear Debt —Failed Reform Is Scarier

Krugman: We need deficits in a recession; they 'saved the world'

Aug 28, 09 6:19 AM CDT
(Newser) - Paul Krugman isn't surprised that the projected $9 trillion deficit over the next decade is being greeted as a sign of economic apocalypse—and that commentators think it proves health care reform should be scuppered. In fact, he writes in the New York Times, it's good to run a deficit... More »

MORE ABOUT:
debt • deficit • national debt • health care reform • Paul Krugman • federal spending • budget deficit • deficit hawks

(Newser) - The American economy is heading out of recession, but the long-term fate of the dollar may not be so bright, writes the Wall Street Journal. Growing numbers of economists and investors, including Warren Buffett, say that stimulus spending and rate cuts will boost inflation and weaken the greenback. At the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
inflation • currency • debt • national debt • US dollar • weak dollar

(Newser) - Here's the latest eye-popping number produced by the recession: $1.6 trillion. The White House and CBO today projected that figure as this year's deficit, reports the New York Times. While it would be the biggest since World War II, the figure is actually about $260  billion better than anticipated... More »

MORE ABOUT:
deficit • national debt • Congressional Budget Office • budget deficit • Obama administration

Analysis

How We Wound Up With
a $1.2T Deficit


Jun 10, 09 9:24 AM CDT
(Newser) - President Obama’s agenda plays a very small role in the massive deficits facing the country, but it won't do anything to correct them, wither the New York Times reports. After reviewing a decade’s worth of Congressional Budget Office reports, the paper explains how the government turned a... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Barack Obama • national debt • budget deficit • balanced budget • George W. Bush • Obama administration • budget crisis

 Geithner 
 to China: 
 Your Assets 
 Are Safe 



Treasury secretary seeks to reassure China about growing US deficit

Jun 1, 09 8:41 AM CDT
(Newser) - Tim Geithner began his trip to China with a speech at Peking University, where the Treasury secretary said that once the current recession and financial crisis are over, the administration will bring down soaring fiscal deficits. But students at the college where Geithner himself once studied peppered him with tough... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • US-China trade deficit • Beijing • deficit • national debt • Treasury secretary • financial crisis • Timothy Geithner

OPINION

To Cut Deficit, Rein in Health Costs: Orszag

Budget director makes White House's case
for cutting expenses

May 15, 09 10:35 AM CDT
(Newser) - With the future of Medicare and Social Security in the headlines, the Obama administration is jumping at the chance to push its health care reform agenda. Up today: budget director Peter Orszag. "Slower growth rate in overall health-care spending would help to promote and sustain a slowdown in... More »

MORE ABOUT:
health care costs • Medicare • budget • Medicaid • national debt • GDP • Obama administration • Peter Orszag • White House budget director

OPINION

Calm Down, Government Debt Won't Kill Us


Mar 4, 09 12:11 PM CST
(Newser) - Republicans have become born-again deficit hawks, decrying the debt President Obama is handing America’s grandkids. “What’s missing,” writes Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post, “is any sense of perspective.” The added $2 trillion pales before the $66 trillion spent annually on Social Security and... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • debt • deficit • national debt • fiscal conservatives • Obama administration • Steven Pearlstein • President Obama

Obama Plans
to Slash Deficit by 2013

Goal hinges on Iraqi withdrawal, letting Bush's tax cuts lapse

Feb 21, 09 10:33 PM CST
(Newser) - Having proved he can get the government to pony up $787 billion to stimulate the economy, President Obama will now attempt to highlight his frugal side. Obama will unveil a budget Thursday that aims to cut the deficit—which could climb to $1.9 trillion in 2009—to $533 million... More »

MORE ABOUT:
government spending • national debt • budget deficit • economic stimulus package • federal budget • President Obama

(Newser) - Barack Obama delivered yet another dose of sobering economic news today—the nation should expect to run trillion-dollar deficits for multiple years, the Washington Post reports. The once unthinkable sum—we're already well on our way toward it in fiscal 2009—is more than double the previous high. Obama acknowledged... More »

MORE ABOUT:
deficit • national debt • economic stimulus package • economy • President Obama

ANALYSIS

 4 Financial Doomsday Scenarios 


Dec 17, 08 11:20 AM CST
(Newser) - James Rickards is far more pessimistic about the economic crisis and its global implications than most of his analyst colleagues, Politico reports. But he’s also well respected by US intelligence and defense services. Here are four of his nightmare scenarios.
  • Terrorism: Al-Qaeda has long sought to disrupt the
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • terrorism • depression • recession • national debt • euro • credit crisis • US dollar • financial crisis • economic downturn • recession depression

Jittery About Loss, Investors Stuff Cash In 0% T-Bills

Willing to take nothing for their money

Dec 10, 08 12:26 PM CST
(Newser) - The results of yesterday’s short-term bond auction were staggering. Investors snapped up $30 billion worth of Treasuries at a 0% yield—essentially lending the government money for free, the New York Times reports. Earlier, some investors even accepted a negative yield to park their cash in three-month Treasury bills.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
investors • debt • national debt • bonds • bailout • Troubled Asset Relief Program • financial crisis • short term bonds • Treasury bills • recession depression

ANALYSIS

 Tax Hikes Loom as 
 Deficit Nears $1T 

Blue or red, next president may need to boost revenues with increase

Oct 16, 08 10:03 AM CDT
(Newser) - The bailout and other government spending are adding on to an already-enormous US budget deficit, and the next president might well have to raise taxes, no matter who it is, the Christian Science Monitor reports. This fiscal year will put the US down nearly $1 trillion, one nonpartisan group estimates,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
national debt • budget deficit • tax hikes • financial crisis • Wall Street bailout • Treasury bills

 Times Square Debt Ticker Runs Out of Numbers

$10 trillion national debt takes up too much space for mounting tally

Oct 9, 08 10:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - America's national debt has outgrown the ticker designed to draw attention to it, the BBC reports. The Times Square counter, set up in 1989 when the debt was a mere $2.7 trillion, ran out of space for digits recently when the debt ballooned to more than $10 trillion. Its... More »

MORE ABOUT:
national debt • budget deficit • Times Square • bailout

analysis

What Will Taxpayers Shell
Out for All This?

Some bailouts are more risky, some less—and add up to $1 trillion

Sep 28, 08 1:44 PM CDT
(Newser) - If a $700 billion federal bailout sounds like a lot, it is—but Washington will actually shell out $1 trillion in all of its present and proposed plans. Between Henry Paulson's plan, and bailouts of Bear Stearns, AIG, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Wall Street Journal breaks down... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Ben Bernanke • mortgage • national debt • budget deficit • subprime crisis • taxpayers • bailout • American Insurance Group • financial crisis

opinion

 America's Real Financial Crisis? It's Debt

US can't safely sell $700M in securities

Sep 28, 08 5:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Washington must stop selling debt as its top export if it wants to solve today's financial crisis, Justin Fox argues in Time. Political talk of the nation's staggering $731 billion deficit often centers on trade pacts and exchange rates. But "if the US simply stopped borrowing so much—if... More »

MORE ABOUT:
debt • national debt • US exports • financial crisis

 Bush Asks Congress 
 for $700B Bailout Fund 

President urges swift action, 'and the cleaner the better'

Sep 20, 08 12:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Bush administration today formally asked Congress to authorize a $700 billion fund, administered by the Treasury Department, to help troubled financial institutions unload bad debt, the Washington Post reports. The figure is $200 billion higher than legislators were led to expect yesterday, and the national debt limit would... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Bush administration • Congress • Wall Street • national debt • Treasury Department • banking • bailout • financial crisis

Federal Budget Deficit More Than Doubles, to $407B

Stimulus package contributed; figure is expected to break record in fiscal '09

Sep 9, 08 4:27 PM CDT
(Newser) - The federal deficit will swell to $407 billion in the fiscal year that ends this month, the Washington Post reports, a figure more than twice last year’s total. Congressional budget analysts blamed the surge on weak revenue growth and accelerated spending, including the $168 billion economic stimulus package. They... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • White House • national debt • US Congress • federal spending • budget deficit • economic stimulus package • financial crisis

General Election Starts Coming Into Focus

McCain, Obama focus on Democrat's economic agenda

Jun 9, 08 2:20 PM CDT
(Newser) - Barack Obama launched a 2-week economic tour today, prompting dueling press releases, Time reports. Obama kicked off the one-on-one stage of the election by vowing to “restore fairness and balance to our economy,” and John McCain's campaign countered by saying the Democratic nominee "doesn’t understand the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • John McCain • taxes • national debt • economy • George W. Bush

Improved Deficit Can't Last

US faces huge future budget crunch

Jul 13, 07 5:24 AM CDT
(Newser) - The federal deficit is falling: The OMB yesterday predicted a $205 billion deficit for 2007, down from last year and half of what it was at the peak in 2004. But the fiscal good news is not likely to last, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The OMB also predicts the... More »

MORE ABOUT:
OMB • Office of Budget and Management • deficit • national debt • budget deficit

20 Stories


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