John McCain Approves This Message
One So Confused That Only Confusion Could Understand It
Specter of Deflation Lurks as Global Demand Drops
By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: October 31, 2008
As dozens of countries slip deeper into financial distress, a new threat may be gathering force within the American economy – the prospect that goods will pile up waiting for buyers and prices will fall, suffocating fresh investment and worsening joblessness for months or even years.The word for this is deflation, or declining prices, a term that gives economists chills.Deflation accompanied the Depression of the 1930s. Persistently falling prices also were at the heart of Japan’s so-called lost decade after the catastrophic collapse of its real estate bubble at the end of the 1980s – a period in which some experts now find parallels to the American predicament.
“That certainly is the snapshot of the risk I see,” said Robert J. Barbera, chief economist at the research and trading firm ITG. “It is the crisis we face.”
Is this troubled nation ready for change?
US correspondent Rupert Cornwell examines the mood of America and asks if the young pretender can really defeat the combative McCain
Saturday, 1 November 2008
Who, back then, could have imagined what would follow? On the glacially cold morning of 10 February 2007, I stood shivering in the crowd outside the Old State House in Springfield, Illinois, as Barack Obama formally declared himself a candidate to be the 44th President of the United States.The very thought that, for the first time, an African-American and a relative political newcomer to boot, had a small but realistic chance of entering the Oval Office made the moment fascinating enough. There was also a small personal conceit. Back in October 1991, I had travelled to Little Rock to watch a young governor of Arkansas make a similar announcement. Bill Clinton went all the way. So, would lightning strike twice – might I have stumbled on another winner?
USA
New Model Is Forged In Bank’s Wreckage
U.S. Reworking IndyMac Mortgages By the Thousands
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 1, 2008; Page A01
PASADENA, Calif. — Inside the stone-and-glass headquarters of IndyMac Federal Bank, regulators are carrying out an experiment that could change the course of the financial crisis by tackling the home foreclosures that are at its root.With the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at the helm of IndyMac, which was seized in July after it became one of the country’s largest bank failures, regulators are attempting to create a model for reworking mortgages and rescuing homeowners.
A few major banks are also trying to tackle the home foreclosure problem, a major impediment to the nation’s economic recovery.