Americans spending more with income almost flat

Americans are making a little more money and spending a lot more.

U Mich. Consumer Sentiment Unexpectedly Rises

Consumer confidence unexpectedly rose in October from the previous month, indicating the biggest part of the economy will help keep the U.S. recovery intact.

Nuplex buys German resin firm for $129m

Resins maker Nuplex Industries said today that the newly-acquired Viverso GmbH would make a positive contribution to its earnings in the current financial year to June 30, 2012.

Consumers, businesses pump up Q3 growth

 The economy grew at its fastest pace in a year in the third quarter as consumers and businesses stepped up spending, creating momentum that could carry into the final three months of the year.

Euro zone business activity shrinks further

The euro zone’s private sector slipped further into decline in October.

Viewpoint: Greece should default and abandon the euro

Jeffrey Miron, senior lecturer in economics at Harvard University, believes that the consequences of a Greek default are overstated. Not only would a default be better for Athens, it would have benefits for Europe too, he argues.

New anti-capitalist camp opens as the St Paul's protesters defy Dean

If worshippers hoping to attend services at St Paul's thought the anti-capitalist protests outside would be short-lived, their prayers have not been answered.

You can't build economic recovery on phantom jobs

Before his American Jobs Act failed to pass a Senate cloture vote last week, President Barack Obama made a last-ditch speech to talk up his troubled bill. Not once did Obama mention "green jobs" - his erstwhile jobs of the future.

Smart move. Obama's 2009 $787 billion stimulus package included $500 million for training programs that were supposed to create green jobs for thousands of middle-class Americans. Last month, however, the Department of Labor's inspector general conducted an audit that found that as of June 30 - with one-third of the funds spent and more than 50,000 participants - only 10 percent of trainees were placed in jobs. And only 1,336 participants, or 2 percent, had held jobs for six months or longer.

Express Train to NY Economic Recovery?

New York, NY (New York News Connection) - The light at the end of New York’s dark economic tunnel might be a train – carrying recovery in the form of mass transit manufacturing in New York factories, according to one group of experts.

The report, assembled by union strategists and economic-policy analysts, calls for replacing some of a decade’s worth of lost manufacturing jobs by investing in building and repairing rail and subway cars and buses. That way, says report co-author Brian Lombardozzi, the people who ride mass transit can be the people making it.

Mervyn King: UK economic recovery has "gone off track"

The Governor of the Bank of England defended the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision to introduce a further round of quantitative easing (QE) in a speech in Liverpool yesterday.

Sir Mervyn King said that the problems in the eurozone meant the UK recovery has fallen off track. Sir Mervyn said that the resumption of QE was justified because it will now take longer to return the economy, public finances and interest rates back to normal levels.

U.S. Stocks Slump as Germany Damps Optimism on Crisis Solution

U.S. stocks declined, after the biggest weekly gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since 2009, as financial shares slumped and the German government damped optimism of a quick fix to Europe’s debt crisis.

Banks in the S&P 500 tumbled 6.3 percent as a group. Citigroup Inc. (C) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) slipped at least 1.6 percent as revenue dropped amid economic weakness and market turmoil linked to Europe. Alcoa Inc. (AA) and Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) retreated more than 3 percent to pace losses among companies most-tied to the economy. Gannett Co. sank 8.7 percent after profit fell as newspaper advertising declined.

Japan's Furukawa: sees economic recovery continuing

Oct 17 (Reuters) - Economics Minister Motohisa Furukawa said on Monday that he expects Japan's economic recovery to continue although it faces several risks, including struggling overseas economies and a strong yen that is dragging down corporate revenue and exports.

"Output is continuing to recover," Furukawa told a news conference after the government released its monthly economic report.

Signs of economic recovery

Over the past few years, you have often heard me talk about the fact that Canada’s economic recovery remains fragile.

Scary examples of what could have happened as a result of overspending can be seen in Europe and even closer to home.

US currency bill endangers global economic recovery

BEIJING: The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011, a bill passed by the US Senate on Tuesday that will push China to revalue its currency, may spawn a trade war between the two nations and endanger global economic recovery; Xinhua News reported what economic analysts said.

The controversial bill, which calls for punitive tariffs on countries with allegedly misaligned currencies, noticeably the Chinese Renminbi or yuan, was passed in a vote of 63-35 at the Senate.

Economic recovery: What Washington should have done

It’s time to admit something: The economy is not recovering. It is, if anything, unrecovering.

We’ve added an average of 119,000 jobs a month since January. That’s better than the 78,000 new jobs the economy averaged per month in 2010. But it’s barely enough to keep up with population growth. It’s not nearly enough to cut into the unemployment rate. And over the past three months, it has fallen to 96,000 per month.

Warren Buffett on Stock Buybacks, Economic Recovery and Europe

Only buy back shares when they are selling at a discount to intrinsic value, and intrinsic value is not the precise figure, it’s a guess. Sometimes people try to buy back stocks just to pop up the stock performance in the short run. But who knows what the motivations are? There is only one motivation for Buffett. If he knows he could buy the business at a discount, it would be beneficial for shareholders. And he thinks if anybody wants to buy back stock, he/she should tell the partners before that.

UK economic growth slower than previously thought

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between April and June, less than the 0.2% estimated previously.

Output from the service sector grew by 0.2%, compared with the previous estimate of 0.5%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

However, industrial output fell by less than previously thought.

U.S. economic recovery tied to European debt crisis

The political intrigues in Brussels and Berlin over Europe’s debt crisis are as foreign to most Americans as the languages spoken there. U.S. exports to Europe don’t even amount to a fiftieth of what Americans produce. And American banks have at best a modest toehold in the European countries facing possible default.

But the waves of anxiety caused by the European debt crisis are taking a significant toll on the United States — not just palpitations in financial markets but darkening prospects for the broader U.S. economy.