Top analysts find government action saved U.S. economy

In a new paper released Wednesday, entitled “How the Great Recession Was Brought to an End,” prominent economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi say the stimulus, stress tests, emergency Federal Reserve maneuvers and Troubled Asset Relief Program saved the…

Are homeowners really skipping out on their mortgages to spend at the mall?

The case is now famous. The homeowner had applied for the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, or HAMP, an Obama administration initiative to give distressed and tapped-out borrowers lower monthly payments. But this “HAMPlicant,” the writer on the blog Calculated Risk noted, had given up on a $1,880 a month mortgage and spent hundreds of dollars instead at a spa, tanning salon, gourmet grocery store and liquor store, capping it all off with $1,700 in charges to mall stores from Baby Gap to Best Buy. She’s what bloggers are calling a “foreclosure queen.”

GOP deficit crusade opposed by fiscal hawks

WASHINGTON– Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) recent one-man stand against legislation extending unemployment benefits offered a high-profile airing of a popular GOP message: Deficit spending, in almost any form, will cause more harm than good to a fragile economy. Standing in the way of the Republicans’ reasoning, however, has been another formidable group: budget experts.

Employment bill called ‘corporate giveaway’

WASHINGTON– Last week, as House Democrats took to the floor with near-unanimous praise for legislation to help the unemployed and stimulate the fragile economy, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) offered a wildly different message.

“This bill,” he said, “represents a textbook example of how not to deal with the economic challenges that our country faces.”