Immigration

Obama ‘Agnostic’ on Deficit Cuts, Won’t Prejudge Tax Increases

Written By: Rich Miller

President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.

Obama, in a Feb. 9 Oval Office interview, said that a presidential commission on the budget needs to consider all options for reducing the deficit, including tax increases and cuts in spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table,” the president said in the interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.”

Obama repeatedly vowed during the 2008 presidential election campaign that he would not raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 and households earning less than $250,000 a year. When senior White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner suggested in August that the administration might be open to going back on that pledge, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs quickly reiterated the president’s promise.

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Bailout panel cites commercial real estate danger

Over the next several years, failed commercial real estate loans could litter American cities with empty stores and office complexes, cause hundreds of bank failures and weaken the economy, a watchdog report says.

Banks face up to $300 billion in losses on loans made for commercial property and development, according to a report released Thursday by the Congressional Oversight Panel. The panel monitors the government’s efforts to stabilize the financial system.

The report says the defaults could lead to reduced lending and cause the eviction of families from rental properties. Bank failures also could contribute to job losses and hurt the economic recovery.

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Fed in Talks With Money Market Funds to Help Drain $1 Trillion

Written By: Craig Torres and Christopher Condon

The Federal Reserve is in talks with money-market mutual funds on agreements to help drain as much as $1 trillion from the financial system as policy makers prepare for the first interest-rate increase since June 2006, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

The central bank is looking to the $3.2 trillion money- market mutual-fund industry because the 18 so-called primary dealers that trade directly with the Fed have a capacity limited to about $100 billion, estimates Joseph Abate, a money-market strategist at Barclays Capital in New York.

Money-market funds may welcome the opportunity to trade with the Fed after the financial crisis reduced the supply of safe assets in which they can invest. In one example of demand for such assets, auctions on four-week Treasury bills have attracted an average of $5.47 in bids for every dollar sold this year, compared with an average of $3.77 last year, according to Bloomberg data. Yields on the four-week bill fell to five basis points from 20 basis points a year ago.

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Job growth may not curb unemployment rate: WHouse

A new White House economic forecast showed Thursday the US economy is set to start producing job growth this year at a rate of 95,000 per month, but that the unemployment rate will remain high.

President Barack Obama’s annual economic report to Congress said the economy is on the verge of pulling out of a period of steep job losses stemming from the worst recession in decades.

But the report also said that the unemployment rate may not come down much from the current level of 9.7 percent, and may even rise because of labor market growth and the return of more discouraged workers to the labor force.

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Announcing the new U.S. policy to curb illegal immigration: Make the U.S. economy less attractive to potential illegal immigrants.

US: 7 percent fewer illegal immigrants last year

The number of illegal immigrants in the United States fell by seven percent last year to 10.8 million, coinciding with the country’s financial crisis, a Department of Homeland Security report said Tuesday.

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Polk school district to give iPods to some parents

The Polk County school district is giving away iPods to some parents.

The school district is using the device to reward parents of children with disabilities who fill out a 10-minute online survey. The district wants to know how well it’s connecting with the parents and how to get parents involved in their children’s education.

The district is spending about $350,000 in federal stimulus money for the iPods.

The district has more than 10,000 students with disabilities.

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