AP Money Minute: Home Sales Drop
Associated Press
Transcript
AP money minute the government says new home sales in October fell 5.3% to the lowest level in nearly 18 years sales were down 40% from levels of a year ago and the median price of a new home sold in October was down 7% from a year earlier leaders of 20 of the world's industrialized and emerging economies will meet in London in April to check their progress on tackling the global financial crisis prime minister Gordon Brown told the house of Commons that president-elect Barack Obama expects to travel to the one-day talks among members of the G20 the talks will follow up on a summit in Washington earlier this month Goldman Sachs says it's ended negotiations on selling its Sano electric company Holdings to Panasonic that potentially SNS Panasonic's attempt to buy its smaller rival Panasonic and Sano earlier this month began discussions on a buyout deal that could have created one of the world's largest electronics companies I'm Mark hamri a minute
Obama Names Volcker to Head New Econ Advisers
Associated Press
Transcript
[Music] yeah the reality is is that sometimes policymaking in Washington can become a little bit too ingrown a little bit too insular the walls of the echo chamber can sometimes keep out fresh voices and new ways of thinking uh you start engaging in group think and those who serve in Washington don't always have a ground level sense of which programs and policies are working for people and businesses and which aren't this board will provide that fresh perspective to me and my Administration with an infusion of ideas from across the country and from all sectors of our economy input that will be informed by members firsthand observations of how our efforts are impacting the daily lives of our families I'm pleased to announce that this board will be chaired by one of the world's foremost Economic Policy experts a former chairman of the Federal Reserve and one of my most trusted advisers Paul vuler Paul has been by my side throughout this campaign providing a deep understanding of the financial markets extensive experience managing economic crises and Keen insight into the global nature of this particular crisis Paul has served under both Republicans and Democrats and is held in the highest esteem for his sound and independent judgment
Consumer spending biggest drop since 2001; Dow rises 247
CBS
Transcript
americans are holding on to their cash even tighter a new report shows consumer spending dropped by the largest amount since 2001. it's a bad sign for retailers right before the holiday shopping season officially begins and u.s factories are certainly feeling the drop in spending orders for big-ticket items like cars refrigerators and airplanes plunged by the largest amount in two years despite the bad news investors took comfort in president-elect barack obama's latest hire mr obama has picked former federal reserve chairman paul volcker to lead an advisory board focused on stabilizing the financial system and creating jobs the markets reacted with a pre-holiday rally the dow industrials rose 247 points to make it four up days in a row it is the dow's longest winning streak since april the nasdaq also gained ground grabbing 67 points more americans need a job last week 529 thousand people filed unemployment claims for the first time and sales of new homes have fallen to the lowest level since 1991. the median price of a new home 218 thousand dollars that's down seven percent from last year and that's your money watch log on to cbsnews.com for more business headlines at the new york stock exchange i'm alexis christopher
Another Crisis, Another Bailout - NYTimes.com/video
The New York Times
Transcript
[Music] the big news in the financial world today is that the government came out and bailed out City Group over the weekend they went late in the night to do it they still haven't worked out the details but the markets are thrilled by it the result is the government's going to put another $20 billion into City group and perhaps more importantly they're going to guarantee a lot of City groups assets so that if they go down much more the government will bear most of the losses once again the government has walked in to reassure markets that a big Bank in this country is not in danger of failing what this shows is that there's still a lot of doubt about the quality of the assets these banks have and that the government is feeling its way it's never done this before it hopes it never has to do it again the government can keep doing this I suppose as long as it wants one of the great advantages the government has is it has a dollar printing press they can write checks for as many dollars as they want and they can print dollars now if they do too much of that eventually we may have rampant inflation but that's the problem down the line and that's not something they're worrying about this week and now of course we're moving on we're about to have a new Administration take over today as it happened president-elect Obama introduced his economic team the new treasury secretary is Tim gner a man who is viewed as very smart and a man who's been intimately involved in all the bailout discussions as president of the New York fed this should be the easy part bailing out the system the hard part is going to be to get it functioning again and get the economy moving and that's going to be a big challenge he and the rest of the administration will face for the New York Times this is Floyd Norris
Paulson Unveils New Economic Initiatives
VOA News
Transcript
on the line with consumer spending falling to a 28-year low the US government is hoping a new initiative will make it easier for consumers to get a credit card or a loan to buy a new car treasury secretary Henry pson says in a poor economy the ability of consumers to obtain credit becomes even more crucial today the treasury and the Federal Reserve are announcing a facility to finance the issuance of non-mortgage asset back paper in order to support lending to consumer s and small businesses which is vital to our economy the announcement is actually for two separate programs one to ease the credit crunch the other to combat the housing crisis together the plan provides up to $800 billion to encourage Banks to start lending again and Kickstart the troubled US housing market nothing is more important to getting through this housing correction than the availability of affordable mortgage Finance pson says $200 billion will be used to guarantee liquidity to companies that issue Consumer loans up to $600 billion will be used to buy mortgage-backed assets pson defended the administration's latest attempt to ease the financial crisis saying no one solution can deal with what he calls a once in a century event I wish and I know you all wish that there was just sort of one action we could take and and all of this would end and the economy would turn around and and and the financial system would be in the kind of shape we'd like it to be but that's not the world we live in today pson says a Consumer Debt program will be seated partly from the original $700 billion bailout package enacted by Congress last month mil arga vaa news