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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. won the right to open two more stores in Chicago this year, but does that mean the world’s largest retailer can eventually take Manhattan?
In remarks at the start of a two-day analyst meeting, Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for government affairs and corporate relations, said the retailer’s reputation has shown improvement with both consumers and elected officials. Get the full story »
The pension benefits that U.S. cities and counties are unable to cover could total as much as $574 billion, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The study, conducted by academics at Northwestern University and the University of Rochester, looked at how long the assets for 77 defined pension plans sponsored by 50 major U.S. cities and counties will last.
It found that six major cities — Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Jacksonville and St. Paul — can only cover promised benefits through 2020. Get the full story »
The Federal Reserve’s new vice chairwoman warns that record-low interest rates may give companies an incentive to take excessive risks that could be bad for the economy. Get the full story »
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | Marquette University announced Monday that economics professor Abdur Chowdhury has been appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Academic Advisory Council.
U.S. short-term interest rate futures traders are pricing in little chance the Federal Reserve will start raising interest rates until 2012, after a government report showed the U.S. economy lost more jobs than expected in September.
Traders are pricing in zero chance of an increase in the target rate for overnight lending between banks until December 2011, and are not pricing in a better-than-even chance of an increase until the first quarter of 2012, trading in Fed funds futures at CME Group Inc.’s Chicago Board of Trade shows. Get the full story »
Two senior Federal Reserve officials raised concerns about further monetary easing on Thursday but only one — one of the Fed’s most consistent policy hawks — expressed firm opposition to a move.
Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig, who has dissented against the U.S. central bank’s extremely easy money policies at every meeting policy-setting meeting this year, was blunt in stating distaste for further Fed help. Get the full story »
Shares of U.S. airlines fell Monday. Although the Obama administration issued a terrorism alert for Americans travelling to Europe, the more likely culprits were higher jet fuel prices and a broader stock market downturn. United, Continental, American and Delta said they weren’t seeing unusual numbers of cancellations and were operating their full schedules of flights to and from Europe on Monday.
From left to right, Paul Volcker, Jill Biden, President Barack Obama, and Penny Pritzker at Monday's meeting of his economic advisory board. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
President Barack Obama on Monday said the United States was facing an “untenable fiscal situation” and would have to get serious about tackling its federal deficit.
The U.S. budget deficit is forecast at a record $1.47 trillion in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, 2010.
Obama said that emergency government spending measures he took to support growth and hiring when he took office last year had temporarily added to the funding gap, but the deficit had to be tackled going forward. Get the full story »
The Justice Department sued American Express on Monday for allegedly violating antitrust law over credit card acceptance rules, and settled with Visa and MasterCard on the same issue.
The Justice Department, in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, said the case was focused on credit card companies’ efforts to stop merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower fees imposed on the merchant.
In a proposed final judgment, Visa and MasterCard must allow merchants to offer discounts to customers who use cards that charge the stores less. Get the full story »
The Federal Reserve should take further action to stimulate the economy, or risk letting it fall into a vicious cycle of joblessness and deflationary pressures, top Fed official said on Friday. Get the full story »
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday the U.S. economic recovery remains disappointingly slow with unemployment too high.
The Fed has a role to play in returning the economy health, he told teachers at a town-hall event.
“We certainly have in the near term and the medium term…some very difficult challenges,” he said. Get the full story »
U.S. regulators will put up a united front before a divided Congress on Thursday, promising to cooperate on hundreds of new rules aimed at preventing Wall Street excesses from triggering another financial crisis. Get the full story »
American International Group is close to finalizing a plan for the U.S. government to sell its stake in the insurer and is hoping it will yield a profit for taxpayers who bailed out the company, Chairman Steve Miller said on Wednesday. Get the full story »
