Economic Stimulus, Unemployment | featured news

Chairman Ben Bernanke offered a wide-ranging defense Monday of the Federal Reserve's aggressive policies to stimulate the still-weak economy. The Fed needs to drive down long-term borrowing rates because the economy isn't growing fast enough to reduce high unemployment, Bernanke said in a speech to the Economic Club of Indiana. The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.

The public panned it. Republicans obstructed it. Many Democrats fled from it. Even so, the session of Congress now drawing to a close was the most productive in nearly half a century.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Friday laid out a case for the central bank to take further action to bolster growth, citing the risks of prolonged high unemployment and a U.S. economy slipping into a deflationary spiral.

President Barack Obama is set to sign a $24 billion economic stimulus bill providing tax incentives to prospective homebuyers and extending unemployment benefits to the longtime jobless who have been left behind as the economy veers toward recovery....

President Obama on Saturday dismissed the idea the nation might need a second stimulus to jolt the economy out of recession and ...

WASHINGTON — Despite persistently high unemployment, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday the Obama administration's economic stimulus plan is on the "expected path."

"There's been substantial improvements in arresting what was the worst recession globally we've seen in generations," Geithner told lawmakers Friday.

Most economists in the Journal's forecasting survey said the U.S. doesn't need another round of stimulus, despite expectations of severe job losses.

As jobless rate climbs, White House scrambles to reassure public Obama's plan is on right track.

The Obama administration's fiscal stimulus plan will meet previous estimates to save 3.5 million U.S. jobs by the end of 2010, but the unemployment rate at that time may be higher due to further deterioration in the economy, a senior administration official said on Monday.

Nine states are considering rejecting federal stimulus money meant to extend unemployment benefits.