Economy 2011

Economy_2011

2011 News and local events related to both the US and local economy. Click Economy 2010 for archived economic information regarding the year 2010

Upcoming Events.  US Economic News.  Local economic News.  Global Economic News.  LWV Fiscal News.  US Economic Legislation.  CO Economic Legislation.  Economic References.  Past Events.

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US Economic News

*11/21/11 NY Times:Panel Fails to Reach Deal on Plan for Deficit Reduction By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, ROBERT PEAR and HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON -- After one last bout of fitful but futile talks, Congressional negotiators on Monday conceded the obvious: that the joint Congressional committee charged with drafting a deficit reduction package would miss its deadline this week. But they did not quite give up the ghost of a chance that a solution might be found later. "After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline," said a statement issued late in the afternoon by Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas and Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the panel's Republican and Democratic leaders.
"Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," they said. "We remain hopeful that Congress can build on this committee's work and can find a way to tackle this issue in a way that works for the American people and our economy."
Speaking an hour after the talks failed, President Obama promised to veto any legislation that seeks to avoid the automatic cuts that negotiators agreed would go into effect if a deal is not reached by 2013. "There will be no easy off-ramps on this one," Mr. Obama said, placing responsibility for the failed negotiations squarely on Republicans who he said have refused to compromise...

*11/2/11 Durango Herald:Federal Reserve wraps up policy meeting By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer
The Federal Reserve, after employing a dwindling set of policy options at its last two meetings, may hit the pause button in hopes that the faint signs of the economy's rebound will grow stronger. By taking a wait-and-see approach, the Fed would be buying time to assess whether its actions in August and September are having the desired effect of lowering long-term interest rates enough to jump-start growth.
The Fed's decision will be announced around mid-day Wednesday following two days of closed-door discussions.
The central bank will also release an updated economic forecast and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference to discuss the Fed's new forecast...

*10/10/11 NY Times:Recession Officially Over, U.S. Incomes Kept Falling By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON -- In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found.
Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study by two former Census Bureau officials. During the recession -- from December 2007 to June 2009 -- household income fell 3.2 percent.
The finding helps explain why Americans' attitudes toward the economy, the country's direction and its political leaders have continued to sour even as the economy has been growing. Unhappiness and anger have come to dominate the political scene, including the early stages of the 2012 presidential campaign.

*9/18/11 Durango Herald:U.S. household wealth dipped in the spring By Christopher S. Rugaber and Dave Carpenter AP Business Writers
WASHINGTON + Americans' wealth declined this spring for the first time in a year, as stocks and home values fell. At the same time, corporations increased the size of their cash stockpiles. The combination could slow an already weak economy because it implies that families have less to spend and businesses are reluctant to expand.
Household net worth dropped 0.3 percent to $58.5 trillion in the April-June quarter, according to the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds report released Friday. The decline came after three consecutive quarterly increases. The value of Americans' stock portfolios fell 0.5 percent in the second quarter. Home values dropped 0.4 percent. Corporations held a record $2 trillion in cash at the end of June, an increase of 4.5 percent from the January-March quarter...

*9/2/11 Bloomberg News:U.S Employment Stagnated in August By Bob Willis
Employment in the U.S. unexpectedly stagnated in August, increasing pressure on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and President Barack Obama to spur an economy that's barely growing two years into the recovery.
Payrolls were unchanged, the weakest reading since September 2010, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a gain of 68,000. The figures included a 48,000 drop in the information industry, mostly reflecting a strike at Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) The jobless rate held at 9.1 percent.
"This is further evidence that the economy is very close to stalling if not having stalled," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS in Lexington, Massachusetts, who forecast a gain of 15,000. Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., called the report "grim and scary" in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop" with Betty Liu...

*8/18/11 Durango Herald:Economists see growing risk of global recession By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and DEREK KRAVITZ AP Economics Writers
Discouraging economic data from around the globe have heightened fears that another recession is on the way. Fresh evidence emerged Thursday that U.S. home sales and manufacturing are weakening. Signs also surfaced that European banks are increasingly burdened by the region's debt crisis and sputtering economy.
The rising anxiety ignited a huge sell-off in stocks that led many investors to seek the safety of U.S. Treasurys. Economists say the economic weakness and the stock markets' wild swings have begun to feed on themselves. Persistent drops in stock prices erode consumer and business confidence. Individuals and companies typically then spend and invest less. And when they do, stock prices tend to fall further...

*5/31/11 NY Times:House Prices Fall to New Post-Bubble Low as More RentBy DAVID STREITFELD
Housing prices fell in March to their lowest point since the downturn began, erasing the last little bit of recovery from the depths plumbed two years ago, according to data released Tuesday.
The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 20 large cities fell 0.8 percent from February, the eighth drop in a row. Prices are now down 33.1 percent from the July 2006 peak.
"Home prices continue on their downward spiral with no relief in sight," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the S.& P. index committee.
Housing is in persistent trouble, industry analysts say, not only because so many people are blocked from the market -- being unemployed, in foreclosure or trapped in homes that are worth less than the mortgage -- but because even those who are solvent are opting out...

*5/16/11 CNNMONEYU.S. hits debt ceiling By Jeanne Sahadi
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It's official: The U.S. government hit the debt ceiling on May 16. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner told Congress he would have to suspend investments in federal retirement funds until Aug. 2 in order to create room for the government to continue borrowing in the debt markets.
The funds will be made whole once the debt limit is increased, Geithner said in a letter. "Federal retirees and employees will be unaffected by these actions." He went on to urge Congress once again to raise the country's legal borrowing limit soon "to protect the full faith and credit of the United States and avoid catastrophic economic consequences for citizens."
Congress, meanwhile, is not showing any signs of budging. Many Republicans and some Democrats say they won't raise it unless Congress and President Obama agree to significant spending cuts and other ways to curb debt...

*5/5/11 NY Times:Federal Debt Limit (Debt Ceiling)
Sometime in mid-May -- May 16 is the most recent estimate -- the federal government will hit its debt ceiling -- that is, it will have borrowed all it legally can without further action by Congress. By taking emergency cash-management steps, the Treasury says it can keep the government functioning into early August.
With a last-minute compromise reached in April over the current fiscal year budget, the debt limit is emerging as the next showdown between House Republicans and President Obama and his Democratic allies in the Senate.
If the currrent $14.29 trillion debt ceiling is not raised, the government would ultimately have to default on its debt -- to stop paying investors whose bonds have come due so those funds can be used to keep the government functioning. That prospect is widely decried as unthinkable by business leaders and economists. Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, told the Senate that it would be a "recovery-ending event."
But Republicans, who rode conservative anger over the country's mounting deficits to big victories in the midterm elections, are demanding immediate spending reductions and stricter enforcement mechanisms, like a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.
President Obama has called for a no-strings-attached increase in the debt limit but has also proposed a budget plan that would include broad spending reductions if the federal debt as a percentage of the total economy is still rising in 2014. Reflecting the political potency of the issue, some Democrats in Congress are now signaling that they would accept linking some kind of automatic trigger to a debt-limit increase.

*video Outlook for 2011 Jan Hatzius, Chief US Economist, Goldman Sachs, and Sandra Lawson, Senior Global Economist
"The world economy, as a whole, can expect another year of strong growth in 2011."
"We've seen positive growth in the US economy since the middle of 2009, but the unemployment rate hasn't budged because there just hasn't been enough growth."..

*4/9/11 NY Times: Deal to Cut $38 Billion Averts Government Shutdown Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times The House speaker, John A. Boehner, announced the federal budget agreement reached Friday night by Congressional leaders. By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders and President Obama headed off a shutdown of the government with less than two hours to spare Friday night under a tentative budget deal that would cut $38 billion from federal spending this year.
After days of tense negotiations and partisan quarrelling, House Republicans came to preliminary terms with the White House and Senate Democrats over financing the government for the next six months, resolving a stubborn impasse that had threatened to disrupt federal operations across the country and around the globe...

*4/4/11 Durango Herald opinion:Unemployment Numbers hopeful, but glass still half empty
The unemployment figures for March are hopeful. That there still is so far to go shows just how serious this recession has been.
But the news is hopeful, nonetheless. Unemployment dropped to a two-year low, dipping to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent in February. That still is far too high, but it also represents a continuation of a steady decrease in unemployment that began in the last months of 2010. It is not a one-month fluke...

*4/1/11 NY Times: U.S. Economy Added 216,000 Jobs in March; Rate at 8.8% By MICHAEL POWELL
U.S. Economy Added 216,000 Jobs in March; Rate at 8.8% Paul Sakuma/Associated Press Job applicants in line at a job fair in San Jose, Calif., last week...

*3/17/11 NYTimes:House Votes to Cut Off Money for NPR By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
The House voted on Thursday to cut off funding for National Public Radio, with Democrats and Republicans fiercely divided over both the content of the bill and the manner in which it was brought to the floor.
Under the measure, sponsored by Representative Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado, stations could not buy programming from NPR or any other source using the $22 million the stations receive from the Treasury for that purpose. Local NPR stations would be able to use federal funds for operating expenses, but not content...

*3/17/11 NYTimes:Senate Approves Stopgap Budget By CARL HULSE
The Senate on Thursday approved and sent to President Obama a measure that keeps the federal government open through early April, while Congressional leaders and the White House tried to strike a broader deal to fund federal agencies through Sept. 30.
The vote was 87 to 13, with nine Republicans, three Democrats and one independent opposing the measure, which imposed $6 billion in cuts to current-year spending by the federal government. The House passed the measure earlier in the week and top Senate Democrats and Republicans endorsed it as a way to avoid a government shutdown while the budget talks continue...

*2/14/11 New York Times:Obama's 2012 Budget Proposal: How $3.7 Trillion Is Spent Explore every nook and cranny of President Obama's budget proposal.

*2/12/11 New York TImes:Obama's Budget Seeks Deep Cuts in Domestic SpendingBy JACKIE CALMES
WASHINGTON -- President Obama, who is proposing his third annual budget on Monday, will say that it can reduce projected deficits by $1.1 trillion over the next decade, enough to stabilize the nation's fiscal health and buy time to address its longer-term problems, according to a senior administration official.
Two-thirds of the reductions that Mr. Obama will claim are from cuts in spending, including in many domestic programs that he supports. Among the reductions for just the next fiscal year, 2012, which starts Oct. 1, are more than $1 billion from airport grants and nearly $1 billion from grants to states for water treatment plants and similar projects. Public health and forestry programs would also be cut...

*1/26/11 Durango Herald: Obama addresses the nation Economic revival theme of State of Union address By Ben Feller AP White House Correspondent
WASHINGTON + Pleading for unity in a newly divided government, President Barack Obama implored Democratic and Republican lawmakers to rally behind his vision of economic revival for an anxious nation, declaring in his State of the Union address Tuesday night: "We will move forward together or not at all."...
In his best chance of the year to connect with the country, Obama devoted most of his hourlong prime-time address to the economy, the issue that dominates concern in a nation still reeling from a monster recession + and the one that will shape his own political fortunes in the 2012 election...

*1/20/11 Blomberg.com:Leading Indicators Index in U.S. Increases More Than Forecast By Bob Willis
The index of U.S. leading economic indicators increased in December more than forecast, a sign the recovery will gather steam in the new year.
The Conference Board's gauge of the outlook for the next three to six months rose 1.0 percent after a 1.1 percent gain in November, the New York-based group said today. The December reading, the sixth consecutive monthly increase, exceeded the 0.6 percent gain in the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Improved consumer expectations, fewer firings and rising stock prices are boosting the outlook for household spending, the biggest part of the economy. Even so, Federal Reserve policy makers have indicated that until faster economic growth fuels bigger job gains, they will stick to their plan to pump $600 billion into the economy through June...

Local Economic News

*12/18/11 Durango Herald:Gov. `flummoxed' over school funding Debate rages as to how to handle budget By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + School advocates are defending the stunning victory they scored last week when a Denver judge ruled the state's education funding system unconstitutional. The result could eventually boost school budgets by $1 billion to $4 billion a year. The upper figure would nearly double the budget of public schools statewide. But in the short term, schools are facing down another year of cuts.
The verdict has Gov. John Hickenlooper and legislators scratching their heads about what to do. Hickenlooper had asked in November for a fourth straight year of cuts for public schools...

*11/6/11 Durango Herald:Fed banker finds economic optimism locally But some skepticism remains despite improving jobs numbers By Emery Cowan Herald Staff Writer
When he addressed the audience of more than 100 of the area's biggest economic players during a regional tour earlier this month, Mark Snead's first comments focused on the group in front of him. "This is a very optimistic crowd," said Snead, vice president and branch executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. He joked that locals had turned off their TVs to the national news.
Whether it's because of a lack of TVs or not, development officials here agreed that optimism certainly isn't a bad thing when it comes to spurring economic recovery. Durango is an upward-looking place, they said, though it remains to be seen if that affects our journey out of the recession. "When I start peeling into the numbers I see, we're clearly affected by what's going on statewide and nationally but just don't have that feeling here," said Roger Zalneraitis, executive director of the La Plata Economic Development Alliance.
That optimism is good when it is backed up by more than just a "general feeling," Zalneraitis said. Optimism means taking bets and staying ahead of trends, and many times that is synonymous with smart business, he said. Especially in a town with so many entrepreneurs, optimism is both an asset and a necessity, he said...

*10/30/11 Durango Herald:Making ends meet can be tough in Durango La Plata County families must earn twice the poverty level to get by. By Kathleen Ryan Colorado News Connection
Even though Coloradans' incomes may be well above the federal poverty level, a new report says they may not be making enough to make ends meet. The Colorado Center on Law and Policy on Friday released the Self-Sufficiency Standard for 2011. The report, which details the cost of living in each of Colorado's 64 counties, finds that financial hardship is more widespread than federal estimates indicate.
In La Plata County, the report estimates a family of four would need an annual income of $53,139 + more than double the federal poverty level + to be self-sufficient. This disparity between the government's definition of poverty and what it actually costs to pay for basic food, shelter and clothing is present throughout the state. Tracey Stewart, manager of the center's Family Economic Security Program, who worked on the new report, said this is because "wages have not kept up with costs."...
Click full report to view the complete report.

*10/30/11 Durango Herald:Building permits increase in city By Paige Blankenbuehler Herald Staff Writer
The city received 31 single-family building permit requests in the first nine months of this year + the most it has seen since the prebust year of 2007. The amount of requests for this year are higher than the annual totals for 2008, 2009 and 2010, approaching the "robust levels of 2007," said Greg Hoch, the city's director of planning and community development.
In 2007, the year-end total of requests for single-family building permits was 61, while the average number of permits in 2005 and 2006 were 55, Hoch said. "This does indicate local economic growth," a sign that "things are recovering," Hoch said. There is an increased population of single families in the market for new homes, which is breathing life into overall residential construction, Hoch said...

*9/25/11 Durango Herald:No good news for Colorado economy Experts: Jobs lost, odds rising for 2nd recession By Emery Cowan Herald Staff Writer By and Heather Scofield
The odds we're heading into a double-dip recession are rising fast, state and national economists say. Alexandra Hall, chief economist with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said this week that though she couldn't say for sure a double-dip recession is on the horizon, "the probability of that has gotten greater." A September report from the Colorado Legislative Council reached the same conclusion. "Many positive forces that have been primary drivers of the recovery continue to grow but have lost momentum in recent months," the report said, adding that government and consumer spending, investment and manufacturing are down. "Households and businesses are becoming increasingly unsure about the economic landscape," the report said.
And though summer often provides a short-term employment boom in Colorado, the falling confidence levels already have translated into job losses in the state, Hall said. About 1,800 jobs in Colorado were lost between July and August, she said. Government added 500 jobs in the state while the private sector lost 2,300.
And as winter approaches, workforce officials are expecting the unemployment rate in Southwest Colorado to rise, said Chloe Wiebe, the regional supervisor at the Colorado Workforce Center. Employees also have lost work hours and pay this year, according to state reports. The average workweek for all employees decreased from 35 to 34.5 hours, and average hourly earnings dropped by 10 cents to $23.68...

*8/25/11 Durango Herald:County job growth fastest in state 2,800 more people working in July than in 2010; jobless rate at 6.4% By Heather Scofield Herald Staff Writer
La Plata County's labor force grew to its highest number in July as unemployment fell. The county's workforce (available workers) grew to more than 33,000 residents and the unemployment rate fell to 6.4 percent, a drop from 6.6 percent in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the state. Colorado's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July was 8.5 percent.
The overall workforce size surpassed the county's record of 32,900 workers, set in July 2008, said Roger Zalneraitis, director of The La Plata Economic Development Alliance. More than 31,000 La Plata County residents are working. And 1,700 more residents were working in June than were the same month last year. Zalneraitis called the news "extraordinary." In 2010, just 28,300 people in La Plata County had jobs...

*6/26/11 Durango Herald:County makes do in lean times Collections from gas, oil show dramatic decline By Heather Scofield Herald Staff Writer
As La Plata County commissioners last week began a five-month process of preparing the county budget for 2012, a few troubling predictions were on the table. For starters, the more than $16.8 million in property tax revenue from the gas and oil industry collected in 2010 is expected to fall by half this year and improve only slightly in 2012, to near $10 million. "That's going to drive our future ability to do capital projects," said Finance Director Karla Distel.
Though it's early in the budget planning process, commissioners have targeted a goal that would have the county spending about $55 million in 2012. That's a $3 million reduction from this year's spending projections and a $3 million spending increase over 2010. Commissioners also will have $10 million in reserves socked away by employees last year to work with and $7.6 million from 2009.
The gas and oil industry has been an important part of La Plata County's revenue picture for years. County officials collected more than $30 million in property tax revenue last year, with half that coming from the gas and oil industry. This year, officials are likely to take in only $19 million with $8.6 million of that from the industry...

*6/21/11 Durango Herald:State's jobs recovery solid, slow Colo. revenues increased enough to free $67.5 million for schools By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + Colorado's economy has been promoted from a snail to a turtle, the Legislature's top economist said Monday. And that counts as good news after three years of dismal predictions from legislative economist Natalie Mullis and forecasters in the governor's office.
Mullis estimated that Colorado employers added nearly 35,000 jobs between January 2010 and April 2011. "This is not gangbusters growth, but it is a solid, slow recovery in employment," Mullis said. "We're looking at a turtle's pace instead of a snail's pace, which is better."
Legislators heard the news Monday as part of quarterly forecasts from their economists and the governor's office.
The best news for school districts is that state revenues grew enough to send schools an extra $67.5 million. Gov. John Hickenlooper in February proposed cutting schools by $332 million. But the Legislature whittled those cuts down to $160 million, once Monday's news is taken into account. ..

*4/3/11 Durango Herald:Colorado still waiting on budget Lawmakers miss deadline By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + A week after legislators missed their self-imposed deadline for writing a state budget, they still have not finished negotiations.
"We are so close," said Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont. Shaffer said a deal was within reach late last week, and Speaker of the House Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch, said the two sides were in 99 percent agreement. But late Friday afternoon, budget committee members said nothing would happen that day...

*3/25/11 Durango Herald:Colorado's economy Report includes problems, hope, warning
A report released Tuesday by Colorado State University detailed how the state's economy fared over the last decade. It includes something to trigger just about every human emotion, from sorrow to relief, anger to fear.
Overall, though, it presents a picture of an economy rocked by two recessions + with an implicit warning about what not to do in response.
As detailed by The Denver Post, the good news is that the Western Slope led the state in job growth over the last 10 years. The region added more than 12,000 jobs, largely in mining, government, education and health care...

*3/22/11 Durango Herald:Group ends campaign for tax increase Income tax rates would have ranged from 4.2% to 9.5% By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + A liberal group said Monday it will withdraw six ballot initiatives that would have sought a $1.4-billion-a-year tax increase.
The Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute filed the initiatives last month. All six sought to create a progressive income tax structure, with rates ranging from 4.2 percent for the lowest earners to 9.5 percent for earnings above $500,000. The group intended to choose one of the initiatives to place on the November ballot, but the director said Monday she lacked support for any of them...

*3/5/11 Denver Post:Hickenlooper, Bennet hit grim, optimistic notes at event marking Denver Forum's 25th year By Kyle Glazier
Two heavy-hitters in Colorado politics helped the Denver Forum celebrate its 25th year Friday by delivering grim economic messages tinged with optimism.
Gov. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet spoke at the celebratory luncheon for the Denver Forum, an organization that strives to bring speakers of national and international renown to town. "This is what allows cities to succeed," Hickenlooper said of civic engagement.
The first-term governor went on to describe the state's more than $1 billion budget shortfall, and his "three-legged stool" plan to fix it: responsible balancing, more efficient government and a "harmonized" mission...

*2/16/11 Denver Post:Hickenlooper proposes Colo. budget with broad, deep cuts By Tim Hoover
Spending on K-12 education would take the biggest hit in state history, colleges would get less money, state employees would see less in their checks and Colorado would close four parks and a prison under a revised budget Gov. John Hickenlooper unveiled Tuesday.
Hickenlooper submitted a spending plan for the 2011-12 fiscal year that begins in July that makes an additional $570 million in budget-balancing actions on top of the plan that Gov. Bill Ritter, also a Democrat, first proposed in November.
The new governor said his proposal aims at fixing "structural" problems with the state budget, in which expenditures have far outpaced revenues over the last decade.

*2/13/11 Durango Herald: The many ways we tax ourselves Special districts bring us valued services + at a cost By Emery Cowan and Shane Benjamin
They plow roads, douse fires and build public infrastructure. They operate libraries, spray for mosquitoes and bury the dead.
They are the employees of the special districts of La Plata County, created by residents who identified needs and voted to tax themselves to get the jobs done.
In many ways, the districts are a reflection of what we value most + because residents have voted to pay for the services. They often start through grass-roots efforts and are governed more informally than larger taxing entities. They also often operate on shoestring budgets, which can be especially difficult in times like these, when tax revenue has fallen sharply...

*September 2010Focus Colorado: Economic And Revenue Forecast Colorado Legislative Council Staff Economics Section

Global Economic News

*11/30/11 NYTimes:Central Banks Take Joint Action to Ease Debt Crisis By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
WASHINGTON -- The Federal Reserve moved Wednesday with other major central banks to buttress the financial system by increasing the availability of dollars outside the United States, reflecting growing concern about the fallout of the European debt crisis.
The banks announced that they would slash by roughly half the cost of an existing program under which banks in foreign countries can borrow dollars from their own central banks, which in turn get those dollars from the Fed. The banks also said that loans will be available until February 2013, extending a previous endpoint of August 2012.
"The purpose of these actions is to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and so help foster economic activity," the banks said in a statement. The participants in addition to the Fed were the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank...

LWV Fiscal News

*The recent discussion on the debt ceiling crisis has been an interesting one.
In answer to the questions about what action the LWV Is taking on the debt ceiling , the simple answer is that the LWV does not have a position and thus, not taking action specifically on the debt ceiling.
However, the LWV does have a position on the budget and the federal deficit and we have recently used that to say that there should be an increase in taxes ,a cut in defense spending and no cut to social programs.
Here are links to recent statements and letters regarding these issues:
July 13, 2011

April 22, 2011

May 24, 2011

Also, for your information, here is an interesting take on the debt ceiling + evidently the U.S. put it in place after World War I and we are the only country that has one except Denmark.
the-damage-is-already-done

US Economic Legislation

*10/19/11 Durango Herald:Tipton: Federal laws gum up the economyCongressman blasts Democrats' health-care reform policy By Heather Scofield Herald Staff Writer By and Jordyn Dahl
Unintended consequences from acts of Congress and campaigning occupied U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton on Tuesday during a visit to Durango. "I think it's important we're in contact with our community leaders, particularly now," Tipton said. Tipton, R-Cortez, focused on the concerns of his daily legislative work when meeting with La Plata County commissioners.
A bill introduced last week in Congress, he said, would help direct some royalties from future growth in natural gas and oil to education. The money would go to the states and have no earmarks, he said. Moving onto concerns, Tipton said the "unintended consequences" of complicated legislation are piling up + to the point that it seems "mean-spirited" at times.
Parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, he said, could overburden the nation's mom-and-pop businesses by requiring overly complicated accounting procedures that, if not adhered to, could result in a federal withholding that would separate some businesses from a substantial percentage of their money for up to a year. "It's so hard for small businesses right now to even exist," Tipton said...

*9/19/11 NY Times:Obama Offers Plan to Cut Deficit by Over $3 Trillion By HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON -- President Obama will unveil a plan on Monday that uses entitlement cuts, tax increases and war savings to reduce the federal deficit by more than $3 trillion over the next 10 years, administration officials said.
The plan, which Mr. Obama will lay out Monday morning at the White House, is the administration's opening move in sweeping negotiations on deficit reduction to be taken up by a joint House-Senate committee over the next two months. If a deal is not enacted by Dec. 23, cuts could take effect automatically across government agencies.
Mr. Obama will call for $1.5 trillion in tax increases, primarily on the wealthy, through a combination of letting the Bush-era tax cuts expire, closing loopholes and limiting the amount that high earners can deduct. The proposal also includes $580 billion in adjustments to health and entitlement programs, including $248 billion to Medicare and $72 billion to Medicaid. Administration officials said that the Medicare cuts would not come from an increase in the Medicare eligibility age...

*9/8/11 whitehouse.gov video:American Jobs Act "The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working." --President Barack Obama, September 8, 2011

*8/2/11 NY Times:Senate Passes Debt Plan to Avert Default By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON -- The Senate put an end to months of partisan impasse on Tuesday, passing a landmark budget agreement to raise the debt ceiling and sending the measure to the White House for President Obama's signature -- just hours before the government's borrowing authority was set to run out at midnight.
The bipartisan vote was 74-26 , a margin that belied the intensity of a fight that has left both parties bruised and exhausted.
With the ambivalent support of Congressional leaders in both parties and Mr. Obama, the compromise, which passed the House with bipartisan support on Monday night, averts a potential default on the government's debt and provides for increases in the debt ceiling to be phased in, with compensating budget cuts, lasting beyond the 2012 elections. Enactment of the legislation would signal a pronounced shift in fiscal policy, from the heavy spending on economic stimulus and warfare of the past few years to a regime of steep spending cuts aimed at reducing the deficits -- so far, without new revenues sought by the White House...

*4/13/11 whitehouse.gov FACT SHEET: The President's Framework for Shared Prosperity and Shared Fiscal Responsibility
The President believes that we need a comprehensive, pro-growth economic strategy that invests in winning the future, lays the foundation for strong private-sector job growth and ensures that shared prosperity will keep the American dream alive for generations to come. A key component of that strategy must be a commitment to fiscal responsibility and to living within our means. Today, the President is laying out a comprehensive, balanced deficit reduction framework to cut spending, bring down our debt and increase confidence in our nation's fiscal strength, while supporting our economic recovery and ensuring we are making the investments we need to win the future.
$4 Trillion in Deficit Reduction: The President is setting a goal of reducing our deficit by $4 trillion in 12 years or less. This deficit reduction would be phased in over time to protect and strengthen our economic recovery and the recovering labor market...

*4/5/11 NYTimes:The Path to Prosperity - Restoring America's Promise Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution House Committee on the Budget
Health care accounts for much of the savings proposed by the budget blueprint. But while saving large sums for the federal government, the proposals on Medicaid and Medicare could shift some costs to beneficiaries and to the states..

CO Economic Legislation

*4/6/11 Durango Herald State budget struck at last Dems get lower cuts to schools; GOP gets farm-supply breaks By Joe Hanel Herald Staff Writer
DENVER + Democrats and Republicans struck a deal on the state budget Tuesday, bringing an end to days of closed-door drama.
Democrats won lower cuts to public schools, while the GOP got tax breaks for farm supplies and software, plus payments to businesses that collect sales tax. About 20 lawmakers informally agreed to the deal in an impromptu meeting on the Senate floor, and the Joint Budget Committee finalized it in an official meeting in the afternoon.
The deal still means a historic cut for schools, totaling $250 million less than last year's level of state support. But Gov. John Hickenlooper had proposed a $332 million cut, and Senate Democrats focused their energy on minimizing the cut.
"No one's happy, but everyone's relieved," Hickenlooper said. "They went at it hard with each other. They pushed hard for their respective goals, and everyone compromised. This is the American system."...

Economic References

*U.S. Economy at a Glance: Perspective from the BEA Accounts

*National Debt Ceiling Explained in One Graphic By Barry Ritholtz - July 16th, 2011

*The Colorado Backseat Budgeter is an interactive budget simulation tool that allows you to drive Colorado's budget.
More Services. Lower taxes. You decide! Click on the spending and revenue categories on the pie charts. Increase or decrease each category and see what the impact will be for spending and revenue. However, beware that some of your choices may violate the constitution.

*2/25/11 Denver University:Summary of Preliminary Report General Fund Revenues and Expenditures: A Structural Imbalance
...Colorado's budgetary woes are both cyclical and structural. The extraordinary revenue shortfalls that have plagued state government for much of the last decade were caused, in large part, by two extreme economic downturns, the latter of which was by many measures the worst since the Great Depression. When the economy improves, tax collections will pick up. But absent major changes in policy, a structural imbalance underlying the fiscal workings of state government will ensure that Colorado's budget problems persist for many years to come...

*2/20/11 New York Times: American Shame by Charles Blow
How the International Monetary Funds "advanced economy countries" compare on various measures...

*2/13/11 Durango Herald:profiles of special districts recognized by the La Plata County Assessor's Office

Past Events

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