Economy 2012

League of Women Voters^®
of La Plata County

Economy_2012

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.

Upcoming Events

US Economic News

*2/16/12 NYTimes:U.S. Jobless Claims Are Lowest Since 2008
The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to the lowest point in almost four years last week, the latest signal that the job market is steadily improving.
In other economic news, a rise in building permits suggested that the construction industry was growing confident that more buyers were ready to come off the sidelines, and the latest data on wholesale prices signaled that inflation remained largely in check.
The Labor Department said on Thursday that weekly applications for unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000. It was the fourth drop in five weeks and the fewest number of claims since March 2008.
The four-week average, which smoothes out fluctuations in the weekly data, fell for the fifth-consecutive week to 365,250. The average has fallen nearly 13 percent in the past year...

*2/13/12 NYTimes:Obama Uses Budget to Set Election-Year Priorities By JACKIE CALMES
WASHINGTON -- In the last annual budget of his term, President Obama for the first time projects a deficit below $1 trillion and foresees the federal shortfall declining to sustainable levels by 2017.
To help reduce deficits and offset the costs of his proposed spending on job-creation initiatives for infrastructure, job-training and innovation, Mr. Obama uses his budget for fiscal year 2013 to call for raising $1.5 trillion over 10 years from the wealthiest taxpayers and from closing some corporate tax breaks, chiefly for oil and gas companies. For the first time he proposes a higher tax on dividend income of the wealthiest taxpayers, which would raise about $206 billion over 10 years. The budget proposal leaves him short of his goal to cut the deficit in half by 2013.
Later this month, the administration will propose an overhaul of the corporate tax code to root out many tax breaks and lower the 35 percent rate, but Mr. Obama is proposing that the change would not raise any more revenues than the current system, despite the nation's chronic deficits...

*2/3/12 NYTimes:U.S. Jobless Rate Falls to 8.3 Percent, a 3-Year Low By MOTOKO RICH
The United States economy gained momentum in January, as employers added 243,000 jobs, the second straight month of better-than-expected gains.
And in a separate measure, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent, giving a cause for optimism as the economy shapes up as the central issue in the presidential election.
Measured by both the unemployment rate and the number of jobless -- which fell to 12.8 million -- it was the strongest signal yet that an economic recovery was spreading to the jobs market. The last time the figures were as good was February 2009, President Obama's first full month in office...

*1/27/12 NYTimes:U.S. Recovery Slowly Gained Speed in Late '11, Data Show By CATHERINE RAMPELL
The American economy picked up a little steam last quarter, with output growing at an annualized rate of 2.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The pace of growth was faster than in the third quarter, when gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 1.8 percent.
Even so, both figures were below the average speed of economic expansion in the United States since World War II. And it would take above-average growth to recover the ground lost during the Great Recession.
"At this rate, we'll never reduce unemployment," said Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania. "The recovery has been postponed, again."
Still, the 2.8 percent rate is likely to be seen by many as something of a relief, given that just last summer many economists were predicting the country would soon dip back into recession. Few analysts are still forecasting a double-dip in the near term, but they say the recovery is likely to remain disappointingly sluggish...

*1/7/12 Durango Herald:Job creation hints at U.S. recovery Unemployment dips to 8.5 percent By Paul Wiseman and Christopher S. Rugaber AP Economics Writers
WASHINGTON + Four painful years after the Great Recession struck and wiped out 8.7 million jobs, the United States may finally be in an elusive pattern known as a virtuous cycle + an escalating loop of hiring and spending.
The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years, and led economists to conclude that the improvement in the job market might just last. "There is more horsepower to this economy than most believe," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University, Channel Islands. "The stars are aligned right for a meaningful economic recovery."
It was the sixth month in a row that the economy added at least 100,000 jobs, the longest streak since 2006. The economy added jobs every month last year, the first time that has happened since 2005. And the unemployment rate, which peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and stood at 9.1 percent in August, has fallen four months in a row. It was 8.7 percent in November...

Local Economic News

*1/29/12 Durango Herald:La Plata County gets an A+ rating in finance S&P lauds ample reserves and good management By Heather Scofield Herald Staff Writer

As government entities around the nation and globe struggle to keep their credit ratings from crashing, La Plata County recently saw its credit rating improve.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced this month that it raised the county's rating from an "A" to an "A+."
"I am very pleased that we received an upgrade, especially in light of the current economic environment and the property-tax declines we saw in 2011 and 2012," said Bobby Lieb, chairman of the Board of County Commissioners.
The county's hefty reserves and "good management" practices helped bump the credit rating, the S&P report said.
"The county's financial performance has been very strong in our opinion," S&P reported. "Three consecutive years of operating surpluses increased the unreserved general fund balance to $40.1 million, or 116 percent of expenditures in fiscal 2010."...

Global Economic News

LWV Fiscal News

US Economic Legislation

*1/11/12 http://www.whitehouse.gov videoPresident Obama Speaks about Insourcing American Jobs

CO Economic Legislation

Economic References

Past Events

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: February 18, 2012 10:11 PST.