A federal probe into why General Motors Co. took nearly 10 years to recall cars with a potentially deadly defect heated up on Wednesday as safety regulators demanded the auto maker answer 107 questions on its handling of a faulty ignition switch.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a $3.9 trillion budget for the year beginning Oct. 1 that was largely absent of lofty new policy goals.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
Nine founders of four of the world’s largest private-equity firms together collected more than $2.6 billion last year through dividends and other payouts—more than twice as much as they made the year before.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
In case you missed it, Mt. Gox, once the dominant exchange for bitcoin trading, on Friday said more than $470 million of the virtual currency vanished from its digital coffers. The recent loss is forcing U.S. regulators to confront burgeoning questions about whether their oversight extends to the fledgling virtual currency.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
The downward revision to fourth-quarter GDP growth to 2.3% annualised, compared with the initial 3.2% estimate, was largely due to smaller positive contributions from durables consumption, net exports and inventories, whereas the positive contribution from business investment was actually revised higher. More generally, even a gain of only 2.3% is still impressive in a quarter when the Federal government shutdown resulted in a 5.6% drop in public sector spending, which subtracted more than 1.0% ppts from overall GDP growth.
Durable goods consumption is now estimated to have increased by a more modest 2.5% in the fourth quarter, down from the initial 5.9% estimate. With the bad weather hitting motor vehicle sales hard, we anticipate another modest gain in the first quarter. Net exports are now assumed to have added 1.0% ppt to GDP growth, rather than the initial contribution of 1.3%. Inventories added 0.1%, down from the initial 0.4% estimate.
The good news is that business investment increased by 7.3%, revised up from the initial estimate of a 3.8% gain. that gain helped to offset an 8.7% decline in residential investment, which was hit by the drop back in existing home sales that has reduced brokers’ commissions.
GDF Suez wrote down $20.4 billion in assets, a glaring example of how Europe’s large-scale power-generation industry has been crippled by wind and solar electricity.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
The Bloomberg U.S. Financial Conditions Index, which is an overall gauge of the health of the financial and credit markets, reached an all-time high in late 2013 (the index started in 1994). This is a positive sign that financial markets have returned to solid ground after the shock of the financial crisis. Stable financial conditions help support economic growth.
(Source: Bloomberg)
NASA scientists announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets around distant stars, including four alien worlds roughly the size of Earth that might be the proper temperature for liquid water to form and, therefore, potentially suitable for life.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
The rate of obesity in preschool-age children in the U.S. dropped about 40% over the past decade, according to data from a comprehensive federal survey published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association—the latest sign that attempts to help parents improve children’s diets and exercise habits might be starting to have an effect.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
Ukraine’s acting finance minister, Yuri Kolobov, announced that the country will need to raise $35 billion by the end of 2015 to revamp its economy and remain capable of paying its debt.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
