Patrice Hill

Fed keeps interest rate the same

The Federal Reserve signaled no change in its zero-interest rate policies after a two-day meeting Wednesday, but offered a slightly more upbeat assessment of the prospects for recovery from recession.

June 25, 2009

Fed keeps rates near zero, cites weak economy

The Federal Reserve signaled no change in its zero-interest rate policies after a two-day meeting Wednesday afternoon, but offered a slightly more upbeat assessment of the prospects for recovery from recession.

June 24, 2009

Economy, job growth slow to recover

After a heady period of hope that spurred a nearly 40 percent rise in major stock indexes from March through May, a sober reality has set in. The economy remains mired in recession and likely will experience only a gradual recovery with little or no job growth for months to come.

June 24, 2009

Broader Fed role provokes wide dissent

President Obama's plan to revamp financial regulations triggered immediate criticism Wednesday from both the political left and right over the expanded policing authorities given to the Federal Reserve while business groups grumbled about a powerful new agency charged with protecting consumers against abusive lending.

June 18, 2009

Obama wants agency to protect borrowers

The Obama administration will propose a new agency to protect consumers from the kinds of lending abuses that led to the collapse of financial markets worldwide, while consolidating the supervision of big banks under one agency in a regulatory overhaul plan to be announced Wednesday.

June 17, 2009

Federal Reserve to gain power under plan

The Federal Reserve, already arguably the most powerful agency in the U.S. government, will get sweeping new authority to regulate any company whose failure could endanger the U.S. economy and markets under the Obama administration's regulatory overhaul plan.

June 16, 2009

W.H. ducks blame for dealership cuts

Senators asked a few demanding questions Wednesday about whether taxpayers will recover the $80 billion the Obama administration is investing in Chrysler and General Motors, but mostly they wanted to know why the companies are closing dealerships.

June 11, 2009

Bank bailout fund underwrites automakers

The Treasury Department's bank bailout fund is starting to look more like an automaker bailout fund as the United States gets deeper into the car business and banks work furiously to cut their ties to the government and return their bailout money.

June 9, 2009

Recession still rages despite ease in layoffs

It's not over yet. That was the message from both a key report on job losses Friday and the head of the Boston committee that officially declares when a recession has ended.

June 6, 2009

Jobless rate 9.4% in May; layoffs slow

UPDATED: The economic picture brightened a little last month as employers eliminated jobs at about half the record 700,000 rate of monthly job losses seen at the beginning of the year.

June 5, 2009

Bernanke warns debt threatens recovery

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warned Wednesday that out-of-control deficits are helping to drive up interest rates on mortgages and Treasury bonds in a threat to the budding economic recovery.

June 4, 2009

Experts expect long road to profitability for GM

General Motors Corp. and the White House sought to portray the automaker's landmark bankruptcy Monday as a quick and easy affair that would end within months.

June 2, 2009

General Motors files for landmark bankruptcy

UPDATED: General Motors filed the largest ever industrial bankruptcy Monday morning under a strategy mapped out by the White House to quickly reorganize the venerable Detroit company in two to three months.

June 1, 2009

Investors clear way for quick GM bankruptcy

The last major obstacle to a speedy dip into bankruptcy by General Motors fell Sunday as investors holding 54 percent of the company's $27 billion in debt approved the White House's reorganization plan.

May 31, 2009

GM tailgating Chrysler bankruptcy

A bankruptcy judge in Manhattan, N.Y., on Friday postponed action on Chrysler's plan to emerge from bankruptcy even as its Detroit big brother, General Motors Corp., was preparing to enter bankruptcy over the weekend in hopes of securing a massive reorganization.

May 30, 2009

GM investors get better deal

General Motors and the White House on Thursday sweetened their offer to investors holding $27 billion in GM bonds in an effort to clear the main obstacle to a quick bankruptcy reorganization of the Detroit giant.

May 29, 2009

GM offers new deal to bondholders

General Motors made a new offer of additional stock to holders of its $27 billion in bonds Thursday morning and some of the largest bondholders owning about a fifth of the debt said they had accepted the deal.

May 28, 2009

U.S. to take majority stake in General Motors

The White House is driving General Motors Corp. toward a bankruptcy reorganization that would grant the government as much as a two-thirds stake in the battered automaker, while consigning bondholders and unions to minority shares.

May 27, 2009

GM cuts deal with workers union

General Motors and the United Auto Workers on Thursday reached a deal that enables them to enter into bankruptcy at the end of the month with a united front against thousands of bondholders and dealers, who are being asked to bear the brunt of the cost of GM's monumental looming bankruptcy.

May 22, 2009

Rivals’ woes give Ford Motor Co. a clear field

Executives at Ford Motor Co., the only Detroit automaker that has not sought government loans or submitted to government control, used to worry about having to compete with "U.S.A. Inc." But lately the automaker's strategy of independence has been paying big dividends.

May 18, 2009