Consumer Reports Morning Update[SIZE=-1]Good Wednesday morning, here are the top stories our editors are keeping an eye on today. Check back with ConsumerReports.org throughout the day for updates and analysis on these topics and many more.
A day of climbing stock prices, fueled by some good news from Citigroup, broke the long streak of down days, but that glimmer of hope last?
The Good News:
Hopes that maybe, just maybe, the nation?s beleaguered banks are on the mend swept Wall Street on Tuesday, unleashing a breathtaking stock market rally that left investors a bit giddy but had many experts warning that this rally, like so many before it, could falter as fast as it began. (New York Times)
Asian stock markets surged Tuesday, with Japan's key index jumping nearly 5 percent, after Wall Street staged a massive rally as news that Citigroup is turning a profit buoyed hopes the stricken financial sector can recover. (Associated Press)
The Recession Isn't Over Yet:
Even as it spends hundreds of billions of dollars to revive the U.S. economy, the Obama administration is opening a second front--pressing European and other nations to launch bigger efforts to stimulate their own economies. (Los Angeles Times)
Cities, counties and states across the nation are launching home-grown economic-stimulus plans aimed at spurring local spending and keeping small businesses afloat during the recession. (Wall Street Journal)
If You Don't Like The Rules, Give Your Bailout Back:
As public outrage swells over the rapidly growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the Obama administration and lawmakers are attaching more and more strings to rescue funds. Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the bailout money. The list includes small banks like the TCF Financial Corporation of Wayzata, Minn., and Iberia Bank of Lafayette, La., as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. (New York Times)
Looking For A Job?
With an economic crisis swirling and unemployment numbers climbing, one company declared Tuesday "free resume printing day." FedEx Office offered to print 25 copies of customers' resumes free, including the resume paper, at any of its 1,600 stores nationwide. (CNN)
David Lazarus writes: When I attended an open house at the New Hair Institute in Century City last weekend, I found a waiting room full of guys who were willing to spend as much as $20,000 apiece to restore what nature was taking away. In many cases, the motivation is vanity or self-esteem. But increasingly these days, another incentive for men to undergo hair-transplant surgery is a desire to be more competitive in a challenging job market. (Los Angeles Times)
The Housing Crisis:
As the recession has deepened, longtime workers who lost their jobs are facing the terror and stigma of homelessness for the first time, including those who have owned or rented for years. Some show up in shelters and on the streets, but others are the hidden homeless ? living doubled up in apartments, in garages or in motels, uncounted in federal homeless data and often receiving little public aid. (New York Times)
Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan writes: There are at least two broad and competing explanations of the origins of this crisis. The first is that the "easy money" policies of the Federal Reserve produced the U.S. housing bubble that is at the core of today's financial mess. The second, and far more credible, explanation agrees that it was indeed lower interest rates that spawned the speculative euphoria. (Wall Street Journal)
Paying For Health Care:
Millions of Americans struggled last year to pay for health care or medications, the largest poll ever conducted by Gallup shows. As the economy fell, the percentage who reported having trouble paying for needed health care or medicines during the previous 12 months rose from 18% in January 2008 to 21% in December, according to the poll of 355,334 Americans. (USA Today)
A key Senate chairman Tuesday firmed up a deadline for getting a health care overhaul bill to the president, promising to have the measure out of committee by June and to President Obama by the summer?s end. (CQ Politics)
resident Barack Obama's budget director rebuffed congressional demands for specifics on the administration's multibillion-dollar plans for health care, telling lawmakers that deciding how the money is spent is largely up to them. (MSNBC/AP)
Congress Passes Spending Bill:
Congress on Tuesday cleared a $410 billion measure to fund the government for President Barack Obama's signature ? a measure denounced by most Republicans as an example of reckless spending. (NPR)
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer writes: Congressional initiatives, added to the president's specific priorities, have come to be known as "earmarks." The power of the purse is expressly bestowed upon Congress by the Constitution and must be protected to maintain the balance of power between the branches of government. (USA Today)
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