I'm leading with this first article, as the S&L meltdown at this point in 1991 was fast becoming an ecomomic quagmire for GHWB, much as another troublespot is today for his son.
$80 BILLION MORE ASKED FOR THRIFT AGENCY
Associated Press
September 13, 1991
The Bush administration said yesterday that the savings and loan cleanup effort will run out of money by the end of October, but some lawmakers balked at putting another $80 billion in taxpayer funds into the program.
John Robson, deputy Treasury secretary, and L. William Seidman, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told the House Banking subcommittee on financial institutions that Congress must appropriate more money soon for the cleanup agency, the Resolution Trust...
15 YEARS OF CUTS SAID TO ENRICH THE RICH
SUPPLY-SIDE POLICIES PUT TAX BURDEN ON MIDDLE CLASS, STUDY FINDS
Tom Kenworthy, Washington Post
September 13, 1991Are you better off today than you were 15 years ago before the advent of supply-side economic policies? According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the answer is a resounding no, unless you happen to be among the nation's richest taxpayers.
In a new study of federal fiscal policies between 1977 and 1992 entitled "Inequality and the Federal Budget Deficit," the nonpartisan group concludes that the tax cuts enacted in that period enriched the wealthy, increased the tax burden of the...
MORTGAGE DELINQUENCY RATE RISES
5.28 PERCENT OF LOANS PAST DUE, PUSHING LEVEL TO 5-YEAR HIGH
Kirstin Downey, Washington Post
September 14, 1991A growing number of homeowners are falling behind in their mortgage payments.
A new survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America shows that the nation's mortgage delinquency rate rose in the second quarter of the year to its highest point since 1986, with 5.28 percent of all home mortgages past due, up 0.33 percent from the previous quarter. The biggest increase occurred among mortgage payments that were 30 days late. About 1 percent of home loans are in foreclosure, the survey...
BUSH FORGIVES SENEGAL'S $42 MILLION DEBT TO U.S.
NATION ENCOURAGED TO SEND TROOPS TO LIBERIA
John E. Yang, Washington Post
September 11, 1991President Bush forgave Senegal's $42 million debt to the United States yesterday as he encouraged Senegalese President Abdou Diouf to send troops to Liberia in hopes of breaking the political impasse that has followed a bloody civil war there, according to administration officials.
By erasing a debt built up largely through purchases of U.S. agricultural products, Bush sought to underscore his support for Senegal, one of the few multiparty democracies in Africa and an ally that sent...
FED MOVES TO BOLSTER RECOVERY
CENTRAL BANK LOWERS 2 KEY RATES: SOME BANKS CUT PRIME
John M. Berry, Washington Post
September 14, 1991
The Federal Reserve, worried that the nation's slow recovery from recession might falter, yesterday cut two key interest rates in an effort to give the U.S. economy a shot in the arm.
Some major banks immediately followed by dropping their prime lending rate half a percentage point to 8 percent, a move that will lower interest payments on most business loans and on some consumer loans, such as home equity loans, as well.
The interest rate reductions followed government reports that...
WHEN DOES A RECESSION BECOME A DEPRESSION? NO ONE IS SURE, BUT EVERYONE AGREES THINGS TODAY ARE BAD
Ralph Jimenez, Boston Globe
September 15, 1991Once I built a shopping mall, leased it out in record time,
Once I built a shopping mall, now it's empty,
Brother, can you spare a dime?
MANCHESTER -- The lyrics have been changed to reflect the times. The unemployed in the 1932 version of the theme song of The Great Depression built railroads and "towers to the sun" before they lost their jobs. In New Hampshire in the 1980s, they built computers, shopping malls, luxury homes and condominiums.
BUSH DENIES BREAKING VOW ON LOANS TO ISRAEL
TENSION BETWEEN NATIONS GROWS OVER AID
John E. Yang, Washington Post
September 12, 1991In a sign of escalating friction between the United States and Israel, President Bush forcefully denied yesterday an Israeli official's claim that the president is breaking a promise by seeking to delay until next year congressional action on Israel's request for $10 billion in loan guarantees.
Bush's attempt to get Congress to wait four months before considering Israel's request was intended to avoid a rancorous debate that could frustrate U.S. hopes of convening a Middle East
NON-TAX TAXES
Washington Post Editorial
September 14, 1991THE ENORMOUS cost of Medicaid has led to a sharp dispute between the federal and state governments over who should pay. Now that has led to the cleverer question: What constitutes payment?
The hard-pressed states, saying they are within their rights and have no palatable choice anyway, have begun to pay some of their share of the costs through what the Bush administration claims are only bookkeeping entries and phantom taxes. The administration, on grounds that the phantom taxes leave the...
UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN THE GULF
Jim Hoagland, Washington Post Op/Ed
September 12, 1991The good news of the Soviet breakup and the bad news of a bitter U.S.-Israeli clash over loan guarantees and peace talks combine to produce one unrelentingly bad effect: America's current preoccupations buy valuable time for ex-Enemy Number One, Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator breathes easier while American energies and attention are focused elsewhere.
The attrition strategy that the Bush administration adopted in May has proved vulnerable both to the rush of outside events and the
WHY CONGRESS SHOULD PUSH A NATIONAL HEALTH PLAN
Joe White, Washington Post
September 15, 1991HEALTH CARE policy is so important in everyday life and will be so difficult to resolve that it's likely to be the issue of the 1990s.
Since President Bush has shown no interest in health-care reform, the next move is up to the Democrats. What should they propose?
The simplest answer is a national health-insurance system similar to Canada's. Such a system could save huge amounts of administrative expense (the General Accounting Office estimated a $67-billion difference in 1991).
BUSH PRESSES GATES NOMINATION AMID FEAR VOTE MAY BE DELAYED
Ann Devroy and Walter Pincus, Washington Post
September 12, 1991President Bush yesterday renewed his public campaign to gain Senate approval of Robert M. Gates to head the CIA, but senior officials expressed fear the Senate will try to kill the nomination by delaying a vote on it.
One senior official said the White House is "confident {Gates} will get approved if he gets to a vote," but said he feared Democratic leaders "will leave him twisting in the wind" with the hope Gates will withdraw his nomination in frustration...
BUSH'S BIGGEST SHAME
Michael Kinsley UFS/The New Republic Inc.
September 12, 1991One of the most mendacious chapters of the Reagan administration was the Bob Jones University episode of 1982. That was when the Justice Department reversed a longstanding government policy denying tax-exempt status to private schools that exclude blacks. Although the reversal was in response to a campaign by southern conservatives, the administration piously insisted that its action implied no endorsement of tax exemptions for racist schools. They would sincerely like to deny these tax...
BANK LOSSES HERE WORST IN NATION
SEIDMAN: ONE-FIFTH OF REAL ESTATE LOANS ARE OVERDUE
Jerry Knight, Washington Post
September 11, 1991Banks in the Washington area, hurt by bad commercial real estate loans, are in worse shape than those in any other part of the country, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday.
In his quarterly report on the health of the banking system, L. William Seidman said the Washington area now has replaced New England as the region with the most serious banking problems.
While a number of large banks are still expected to fail across the country in the coming months...
ALONE IN THE CROWD, THE PRESIDENT'S MAN FACES HIS JUDGES
Guy Gugliotta and Lynne Duke, Washington Post
September 11, 1991
They cheered. They whoofed. They pumped their fists in the air."Praise God!" they shouted, and "Hallelujah!," "We're with you," as they stretched out their hands to touch Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
At first it seemed like the anointing of a conquering hero. Sen. Strom Thurmond, (R-S.C.), once a staunch segregationist, slowly walked arm-in-arm with Thomas as they passed through Russell Senate Office Building hallways lined with gleeful...
RIGHTS ABUSE LAID TO KUWAIT
U.S. RESPONSIBILITY ALSO CITED
Tod Robberson, Washington Post Foreign Service
September 11, 1991An independent human rights organization has accused the Kuwaiti government of repeated, flagrant human rights abuses over the last six months -- including rape, torture and extrajudicial killings -- and says that the Bush administration bears responsibility because it defended Kuwait's actions.
The New York-based Middle East Watch, in a 63-page report being released today, accused "the highest levels of the Kuwaiti government" of complicity in extrajudicial killings,...
MINNESOTA'S CHOICE
Dave Durenberger, Washington Post Op/Ed
September 10, 1991In Congress and around the country a political logjam has developed over the question of school choice that threatens passage of President Bush's education reform initiative. Breaking it will require not just the usual dose of political compromise but a different understanding of the public interest in public education.
On one side in this debate, the president's toughest critics claim that school choice threatens students who don't change schools and are "left..
MISSING THE GLOBAL-WARMING TARGET
Boston Globe
September 15, 1991The chances are not good that an international agreement on measures to avert a catastrophic global warming will be ready for signing next summer in Rio de Janeiro. The chances that an agreement, if one is ready for signing, will be effective are even worse.
The latest in a series of preliminary conferences began last week in Nairobi, and, as has been the case at earlier meetings, the United States remains as much of a problem in reaching an effective agreement as it is in creating the...
RETAIL SALES FELL 0.7% IN AUGUST DROP IS STEEPEST IN 7 MONTHS, US SAYSPosted by MB Williams at September 12, 2003 08:59 AM | TrackBack
Associated Press
September 14, 1991
WASHINGTON -- Consumers curbed their spending appetites in August, which registered the steepest drop in retail sales in seven months, 0.7 percent, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.The report "reflects the fundamentals of the economy -- no jobs, no income growth and no confidence," said Sung Won Sohn, an economist for the Norwest Corp. in Minneapolis.
The Federal Reserve quickly acknowledged the concern and moved to ease interest rates. The bank whittled one benchmark...