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Over the next year, the U.S. government will need to borrow somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 trillion, the most ever by far. Estimates go as high as $2 trillion, depending on how quickly the economy cools and how fast tax revenues fall. The simple question most of America has not asked is this: Where is the money going to come from? The federal government already knows the answer to that question, and it has implications Americans are not ready for but will soon be faced with. America is going cap in hand to Middle East oil exporters. What government...

Federal Reserve officials have pared their outlook for economic growth through 2009 to minimal levels and are prepared to cut interest rates further, while concern has risen that a deflationary spiral may take hold. The central bank expects growth in the United States to contract in the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009, with some even were more pessimistic, according to minutes released on Wednesday of the Fed's Oct. 28-29 meeting, when it cut its benchmark interest rate by a half percentage point to a percent. "Even after today's 50 basis-point action, the committee judged that...

INTEREST rates may be slashed to zero after Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned that the economy could contract by 2 per cent next year. Mr King vowed to cut the official cost of borrowing to "whatever level is necessary" to boost confidence and stave off a long and deep recession. The government will outline its plans for the economy and spending in the Pre-Budget Report, which it confirmed yesterday would be unveiled on 24 November. Mr King revealed that the economy is already in recession in his latest inflation report. Confidence had been "shaken badly"...

High Street banks have told Alistair Darling they will not pass on any further interest rate cuts to consumers and businesses. The banks have warned the chancellor they are “not charities”. They said they could not afford further to reduce mortgage payments and interest rates to businesses if, as expected, the Bank of England continued to cut rates as the economy fell deeper into recession. The tough line from the banks will anger taxpayers, coming just a month after the government injected £37 billion into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), HBOS and Lloyds TSB to protect them from the credit...

On the fifth floor of an imposing building in London's Canary Wharf, six people are putting together one of the world's most important numbers. Every weekday morning, as the clock ticks round to 11, the group's members wait patiently for the numbers to arrive. These are the figures that will determine the day's Libor rate, or rather the rate banks charge when they lend each other money.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that the global financial markets crisis is likely to restrain the economy well into next year and signaled that the Fed may be getting ready to cut interest rates. But he said he believes the unprecedented steps taken to have the Treasury Department and the Fed intervene in financial markets were done in time to prevent more expensive and permanent damage to the nation's leading financial institutions. In a speech before the National Association of Business Economics in Washington on Tuesday, Bernanke said the threat of inflation has receded recently, while the economy has...

Back in 2002, when his reputation as “The Man Who Saved the World” was at its peak, Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, came to Britain to pick up his knighthood. His biggest fan, Gordon Brown, now the UK prime minister, had ensured that the citation said it was being awarded for promoting “economic stability”. During his trip, Mr Greenspan visited the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. He told them the US financial system had been resilient amid the bursting of the internet bubble. Share prices had halved and there had been massive bond defaults, but no...

A massive global rally in treasuries is underway and gold may be headed for its biggest one day advance in history as global systemic distrust sets in. ... Treasury 3-Month Bill Rates Drop to Lowest Since World War II. ... I just happened to be checking on rates exactly as the low was hit. 3 month yields are now .04.

One year after California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols decided to sell off some energy stocks that showed a potential conflict of interest with her role as a state regulator, records show her diverse investment portfolio still contains many energy interests. Nichols also sold stock in a company that stands to profit from new diesel regulations that the ARB is set to adopt this fall, and other companies that have business before the board, according to financial disclosure documents filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission. But FPPC records show that she and her husband, attorney John Duam, sold...

In fact, Representative Maurice Hinchey stated that “we (the government) should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.”

IT SEEMS THAT the world is beginning to come around to my point of view, that the credit crisis has been averted and the economy is not going to weaken enough to deserve to be called a "recession." Several speeches this week by Federal Reserve officials have talked about the credit crisis very much in the past tense. The Fed finally came up with new liquidity facilities that were effective at easing the crisis — after nine months of flailing, doing everything wrong and nothing right. This after years of keeping interest rates too low, and triggering the cycle of...

In another year my home loan will adjust to the "Weekly average yield on United States Treasury Securities adjusted to a constant maturity of 5 years" plus 3.0 percentage points. My current rate is 5.54% and I want to start considering a refinancing if it looks like the new rate will be a large increase (it can only go up a maximum of 2.0%). So my question is how do I calculate the "Weekly average yield on United States Treasury Securities adjusted to a constant maturity of 5 years"? I tried to Google for the answer but didn't have any...

Mortgage lenders were yesterday accused of cashing in on the credit crunch by raising the cost of home loans hours before the Bank of England cut interest rates. In an attempt to boost the ailing economy, the Bank yesterday reduced the base rate from 5.25 per cent to 5 per cent. But the move came after two of the biggest lenders revealed plans to move in the opposite direction and raise their mortgage rates today. Cut: The move is unlikely to provide much relief for homeowners One of these is Alliance & Leicester, which will have increased its rates twice...

Since I have retired I have discovered that I have a fair amount of money. I also have a fair amount of assets in property but that is outside of the issue I need advice about. I am dealing with a small bank and I would like to crank up the interest rate on the IRA's, now and near future say 6/1/08. What arguement am I going to use to twist the Board of Directors collective arms to get an acceptable return.

I need help with this problem. If I had 10,000 and put it into a cd for one year at 4.5 percent then how do I figure how much money I'll make on it? I already know how dumb I am when it comes to money so help me out. Show me how to get an answer. Thanks in advance!

The German government's purchase of data stolen from a Liechtenstein bank has reinvigorated longstanding debates about privacy, law enforcement and international relations. Much of the fallout has followed predictable patterns. Some argue that Germany's richest citizens should be brought to justice for failing to comply with the tax laws, while others point out that it is unseemly for a nation to spy on a peaceful neighbor. The conflict between Germany and Liechtenstein also has triggered a broader debate about tax competition and the role of so-called tax havens. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is trying to use...

I'LL NEVER CEASE to be amazed by Warren Buffett. No, not by his wealth. Not by his investment acumen. And not by his folksy wisdom. I'm amazed at the shameless greed of the man, and the fact that despite it, the media continues to treat him like a saint. Don't get me wrong. I firmly believe that as Gordon Gekko said, "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." But as I recall the villain of Oliver Stone's movie "Wall Street," Gekko didn't expect people to love him for his predatory ways. I have no idea what Buffett expects,...

It seems only yesterday that Premier Dalton McGuinty declared: "There will be no sharia law in Ontario." Many of us, who witnessed the medieval nature of manmade sharia laws in our countries of birth, heaved a sigh of relief back in September of 2005. We thought this was the end of the attempt by Islamists to sneak sharia into a Western jurisdiction. We were wrong. The campaign to introduce sharia is back. Last time, the campaign took a populist approach, invoking multiculturalism. This time, the pro-sharia lobby is dangling the carrot of new niche markets and has the backing of...

Political groups unaffiliated with the two major parties account for an increasingly large share of spending on federal campaigns -- 19% of the total in 2006, up from just 7% in 2000, according to an analysis of campaign-finance data by The Wall Street Journal. They now are horning in on crucial campaign activities once dominated by the parties, such as buying ads and getting out the vote. ...Over the past four years, the national Democratic and Republican parties have raised and spent less on elections than during the prior four years, when adjusted for inflation. At the same time, independent...

If I were a writer of articles, I would never make "Spur" part of the headline - but that's just me...