Hey, wait a minute
I thought banks were not lending, and the US economy was going to hell without Obama's spending plan
What happened?????
By Bob Willis and Shobhana Chandra
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Two measures of U.S. economic performance unexpectedly turned positive in December, in sharp contrast to the tens of thousands of firings announced by companies as diverse as Caterpillar Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp.
The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose 6.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.74 million last month, propelled by the biggest slump in prices since the Great Depression. The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators increased 0.3 percent as the supply of money expanded.
Analysts said the indicators, while reflecting Federal Reserve and Treasury efforts to stave off a complete collapse of the economy, needed to be viewed against the backdrop of surging firings -- 72,500 announced today alone. The job losses, they said, may deepen the pullback in consumer spending and make banks more reluctant to lend, exacerbating what’s already the longest recession since 1982.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Lhk&refer=home