US President Barack Obama’s administration on Wednesday unveiled the details of a US$75 billion rescue plan to stem rising home foreclosures as grim data suggested a deepening recession.
The Treasury Department said between 7 million and 9 million homeowners could be helped through the program through either home loan modifications or mortgage refinancings.
“It is imperative that we continue to move with speed to help make housing more affordable and help arrest the damaging spiral in our housing markets,” US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.
Even with mortgage rates now at historic lows, the US housing market continues to slump as prospective buyers are scared off by falling home prices, a recession firmly in its second year and rising unemployment.
The government’s release of a detailed blueprint for stabilizing the housing sector came amid news of a further deterioration in the job market that signaled a poor reading from the Labor Department expected on Friday.
Data from payrolls firm Automatic Data Processing (ADP) showed the private sector shed 697,000 jobs last month, accelerating the hemorrhaging from January and far exceeding most analysts’ expectations of 630,000 jobs eliminated.
The reading was the worst since ADP began tracking the data in 2000.
Before ADP’s report, most analysts had expected the government to announce the economy shed a seasonally adjusted 650,000 jobs, after 598,000 in January.
The unemployment rate is forecast to jump to 7.9 percent from 7.6 percent in January, the highest level since 1992.
Another report by a private firm highlighted further contraction in the service sector, which, in comparison with manufacturing, had resisted the economic headwinds until recent months.
The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said that its non-manufacturing index contracted for the fifth consecutive month to 41.6 percent last month from 42.9 percent in January, showing the contraction was accelerating.
An index reading below 50 indicates a decline in activity, while a higher figure indicates growth.
“The pace of contraction of business activity is likely to pick up a little in March as inventory sentiment is still quite negative,” said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.
The US Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report on Wednesday that US economic activity “deteriorated further” through last month, lowering prospects of a quick recovery.
The report, to be used at the upcoming meeting of Fed policymakers from March 17 to March 18, said the troubles were broad-based, citing weak consumer spending, tight credit and further declines in manufacturing.
“Looking ahead, contacts from various districts rate the prospects for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010,” the report said.
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.
FRESH LOOK: A committee would gather expert and public input on the themes and visual motifs that would appear on the notes, the central bank governor said The central bank has launched a comprehensive redesign of New Taiwan dollar banknotes to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures, improve accessibility and align the bills with global sustainability standards, Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday. The overhaul would affect all five denominations — NT$100, NT$200, NT$500, NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 notes — but not coins, Yang said. It would be the first major update to the banknotes in 24 years, as the current series, introduced in 2001, has remained in circulation amid rapid advances in printing technology and security standards. “Updating the notes is essential to safeguard the integrity
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