Economy

Psychologists have a term to describe a patient's utter inability to experience pleasure: anhedonia. I can't help concluding that the American public is experiencing a debilitating bout of economic anhedonia right now. This mood is antithetical to the American can-do spirit and will limit the efficacy of even the best structured economic stimulus package to come. It is important to note that the psychological manifestation of anhedonia is called depression. The economic analogy is both clear and ominous.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, seeking to reassure Americans about the economy and combat Democratic criticism of his policies, said yesterday that recent financial market turbulence was not a cause for worry but a natural adjustment from the improvident lending of recent years. Speaking at the Treasury Department, with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. sitting across the table and reporters seated in a circle around them, Bush said that his economic advisers would be "paying close attention as the market begins to readjust its assessment of risk" in housing and other sectors.

The nation's economy shook off its recent torpor to grow at a solid 3.4 percent annual pace in the second quarter, the government reported yesterday, as improving business investment and higher exports worked to offset a sharp slowdown in consumer spending. The Commerce Department's report on gross domestic product modestly topped the 3.2 percent most economists had been expecting, and it was also the best performance since the first quarter of 2006, when the economy was riding the final months of the boom in the housing industry.

WASHINGTON -- The economy roared back from a midyear slump by growing at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the final three months of 2006, the government reported yesterday. The economy opened last year on a strong note, growing at a 5.6 percent pace, the fastest spurt in 2 1/2 years. But it lost steam to a 2.6 percent pace during the spring and declined to about 2 percent last summer. Nevertheless, inflation fell from an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the third quarter to 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department said.

The U.S. economy hit the skids in the first quarter, posting its worst growth rate in four years. But the continued spending of consumers and business people has many experts predicting better times ahead. The slumping housing market was named as a primary culprit in a Commerce Department report yesterday showing that the nation's gross domestic product grew at a surprisingly sluggish 1.3 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the lowest pace since the first quarter of 2003.

India needs faster growth to create more jobs for its expanding population and to make it easier to relieve poverty. The awkward truth is that although the economy is sprinting ahead, most people are only crawling. Although the educated middle class has enjoyed big salary increases and a surge in the value of their homes and shares, the 60 percent of the population close to or below the poverty line have not yet seen a material gain. Measured by the commonly used Gini coefficient, India has less income inequality than China or America.

There are still reasons to believe the housing heartache won't badly hurt the rest of the economy, but not as many as a few days ago. Countrywide Financial Corp., which handles nearly a fifth of all U.S. mortgages, reported soaring delinquencies, falling profits and increased default risk last week. Baltimore's First Mariner Bancorp disclosed similar problems. Sales of existing homes fell for the fourth month in a row, and more than expected. New-home sales were even worse. Homebuilders also reported worse-than-predicted results as sales plunged and assets depreciated.

WASHINGTON -- A year ago, as the president was insisting to a dubious public that he had not had sexual relations with "that woman," even Clinton loyalists were predicting that he might not survive what seemed to be shocking revelations of recklessness and immorality.Pundits were quick to dust off the incendiary "I-word." Politicians and journalists talked breathlessly of a presidential resignation and a Gore administration.Today, after a yearlong saga that has yet to come to a close, the president, while indelibly scarred, is standing tall.

IT'S THE ECONOMY, stupid -- the political motto Bill Clinton made famous -- isn't as relevant at the local level. Mayors and county executives have little power to affect an economy, so their mantra might be, "It's schools and crime, stupid." Judging from the recent season of building budgets, it's a warning they're heeding.About 80 percent of new revenue went to education and public safety, according to an informal poll of the state's 24 jurisdictions by the Maryland Association of Counties.

BASEBALL players talk about being "in the zone," that state of mind when everything seems to go right: Pitchers throw nothing but strikes; batters go on phenomenal hitting streaks.The nation's economy is on such a tear. Every economic report brings more positive news.More people are working, their incomes are steady and best of all, prices -- with the exception of the stock market -- barely increase.Yet skeptics keep reminding us that these prosperous conditions can't continue indefinitely.

The government is expected to report Thursday that the American economy resumed growing in the third quarter, marking an end to the worst contraction since World War II. But even though some economists say the report should dispel doubts that the downturn is over, it may be cold comfort to workers and businesses alike. Forecasters say third-quarter growth was likely 3 percent to 3.5 percent at an annual rate, driven largely by the federal stimulus package. While solid, that is not the kind of breakthrough turnaround needed to reverse the sharp 6 percent decline in gross domestic product last fall and winter.

After submerging himself in the subject of health care in "Sicko," his best film, Michael Moore comes back to crowd-pleasing form with his most wildly uneven movie, "Capitalism: A Love Story." He bases this documentary screed on the litany of disasters that have brought the once fast-breaking American economy to its kneepads - the reckless deregulation of finance and other industries, the homebuying bubble and the legal loan-sharking that went with it, the vast disparity between corporate honchos and the middle class and working poor who are supposed to fuel the economy with their consumption.

WASHINGTON - - The government's first broad look at the recession's impact on American households in 2008 shows that the nation's poverty level jumped to an 11-year high, incomes sank for almost every group and the number of people without health insurance rose to 46.3 million. As bleak as these statistics were from the Census Bureau on Thursday, they captured only a part of the devastating effects of the economic downturn that worsened last fall and into this year. Analysts say they expect the official poverty rate, which rose to 13.2 percent, from 12.5 percent in 2007, to keep climbing this year and next, reversing the gains made in the 1990s.

General Motors Co. said Tuesday that its long-awaited Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid is expected to achieve fuel economy of 230 miles per gallon in city driving. That would give the Volt, which is expected to arrive in showrooms late next year, by far the highest fuel efficiency rating of any car rated by the Environmental Protection Agency. The current EPA mileage leader is the Toyota Prius hybrid, which is rated at 50 mpg in combined city-highway driving. The Volt is designed to run on electric power only for about 40 miles, after which a small gasoline engine kicks in to recharge the battery, giving it a range of more than 300 miles.

WASHINGTON - -Gov. Martin O'Malley said Wednesday that a second economic stimulus package might be needed if the U.S. economy fails to recover, but it's too soon to know yet. "I think it's too early for us to say that right now," said the Democratic governor, while expressing support for the idea of more infrastructure spending by the federal government. O'Malley made the remarks after testifying before the House Oversight Committee, which is monitoring the first stimulus plan. President Barack Obama, who signed the stimulus into law about four months ago, isn't ruling another stimulus in or out at this point, his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters aboard Air Force One. Obama economic adviser Laura Tyson called this week for more stimulus spending, because, she said, the economy was in worse shape than initially forecast and the first dose was "a bit too small."

International commerce and openness are in the British bloodstream. They have been the foundation of our economy since the Industrial Revolution. Today trade remains the cornerstone of the U.K. economy and a crucial factor in America's success too. Yet in the current economic turmoil, it can be hard for governments to keep their eyes on the prize of economic recovery as our traditional industries suffer, jobs are lost and each country struggles to...

Recessions are the economy's way of improving our well-being and making us live longer, say various news outlets. "Can the bad economy be good for your health?" wonders CNN. "Happy days are here again! Research shows hard times can actually be good for you," says The Washington Times. If you're not feeling the joy and vitality of 8.9 percent unemployment, don't worry. Or don't worry any more than you already are about your job, mortgage and 401(k) plan. Four decades of research show that the conventional wisdom is correct.

We're still in a recession, although Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress last week that the economy could recover later this year. n That follows earlier remarks by Bernanke that he spotted some "green shoots" of revival. n He may be right. Certainly, many people have been searching for sprouts of growth ever since the mention of "green shoots." n But Bernanke also has warned that a sustained recovery will depend on restoring stability to the financial system, and parts of that system remain under significant stress.

It is human - or perhaps just journalistic - nature to think we can explain the inexplicable. We take all the horrifying details that tumble from first one murder-suicide that wipes out an entire family and then unbelievably a second one - the sunny yellow house, the 10th-floor hotel room, the three little tykes, the two sisters, the mom who blogged and the one who volunteered - and we grasp for a universal string theory that will tie the who-what-where-when-and-how to...

Myron Murray has exchanged nights sipping expensive cocktails in bars and restaurants for get-togethers with friends at home. He eats out less, saves more and thinks much harder about what he buys. The 34-year-old manager of an Annapolis Sam's Club isn't afraid of losing his job and hasn't seen a drop in his income. But the recession has prompted Murray to be more responsible about his money - a change that could last a lifetime for him and other consumers. "I think I need to plan a little better now for the future," Murray said.