Beyond The Hedges

11/11/10 6:00pm

National

President proposes budget cuts

President Barack Obama set up a commission to investigate how to reduce the U.S.' $1.3 trillion deficit. The commission's co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson proposed a plan that will generate $200 billion of prospective budget cuts through decreasing spending on Social Security, Medicare, military procurement and other areas. Other proposed changes include eliminating Congressional earmarks, lowering the retirement age to 69 by 2079, and slowing the growth of foreign aid spending. Bowles and Simpson said that their plan would remove almost $4 trillion from U.S. budget deficits by 2020.

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Source: BBCFederal reserve buys bonds

The Federal Reserve said that it aims to pump $600 billion into the U.S. economy by the end of June, kicking off a second round of "quantitative easing" (QE). The first QE round was marked by the Fed injecting $1.75 trillion into the economy. In order to stimulate QE2, the Fed said they will buy $105 billion of government bonds and $75 billion of government debt. Opinions are divided on the plan's effectiveness. Some give it credit for pulling the U.S. out of a recession, while others argue that it barely affected consumer demand.

Source: BBC

International

G20 summit begins in South Korea

The semiannual G20 Summit is approaching, and President Obama has urged world leaders to work together for global economic recovery. However, worries have surfaced that the summit will be negatively affected by the U.S. and China arguing about trade imbalances and so-called currency wars. Overall, Obama has stated that one of the summit's goals is to promote sustainable international economic development. However, critics have expressed skepticism at the U.S. central bank's programs, and other countries have pressured China to correct its trade imbalance, among other things.

Source: BBC

Cholera outbreak in Haiti

A cholera outbreak has occurred in Haiti and at least 10,000 people are currently suffering from the disease across the country. The death toll has risen to 644, and doctors in the capital Port Au Prince are concerned about how fast the illness is spreading. The Pan-American Health Organization expects 270,000 Haitians to be infected by cholera within six months to a year. PAHO also said the epidemic could enter the Dominican Republic and is currently trying to teach prevention and treatment of the disease to the population.

Source: BBC

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