Re: Tu*.ng The^' !!!


After wholesale prices climbed 7.4 percent, now Dollar Plumbs New
Depths.
Ne^'u cu*' tie^'p tu.c chie^'n tranh the^m 4 na(m nu*~a thi` la.m
pha't ca`ng ta(ng va` gia' tri, ddo^ la` ca`ng gia?m. Nho*` ta`i la~nh
dda.o cu?a TT Bush va`


AP
Dollar Plumbs New Depths
Wednesday February 27, 7:17 am ET
By Matt Moore, AP Business Writer
Dollar Pushed to New Lows by Dour US Economic Reports and Expectations
of Interest Rate Cut


BERLIN (AP) -- The dollar sank to new lows in Europe Wednesday
following a series of dour reports on the U.S. economy and
expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue slashing interest
rates.
The 15-nation currency hit a series of highs, culminating in $1.5087
before falling back slightly to $1.5031, nearly a full cent more than
the $1.4967 it bought in late trading in New York on Tuesday.




On Feb 26, 8:52 pm, BenLong <pb5...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
AP
Worries Grow for Worse 'Stagflation'
Tuesday February 26, 6:09 pm ET
By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer
Worries Grow for Twin Evils of 'Stagflation' -- Stagnant Economy, Lost
Jobs, Surging Inflation

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a toxic economic mix the nation hasn't seen in
three decades: Prices are speeding upward at the fastest pace in a
quarter century, even as the economy loses steam.

Economists call the disease "stagflation," and they're worried it
might be coming back.

Already, paychecks aren't stretching as far, and jobs are harder to
find, threatening to set off a vicious cycle that could make things
even worse.

The economy nearly stalled in the final three months of last year and
probably is barely growing or even shrinking now. That's the
"stagnation" part of the ailment. Typically, that slowdown should slow
inflation as well -- the second part of the diagnosis -- but prices
are still marching higher.

The latest worrisome news came Tuesday: a government report showing
wholesale prices climbed 7.4 percent in the past year. That was the
biggest annual leap since 1981.

"We're in a slowdown," Press Secretary Dana Perino said at the White
House, where the economics talk was still upbeat until recently.

Once the twin evils of stagflation take hold, it can be hard to break
the grip. People cut back on their spending as they are stung by
rising prices and shriveling wages. Businesses, also socked by rising
costs and declining demand from customers, clamp down on their hiring
and capital investment.

That would be a nightmare scenario for Wall Street investors,
businesses, politicians and most everyone else. They're already
looking to the Federal Reserve for help, but the Fed's job is
complicated by the situation.

The mission of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his
colleagues is to nurture economic growth and keep inflation under
control. To brace the teetering economy, the Fed since September has
been ratcheting down its key interest rate. Another cut is expected in
March. However, to combat inflation, the Fed would be expected to
boost rates instead.

"The Fed has its hands full. It is preoccupied with the economic
slowdown at the front door, but inflation looks to be sneaking in the
back door," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at
Bankrate.com. "If that trend continues, the Fed would need to show the
economy some tough love, meaning higher interest rates to keep
inflation from getting out of hand."

On the other hand, Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight, said
Bernanke can fight only one war at a time, and the more pressing issue
right now is to shore up the ailing economy. "That's the war that
needs to be fought. The war on inflation will have to come another
day," Bethune said.

Maybe things won't be so bad. Stock prices rose for the day,
continuing a recent mini-rally. And Federal Reserve vice chairman
Donald Kohn said in a speech that he doesn't expect the recent
elevated inflation readings to persist.

"But the recent information on prices underlines the need to continue
to monitor the inflation situation very carefully," he added.

Some numbers underscore the concerns:

-- Prices paid by consumers are up 4.1 percent over the past year, the
biggest increase in 17 years. Those higher prices -- especially for
heating homes and filling up gas tanks -- are taking an ever-bigger
bite out of paychecks. Workers' weekly earnings are down 1.4 percent
from a year ago when adjusted for that inflation.

-- Oil prices galloped past $100 a barrel to close at a record $100.88
on Tuesday. Those lofty energy prices are a double-edged sword: They
can spread inflation through the economy by boosting the prices of
lots of other goods and services, and they can leave people with less
money to spend on other things, thus slowing overall economic
activity. There are signs high energy prices are causing some damage
on both of those fronts.

People are hunkering down. Earlier this month, nervous shoppers handed
the nation's retailers their worst January in almost four decades.
High gas and food prices, the toll of the housing bust, the credit
crunch and a tougher job market all were to blame. Disappointing sales
were widespread, hitting discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and
upscale merchants like Nordstrom Inc.

Wary employers eliminated jobs in January, the first nationwide loss
of jobs in more than four years.

With the economy on the edge of a recession -- if it hasn't toppled
over already -- the Fed for the near term is much more likely to keep
lowering rates. Yet, with its own forecast revised last week to show
even slower growth this year as well as higher inflation and higher
unemployment than previously anticipated, Bernanke and his colleagues
have made clear they'll need to stay nimble.

Can a serious bout of stagflation be avoided? Many economists believe
the Fed's aggressive rate cuts along with tax rebates for people and
tax breaks for businesses will lift the economy in the second half of
the year.

Until then, analysts warn that it could feel like country is suffering
through a mild case of stagflation-- even if technically that is not
the case. "It could feel like a bad flu," said Bethune.

In the past stagflation episode in the 1970s and early 1980s,
inflation sometimes hit double digits -- much higher than the current
rate. And unemployment was higher, too. In 1975, for instance, the
jobless rate zoomed to 8.5 percent, which at the time was the highest
since the early 1940s. Last year, by contrast, the jobless rate
averaged 4.6 percent.

On Feb 26, 7:38 pm, ":))" <bennypo...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Multi-drug resistant TB is a threat to every person on the planet,"
Harrington said. "It's not like HIV, where you are only infected
through specific actions. TB is a threat to every person who takes a
train or a plane."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WHO says drug-resistant TB spreads fast
By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer

Drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical
experts had feared, the World Health Organization warned in report
issued Tuesday. The rate of TB patients infected with the
drug-resistant strain topped 20 percent in some countries, the highest
ever recorded, the U.N. agency said.

"Ten years ago, it would have been unthinkable to see rates like
this," said Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of WHO's "Stop TB"
department. "This demonstrates what happens when you keep making
mistakes in TB treatment."

Though the report is the largest survey of drug-resistant TB, based on
information collected between 2002 and 2006, there are still major
gaps: Data were only available from about half of the world's
countries.

In Africa, where experts are particularly worried about a lethal
collision between TB and AIDS, only six countries provided
information.

"We really don't know what the situation is in Africa," Raviglione
said. "If multi-drug resistant TB has penetrated Africa and coincides
with AIDS, there's bound to be a disaster."

Raviglione said it was likely that patients -- and even entire
outbreaks of drug-resistant TB -- were being missed.

Experts also worry about the spread of XDR-TB, or extensively
drug-resistant TB, a strain virtually untreatable in poor countries.
When an XDR-TB outbreak was identified in AIDS patients in South
Africa in 2006, it killed nearly every patient within weeks. WHO's
report said XDR-TB has now been found in 45 countries.

Globally, there are about 500,000 new cases of drug-resistant TB every
year, about 5 percent of the 9 million new TB cases. In the United
States, 1.2 percent of TB cases were multi-drug resistant. Of those,
1.9 percent were extensively drug-resistant.

The highest rates of drug-resistant TB were in eastern Europe. Nearly
a quarter of all TB cases in Baku, Azerbaijan, were drug-resistant,
followed by about 20 percent in Moldova and 16 percent in Donetsk,
Ukraine, WHO said.

High rates of drug-resistant TB were also found in China and India,
the world's two most populous nations that together are home to half
the world's cases.

Drug-resistant TB arises when primary TB treatment is poor. Countries
with strong treatment programs, like the U.S. and other Western
nations, should theoretically have very little drug-resistant TB.

That is not the case in China, however, where the government says 94
percent of TB patients complete their first TB treatment.

"There's a huge, gross discrepancy there if they are then reporting 25
percent of the world's multi-drug resistant TB cases," said Mark
Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group, a public
health think tank. "They are clearly nurturing a multi-drug resistant
TB epidemic and failing to report XDR-TB at all."

With growing numbers of drug-resistant TB patients, there is concern
some national health systems will soon be overwhelmed.

"We are totally off track right now," said Dr. Tido von
Schoen-Angerer, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontiere's
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. He said only 30,000
multi-drug TB resistant patients were treated last year.

Experts said new drugs are needed if the outbreak is to be curbed,
along with new diagnostic tests to identify drug-resistant TB strains
faster -- current tests take about a month for results.

WHO said a new diagnostic test able to provide results within a day is
being tried in South Africa and Lesotho. If successful, the test could
be introduced across Africa in a few months, though new labs would be
needed to run the tests.

"Multi-drug resistant TB is a threat to every person on the planet,"
Harrington said. "It's not like HIV, where you are only infected
through specific actions. TB is a threat to every person who takes a
train or a plane."

...

read more »

.

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