Economy

An ad financed by a committee chaired by former U.S. Senate candidate Danny Tarkanian has begun running in Nevada that blasts Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for his votes on the economy. 

The ad targets his position on spending and tax cuts. 

More people think the nation's economic situation is getting worse, according to a recent CBS News poll. 

About 34 percent of those asked in August said the economy is getting worse, up from 26 percent last month, according to the poll released Thursday. 

The poll showed that eight of 10 people think the economy is in bad shape, a number that has remained flat throughout the summer. 

Just 17 percent of Americans describe the nation's economy as being in good shape, down from 21 percent in July.

House Republicans are holding more than 500 events during the recess, mostly on jobs, a GOP leader said Thursday.

New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly dropped last week, but not enough to signal strong job growth. 

AP LEDE: "It's starting to feel like another recession."

"Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy's few bright spots, is faltering."

The wire story comes after reports Thursday showed that durable-goods orders from June to July rose 0.3 percent, less than the 3 percent expected, and new home sales dropped 12.4 percent instead of holding steady.

http://yhoo.it/b604H0

DOUBLE-DIP ODDS INCREASING, ANALYSTS SAY

Mark Zandi says odds of another recession are one-in-three, calls for temporary extension of Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. http://bit.ly/bkAwTf

Nouriel Roubini puts double-dip odds at 40 percent, projects GDP growth of less than 1 percent in third quarter. http://bit.ly/amvoDl

Goldman Sachs: 25-30 percent. http://bit.ly/dq5jDQ

PREVIEWING BERNANKE'S FRIDAY SPEECH

WaPo's Neil Irwin: "With statistics due out Friday that are expected to show the economy grew much less than estimated in the second quarter of the year, Fed-watchers are hoping Bernanke's comments later that day in Jackson Hole, Wyo., will instill confidence that he has a plan and can act decisively if the economy continues to deteriorate. They warn that recent conflicting signals from Fed insiders may even be contributing to economic weakness by spooking financial markets. http://bit.ly/a4wiDL

NYT's Sewell Chan: "It is not known what Mr. Bernanke will say [Friday], but some insight may come from an episode in his past: his concern, soon after he became a Fed governor, that the economy was at risk of deflation as the nation gradually recovered from the dot-com bust a decade ago." http://nyti.ms/b7F3Nd

Former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder says the Fed is almost out of tools to help the economy. http://bit.ly/bgCYb7

Fun link of the day. Roy Blunt channels Old Spice to find interns. http://bit.ly/ak9QDe

FINANCIAL REGS: Banks will still be able to make risky deals under Wall Street reform act. NYT: http://nyti.ms/biJCu5

SEC gives shareholders more power over corporate boards. http://bit.ly/d2BCLA

WH still against extending tax cuts for wealthy. VP Biden says GOP argument to prolong cuts for the "super rich" is "malarkey." http://bit.ly/bS4Db0

President Obama takes a break from his vacation to talk economy with Geithner and Summers, a day after House GOP Leader John Boehner called for the ouster of the two economic aides. http://bit.ly/9Iw2j6

Liberals call for Simpson to step down from fiscal commission. http://bit.ly/a2KTMZ 

But... WH says Simpson isn't going. http://huff.to/cBBq7j

The IRS is going overboard in targeting bad tax preparers, Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) and Mike Conaway (R-Texas) write in WSJ op-ed. http://bit.ly/axVL02

Women make up nearly half of the nation's workforce, are better educated and have seen their pay increase during the past 25 years. 

But while their roles in the economy have expanded, they still face several challenges, including nagging pay disparities with their male counterparts, according to a report released Wednesday by the Joint Economic Committee. 

Full-time working women earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by the average full-time working man, despite a narrowing of the gap over the past quarter-century, the report found. 

In 1984, the average full-time weekly wage for women was just 68 percent of men’s full-time weekly wage. 

"This report shows that as women have gained political power, they’ve gained economic strength," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the JEC. "Women work more, earn more, and are more educated than they were 25 years ago. But women still earn less than men."

During the past 25 years, the number of women in the workforce has grown by 44.2 percent, increasing from 46 million in 1984 to 66 million in 2009. All the growth occurred prior to 2000 with participation levels remaining flat during the past decade. 

The percentage of women in the labor force has risen from 53.6 percent in 1984 to 59.2 percent as of last year. 

Traffic accidents cost the nation more than $99 billion a year — with teenagers and young adults representing about a third of that expense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday. 

The figure reflects about $17 billion in direct medical care, with the remaining costs attributed largely to production loss as victims recover from their injuries (or don't). 

"Every 10 seconds, someone in the United States is treated in an emergency department for crash-related injuries, and nearly 40,000 people die from these injuries each year," Grant Baldwin, director of CDC’s Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, said in a statement. The costs related to those numbers, he added, "are staggering."

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Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) on Wednesday said that in order to rein in the deficit, lawmakers must look at both sides of the ledger and cut spending as well as allow the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy to expire. 

Credit card debt dropped to the lowest level since 2002 as delinquencies continued to decline during the second quarter as consumers shaped up their finances. 

Average debt on bank-issued credit cards fell 13.4 percent to $4,951 between April and June, down from $5,719 during the same period a year ago, according to TransUnion, a credit reporting agency. 

Average consumer credit card debt fell below $5,000 for the first time in eight years. 

"The last five quarters of consecutive decreases in credit card balances show that consumers continue to pay down their credit cards in response to economic uncertainty and high unemployment," said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy in TransUnion's financial services unit. 

The economy would be in far worse shape without the stimulus package, an economist with ties to both parties said Wednesday.