Economy

A new economic study claims to have found "serious errors" in a study that fiscal hawks routinely cite when calling for action on the deficit.

For years, policymakers and advocates concerned about the deficit have cited a 2010 study by economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff that found modern countries with a debt-to-GDP ratio over 90 percent suffer a significant slowdown in economic growth. 

The study has been widely cited in the media and on Capitol Hill during the push to rein in the deficit.

But a new paper from economists at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst that attempted to replicate the findings is casting significant doubt on that claim. The study instead argues that "coding errors, selective exclusion of available data, and unconventional weighting of summary statistics lead to serious errors that inaccurately represent the relationship between public debt and GDP growth."

The legislation would put an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship after securing the border.

A bipartisan immigration plan with major implications for the economy is set to arrive on Capitol Hill this week.

Business groups are eager to see how the Senate’s Gang of Eight deals with visas for both high-skilled and low-skilled workers in the bipartisan plan. They say an “ample” amount of visas are needed to plug holes in America’s workforce. 

Lawmakers are also be entering their second week of poring over the White House’s budget plan.

Treasury said officials would continue to steer Japan away from looking to undervalue its currency.

"The available evidence suggests" that the yuan "remains significantly undervalued," according to a new administration report. 

First-time applications for unemployment benefits plummeted last week, a signal that the slow job growth in March may be temporary. 

Weekly claims fell 42,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 hitting a four-month high last week after three weeks of gains, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. 

The four-week average, a less volatile gauge of the labor market's trajectory, was up slightly by 3,000 to 358,000.

An accidental early release of Fed minutes sparks concern.

Major Wall Street banks, government agencies and industry groups got the sneak peek.

Gold's reputation as the safest of investments is getting tarnished.

President Obama asks Congress to dig deeper for IMF funding in budget.

The president will huddle with the heads of major Wall Street banks today.

Big banks dive into the prepaid card market.

Some members of the Fed’s policy board are getting antsy about the bank's swelling balance sheet.

Small-business optimism dimmed in March after three months of gains, reflecting uncertainty about fiscal policies that are hampering the nation's economic growth. 

A gauge measuring how small firms are feeling about economic conditions fell to 89.5, slightly below the 90.7 average since the recession officially ended in June 2009, according to the National Federation of Independent Business' (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index released on Tuesday. 

"After another false start, small-business confidence has sputtered and stalled again," said NFIB chief economist Bill Dunkelberg.

"Virtually no owners think the current period is a good time to expand, because they simply don’t know what the future holds," he said. 

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urged European leaders on Monday to pull back on debt-reduction polices and focus on growth measures to help bolster their economies weakened by a prolonged financial crisis. 

Lew, who is on a two-day swing through the region to meet with several top finance leaders, emphasized the important of the relationship between the United States and the European inion to not only each other but to the stability of the global economy. 

"The European economies face a high level of debt, deep structural medium-term challenges and short-term economic headwinds that we need to confront," Lew said during a joint press conference after meeting with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy. "There is no room for complacency."