Projection of total deficits over the next decade after the recent deficit-reduction deal between President Obama and Congress were sharply reduced by the Congressional Budget Office.

The Budget Office, however, warned that the extension of Bush-era tax rates and other policies would more than offset those savings.

From NYTimes.com:

The report from the nonpartisan budget office underscores the high stakes for a special 12-member Congressional committee created to figure out by December how to achieve up to $1.5 trillion of the $2.4 trillion in maximum 10-year savings promised by the deal.

It comes as Mr. Obama and Democrats, like many economists, are calling for a mix of larger long-term deficit reduction measures with immediate additional job creation measures. While the latter would add to deficits in the short term, proponents argue that they would prevent another recession and avoid the associated costs in lost revenues and safety-net spending. But Republicans oppose any stimulus measures or long-term increases in tax revenues.

Douglas Elmendorf, director of the budget office, wrote on its Web site that such projections “understate the budgetary challenges facing the federal government in the coming years.”

Tags: job creation, tax rates

President Barack Obama said he will be proposing a plan in September for giving a jump-start to the US economy.

With his approval ratings falling, Obama is set to propose short-term measures to boost hiring and call on a congressional panel for delivering more than the $1.5 trillion in savings by Nov. 23, partly through increased tax revenue.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

In a television interview, Obama said another recession was unlikely but expressed concern about the slow pace of growth.

“I don’t think we’re in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that is fast enough to deal with a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there,” he said in excerpts in a CBS interview airing on Sunday. “And that’s why we need to be doing more.”

A Gallup poll published on Wednesday found a new low of 26 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, down 11 percentage points since mid-May.

Administration officials said September’s economic plan was still a work in progress but new measures could include tax breaks and spending through construction projects.

Obama said at a town-hall style meeting in Illinois, “When Congress gets back in September, my basic argument to them is this: we should not have to choose between getting our fiscal house in order and jobs and growth. We can’t afford to do just one or the other, we’ve got to do both.”

Tags: approval ratings, Barack Obama, tax breaks

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said the country could have the world’s third largest GDP by 2025 if it maintains its present growth rate.

Singh conceded that the target of nine percent growth for the next five years was ‘very ambitious’ given the current state of the global economy.

From in.finance.yahoo.com:

Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, the prime minister cautioned that while the ‘rosy future’ was within the nation’s reach, it was not an assured outcome.

Manmohan Singh, who is regarded as the architect of India’s economic reforms for having initiated them as finance minister between 1991 and 1996, said the reforms programme had courted controversy in the early years but all regimes at the centre had carried them forward.

‘There have been differences of emphasis but the direction has remained the same. Most state governments have also acted in the same spirit.

‘Because of our gradualist approach, it took time for the economic reforms to have an impact. However, it is now clear that their impact has been remarkable.’

‘If we can continue to grow at this rate, we are well positioned to be the country with the third largest GDP in the world by 2025.’

He referred to the nine percent growth target fixed for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), and said: ‘Since we have already achieved about 8.2 percent in the 11th plan period, it may seem that a transition to 9 percent growth is not difficult.’

Singh added, ‘However, it is in fact a very ambitious target given the current global economic situation, which is full of uncertainties about the prospects in industrialised countries and their implications for global capital markets.’

Tags: capital markets, GDP, Indian Institute of Management

London is burning for the first time in three decades and the thick plumes of smoke rose across the London skyline, from the northeast and south, for the third night running.

The small crowds of very young men and women, of every skin color, typically dressed in almost identical hooded sweatshirts, were on the main streets of the mainly poor neighborhoods along the northeastern, southern, and western boundaries of the city.

From Theglobeandmail.com:

The violence spread Monday night outside London, with serious eruptions of violence in Birmingham and Liverpool, but the scale of events in the British capital was unprecedented, and utterly overwhelmed the city’s 32,000 police. Almost exactly a year before the city plays host to the Olympic Games, the conflagration has raised dark fears for the city’s security.

Police called in hundreds of reinforcements and volunteer police officers— and made a rare decision to deploy armoured vehicles in some of the worst-hit districts — but still struggled to keep pace with the chaos unfolding at flashpoints across London, in the central city of Birmingham, the western city of Bristol and the northwestern city of Liverpool.

The youth brigade (young men and women) engaged in running skirmishes with police, looting hundreds of shops, setting dozens of buildings and houses ablaze.

Tags: Olympic Games, young men, youth brigade

In this YouTube video on positive attitude, you can access insights on the role of a positive mental attitude. The video on positive personality will help you grow as an individual and develop attractive social personality by helping you create and attract more positive experiences into your life.

Tags: positive attitude, positive mental attitude, social personality, YouTube video

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded America’s top notch credit rating to strip the world’s largest economy of its prized AAA status.

‘We have lowered our long-term sovereign credit rating on the United States of America to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA,” S&P said.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

In July, S&P, one of the three major agencies that assign grades the credit of companies and governments, placed the US rating on ‘CreditWatch with negative implications’ as the debt ceiling debate devolved into partisan bickering.

To avoid a downgrade, S&P said the US needed to not only raise the debt ceiling, but also develop a ‘credible’ plan to reduce the federal debt by at least $4 trillion over the next decade.

Earlier this week, Congress instead passed a plan to reduce the debt by at least $2.1 trillion.

In its report Friday, S&P ruled that the US fell short: ‘The downgrade reflects our opinion that the … plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilise the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.’

S&P also cited dysfunctional policymaking in Washington as a factor in the downgrade. ‘The effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.’

This is the first such blow for the US economy that has enjoyed the top rating for 70 years, and its political leadership.

Tags: credit rating, rating agency, S&P