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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – From 2000 to 2010, the median income in the United States fell 7 percent after adjusting for inflation, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.

The decline marks the worst 10-year performance on record, dating back to 1967. And what’s worse is that according to economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey, income will not catch up before 2021.

Census Bureau data also revealed that a college degree doesn’t hold the clout and earnings power it once had. Only advanced degree holders managed to eck out record earnings increases over the past decade.

High unemployment and sluggish economic growth are both having an impact on American wages. Improvement looks a way off.

According to forecasts, the jobless rate, currently at 9.1 percent is only expected to decline to 8.2 percent by the end of 2013, a decline of less than one percentage point over more than two years.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – United States industry leaders have welcomed words of encouragement from Republican congressional leaders that have given new hope for implementation of proposed U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs) with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Applauding the submission of the pending trio agreements by President Barack Obama to Congress for a vote, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue said, “America is finally getting back in the game,” adding, “these agreements are about creating jobs and ensuring a level playing field for trade.”

After the President forwarded the proposed pacts Monday night, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “Submission of these long-delayed deals is welcome news to those Americans looking for work and to job creators who have waited too long for fair access to these foreign markets.”

Announcing his support, McConnell said, “I have long supported these three deals, which were originally negotiated during the last administration, and look forward to passing them through the Senate in short order.”

House Speaker Republican Rep. John Boehner also called the trade pacts top priority for the House. “We will quickly begin the required process to consider these bills and intend to vote on them consecutively,” he assured.

With the top Republicans throwing their support behind the trade pacts, U.S. workers can heave a sigh of relief that they will compete on equal terms in global markets as Donohue noted, “America’s long timeout on trade has been creating jobs — in other countries.”

Citing a U.S. Chamber study warning that delays on the pending trade agreements have put 380,000 American jobs at risk, Donohue said, “While other nations clinch their own trade deals, American workers have been left to compete with one hand tied behind their backs.”

The European Union, the biggest global trade bloc across the Atlantic, implemented its FTA with Korea on July 1 while Canada has had its FTA with Colombia running since Aug.15.

According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with the implementation of the EU-Korea FTA, Korea eliminated tariffs on more than 90 percent of EU goods, leading to increased sales and market share for European companies while the U.S.’s market share has declined.

The delay in approving the trade pact with Colombia accounted for U.S. farmers losing more than $1 billion in sales, the Chamber claimed.

With U.S. unemployment hovering above 9 percent, Obama called for rapid approval of the pacts. In a statement, the President said, “These agreements will support tens of thousands of jobs across the country for workers making products stamped with three proud words: Made in America.”

With the passage of the three trade pacts, there would be immediate elimination of tariffs on most U.S. exports to the three countries. Colombia currently collects $100 in tariffs on U.S. exports for every $1 the United States levies on Colombian goods. A similar lopsidedness holds back U.S. exports to South Korea and Panama, according to the Chamber data.

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NYC, NY, United States (AHN) – In a week that was volatile and turbulent for equities, mortgage rates appeared to be the one dull spot.

According to mortgage giant Freddie Mac, mortgage rates were largely unchanged over the past week.

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 4.09 percent for the week ending Thursday, unchanged from the prior week, and down 4.37 percent from a year earlier

Rates on 15-year fixed rate mortgages averaged 3.29 percent, down 3.82 percent from last year.

Global markets plunged during the week and U.S. equities also tumbled. In early afternoon trading on Friday, markets were choppy off about 22 points.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The chance the Greece will default on its debts within the next five years has soared to 98 percent as Prime Minister George Papandreou failed to reassure the world that his country can survive the euro-region debt crisis.

Fears of a Greek default sent stock markets tumbling all across the globe. Worries have mounted that Greece’s trouble may be contagious and that other European countries are poised for a similar fate. Eyes are carefully focused on Italy and Portugal for any signs of imminent financial dangers.

Greece’s government expects the country’s economy to shrink more than 5 percent in 2011, more than the 3.8 percent previously predicted by the European Commission.

The risk of contagion beyond Greece pushed credit default swaps on Portugal, Italy and France to records. The euro fell to its lowest point against the Japanese yen since 2001. The U.S. dollar strengthened, but American equities fell in sympathy.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Some 31.5 million Americans are expected to travel more than 50 miles from home over Labor Day weekend, a 2.4 percent decline from 2010, according to AAA.

High gasoline prices, high hotel room rates and high unemployment have many Americans simply say “hi” to local beaches, local parks and their own backyard.

The national average for gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon on Wednesday, a dollar more than last year. Domestic airfares are 9 percent higher this year than in 2010, averaging $320 round-trip, according to Travelocity. AAA estimated the number of leisure travelers flying this holiday weekend will drop 1.9 percent to about 2.5 million.

Flights were stalled and canceled earlier this week due to Hurricane Irene, which caused a backlog of passengers that still need to be booked .

Travelocity also reported that some hotel and room rates have come down as the weekend approaches. Bookings show that many are reluctant to leave home, so some last minute plans are still possible as bargains become available.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – The United States stock market moved up mid-day Wednesday, recouping from the 2011 slump of the Dow Jones Industrial Average as investors see a stabilizing economy as indicated by new economic data released by the government.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was up 1 percent as of 12:34 p.m. The Dow climbed 0.8 percent to 11,655.01, recovering from a year-to-date loss at a swelling 7.4 percent three weeks ago. Stocks were up as the government reported growth in factory orders that outdid projections.

The S&P 500 peaked on Day 4, sustaining its rally that began Aug. 8 to almost 9 percent. The index rolled 18 percent between April 29 and Aug. 8 over issues that the economy was waning. S&P was about 5.4 percent in August, the index’s highest in more than a year.

Protracted growth has bolstered concerns over the relative safety of government debt, even after Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on Aug. 5.

The Commerce Department reported that orders placed with U.S. factories grew in July by the largest percentage in the last four months, fueled by demand for motor vehicles and aircraft. The 2.4 percent surge was above the median projection of economists. Vehicle orders increased last month by the most in the last eight years.

Analysts expressed confidence in recent economic indicators remaining in positive territory, downplaying speculation that the economy will have another round of recession.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Steve Jobs’ resignation as Apple CEO, speculation on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s upcoming economic stimulus plan and rising claims for jobless benefits has weakened the United States stock market during Thursday morning’s trade.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 54 points, or 0.5 percent, at 11,266. The S&P 500 was down by 4 points, or 0.3 percent, at 1174, while the Nasdaq was minus 17 points, or 0.7 percent, at 2451.

Apple shares dropped 4.7 percent in pre-market trading. The world’s most valuable technology company makes up 3.2 percent of the S&P 500, 9.3 percent of the Nasdaq Composite Index and 15 percent of the Nasdaq 100. Halfway through the morning, Apple shares were losing 2 percent at $368.53, while rivals Google and IBM were gaining 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will succeed the cancer-stricken Jobs, who will become Apple chairman.

TiVo shares were up 13.1 percent to $9.18; Applied Materials dropped 2.7 percent to $11.05; while Diageo improved 3.7 percent to $76.46.

Investors are awaiting Bernanke’s announcement on new policies to pump up the world’s largest economy. He will speak in Jackson Hole, WY, on Friday.

Also impacting the market is a Labor Department report saying that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits increased by 5,000 to 417,000 claims as of August 20. This was the first time that claims rose unexpectedly compared with last week’s 412,000. The increase downplayed forecasts of a decrease of 8,000, to 400,000 claims.

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Washingtong, DC, United States (AHN) – Bank-owned house sales remained high during the second quarter of the year with homes in some stage of the foreclosure process, including short sales, rising to 31 percent of sales compared to 24 percent a year earlier.

However, that number was down from the 36 percent share during the first quarter of this year, according to market research by the online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac.

The average sales price of homes in foreclosure or bank-owned was $164,217, which was 32 percent lower than that of homes not in foreclosure. That figure is down by slightly less than 1 percent from the first quarter but a decrease of nearly 5 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, put the situation into perspective.

“With average prices on distressed real estate trending down and average discounts trending up, this report is clearly good news for well-positioned buyers and investors looking for bargain real estate that will build them wealth in the long term and often cash flow as rental real estate in the short term,” Saccacio said in a statement. “Maybe less evident, however, is the good news in this report for distressed homeowners looking to sell, and even lenders saddled with large portfolios of delinquent loans.”

“The jump in pre-foreclosure sales volume coupled with bigger discounts on pre-foreclosures and a shorter average time to sell pre-foreclosures all point to a housing market that is starting to focus on more efficiently clearing distressed inventory through more streamlined short sales — at least in some areas.”

“This gives distressed homeowners who do not qualify for loan modification or refinancing — or who are not interested in those options and want to sell — a better chance of completing a short sale to avoid foreclosure. Streamlined short sales also give lenders the opportunity to more pre-emptively purge non-performing loans from their portfolios and avoid the long, costly and increasingly messy process of foreclosure and the subsequent sale of an REO — which may end up selling for a lower price than it would have as a pre-foreclosure short sale and in the meantime further stresses already overloaded REO departments,” Saccacio said.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Economists said that the chances of the U.S. entering into recession had grown higher. In a survey, the economists said the chances of a recession increased to 30 percent, which is twice as high compared to their forecast three months ago.

Even if the U.S. would avoid a recession, the economists said economic growth rate is expected to crawl at 2.5 percent, down from their April prediction of 3.1 percent. To reduce unemployment, the U.S. needs to register a minimum of 3 percent growth rate.

With these figures, they said that the joblessness rate would likely go down to a mere 8.8 percent next year from the current 9.1 percent. Their estimate is less rosy compared to their April forecast that unemployment would go down to 8.2 percent by middle of next year.

A quarter ago, prior to the U.S. credit ratings downgrade by Standard & Poor’s, economists forecast a strong recovery for the country for the last six months of 2011. They based their positive outlook on declining gasoline prices.

Outside the U.S., Morgan Stanley predicted a relatively low risk of a global recession. Jonathan Garner, chief Asian and emerging market strategist of Morgan Stanley, explained the low risk assessment to resilient commodities, central bank policies in developed nations and slowing inflation in emerging economies.

Because of the emerging markets offering better opportunities than those in developed economies, Morgan Stanley advised investors to shift their funds into developing market stocks.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The national unemployment rate for the month of July remained little unchanged at 9.1 while total nonfarm payroll employment rose by a modest 117,000, according to the monthly report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Although the 117,000 jobs created during July was slightly better than anticipated, it was still not enough to keep up with growth in the number of working-age Americans, let alone make a dent in the unemployment figures. Economists say the nation must create from 120,000 to 200,000 jobs monthly to keep up with people entering the labor market for the first time.

In addition, the percentage of working-age Americans who held either a part- or full-time job continued its slide in July, falling to 63.9 percent from 64.2 percent in June. Moreover, about 8.4 million people were involuntarily employed part-time for economic reasons in July, including people whose hours have been cut back or who have been unable to find full-time work, or about the same numbers as in June.

The gain of 117,000 jobs came from openings in health care, retail trade, manufacturing and mining while federal, state and local governments continue to shed jobs.

Unemployment rates among major groups stood at:

• Adult men 9.0 percent
• Adult women 7.9 percent
• Teenagers 25.0 percent
• Whites 8.1 percent
• Blacks 15.9 percent
• Hispanics 11.3 percent

In addition, the number of people who were unemployed for less than 5 weeks dropped by 387,000 in July while the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and longer) remained little changed at 6.2 million. Some 44.4 percent of the unemployed are long-term.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised some figures from earlier months. It revised the total nonfarm payroll employment for May from +25,000 to +53,000 and for June revised employment from +18,000 to +46,000.

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