Left in Limbo: Businesses Affected by Obama’s Drilling Ban Won’t Get BP Claims Money
BigGovernment.com
Posted Aug 12th 2010 at 3:11 pm
by Robert Bluey
As businesses along the Gulf Coast await the expiration of President Obama’s offshore drilling moratorium, they’re faced with a new hardship: Neither BP nor the Gulf Coast Claims Facility appear willing to pay for lost income resulting from the ban.
Last week BP announced it was deferring all moratorium-related claims to Ken Feinberg, the Obama-appointed administrator of the $20 billion claims fund. That news came as a surprise to Feinberg, however. He maintains the moratorium claims are BP’s responsibility.
Initial jobless claims rising to six-month high; Update: “Unexpectedly,” says Reuters
HotAir.com
posted at 9:30 am on August 12, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
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The number of initial jobless claims hit a six-month high this week, as did the four-week rolling average, according to the new release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new data marks a high since the first quarter of the year, and comes as no surprise after the latest round of economic indicators show stagnation and malaise setting into the American economy. Even the AP can’t feign surprise any longer:
First-time claims for jobless benefits edged up by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Analysts had expected a drop. That’s the highest total since February.
Initial claims have now risen in three of the last four weeks and are close to their high point for the year of 490,000, reached in late January. The four-week average, which smooths volatility, soared by 14,250 to 473,500, also the highest since late February.
The prospects of more layoffs added to this week’s grim outlook for the economy, which began Tuesday when the Federal Reserve lowered its assessment of the recovery.
Investors were bracing for another rocky day on Wall Street. Dow Jones industrial average futures, which were down about 50 points before the report came out, fell further. They were down nearly 90 points before the market opened.
That followed a Dow fall yesterday of 265 points after Wall Street saw the much-worse-than-expected trade numbers from June. Exports and manufacturing have reversed since a brief period of growth, and the outlook for sales abroad seems pessimistic. That will have an impact on future hiring — and since most of the economic woes in the US are tied to joblessness, the outlook for overall growth is also pessimistic.
The chart below tracks initial jobless claims for the year:
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