FEDERAL RESERVE

Asian stock markets mostly ended higher on Thursday as higher growth forecast for the U.S economy from the Federal Reserve and solid earnings reports buoyed sentiment.

Visa and banks will press lawmakers on Thursday for relief from a proposed slashing of debit card processing fees, an issue that has attracted bipartisan support for softening the impact of part of the Dodd-Frank financial law.

U.S. Stocks climbed on Wednesday, supported by some solid earnings reports and a number or M&A deal-making, as the Dow and S&P 500 reached 31-month highs.

Structural economic changes have likely pushed up the 'natural' rate of U.S. unemployment to about 6.7 percent, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said on Monday. That's much higher than the 5 percent level that has been the historic norm, the researchers said in the latest edition of the San Francisco Fed's Economic Letter.

John Steinbeck's masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath stands as a chronicle of the Great Depression and as a commentary on the economic and social system that gave rise to it. His themes of man's inhumanity to man, the dignity and rage of the working class, and the selfishness and greed of the moneyed class ring true today.

The U.S. labor market still is in a deep rut despite a recent drop in the unemployment rate, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto said on Tuesday. Unemployment rates have decline a bit recently, but job creation remains anemic, as businesses have been cautious in expanding their payrolls, Pianalto said in remarks to the Summa Hospitals Women's Board.

A gauge of manufacturing in New York State climbed in February to its highest level in eight months, helped by a rise in inventories, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Tuesday.

The debts assumed by the Western democracies will overwhelm their economies and lead to the end of our current Dollar-denominated, global currency regime. This has profound implications for Americans' standard of living and our empire's role in the world.

The U.S. economy is heading in the right direction and will pick up steam over the next two years, but high unemployment and low inflation still paint an unsatisfactory picture, New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley said on Monday.

Many U.S. consumers have no choice and are held captive to home mortgage-related companies that are often aggressively fast, commit errors in paperwork and refuse to answer questions, and whose continuing problems are holding back the country's economic recovery, a top U.S. regulator said on Friday.

A top Federal Reserve official said on Friday he believes the U.S. economy is no longer at risk of slipping into a damaging deflationary spiral but that it would be unwise for the Fed to suddenly shift course.

A top Federal Reserve official on Friday warned mortgage servicing industry executives they could face enforcement actions and that they shoulder some of the blame for a sluggish economic recovery.

A recession is the decline of a nation's gross domestic product (GDP) over two or more consecutive quarters. It is also referred to as a period of economic decline and reduced economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way. GDP, employment, investment spending, capacity utilization, household incomes; business profits and inflation all fall, while bankruptcies and the unemployment rate rise. Here is a list of recessions that occurred since the Great ...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other top U.S. regulators will appear before the Senate Banking Committee next week to discuss the implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, the committee announced on Thursday.

New applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a 2-1/2-year low last week, pointing to a stronger footing for the labor market as the economic recovery gathers momentum. The fall in claims reported by the Labor Department on Thursday partly reflected the unwinding of a weather-related spike in late January but analysts said it was consistent with other indicators suggesting a strengthening labor market.

Five new Republican faces for a possible run for the U.S. presidency in 2012 are in this year's straw poll of thousands of conservative activists who have made their annual trek to Washington this week.

The U.S. government should only back home loans as a last resort in times of economic stress and should explicitly charge for that support, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday.

The U.S. economy may not need further help from the Federal Reserve when its $600 billion stimulus plan runs out in June, but that decision will hinge on the path of the economy, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's recent bond purchases have had a helpful effect on financial conditions, with the rise in long-term interest rates largely due to economic optimism, a senior Fed official said on Wednesday.

Economists took their turns encouraging and attacking the policies of money supply managers of the U.S. Federal Reserve System on Wednesday, as the nation faces 9 percent unemployment, slow economic growth and rising federal debt and deficits.

Gold was little changed on Wednesday as the market was underpinned by a dollar drop and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's comment that he had no plans to scrap a massive bond-buying program, indicating interest rates will not rise any time soon.