Monday, February 22, 2010

Quick Notes for the Day - February 22

Obama Pushes a New Health Care Plan - On Thursday, President Obama plans to meet with Congressional leaders from both sides for a health care "summit" to tackle the problem. Obama put forward his own plan on Monday, and he has challenged Republicans to do the same prior to the meeting Thursday.

"We view this as the opening bid for the health meeting," said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, on Monday morning.

Obama Offers Plan to Revive Healthcare Push - Reuters - "President Barack Obama tried to rejuvenate his stalled healthcare overhaul on Monday with a revised plan to make insurance coverage more affordable and bolster federal authority to regulate premium hikes."

National Activity Index Rises - Chicago Fed - The Chicago Federal Reserve said Monday that the National Activity Index (NAI) turned positive in January to 0.02 versus -0.58 in December. According to economists, the data indicated that the economy was in the best shape since May 2007. The bank said 55 of the 85 indicators in the NAI made positive contributions in January, 19 more than the prior month.

The three-month moving average continued to point to an "early-stage" recovery with "subdued" inflationary pressure, up to -0.16 from -0.47 in December. It marked the second straight month that the average climbed above a statistical milestone of -0.70 that has corresponded with the end of recession during four previous downturns.

No comments: