This qualifies as good news...
In today's Buffalo News Business Today section, a couple of national stories that, under today's standards, just about qualify as good news.
- GM 3rd-quarter loss drops to $1.2 billion
GM lost $1.2 billion in the third quarter — far less than the $6 billion it lost in the first three months of the year, before it was transformed by a stay in Chapter 11. The company credited a sharp reduction in debt and sales of new models.
In what it called a sign of progress, GM also pledged to start paying back $6.7 billion in U.S. loans. But the money will come from a contingency account full of government cash, leading critics to question just how healthy the automaker really is.
Progress: Losing only $1.2 billion. And paying back debt with borrowed money.
Meanwhile, reports The Detroit Free Press, GM needs a ton of state tax breaks to keep its iconic downtown Detroit HQ, The RenCen, up and running.
- Fed to watch falling dollar
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that the central bank will monitor the sliding U.S. dollar but pledged anew to keep interest rates at record lows to nurture the economic recovery.
Translation: The Fed boss knows the dollar is dropping, and that he may have to do something about it. Something that might hurt somewhere. He also knows that the really low interest rates, kept that way to stimulate growth and maybe even reduce unemployment, are encouraging the kind of investment bubble that would up killing the housing market. He may have to do something about that, too.
Folo from WSJ/Dow Jones: Bernanke's remarks help shore up dollar. But that rise is also a sign that investors are worried and see the dollar as a safe haven.
Meanwhile, great truth hides in humor:
-- George Pyle/The Buffalo News
