BUSINESS BRIEFS
Return expected from rescue fund
Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Taxpayers will get money back from the government program providing up to $250 billion in capital to banks around the country, a Treasury Department official said yesterday.
Neel Kashkari, the director of Treasury's Office of Financial Stability, which oversees the $700 billion financial rescue fund, said the government is investing in "very high quality institutions of all sizes."
The Treasury Department has received preferred stock and warrants to buy additional shares in return for the $150 billion it has invested so far in 52 banks, including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc.
Kashkari also defended the capital injection program and Treasury's operation of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
OIL PRICES FALL AS CRISIS DEEPENS
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oil prices hit four-year lows yesterday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.
The worst jobs data in 34 years yesterday just added more fuel to the deepening global recession as U.S. employers slashed a far worse-than-expected 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to a 15-year high of 6.7 percent.
A gallon of gasoline can be had for 50 cents less than it cost just last month, and people are starting to talk about $1 gas.
MERRILL LYNCH TAKEOVER GETS OK
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Shareholders of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bank of America Corp.yesterday approved the investment bank's sale to Bank of America, a move that will create the nation's largest financial-services firm.
During a special shareholders meeting at company headquarters in New York, Merrill shareholders approved the sale of the company, bringing to an end the independence of an investment bank founded in 1914.
Bank of America shareholders approved the deal later in the day.
CONSUMERS CUT THEIR BORROWING
WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers unexpectedly cut back on their borrowing in October as the economy sunk deeper into recession.
The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that consumer credit fell at an annual rate of 1.6 percent in October.
That compared with a 3.1 percent growth rate logged in September, and marked the deepest cutback since August.
Economists expected consumers to boost their borrowing by around $2 billion in October from the previous month. Instead, consumer debt dropped by $3.5 billion to $2.58 trillion.
The Fed's measure of consumer borrowing does not include any debt secured by real estate, such as mortgage or home equity loans.
