Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted speaking to President Barack Obama about his future and that he feels no personal responsibility to stay at the helm until the Fed winds down its unprecedented policies to stimulate the US economy.
Hiring in the US has gathered momentum after government figures showed that the economy created 236.000 jobs in February. The figure was much higher than analysts had expected, and more than the 157,000 jobs created in January.
World stock markets and southern European government bonds sank on Tuesday on fears that political stalemate in Italy would leave its economic reforms in tatters and reignite the Euro zone's broader debt crisis.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged US lawmakers to lift the country's borrowing limit to avoid a potentially disastrous debt default, warning that the economy was still at risk from political gridlock over the deficit.
US consumers prices fell in November due to a sharp drop in petrol prices, according to official figures, as inflation in the economy remained weak. The consumer price index fell 0.3% from October, the first decline since May, the US Labour Department said.
The US Federal Reserve has said it plans to keep interest rates at close to zero at least until the US unemployment rate falls below 6.5%. The Fed previously had a date-driven target, rather than a data-driven one.
Standard Chartered will pay more than 300 million dollars to settle charges it violated US sanctions on Iran, Burma, Libya and Sudan. The UK-based bank has been fined 100m by the Federal Reserve and the Department of Justice seized assets worth 227m, the regulators said.
In its last meeting before the November 6 presidential election, the Federal Reserve confirmed its current fresh-money support program for the recovery of the US economy arguing that growth continues slowly and unemployment rate remains elevated.
Brazil’s central bank president Alexandre Tombini refuted on Monday arguments that the US expansionist monetary policy do not harm emerging countries such as Brazil.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the central bank's measures to bolster the US economy. Brazil has said US monetary easing to keep interest rates low and weaken the dollar has hurt emerging economies. And IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned on Sunday of consequent asset bubbles developing in emerging nations.