Economy

When the head of JPMorgan Chase met with shareholders to answer for a trading loss of more than $2 billion Tuesday, it was against an evolving political backdrop: Donors from big banks are betting on Mitt Romney to defeat President Obama and repeal new restraints on risky, large-scale investments. "There's no doubt that there's been a big diminution of support for the president," said William M. Daley, Obama's former chief of staff and a former top JPMorgan Chase executive. "People in the financial services sector are saying, ‘The president has been too tough on us, both in policy and on...

A study shows German consumers remain cautiously confident in Europe's largest economy despite uncertainty in the wider 17-nation eurozone. The GfK institute's forward-looking survey released Friday shows consumer confidence at 5.7 points for June, the same level as in May. The survey shows that a drop in income expectations was offset by a rise in optimism about the future and willingness to buy. GfK says "despite recessionary trends...

Last Monday, leaders from Partners HealthCare System Inc. gathered in the dark-paneled office of Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo to lay out their objections to his expansive 278-page plan to tame health care costs. The House proposal, unveiled 10 days earlier, called in part for closer oversight of the prices and operations of hospitals and their physicians groups, especially more costly ones like those owned by Partners, and influential board chairman Jack Connors requested a meeting.

Oil bounced back Thursday, a day after falling below $90 per barrel for the first time in months. Benchmark US oil rose 76 cents to $90.66 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international oil varieties, increased 99 cents to $106.55 per barrel in London. Oil has fallen about $15 per barrel since May 1 and on Wednesday dropped below $90 for the first time since Oct. 21. That attracted some bargain hunters, analysts said, despite lingering uncertainty over future demand as China's economy slows and Europe's economy remains unsettled.

Mitt Romney has long called himself a venture capitalist, experience he says helps him understand the economy better than other candidates for president. But he spent much more of his career in leveraged buyouts than in the investments in start-up companies known as venture capital. Romney's one true venture deal was Staples Inc., the office supply superstore, two years after he started Bain Capital. He wasn't the first to discover Staples; another Boston venture firm introduced him to Staples founder Tom Stemberg.

BUTTE, Montana — Some of the biggest names in business said yesterday that they see a bright future for the economy, with famed investor Warren Buffett declaring the country and world will not fall back into the grips of the recession. “I am a huge bull on this country. We are not going to have a double-dip recession at all,’’ said Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in Omaha. “I see our businesses coming back across the board.’’ Buffett said the same things that worked for the country through a century of two world wars, a depression, and more...

FOR THREE years, under presidents of both parties, the federal government has pumped trillions of borrowed dollars into stimulus, bailout, and recovery spending. The results have been woeful: Two years after the recession formally ended, the country is mired in a bleak economic lassitude from which it seems unable to rouse itself. Now the wretched news of recent weeks — feeble GDP growth, painful foreclosure rates, slipping car sales, a drop in factory orders, ever more Americans on food stamps — has grown even worse.

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said yesterday that the political battle this summer over the federal government's borrowing and spending had disrupted financial markets "and probably the economy as well. " In remarks that went well beyond his previous calls for Congress and the White House to address the nation's long-term fiscal challenges, Bernanke suggested the process itself was broken. "The country would be well served by a better process for making fiscal decisions," he said.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Admittedly wary of losing touch, President Obama returned to the comfort of backyard politics yesterday, assuring a polite gathering of middle-class neighbors that the economy is coming around “slowly but surely.’’ At the brick-and-shingle house of the Weithman family, Obama’s questioners showed no interest in the divisive midterm elections or other matters gobbling up the political debate. They wanted to know what he was doing on jobs, health care, pensions, and child care.

The Czech Statistics Office says the country remained stuck in recession as its economy suffered a sharper downturn than expected and shrank by 1.0 percent. The economy contracted for the third consecutive quarter after it was down by 0.3 percent in the 2011 fourth quarter and by 0.1 percent the previous quarter. Analysts predicted a slight growth. The office also said Tuesday the economy contracted by 1.0 percent year on year, according to preliminary figures. According to the government prediction, the economy was expected to stagnate overall this year after...

The following was submitted by the office of state Senator Katherine Clark: BOSTON — The Senate on Thursday capped a framework of nation-leading health care reforms with landmark cost-control legislation that will save the Commonwealth $150 billion in the next 15 years while improving the quality of care and increasing the transparency and accountability of the state's entire health care system. The bill passed, 35-2. According to Senator Katherine Clark (Middlesex & Essex)

Argentina's nine-year economic expansion appears to be slowing sharply, according to analysts, who predict growth of 2.5 percent to 3 percent this year, half the 5.1 percent projected by the government's 2012 budget and down sharply from last year's 8.9 percent rise. Some economists are even predicting recession before year's end, saying recently imposed currency and trade restrictions, high inflation, price controls and capital flight are making it tougher to protect Argentina from the global slowdown.

Mitt Romney remains in a virtual tie with President Obama, but Americans no longer believe he would manage the nation's economic recovery better than the incumbent, according to a national poll published Tuesday. A survey by The Washington Post and ABC News showed Obama with a slim overall lead over the presumptive Republican nominee, 49 percent to 46 percent among registered voters. The 3-point gap was within the poll's margin of error and was consistent with those of other recent polls showing the two candidates in a dead heat.

Merck & Co. CEO Kenneth Frazier told company shareholders on Tuesday that 2012 and 2013 will be difficult years, but he's confident the company can weather them. Speaking at the company's annual meeting, Frazier noted the drugmaker's top seller, asthma and allergy drug Singulair, gets U.S. generic competition soon. The Aug. 3 patent expiration will sharply reduce revenue from Singulair, which brought in $5.5 billion last year. "There's little doubt that the global economy will remain uncertain," Frazier added.

The leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union are to meet in Brussels Wednesday to try and find a way to keep the debt crisis in Europe from spiraling out of control and promote jobs and growth. On Tuesday the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that the 17 countries that use the euro risk falling into a "severe recession. " It called on governments and Europe's central bank to act quickly to keep the slowdown from dragging down the global economy.

The International Monetary Fund has issued a tough assessment of U.K. economic policy, urging the coalition government and Bank of England to do more to boost demand in the economy. The IMF's report of its latest consultation with British authorities released Tuesday called for more stimulus, either through further rounds of quantitative easing or by a further cut in the all-time low base lending rate of 0.5 percent. Since coming to power in 2010, the UK coalition government has introduced an extensive austerity program of state spending cuts and...

WASHINGTON - The economy is growing modestly, with consumers too wary about spending to invigorate the recovery. That’s the picture that emerged from reports yesterday on the economy and the confidence of consumers, who typically power about 70 percent of it. Unemployment and tight credit have sapped shoppers’ willingness and ability to spend as retailers enter their crucial holiday season. And Americans are expected to grow more cautious about spending next year. That would make for a plodding recovery.

Officials say Bulgaria's economy stagnated in the first quarter of this year, as the sovereign-debt crisis in the eurozone and government austerity measures squeezed exports and domestic demand. The National Statistics Institute reported on Tuesday a 4.6-percent drop in exports in January-March, with domestic consumption growing only by 0.4 percent compared to the previous quarter. The European Commission already revised its forecast for Bulgaria's economy, estimating it is to grow by just 0.5 percent this year, down from the previously forecast 2.3...

Brazil's finance minister is lowering the forecast for the South American country's economic growth this year, and he blames the global financial crisis. Finance Minister Guido Mantega says Brazil's gross domestic product is now expected to increase 4 percent during 2012, against a previous prediction of 4.5 percent growth. The latest weekly Brazilian Central Bank survey of private economists is forecasting even lower growth this year, putting it at 3.1 percent. Mantega says Brazil prospects have been hurt especially by Greece's debt crisis and the austerity measures introduced...

State of the Union. Topics: 2012 politics; jobs and the economy; NATO summit and Afghanistan. Guests: Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman; Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas; David Axelrod, strategist for the Obama reelection campaign; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO secretary general. 9 a.m. and noon. (CNN) Fox News Sunday. Topics: 2012 campaign; the economy. Guests: Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin; Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.