Government Debt

Will sequestration hurt the stock and bond markets? Not this month, when the budget cuts are scheduled to take effect. What about the economy? Probably not that much either, according to prognosticators. The sequestration cuts themselves are actually quite tiny. Total federal spending in 2012 was $3.53 trillion. President Obama's budget request for 2013 was $3.59 trillion. Under sequestration, total federal spending in 2013 would be $3.55 trillion, an increase of only $25 billion, a little less than 1 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)

NEW YORK - News that IBM will buy back more stock and raise its dividend helped pull major stock indexes out of a morning slump Tuesday. IBM and other tech stocks led the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a record. The broad-market measure ended April with a 1.8 percent gain, the sixth month in a row the index has climbed higher. Worries about slower economic growth have rattled the stock market this month, but it has consistently bounced back. Brad Sorensen, director of market research at the brokerage Charles Schwab, said that's a result of investors having few alternatives.

In the Region Superior Group sells 2 businesses Superior Group Inc. , of West Conshohocken, sold two companies, Superior Tube Co. Inc. in Collegeville and Fine Tubes Ltd. in England, to the Watermill Group , a private investment company in Lexington, Mass., the buyer said. The price was not disclosed. The manufacturers' products are used in the energy, aerospace, and medical-device industries. Superior Tube employs 241, a spokeswoman for Watermill said. Fine Tubes employs about 380 people, according to its website.

MILWAUKEE - Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, sweeping primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington D.C., with time left over to swap charges with President Obama. "Four more years?" Romney asked sarcastically of the president as supporters cheered in Milwaukee. He said Obama was "a little out of touch" after spending four years surrounded by the trappings of power and had presided over near-record job losses as well as increases in poverty, home foreclosures, government debt and gasoline prices.

LONDON - The massive new bailout approved for Greece early Tuesday should rescue it from immediate bankruptcy. But can the country survive being saved? No matter how you cut it - and plenty is being cut - Greece is only at the start of a long-term retrenchment and overhaul program that will inflict yet more pain on its people, who already have seen their living standards plummet. The question, analysts say, is whether the country can come out the other side of the process with its democracy, economy, and society intact.

It hurts paying taxes no matter how much you make. But what if you are out of work and don't have the money to pay by today's April 17 deadline? Herewith we offer some tips for taxpayers who are unemployed and can't pay their taxes on time. The Internal Revenue Service has a new form for you! The IRS is trying to provide what's called "penalty relief" to unemployed taxpayers. Some who have been out of work for 30 days or longer will be able to avoid failure-to-pay penalties, according to Isdaner & Co., certified public accountants based in Bala Cynwyd.

The Federal Reserve has two goals set by Congress: "Maximum employment, and price stability," as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said Thursday. Until now, the Fed, under Bernanke and predecessor Alan Greenspan has mostly focused on keeping prices flat, setting interest rates and inflation targets to please investors so they will pump more money into the economy. But less than two months before national elections that could speed the end of his career, Bernanke announced a change: He promised to pay additional attention to "the employment situation" by spending an extra $40 billion a month to buy government-backed mortgage securities from investors and banks, pushing interest rates still lower - for as long as it takes to finally boost hiring.

Is compromise a dirty word? House Speaker John A. Boehner spoke for many politicians running for office when he declared, "I reject the word. " In the past, political leaders in the midst of election campaigns could declare their intent never to back down — and then once in office turn their attention to the give-and-take that is a necessary part of effective governance. But something has changed over the last several decades. We've entered a new era of the permanent campaign, where every day is effectively election day. Classic compromise — where all sides sacrifice something in order to improve on the status quo from their perspective — has become harder to conceive, let alone to achieve.

NEW YORK - Fear has taken over on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points, the first trading day since Standard & Poor's downgraded American debt. It was the sixth-worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst drop since December 2008. Every stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index declined Monday. But the S&P downgrade wasn't the only catalyst Monday. Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.

Despite all the drama leading up to New Year's Day, the tax deal signed Thursday by President Obama did virtually nothing to change the trajectory of the U.S. government's debt-laden finances. The deal raised some taxes, but not enough to prevent the slow starvation of federal programs to help the poor and elderly, according to advocates for such programs. By leaving spending cuts off the table for the most part, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 set up what is sure to be an ugly fight over raising the nation's debt limit by early March.