Markets Calmer, Says Treasury Secretary

Paulson Predicts Economic Rebound In Second Half Of Year

(AP)  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that financial markets are "considerably calmer" now than they were two months ago. He predicted the economy will be rebounding by the second half of this year.

In a speech to business executives in Washington, Paulson said the drag from housing, which he characterized as still the biggest risk to the economy, will soon be lessened by nearly $100 billion in economic stimulus payments to U.S. households.

"The fiscal stimulus will provide support to the economy as we weather the housing correction, capital markets turmoil and higher energy and food prices," Paulson said in his prepared remarks.

The economy has been pushed to the brink of a recession by a prolonged housing slump, a credit crisis, soaring energy prices and more than a quarter-million job layoffs over the past four months.

In his remarks, Paulson never used the word recession, although many private economists believe the country is in one.

But he did forecast that the stimulus checks going to 130 million households would help spur growth in the second half of the year. He said that those checks along with business tax breaks in the $168 billion stimulus package would add 500,000 jobs by the end of the year over what would have been created without the stimulus boost.

"Although we are still working through housing and capital markets issues, and expect to be doing so for some time, we also expect to see a faster pace of economic growth before the end of the year," he said.

Paulson said that both the ability to obtain loans and investor confidence are gradually improving, raising hopes that the financial market crisis which hit last August was beginning to recede.

"We are seeing signs of progress as capital markets and credit markets stabilize," Paulson said. "The markets are considerably calmer now than they were in March."

In March, the credit crisis claimed its biggest victim with the near-collapse of Bear Stearns, the country's fifth largest investment bank.

Paulson said "some bumps in the road ahead" are to be expected, but that he believes significant progress in dealing with the credit crisis has been made.

"In my judgment, we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning," he said. "Looking forward, I expect that financial markets will be driven less by the recent turmoil and more by broader economic conditions and, specifically, by the recovery of the housing sector."

[forthepeopl1]

hey mr. potatohead, paulson. f-you you f-ing ***, and commie for china, fixing your freinds on wall-street,what a f-ing joke you are. with your shakeing hands.

let me see, oh ya- so who speculated more, wallstreet with billions of mortgages selling them to investors for more billions on false appraisels????? or someone like myself that was told 6 years ago the home i was bying for 280,000,and was appraised by three indpendent appraisel companys by all banks fighting to get my 830 becan score by the way, and they all came up with the same number 475000 to 500,000 so they said great buy, we thought to. and my rate by the way is fix at 3.75 for 30 years, beat that, but now we have to help my father-inlaw after loseing his wife for 50 yrs, he didn''''t want to move in with us so we move in with him. now we have been trying to sell our home for the past 2 1/2 yrs, starting at 399,000,
now we are down to 299,000 and droping 20000 a week started this week, we owe 275000, and the appraisel has come back from 3 more appraiser for 125000 to 150000 in good times..so even us good americans are getting f/u/c/k/, i told them to just sell the home for what they can get, and our mortgage company will take the hit, i have ask them to re-fi the house for what its really worth, but they said f-you,so i will let them get f/u/c/k/. and i have never mist a payment, what a joke, this congress is, banks wont to help..right, show me one..

[forthepeopl1]

so how about some help for us americans, you f-ing f/a/g/ potatohead looking scum-bag

[forthepeopl1]

EXPLAIN THIS MR.POTATOHEAD PAULSON

let me see, oh ya- so who speculated more, wallstreet with billions of mortgages selling them to investors for more billions on false appraisels????? or someone like myself that was told 6 years ago the home i was bying for 280,000,and was appraised by three indpendent appraisel companys by all banks fighting to get my 830 becan score by the way, and they all came up with the same number 475000 to 500,000 so they said great buy, we thought to. and my rate by the way is fix at 3.75 for 30 years, beat that, but now we have to help my father-inlaw after loseing his wife for 50 yrs, he didn''''t want to move in with us so we move in with him. now we have been trying to sell our home for the past 2 1/2 yrs, starting at 399,000,
now we are down to 299,000 and droping 20000 a week started this week, we owe 275000, and the appraisel has come back from 3 more appraiser for 125000 to 150000 in good times..so even us good americans are getting f/u/c/k/, i told them to just sell the home for what they can get, and our mortgage company will take the hit, i have ask them to re-fi the house for what its really worth, but they said f-you,so i will let them get f/u/c/k/. and i have never mist a payment, what a joke, this congress is, banks wont to help..right, show me one..

[forthepeopl1]

GUESS WHO IS GETTING THAT HOUSE BACK..WALLSTREET PAULSON YOUR BODDIES, AND LETS SEE THEM SELL IT FOR WHAT IS OWED.

HA HA HA HA HA HAH AHAHAHA A AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

[cyberus-2009]

People are going broke, losing houses, and being put out on the street every day.

BUT THE MARKETS ARE STABLE! RICH PEOPLE AREN''T LOSING MONEY!!

Typical Bush administration focus

[johnshaft4]

This is his brain on drugs.

[ubrew12]

We have a $10 trillion Reagan/Bush debt, just 5 years from the first of the Baby Boomer retirements. That''s why int''l financiers are dumping dollars, driving oil and food prices upward (yes, believe it or not, OUR food prices are set abroad). They know the country is functionally bankrupt and increasingly likely to default on its many loans, causing its stock market to crash and go the way of its housing market.

Paulson can say whatever he wants. BushCo just wants the market to remain stable until the Democrats take over next year, then they''ll ''let her rip''. They''ll be able to blame the resulting depression on Democrats for the next 30 years.

This was all planned long ago. Americans are dupes. ''Hey, watch out for Al-Qaida and the ***!!!'' Ha Ha. Morons...

[sjc_1]

U.S. stock markets are sick and drifting sideways. The volume of shares traded has been way down, which signals that things are NOT so wonderful. In the 1987 stock market crash, there were all sellers, no buyers and no trading volume. Stay tuned for Crash II.