Team Obama Throws Cold Water on Social Security Cuts

White House Budget Director Jack Lew and Jason Furman, deputy director of President Barack Obama’s National Economic Council, both stressed this week that Social Security isn’t facing an immediate funding crisis and should be viewed separately from moves to reduce the federal deficit.

“They’ve dumped a big pot of ice cold water on any embers of Social Security reform,” said Chuck Blahous, a Social Security public trustee who headed a commission on the program empaneled by President George W. Bush.

Austerity!

U.S. Economy Grew 2.8% in Fourth Quarter

The revised increase in gross domestic product compares with a 3.2 percent estimate issued last month and a 2.6 percent gain in the third quarter, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The economy, excluding inventories, grew at a 6.7 percent pace, the most since 1998. For all of 2010, the world’s largest economy expanded 2.8 percent, the most in five years, after shrinking 2.6 percent in 2009.

U.K. Economy Shrank More Than Estimated in Fourth Quarter

Feb. 25 -- Britain’s economy shrank more than initially estimated in the fourth quarter, complicating the task of the Bank of England as a split deepens among policy makers on whether to withdraw stimulus. Gross domestic product fell 0.6 percent from the previous three months, compared with an initial estimate for a 0.5 percent drop, the Office for National Statistics said

Revenues Rise Most in 5 Years

Total revenue for S&P 500 companies may rise 7.5 percent this year, the most since 2006, to an all-time high of $1,017.44 a share, according to analyst estimates compiled through Feb. 6 by Bloomberg. Sales fell 13 percent between November 2008 and October 2009 as the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s forced businesses and consumers to cut back on spending.