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A shopper browses the bread section at a Wal-Mart store in Santa Clarita, California April 1, 2008. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The food-stamp economy

On the last day of every month, shoppers at Walmart load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. Is this the new normal in America?  Full Article 

White House aide: 2nd stimulus is wrong approach

WASHINGTON
Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:27pm EDT
Edward Lazear, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson talk before President Bush's arrival to speak about the economy at the White House, October 11, 2006. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House economic advisor Edward Lazear on Thursday was cool toward the idea of a new government spending package to boost the U.S. economy, which contracted between July and October.

U.S.

"We don't believe that's the right way to go," Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, told a briefing.

A $700 billion rescue package for financial institutions enacted October 3 "is the appropriate stimulus right now," because it is aimed at stabilizing chaotic credit markets, a root cause of current economic difficulties, he said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal; Editing by James Dalgleish)



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