Page 11 - 201012 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Decemmber 2010

2010 In Review 2010 in review: Year of BP kills 11 workers and sends crude oil gushing 1930s. The law targets the risky banking into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill devastates the practices and lax oversight that led to the 2008 job shortages humbles fishing and tourism industries along the Gulf financial crisis. The law creates an agency to Americans Coast and causes environmental damage that protect consumers from predatory loans and other abuses, empowers regulators to shut down may last for decades. BP sets up a $20 billion fund to compensate fishermen, restaurateurs big firms that threaten the entire system and Oil spill and China's economic and others whose livelihoods were damaged. shines more light into markets that have eluded oversight. Republican critics say the law goes The oil giant still faces civil charges, a rise also among top stories criminal investigation by the Justice too far, imposing burdensome rules that will Department and lawsuits from hundreds of restrict lending to consumers and small The Associates Press individuals and businesses. BP's stock market businesses. value shrinks by more than $100 billion after In 2010, the economy rebounded fitfully from the April 20 disaster before bouncing about 8. European bailouts: Greece and the Great Recession — starting strong, halfway back. Ireland require emergency bailouts, raising wobbling at midyear but showing enough vigor fears that debt problems will spread and by year's end to quell fears of a second 3. China's rise: China passes Japan as destabilize global markets. European recession. Yet Americans hardly felt relief under the world's second-biggest economy. The World governments and the International Monetary the weight of high unemployment, which began Bank said it could surpass the United States by Fund agree to a $145 billion rescue of Greece in the year at 9.7 percent and is now 9.8 percent. 2020. China's gross domestic product is spread May and a $90 billion bailout of Ireland in An oil spill devastated the economy and out over 1.3 billion people — amounting to November. The bailouts require both countries environment along the Gulf Coast and about $3,600 per person. That compares with to slash spending, triggering protests by hammered energy giant BP's stock price and GDP in the U.S. of about $42,000 per person. In workers. Investors fear that debt troubles will reputation. Japan, it's about $38,000 per person. China's spread to Spain, Portugal and other countries, China muscled past Japan to become the thirst for raw materials and other products helps weaken the European Union and threaten the world's No. 2 economy, a reminder that the the rest of the world recover from the recession. future of the euro as its common currency. global economic order is shifting and America's Still, the U.S. and Europe complain that China supremacy is diminishing. gives its exporters an unfair competitive edge 9. 500 million facebook users: Facebook It was a year of job shortages and by keeping its currency artificially low. tops the 500-million-user mark. It expands its swollen budget deficits that disheartened dominance of social media and further Americans and caused deep losses for 4. Real estate crisis: Housing remains transforms how the world communicates. If it incumbent Democrats on Election Day. The depressed despite super-low mortgage rates. were a country, Facebook would be the world's Federal Reserve tried with scant success to jolt The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage third-largest. Facebook tightens its privacy the economy with record-low interest rates. dips to 4.17 percent in November, the lowest in settings after criticism that personal information The struggling economy was voted the decades. But, home sales and prices sink is being disseminated without users' knowledge top business story of the year by U.S. further. Nearly one in four homeowners owe or permission. Founder Mark Zuckerberg is newspaper editors surveyed by The Associated more on their mortgages than their homes are named Time magazine's "Person of the Year" Press. The oil spill in the Gulf came in second, worth, making it all but impossible for them to and is the subject of a high-profile movie about followed by China's economic rise. sell their home and buy another. Facebook's creation. An estimated 1 million households lose 1. Economy struggles: Climbing out of their homes to foreclosure, even though the 10. iPad mania: Apple Inc. unveils the the deepest recession since the 1930s, the pace slows after evidence that lenders iPad, bringing "tablet" computing into the economy grows at a healthy rate in the January- mishandled foreclosure documents. Some did mainstream and eroding laptop sales. Apple is March quarter. Still, the gain comes mainly so by hiring "robo-signers" to sign paperwork expected to sell more than 13 million iPads this from companies refilling stockpiles they had let without checking their accuracy. year. The iPads sell about twice as fast as shrink during the recession. The economy can't iPhones did after their 2007 introduction. The sustain the pace. The lingering effects of the 5. Toyota's recall: Toyota's reputation for price of Apple stock rockets more than 50 recession slow growth. making high-quality cars is tarnished after the percent in 2010. Competitors scramble to try to The benefits of an $814 billion Japanese automaker recalls 10 million vehicles catch up. They include the Dell Streak, government stimulus program fade. Consumers for sudden acceleration and other problems. BlackBerry PlayBook, the Samsung Galaxy Tag cut spending in favor of building savings and Toyota faces hundreds of lawsuits alleging that and HP Slate. [] slashing debt. Businesses hesitate to hire. Cities some models can speed up suddenly, causing and states lay off workers. Growth slows crashes, injuries and deaths. Toyota blames through spring and summer. driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky Unemployment stays chronically high. accelerator pedals for the unintended In May, the number of people unemployed for at acceleration. The uproar damages its business. least six months hits 6.8 million — a record 46 Toyota's U.S. sales rise just 0.2 percent through percent of all the unemployed. November in a year when the industry's overall Pointing to the deficits, Congress resists sales climb more than 11 percent. backing more spending to stimulate the economy. The Federal Reserve seeks to fill the 6. GM'S comeback: General Motors void by announcing it will buy $600 billion in stock begins trading again. It signals the rebirth Treasury bonds to try to further lower interest of a corporate icon that fell into bankruptcy and rates, lift stocks and coax consumers to spend. required a $50 billion bailout from taxpayers. As the year closes, the economy makes GM uses some proceeds from its November broad gains. Factories produce more. initial public offering to repay a portion of its Consumers — the backbone of the economy — bailout. (Washington still holds about a third of return to the malls. Congress passes $858 GM's stock.) GM's recovery helps rejuvenate billion in tax cuts and aid to the long-term the industry. Sales of cars and light trucks rise unemployed. Yet more than 15 million 11 percent through November compared with Americans are still unemployed. Economists the same period in 2009. Shoppers who had put say a full economic recovery remains years off replacing their old cars return to showrooms. away. 7. Financial overhaul: Congress passes 2. Gulf oil spill: An explosion at a rig used by the biggest rewrite of financial rules since the