Dialing it back: Federal Reserve officials have moved to prevent the central bank from bailing out failing companies, a power it exercised during the 2008 financial crisis. The Associated Press reports Fed governors voted 5-0 this morning to downsize the Fed’s emergency lending powers. Only broad lending programs designed to revive frozen markets—not loans to individual firms—will be allowed. The Fed spent about $2 trillion on such a program to ease a credit crunch during the financial meltdown, aiming to spark lending to consumers and small businesses. The 2010 law enacted by Congress overhauling financial regulation required the Fed to impose the restraints.
Bah humbug: More American companies are saying they just don’t do holiday parties anymore. According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual survey about end-of-the-year office parties, 30% of human resource professionals said their companies do not usually have year-end parties for all employees. That’s the largest percentage recorded since the organization started doing the survey in 2009. This year, only 6% of the managers surveyed said their company had cut back on the office party due to financial challenges, compared with 9% in 2013 and 20% in 2010 and 2009 amid the recession (there was no survey in 2014). The Washington Post has the full story.
By the numbers: The cost of 10 lords a-leaping increased 3% over last year, but nine of the other 12 gifts listed in the carol The Twelve Days of Christmas stayed the same price as last year, according to the 32nd annual PNC Wealth Management Christmas Price Index released this morning. The index is a whimsical way the Pittsburgh-based bank tracks inflation. The set of gifts spelled out in the final verse of the song would cost $34,131 this year, or 0.6% more than the adjusted 2014 price of $33,933. PNC decided to adjust the historic prices of turtle doves and swans after realizing the prices quoted by vendors didn’t reflect the birds’ overall value on the open market over the years. The Associated Press has the full story.
