NATION

NATION
Greenspan: Deficits risky
WASHINGTON -- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Thursday that future budget deficits pose a bigger risk to the economy than record trade imbalances and the country's extremely low savings rate.
In a wide-ranging speech, Greenspan said he believed the United States' flexible economy would be able to deal with current concerns over trade and savings.
"The resolution of our current account deficit and household debt burdens does not strike me as overly worrisome, but that is certainly not the case for our fiscal deficit," Greenspan said in prepared remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
The Fed chief said the budget deficit is a problem because it is projected to rise significantly as a wave of baby boomers start to retire in 2008.
"Our fiscal prospects are, in my judgment, a significant obstacle to long-term stability," Greenspan said.
Greenspan has been steadily beating the drum about the urgent need for policy-makers on Capitol Hill and the White House to get the nation's fiscal house in order.
Unemployment claims up
WASHINGTON -- The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits jumped by 17,000 last week to the highest level in two months, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The increase pushed claims to 327,000, a worse-than-expected showing that was blamed in part on a surge in filings by laid off workers who were not able to get to unemployment offices the previous week, when claims offices were closed one day for the Presidents Day holiday.
The increase pushed the four-week moving average, intended to smooth out week-to-week fluctuations, to 312,500, up from 307,750 the previous week, which had been the lowest level in more than four years.
Monthly deficit climbs
WASHINGTON -- The federal government ran a record monthly deficit of $113.9 billion in February, a sizable worsening of the budget picture compared to a rare surplus recorded in January, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
However, even with the February deficit, the red ink for the first five months of the budget year is running 2.2 percent below the red ink for the same period a year ago. The total deficit from October through February this year was $223.4 billion compared with $228.5 billion for the previous period.
The Bush administration is projecting this year's federal deficit will hit an all-time high in dollar terms of $427 billion, surpassing last year's record of $412.8 billion.
From Vindicator wire reports