Economists give Obama poor grade

Economists give Obama poor grade

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama gets mediocre marks for his handling of the economy, and Mitt Romney easily outpolls his Republican rivals in an Associated Press survey of economists.

The economy — and who bears responsibility for it — is likely to be a decisive issue when voters to go the polls next November.

The economy still is struggling to recover from the Great Recession of 2007-09.

Half of the 36 economists who responded to the Dec. 14-20 AP survey rated Obama’s economic policies “fair.” And 13 called them “poor.” Just five of the economists gave the president “good” marks. None rated him as “excellent.”

The AP economists expect economic growth to pick up to 2.4 percent next year. That would be an improvement from the under-2 percent growth expected for 2011. But the economists foresee little improvement — a dip to 8.4 percent — in the unemployment rate by Election Day.

Asked which of the Republican presidential candidates would do the best job managing the economy, two-thirds of the economists named Romney, one chose former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The rest didn’t pick anyone at all.

Morgan Stanley to cut 580 jobs in NY

NEW YORK

Of the 1,600 job cuts announced earlier this month by Morgan Stanley, 580 will be at its home base in New York.

The relentless tug of the dismal economy is hitting employees in the banking sector hard, and it’s no surprise that many of the job cuts are hitting the epicenter of the financial industry. Citigroup, with its headquarters a seven-minute drive up Park Avenue from Morgan Stanley in Manhattan, said recently that it would eliminate 4,500 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its global work force of 267,000, over the next few quarters.

Afghanistan, China sign 1st oil contract

KABUL

Afghanistan’s government signed a deal Wednesday with China’s state-owned National Petroleum Corporation, allowing it to become the first foreign company to exploit the country’s oil and natural-gas reserves.

The contract, which covers the northeastern provinces of Sari Pul and Faryab, is the first of several such blocks to be put on the market in coming months, Afghan Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani said during the signing ceremony.

Bidding information for blocks in neighboring Balkh province will be released at the end of February and for the western Herat province by next summer, he said.

Afghanistan has been seeking to find ways to exploit some of its mineral wealth to offset the loss of revenues when foreign aid and spending drops when international combat troops leave by the end of 2014. The government has been keen to develop an oil-extraction and refining capability for the landlocked nation, which is entirely reliant on fuel imports from neighboring Iran and Central Asian nations.

From wire services