“In the old days … the Fed controlled the federal funds rate with open market operations,” Antulio Bomfim, a former Fed economist now with Macroeconomic Advisors LLC in Washington told Reuters. “Now, at least in this period when reserves are over-abundant, the way the Fed hopes to raise the federal funds rate will be primarily by raising the interest rate it pays on reserves.”

With prices testing their record high of $1,033 an ounce set last year gold has again become the hot topic of conversation.

Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) yesterday (Thursday) announced it would test-fly its 787 Dreamliner later this year but disappointed customers by delaying delivery of the plane until the fourth quarter of 2010.

Beijing continued a delicate balancing act yesterday (Wednesday), vowing to keep stoking its economy with funding from its $787 billion stimulus program even as it implements new controls on bank lending.

The economy continued to show signs of recovery from the worst recession in 60 years as the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits dropped for the first time since January, the Labor Department reported yesterday (Thursday).

Perhaps the mishmash of numbers floating around the housing market have you confused.  For those who follow the market closely, the daily news seems to bring a never-ending stream of contradictory data. 

The next chapter in the history of General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) is likely to be about bankruptcy. And that would leave the U.S. and Canadian governments as company’s majority owners.