Title:
US Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in Third Quarter
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Early estimates show that the United States economy
began to grow again in July, August and September.
The three-and-a-half percent growth was the first
expansion in more than a year, and the strongest in
two years.
The government said increases in consumer spending
and exports and improvements in business investment
led the growth. So did increased federal spending
and housing investments. But high unemployment could
limit growth for some time. President Obama had this
reaction to a report at the end of October on the
gross domestic product -- a wide measure of goods
and services in the economy.
Mister Obama said: "This is obviously welcome news
and an affirmation that this recession is abating
and the steps we've taken have made a difference.
But I also know that we've got a long way to go to
fully restore our economy and recover from what's
been the longest and deepest downturn since the
Great Depression."
That downturn was partly caused by bankers and
others taking irresponsible risks to earn huge
payments. So say their critics. Criticism of Wall
Street pay is nothing new. But never before has the
government used hundreds of billions of dollars to
rescue companies that made risky investments. In
June, the Obama administration appointed lawyer
Kenneth Feinberg as the "special master" on
executive pay -- also known as the pay czar.
Congress gave him power over compensation of the
twenty-five highest-paid employees at seven
companies most indebted to taxpayers. At the end of
October, he gave lawmakers a progress report. He
said he has reduced the amount of money available to
these top officials by about ninety percent.
The seven companies are in the financial and auto
industries. Now Kenneth Feinberg must consider their
next seventy-five highest paid officials. But some
management experts warn that limiting pay could make
it harder for taxpayers to get their money back.
Edward Lawler at the University of Southern
California says these companies may now have
difficulty getting and keeping high-quality
employees.
But he agrees that in recent years, many companies
have tied pay to short-term performance, instead of
their long-term health. He also says boards of
directors need to do more to control pay.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
