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Strategies & Market Trends : Zeev's Turnips - No Politics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChrisJP who wrote (51102)	4/14/2002 11:18:53 AM
From: stimulus	Respond to of 99280

Thanks for the article. I'm less worried about these recent earnings warnings because many of them are directly related to the tight-fisted state of IT spending. If President Bush & Congress had passed this stimulus bill 12 months ago things would be much brighter now. sg.biz.yahoo.com "Saturday March 9, 3:48 AM Congress passes limited economic stimulus bill, sends to White House Despite growing evidence that the US economy is growing again, Congress passed an economic stimulus bill that extends jobless benefits and gives limited business tax breaks, especially for the high-tech industry. The Senate approved the measure 85-9 a day after a 417-3 vote in the House of Representatives, sending it to the White House for the president's signature. The bill, estimated to cost 42 billion dollars over 10 years, is expected to be signed by President George W. Bush, White House officials said. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president "remains concerned" about the state of the US economy despite recent signs of improvement and said the bill was "very well targeted and very well timed." "There are encouraging signs from a statistical point of view, but he remains concerned about people getting jobs and people keeping their jobs," said Fleischer. The legislation was stripped of contentious accelerated income tax cuts and corporate tax incentives, but extends unemployment benefits and includes some limited business tax breaks. Included in the bill were measures sought by the battered high-tech industry, allowing a "carry-back" of losses for five years and faster depreciation write-offs for some investments. Backers say the move will help stimulate investment, particularly in information technology, which has been in a deep slump. "With IT spending growth in the US barely registering a blip on the economic radar screen, this action is a much needed shot in the arm," said Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America. "Provisions of the bill will allow buyers of IT to depreciate those assets more quickly in line with the actual useful life of those investments. We think this change will help motivate IT customers to pull the wraps off their capital spending budgets and jump-start IT projects which have been delayed, deferred or cancelled." The bill also includes some tax relief for New York City to help its recovery from the September 11 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers and caused a massive shock to the economy. Congress had been deadlocked for months on a stimulus plan aimed at helping the economy pull out of recession."