NEW YORK, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The so-called fiscal cliff of
automatic spending cuts and tax rises set to occur on Jan. 1 if
Congress fails to act before then will be the most important
issue facing the next U.S. president after the election,
BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence Fink said on Thursday, citing
a “very strong risk” of another U.S. ratings downgrade.

Fink, addressing a conference hosted by The Economist
magazine, lamented that President Barack Obama and Republican
challenger Mitt Romney did not address the cliff in their
pre-election debates. Nonetheless, Fink sounded more positive on
U.S. economic prospects relative to Europe, particularly France,
which he said is the most likely reason the euro zone would
collapse.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The so-called fiscal cliff of automatic spending cuts and tax rises set to occur on January 1 if Congress fails to act before then will be the most important issue facing the next U.S. president after the election, BlackRock Chief Executive Laurence Fink said on Thursday, saying there is a “very strong risk” of another U.S. ratings downgrade.

Fink, addressing a conference hosted by The Economist magazine, lamented that President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney did not address the cliff in their pre-election debates. Nonetheless, Fink sounded a more positive tone on U.S. economic prospects relative to Europe, particularly France, which he said is the most likely reason the euro zone would collapse.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The monetary and fiscal policies in the United States are creating enormous risks and the Federal Reserve’s actions in particular are now harming the economy, influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn said on Thursday.

The founder of Greenlight Capital, which manages $7.7 billion, repeated his criticism of the Fed’s very easy monetary policy, arguing at a conference that it now has “negative returns.”

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The European Central Bank and
the U.S. Federal Reserve will very likely provide even more
stimulus to their economies, the chief executive of PIMCO, the
world’s largest bond fund, said on Wednesday.

The two powerful central banks are “all in” as they act to
give lawmakers more time to heal their respective problems in
Europe and the United States, Mohamed El-Erian, who is also
co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co,
said in speech at a conference hosted by The Economist magazine.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A senator pushing to find a solution to automatic, across-the-board government spending cuts at the beginning of next year said on Tuesday he believes the so-called “sequestration” will ultimately be avoided.

“I do believe that we will avoid sequestration,” said Mark Warner, a Democratic senator from Virginia.

NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters) – A top adviser to presidential
candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday dismissed an idea to cap the
size of big banks floated last week by a senior U.S. Federal
Reserve official.

Glenn Hubbard, an economic advisor in the Republican camp,
said market forces would keep the size of financial institutions
in check better than difficult and arbitrary government limits
on banks judged too-big-to-fail.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The European Union could be destroyed by the “nightmare” euro crisis, and Germany needs to take the responsibility to save the common currency, billionaire fund manager George Soros said on Monday

Soros, who made his mark as an investor on a big bet against the British pound in 1992, said the other alternative is for Germany — the euro zone’s biggest economy — to simply leave the 17-member currency bloc.

By Jonathan Spicer and Pedro da Costa

(Reuters) – Federal Reserve officials offered divergent opinions on Monday about the correct stance for monetary policy, pitting a hawk against a dove over the inflation risk posed by the central bank’s massive ongoing efforts to buoy U.S. growth.

The Fed, which meets to review policy next week, announced in September a third round of quantitative easing and pledged to keep interest rates near zero until mid-2015 in an effort to underwrite a durable economic upswing.

NEW YORK, Oct 15 (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is not
anxious to remove policy accommodation at the first sign of
positive news on U.S. economic growth, an influential Fed
official said on Monday.

Doubling down on the U.S. central bank’s big monetary easing
move last month, New York Fed President William Dudley said the
policy stance would “evolve” only once “we became confident that
the recovery was securely established.”

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Will the U.S. Federal Reserve look the other way if inflation overruns its target?

Risking the wrath of politicians and the central bank’s hard-won reputation for keeping prices stable, three top Fed officials are touting plans for boosting employment that explicitly allow for inflation to run above the Fed’s 2.0-percent goal.