Mayor Bloomberg Weighs In On Wall Street, Says Markets 'Spooked'
NEW YORK (AP/WCBS 880) - U.S. stocks are mixed Friday after a week of brutal selling pushed them to new yearly lows.
WCBS 880's Rich Lamb With Mayor Bloomberg
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Stocks rose modestly at midday, but that's doing little to wipe out the week's heavy losses.
The Dow has fallen more than 15 percent since its recent peak on July 21. It was nearly 50 points below its 2011 closing low, reached on Aug. 10.
Markets in Asia closed sharply lower. European markets erased big losses after U.S. markets opened without a steep dive.
U.S. markets have fallen for four straight sessions, driving the Standard & Poor's 500 index down 7 percent this week.
Treasury yields remain near record lows as traders amass lower-risk bets. Demand for Treasuries drives their prices higher and their yields lower.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the markets are spooked about Europe and about what's going on in Washington.
"Right now, we want to put the people in jail who made risky loans before. Why would anybody want to make a new loan today? And yet we need people to make loans today and to take risks. The recession we had in '07 / '08 was we took too much risk. problem today is nobody is willing to take risk and you're not gonna create jobs and get us out of this until we get through that," said Bloomberg.
His Honor says the President and both sides of the aisle in Congress have to come together and find some way to instill confidence.
"I sympathize with the President because I always sympathize with the executive branch, but he's got problems on both sides of the aisle - the Republicans and the Democrats. But he's part of the solution, too," said Bloomberg.
The Dow Jones industrial average has dropped 7 percent this week, its worst showing since the week ended Oct. 3, 2008. That's the week Congress struggled to pass the $700 billion bank bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
What do you think the solution is to our current economic woes? Share your ideas in the comments section below!
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