Daily Political Wire 5-7-2010

George Wenschhof

Today, at 11:00 AM, president Obama will make a statement on the status of the economy - Labor Department reports show 290,000 jobs added in April - the most jobs added to the labor force in four years. Unemployment showed it's stubborn side as the rate increased slightly from 9.7% to 9.9%. Bloomberg.com has more here.

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Computer glitch the cause of 1000 point drop yesterday in Dow Jones? - that's the story that is emerging from what was a wild day on the stock exchange. One explanation was a trader had mistakenly hit a "B" for Billion instead of a "M" for million. Other possibilities include the monetary crisis in Greece. Regardless, the market recovered somewhat to end the day with a 347 point loss. MSNBC.com has more here.

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British election leads to hung Parliament - yesterday, no party won the necessary minimum of 326 seats to make a majority. The Conservative Party clearly made the most gains and won the most seats. The estimated number of seats won by party is as follows: Conservative - 306, Labour - 261 and Liberal Democrats - 54.

Who will be the next Prime Minister is unclear at this point. Incumbent Gordon Brown and his Labour Party have lost at least 88 seats in Parliament while the Conservative Party had gained 94 seats. The NY Times has more here.

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Wall Street Reform bill moves slowly forward - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says they will work late into the night to deal with over 100 amendments which have been offered on the bill. TheHill.com has more here.

Last night, the Senate voted against a republican amendment to water down the Consumer Finance Protection agency, a provision President Obama had said "was worse than the status quo". Politico.com has more here.

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