VENTURE CAPITAL POST

First thing every morning Bill Hickey turns on the TV to see where the U.S. dollar is trading in the hope it has lost value against the euro and other currencies.

America has added more than a million jobs in the space of three months but wages, especially for blue-collar workers, are showing few signs of gains.

Senior Democrats in the House of Representatives said on Thursday they would insist President Barack Obama provide hard evidence that proposed free trade deals will boost median U.S. incomes, laying out tough terms to support his trade agenda.

Barack Obama enters the final two years of his presidency with a blemish on his legacy that looks impossible to erase: the decline of the middle class he has promised to rescue.

Tumbling oil prices have strengthened rather than weakened the Federal Reserve's resolve to start raising interest rates around midyear even as volatile markets and a softening U.S. inflation outlook made investors push back the timing of the "liftoff."

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Tuesday following the largest losses on Wall Street since early October and ahead of a large data batch that will show the momentum of the U.S. economy at the end of last year.

China's growth engine looks to have ended last year on a flat note as its massive factory sector sputtered in December, though ebbing price pressures also offered scope for more policy stimulus from Beijing and across much of Asia.

Investors have wrung their hands over the last several weeks over the effect of lower oil prices on the broader S&P 500, but the relationship between the two is actually starting to break down.

Pessimism and doubt have dominated how Americans see the economy for many years. Now, in a hopeful sign for the economic outlook, confidence is suddenly perking up.

A surge of oil and gas production will drive the U.S. economy 1 percent higher in 2040 than it would have otherwise grown, and energy exports will only stoke the expansion, an independent study on energy policy concluded on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank should follow the example of the U.S. Federal Reserve and buy government bonds to prop up the tottering euro zone economy, the Fed's vice chair Stanley Fischer was quoted as saying in an Italian newspaper.

The dollar marked a fresh seven-year high against the yen on Wednesday, which helped lift the Nikkei to a similar record, while oil prices recovered after data showed a drop in U.S. supply.

The positive news on German and French GDP have calmed the fears over stagnating Eurozone economy. the International Monetary Fund said that growth performance is in line with projections in the United States and China. BoE Governor Carney lowered growth and inflation forecasts for UK. Japan's GDP data will be a very crucial factor in Prime Minister Abe’s decision on whether or not to increase the consumption tax from 8 percent to 10 percent.

In a paradoxically good development for the U.S. economy, Americans quit their jobs in September at the fastest rate in over six years.

Charles I. Plosser , President and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia spoke on The US Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy at UBS European Conference, London, England today.