by Calculated Risk on 9/16/2010 11:57:00 AM

A few articles:

Via the WSJ Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: Testimony on China

It is the judgment of the IMF that, in view of the very limited movement in the Chinese currency, the rapid pace of productivity and income growth in China relative to its trading partners, the size of its current account surplus, and the substantial level of ongoing intervention in exchange markets to limit the appreciation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi is significantly undervalued.

We share that assessment. We are concerned, as are many of China’s trading partners, that the pace of appreciation has been too slow and the extent of appreciation too limited.

We will take China’s actions into account as we prepare the next Foreign Exchange Report, and we are examining the important question of what mix of tools, those available to the United States as well as multilateral approaches, might help encourage the Chinese authorities to move more quickly.

From Joseph Pisani at CNBC: Foreclosures Rise; Repossessions Set Record

Bank repossessions ... increased about 3 percent from the month before to 95,364, a record high. At the same time the number of properties that received default notices—the first step in the foreclosure process—decreased 1 percent from a month ago and fell 30 percent from a year ago ...

From Erik Eckholm at the NY Times: Poverty Rate Rose Sharply in 2009, Says Census Bureau

Forty-four million people in the United States, or one in seven residents, lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 4 million from the year before, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

The poverty rate climbed to 14.3 percent — the highest since 1994 — from 13.2 percent in 2008.

Here is the Census Bureau report.

From Catherine Rampell at the NY Times Economix: Is Walking Away from Your Mortgage ‘Acceptable’?

[T]he majority of Americans still believe [walking away] is unacceptable, according to a report from Pew Research Center.

On the other hand, more than a third (36 percent) say the practice is at least sometimes acceptable.

Here is the Pew Research report.