I got up early this morning to talk to the folks at The Takeaway, the PRI-WNYC-WGBH-NYT-BBC competitor to Morning Edition, about fiscal stimulus around the world. And I just noticed that the interview is available online. I also noticed that I say “um” and “you know” way too often.
On Time.com, our colleague Steve Gandel writes: A financial milestone was achieved on October 27, 2004 with the birth of Strata 2004-8. If you haven’t made arrangements for the five-year anniversary this fall, don’t worry. Few people will be celebrating. Strata is one of the many so-called toxic assets clogging the nation’s financial pathways. What’s [...]
You’ve surely already heard the news that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is going to announce a new and, one hopes, improved bank bailout plan Tuesday. There will probably be lots of stuff in it about a “bad bank,” toxic-asset purchases, cash injections, new FDIC powers and the like. But here’s the really important part (from [...]
The dramatic chart Nancy Pelosi’s office put out comparing job losses so far in the current recession with those in 2001 and 1990-1991 has gotten a lot of play in the Internets. As well it should–it paints a dramatic picture (job losses in the current recession have been much more severe). But we already knew [...]
The Washington Post has an article today about the emerging belief among some Republicans that fighting against the Obama stimulus package has rejuvenated he party’s fading brand: “We’re so far ahead of where we thought we’d be at this time,” said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), one of several younger congressmen seeking to lead the [...]
I wrote a story about loan modifications. Which I’ve never ever done before. Ever. The latest installment starts: The Obama administration wants to spend up to $100 billion on efforts to help homeowners, especially those facing foreclosure. But one of the leading ideas on how to do that — rewriting home loans to make mortgages [...]
Barbara’s working on a piece for TIME.com about today’s nasty unemployment report, which we’ll link to when it’s up. (Update: Here it is.) As always, I’m frustrated with all the reporters and Wall Street economists who look at the payroll employment drop of 598,000 in January and say it’s the worst since December 1974—ignoring the [...]
I’ve got a new column online and in the issue of TIME with Walter Isaacson’s How to Save Your Newspaper (which I hope to tear into here later) on the cover. It begins: In recent weeks, the world has been politely standing by and watching how things play out with the fiscal stimulus and latest [...]
When people speak disapprovingly of “big government,” I usually get the impression that they’re referring to the doings of government departments/agencies other than Defense, Social Security and Medicare. So it’s useful every once in a while to strip defense and entitlements out and see just what the government is spending on everything else. These data [...]
A small U.S. company capitalizes on the growing popularity of Indian music and cinema
