I sat down to do my taxes over the weekend and I realized I was missing a 1099 from a bank where I have an interest savings account. I called up the bank and after some rooting around, the phone rep realized I didn’t get a form because the bank doesn’t mail one out if interest earned over the course [...]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is already catching heat for saying: We feel the American people need a message. The message that they need is that we’re doing something about jobs. This comment comes on the heels of news that a bi-partisan jobs bills has fallen through, and Reid is now plowing ahead with a [...]
There’s good news out this morning: Retail sales in January rose a healthy 0.5%, which is a nose ahead of the consensus expectation (collected by Dow Jones) for a 0.3% rise. There was also a slight upward adjustment in December’s number, where the decline was shaved from -0.3% to a more neutral -0.1%. These numbers [...]
More jobs numbers came out today and while mildly upbeat they were far from bullish, particularly since the Labor Department’s explanation of the 43,000 drop in weekly initial claims had more to do with a diminishing backlog of filers than with any real pep in the economy. Economist David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff has an [...]
Back in August, I wondered if the credit card companies might be getting their groove back because it seemed like after a precipitous fall-off, the number of solicitations they send to our mailboxes was beginning to level off. Well, I was wrong, and credit card mail volume, as tracked by the research firm Synovate, resumed [...]
How much does a snow storm cost? Every year, on days like the one we are having today on the East Coast and in the Midwest (according to this map 63% of the United States is covered in snow today), economic forecasters try to estimate the impact of all the white stuff falling from the [...]
Bob Herbert’s column in yesterday’s New York Times pointed out that the unemployment crisis is not hitting all parts of the income spectrum equally. I was pretty stunned by the numbers, which go like this: Range of incomes (by decile) Unemployment rate $12,160 or less 30.8% $12,160-$20,725 19.1% $20,725-$29,680 19.7% 15.3% $29,680-$39,000 12.2% $39,000-$50,000 9.0% [...]
I recently spoke to the owner of a small company who is buying a new building. He is in an industry—energy-related—that happens to be doing quite well right now. Banks, he said, are tripping over themselves to loan him money. Three different lenders are competing for his business, which means that he’s been able to [...]
The conversation about where to draw the line between privacy and security is as old as society itself. I didn’t mean to so forcefully insert myself into the middle of that debate when I wrote about a Microsoft executive ruminating on the possibility of driver’s licenses for the Internet. Alas, here I am. That original blog [...]
With the latest market declines reminding us anew of the inherent risks of stocks, it’s a good time to re-examine how the stock market creates wealth. There are all sorts of wrinkles but it all really comes down to two big things: Stocks either rise in price (capital appreciation) or companies pay out a portion [...]
