So here we are, once again, in a nasty round of political bickering over China’s currency, the yuan (also known as the renminbi). There is a widespread belief around the world that Beijing has been setting the value of the yuan at an artificially cheap level, which gives Chinese exports an unfair advantage in international [...]
We all know that the market has had a rough few years, but new research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch suggests that stocks have been producing disappointing returns for much longer than that. Fifty years in fact. BofA-Merrill chief US equity strategist David Bianco found that when you adjust for inflation, taxes and trading [...]
There seems to be a growing consensus on Wall Street that Citigroup’s problems are behind it. The stock has been up recently, though at $4 the company’s shares have far from rebounded. Three years ago, Citigroup’s stock fetched $50. Nonetheless, Citigroup tried to fan those good feelings yesterday with some seemingly bullish comments from its [...]
Should accounting tricks be added to the long list of things that caused the financial crisis? I’m not sure. Turns out Lehman was even more leveraged than we thought. A report out on Thursday by a court appointed examiner into what went wrong at Lehman Brothers finds that the firm towards the end of its [...]
I have a story up today on the website of our sister publication Fortune.com. It is part of Fortune’s excellent redesign issue. The story is focused on a study by Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard that finds a disturbing truth about financial planners: Experts have long counseled against using financial planners who charge commissions, given their [...]
There have been a lot of people blabbing on for the past few months about the new found thriftiness of the American consumer. The savings rate is up, and credit card balances are down. Well it appears, that that later piece of news does not fit as neatly into the thriftier American thesis as it [...]
The stock market is rising, though on very light volume. The economy is growing, though most observers are uncomfortable that fiscal stimulus accounts for some —or much—of the gusto. Then there are complex issues aplenty to flummox forecasters, such as the hope that the U.S. export growth can make this recovery sustainable, tempered by concern [...]
No, I’m not talking about The Vapors’ old pop hit (as my editors breathe a sigh of relief). Instead I’m wondering if the United States is beginning to become a bit like Japan. And in this instance, I don’t mean that as a compliment. I’m writing this post from the town of Sendai, north of [...]
Last March we all thought the world economy—not to mention our cherished lifestyle —was headed for the trash basket. The stock market had plunged, retirement plans were ruined, and few people cared that equities looked dirt cheap. But here we are one year later and the stock market is up 68%, rampant fear has morphed [...]
Geospatial’s Smart Probe answers a century-old question in 3-D: Where are the pipes?
