It seemed like more Detroit delusions when General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre predicted in March that the government would eventually make money on its bailout of the beleaguered auto maker. But just three months later, General Motors increasingly looks like it is ready to exit the chop shop. Things have actually been turning around for [...]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s proposal for derivatives reform is apparently so extreme that even the Treasury Department thinks it goes too far. And yet, increasingly, it looks like it might survive. The FT is now reporting that Paul Volcker might be onboard. So are two Federal Reserve bank presidents. The shift, it seems, has at least [...]
I was at the international airport in Madrid this past weekend, catching a flight to London, and made the mistake of buying a chicken sandwich on rye. I found myself in a line of about 15 people. What was the hold up? Not the sandwiches. They were already made and wrapped. But the café had [...]
The political back-and-forth over whether or not BP should pay out a second-quarter dividend has been a sight to behold. Considering how the most recent two American presidents have been in a position to tell CEOs of the some of the largest U.S. finance and auto companies what to do—take this TARP money, get rid [...]
The U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning that retail sales for May fell 1.2%, a disappointment given that analysts had been hoping for a modest gain. It knocks some of the good feel from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke’s testimony on Thursday before the House Budget Committee. But, that said, the May report is not the [...]
At a time when most people are saying the path out of the financial crisis and European debt problem is for individuals and governments around the world to cut back, Paul Krugman wants us to spend, spend, spend. So how much we spend on supporting the economy in 2010 and 2011 is almost irrelevant to [...]
One day it’s fear and loathing, the next it’s hope springs eternal. We live these days with the stock market acting as a manic depressive. That’s nothing new,of course, as Warren Buffett has long characterized the equity market is such colorful terms. But lately it seems even more so, a fact made painfully clear by [...]
Bill is busy blogging about soccer for the next few weeks, so let me step in to be the one outraged by the way airlines are treating us now. As my colleagues Richard Zoglin and Christine Lim report: One category of flyer is still getting the shaft this summer: the estimated 120 million U.S. travelers [...]
How low will BP stock go? Today’s guess: All the way to zero. Already, the oil spill in the gulf has caused BP shares to drop to $30 from $60. That’s a loss in total market value of $90 billion. Earlier on this blog, I sided with the camp that thought BP might be a [...]
There was a bumper crop of information and comment on the economy today. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the House Budget Committee and the Fed also released its Beige Book, which contains reports from the Federal Reserve’s district banks. On balance, the economy continues trudging through the great deleveraging, and while there are [...]
