Don’t worry you won’t pay at the pump for oil company tax increases (Mike Blake/Reuters) Gas prices are up. Oil company profits are up. Should the taxes Exxon Mobil, Shell and others be going up as well? An increasing number of politicians seem to be saying yes. President Obama has proposed eliminating $4 billion in [...]
Is the recovery over? This morning’s report of GDP makes it seem that way. The government’s gross domestic product report for the first quarter of 2011, which was released Thursday morning, showed that nearly every sector of the economy slowed in the first three months of the year. The report was weaker than most economists [...]
Yesterday, Ben Bernanke departed from the silent, opaque tradition of the Federal Reserve and held a press conference. The event attracted considerable attention, for its novelty as much as for its substance. But those hoping that Bernanke would do his best imitation of Willy Wonka and reveal hidden facets of humor, complexity and charisma were, [...]
The new austerity. The great reset. The new normal. While America was suffering through the financial crisis, a chorus of economists, consumer behavior experts, and journalists predicted that the psychological scars of the Great Recession would permanent change spending habits (and they were quick to stick pithy labels on this supposed phenomenon). But now here [...]
There is a lot of analysis out today on the Federal Reserve’s controversial plan to buy $600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds to spur the economy. The program, the second round of quantitative easing (ergo QE2) since the start of the financial crisis, is scheduled to end in June. The Fed is likely to announce [...]
It is interesting what registers as good news these days in the housing market. People are making a big deal out of today’s new homes sales number as perhaps finally the sign that the housing sector is rebounding. On Monday, the Census reported that new housing sales rose 11% in March. This was greeted as [...]
The pay bonus for working at a “Too Big to Fail” bank is only getting bigger. Outsized paychecks are often cited as one of the reasons for the financial crisis. So what are the executives at the biggest banks doing? They are upping their pay. In fact, pay at the big banks is not rising [...]
Larry Page of Google is on the TIME 100 list (Rick Wilking/Reuters) Our annual TIME 100 list of the most influential people in the world is out this week. Sadly, TIME is not just a business magazine. So the list encompasses all manner of influence that has been attained in various fields. There are actors [...]
One of the many things that ticks us off about airlines is the lack of transparency: about the total cost of a flight, about flight delays, about whatever fee is coming down the pike next. That’s about to change. Under new rules being imposed by the Department of Transportation, airlines will have to disclose all [...]
Ever since the New York Stock Exchange’s parent the NYSE Euronext agreed to be purchased by Germany’s largest exchange, the Deutsche Borse, there has been some wrangling over whether someone should stop the U.S.’s most important stock exchange from falling in the hands of foreigners. Right after the merger was announced New York Senator Charles [...]
