There are many aspects of the debt ceiling talks that are untoward. The political posturing. The lack of compromise. The somewhat terrifying reality that the U.S. might not be able to pay its bills. But one part of the whole affair is really irritating: the righteous indignation of the rating agencies.
Here we go again. Another show about conspicuous consumption for the debt-riddled masses. If you love the cardboard mansions of “MTV Cribs” or the botox-heavy cat fights of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” shows, chances are you’ll love this: “Wall $treet Wives,” a reality show about the fabulous lives of the women behind the men of Wall [...]
Inflation in June fell for the first time in a more than a year. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is the government’s most widely watched gauge of what the things average Americans buy cost, fell 0.2% last month. The drop was mostly driven by a fall in gas prices, which were down nearly 7% [...]
Thomas Malthus penned his terrifying vision for the future of mankind more than two centuries ago, but it still haunts us today. He believed that we could never overcome two basic laws of nature – man’s ability to procreate would always outstrip our planet’s ability to feed everybody. His view is one of perpetual poverty [...]
Meredith Whitney may end up being right about about the municipal bond market. Late last year, the Wall Street analyst famous for predicting the financial crisis began warning that the municipal bond market may be headed for a crash. Whitney predicted that there could be as many as 100 municipalities that end up being unable [...]
It’s hard to tell where the financial fallout of Rupert Murdoch’s media woes could end. The phone-hacking scandal over British tabloid News of the World last week caused a whopping 15% drop in the company’s stock price. Now the FBI has jumped into the fray by opening its own probe into whether News Corp employees [...]
Over the centuries, Europe has witnessed many major battles that determined the continent’s future. There was the 8th century battle of Poitiers that stopped the invading Muslims and preserved Christian Europe. Waterloo finally put an end to Napoleon’s quest for European dominance. And of course, the landings at Normandy. Now Europe is facing a different [...]
Step One: Follow lots of people. If you want to make millions of dollars and beat the stock market using Twitter – the social media king of mini-messages – you are going to have to read a lot of tweets. About 100 million a week. That’s what a London hedge fund Derwent Capital Markets, which [...]
UPDATED (10:45, July 12th) QE3 here we come, perhaps. Last month, when Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke did his second press conference following a meeting of the U.S. central bank’s policy makers’ committee, he seemed to suggest that the Fed was unlikely to launch a new round of its controversial bond buying program. The second [...]
When in search of offbeat thinking on the economy, look no further than Alan Greenspan. In a pow wow at the Aspen Ideas Festival on the country’s nettlesome debt problem, Greenspan said the debt ceiling, as a concept, should be canned.
