Updated Aug. 17, 11pm EDT Yesterday’s viral video of Texas Governor Rick Perry deriding the Fed is getting a lot of play. The new presidential candidate seems to think our wily central bank is plotting the country’s demise through “money printing” policies that “play politics” and are practically “treasonous.” Let’s move past the part about Perry [...]
As if Europe doesn’t already have it bad enough, here comes some more foul news: Germany’s growth, widely considered to be the saving grace of the flailing eurozone, is grinding to a halt. The question is what that means for struggling Europe and the global recovery. Only a year ago, the region’s biggest economy seemed [...]
In early spring, when the news came out that housing had entered a double dip – prices were falling again – it seemed like an outlier. The jobs market was picking up steam. Corporate profits were up. The stock market was rising. A lot has changed in just a few months. Now the question is [...]
Will U.S. consumers make the comeback we need to stave off another recession? That’s a question markets and economists have been pondering ever since the Fed announced it would keep interest rates low until mid-2013. The Fed’s pledge aimed to pump up borrowing and spending to egg on much-needed U.S. growth. But with consumer confidence [...]
Just got word from Standard & Poors. I’ve been downgraded. So have you. The firm has blamed bickering politicians in Washington for forcing it to lower the rating on U.S. Treasury bonds to AA —U-S-A-A! U-S-A-A!— from the highest, triple A ranking, but in neighborhoods all over America, people are getting along just fine. And [...]
This global equity snapshot by Bloomberg’s Michael McDonough is a great way to step back from all the crazy market gyrations and give your stomach a break (hat tip Felix Salmon). I’m not saying the daily churn is going away (in fact, I think just the opposite). But in the grand scheme of things, our [...]
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the global economy, and the markets have been torn asunder. On Monday, the VIX – a measure of the implied volatility in the stock market – shot up to its highest level since the depths of the 2008-09 financial crisis, up 50% to 48. Tuesday it dropped [...]
If you have been following the headlines now and were three years ago during the financial crisis, it’s hard not to make the comparison. The stock market is swinging wildly. Financial CEOs are taking to the airways to publicly attest that their banks have enough capital. And investors are increasingly worried about a debt crisis. [...]
With the plunge in global markets coming on the heels of the U.S.’s credit downgrade, it seems like the world’s financial problems all trace back to the U.S. But in reality, the eurozone debt crisis is the real time bomb fueling global anxieties. “Europe is about to blow. There is no longer any question of [...]
The market tumult in recent weeks has inspired some pretty dire readings of the U.S. economy’s future. With the country’s anemic growth prospects back in the spotlight after a jolting credit downgrade, the biggest concern now is that neither Washington nor the Federal Reserve has the ammunition to reverse what feels like a bottomless downward [...]
