Any hope that last Thursday’s debt crisis agreement would finally quell the contagion raging through the euro zone was dashed almost before the ink dried. Only a day later, Italy’s borrowing costs actually rose to a euro-era high in a bond auction, a clear sign that investors were far from certain that the debt deal [...]
In September, consumers spent more but made less than expected. As a result, the national savings rate dropped to 3.6%, which is the lowest level it’s been since the beginning of the recession. And that has some nervous. The popular economics blog Calculated Risk blog had this to say: Spending is growing faster than incomes [...]
The recovery is back! Or maybe not. On Thursday morning, the U.S. Commerce Department said the nation’s gross domestic product rose 2.5% in the third quarter, nearly double the 1.3% rate it had risen in the quarter before. And the growth was far better than many economists thought it would be just a few months [...]
Sometimes I think the euro zone debt crisis is like watching a remake of the Bill Murray classic Groundhog Day, with the screenplay written by Financial Times correspondents. I wake up and read the news coming from Europe: worries mount about a Greek default, contagion spreads across the continent, the euro zone leaders are lost [...]
So Rajat K. Gupta, the ex boss of McKinsey & Co. and a former Goldman Sachs board member, was arrested today, and charged with being a friend of hedge fund bigshot Raj Rajaratnam. Well, that’s not how the indictment read exactly. Officially, the allegations are conspiracy to commit securities fraud, plus five counts of securities [...]
There are two Internets in the world today. The first is the one you are probably using right now to read this post, through which you can connect with people around the world, surf for whatever information you want and blog at will. This Internet is a key tool for businesses to enhance productivity, for [...]
The Volcker Rule, which was passed as part of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill and is supposed to ban risky trading by large banks, doesn’t have a lot of fans. Bankers have fought it. Republicans, like much of the Dodd-Frank bill, want to repeal it. And even some Democrats don’t think it will be all [...]
Soliman explains how he and partner Nick Friedman transformed a disorganized, one-truck operation into a national brand
The leaders of the euro zone held an important conference on Sunday to try, once again, to resolve its destabilizing debt crisis. And though a final agreement wasn’t reached — and probably won’t be until Wednesday — we can already read the writing on the wall. The new grand agreement is likely to be dead [...]
When Goldman Sachs can’t make money you know times are tough in the banking business. In mid-September I wrote a feature story for TIME magazine about how our nation’s banks, despite the bailout, were far from fixed, and how that was dragging down the economy. This week’s earnings reports from the big banks are new [...]
