The recent history of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is interesting in part because it’s an illustration of how disruptive new technology can be. Twenty years ago the NYSE and it’s relatively young rival NASDAQ accounted for 97% of the total U.S. stock trading volume. Then the rapid development of computer technology, combined with a …
There have been clear signs this week that after the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., the balance of power in the debate over gun control is shifting. Pro-gun Democrats with stellar ratings from the NRA like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Viriginia Senator Mark Warner came out in favor of increasing federal restrictions on gun …
Last week’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has done what many mass-shootings did not: reinvigorate the national debate over gun control. Advocates for restricting gun use in America have been on the retreat for almost two …
You can’t turn on the television or open a magazine these days without hearing or seeing the term fiscal cliff. The media is awash with reports of President Obama and Speaker John Boehner’s negotiations over tax increases and …
The Federal Reserve is a famously inscrutable institution. Given their ability to move markets, Fed officials have long been in the habit of speaking in careful, jargon-laced language that is often constructed with the express …
The battle over the fiscal cliff so far has revolved around income taxes for the wealthy and entitlement reform. But there are many other ways the federal budget deficit could be trimmed that haven’t received much of the …
Never underestimate the importance of expectations. While most of us were bracing for a poor jobs report due to the disruptive effects of Hurricane Sandy, the headline numbers of 146,000 jobs added in November and a four-year-low …
It’s now conventional wisdom that the housing market — once the anchor that sank the American economy — is the ballast that’s keeping it afloat, however tenuously. The Case-Schiller index of home prices, released last week, …
When the Labor Department releases its November job growth estimates tomorrow, many are bracing for it to be the smallest number since June. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney predict the number will come in at a lackluster 77,000 …
While the President and Congress have seemingly made little progress in reaching a compromise that would help the country avoid the fiscal cliff, corporate America isn’t sitting idly by. Parts of the fiscal cliff are tax …
For some time during and after the financial crisis, it was fashionable to point to Canada as a paragon of fiscal and regulatory prudence. In the years leading up to the crisis, the Canadian government ran budget surpluses, which …
