Computer glitches on the Nasdaq stock exchange brought a halt to trading of thousands stocks and options Thursday in what some are calling “the flash freeze.” It’s just the latest software malfunction to disrupt the markets, and it’s not even the first one this week. Goldman Sachs lost as much as $100 million Tuesday after erroneous …
Money Talking: Shareholder Activism Run Amok
The barbarians are back! Activist investors like Carl Icahn (who is taking on Apple) and David Ackman (who recently resigned from the board of JC Penney after failing to turn the company’s fortunes) are back in the news. Are they vulture capitalists, or can activists actually do good things for corporate America? To find out, tune in to …
Europe’s False Recovery
Money Talking: What the Washington Post Sale Has to Do With the Future of Television
What do the $250 million purchase of the Washington Post by Jeff Bezos and the continuing contract battle between CBS and Time Warner Cable have in common? This is a question I have been thinking about over the last week, as both events brought to the fore shifts in patterns of media consumption that have been underway for some time. The …
Rewiring the Banker Brain
A culture shift is still needed to reconnect finance with the real economy.
You’re Spending Too Much!
Why saving — not spending — is what the economy really needs.
20 Words That Will Make or Break Financial Reform
Correction appended: July 8, 2013, 9:46 p.m. E.T.
Derivatives, those complex exploding financial securities that were at the heart of the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse and global financial crisis, have been at the top of bank reformers’ agenda over the past five years. Figuring out a way to make them — and thus our financial …
Wall Street Cop Goes After Corzine — and Derivatives Loopholes
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has been the toughest cop in D.C. since the financial crisis, and the only person really willing to take on Wall Street. Although his term may soon be coming to an end, the CFTC yesterday showed it still has plenty of bite left by suing Jon Corzine, the former New …
No, the Fed’s Buying Spree Doesn’t Have to End in Tears
After a jittery few days of trading, the markets stabilized a bit on Monday, though most economists are predicting a summer of volatility thanks to the Fed’s decision last week to announce that it would begin to “taper” its $85 …
Market Reality Check
The market craziness continues, with stocks down, commodities crashing, and bond yields rising. As usual during such periods, wild theories about what’s happening abound: The U.S. recovery is a mirage; China is having a Lehman Brothers-style meltdown; etc.
Money Talking: The End of Stimulus?
The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low and taken other measures to stimulate the economy, but all of that could end soon. WNYC’s Money Talking looks at the Fed’s plan to scale back the stimulus. Plus, a new proposal from the SEC to hold companies more accountable.
Bernanke Says Little, Market Plummets: Welcome to the Post-QE Economy
What a strange world we are living in when Ben Bernanke holds a press conference to say that he’s essentially going to do nothing, and the markets go down 200 points. That was the story last night after the Fed announced it …