The Senate passed its financial reform bill. Huzzah! What did the Senate wind up with after three weeks of such intense lobbying and debate? First, I’ll run through the big, headline-grabbing changes. Then the real fun begins: the changes that are coming which you probably haven’t been hearing as much about. Just remember that Congress …
Wall Street & Markets
Should we get rid of deposit insurance?
The other day I spoke with University of Chicago economist Raghuram Rajan. Rajan made a big splash at Jackson Hole back in 2005 when he stood up in front of a room full of prominent economic policy makers and gave a speech about all the risk that was building up in the financial system. He said we could be headed for serious problems. …
Return of the Shopper: Why Is Consumer Spending on the Rise?
Even with high unemployment numbers, a struggling real estate market, and a consensus opinion that a comprehensive economic recovery will be a slow slog, consumer spending is on the rise. Explanations anybody?
Is KC Firm New King of Wall Street?
Last week, it was big news when the four Wall Street firms (Goldman, Citi, Bank of America and JP Morgan) announced that they had gone the entire first quarter of 2010 without a down day on their trading desks. Look Mom, no losses. Some were skeptical. Called Wall Street a fixed game. Well turns out a perfect quarter is not such a great …
How Vulnerable Are Stocks to Euro’s Dive?
The weakness of the U.S. stock market over the past week reflects investor uncertainty over how to process each new chapter in Europe’s debt crisis. Contagion is a big worry, and some even mention the USA as a possible domino given its big debt load. The more immediate concern, though, is a collapsing euro, a risk driven home again on …
Cheapskate Wisdom … about Main Street Anger over Wall Street Bailouts
“It’s like watching the emergency room doctors save the life of the drunk driver who just plowed into the car in which your family was riding.”
How bad off are the PIIGS?
The crisis in Europe was sparked by the widespread belief among investors that Greece’s financial woes were just the tip of a much bigger debt iceberg in the Eurozone. The fear has been that other member nations – Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain, which, along with Greece, are called the PIIGS – were also buried in debt and could …
The stock market rebounds!
Apparently, the stock market took a little tumble last week while I was away on vacation. Now that I’m back, things are looking so much more cheery. Here we are, at 4 p.m., and the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are all up by more than 3%. I’ve been asked to write a blog post about why.
8 Ways to Teach Kids about Money
Before scaring them with concepts like debit card overdrafts and bank foreclosure, you can start by taking them shopping and making them aware that advertising exists to try and part fools with their money.
Why Europe is still in meltdown
The hope after the European Union and the International Monetary Fund finalized a $146 billion bailout for heavily indebted Greece was that such a grand display of resolve would stop the contagion beginning to seize financial markets from rampaging through Europe, and from there, the rest of the world. Well, that hope now looks more like …
Stock Markets Caught in a Greek Tragedy
Shaken by the prospect that the Greece rescue package might not be enough, and worried about Euro contagion as new concerns arose over Spain, investors sent the Dow down more than 245 points on Tuesday. The decline was spread across every major sector; overall, 96% of stocks took a tumble. The Nasdaq took an even steeper drop, falling …
If More Businesses Operated Like Goldman Sachs
A funny take from Tom Tomorrow on the idea of selling of “a useless product that will probably blow up” in the faces of consumers who purchase it.
