In discussing our unemployment problem today, WSJ‘s Real Time Economics points to an important issue: worker productivity. The piece explains that, with more productive workers supporting a growing population, the American employment rate and living standards are falling. Indeed, productivity has become a bad word in this economic …
The vibe on Wall Street couldn’t be more at odds with deflated Main Street. Yes, stock prices headed down after today’s disappointing jobs report, which showed unemployment rising to 9.1%. But for anyone who hasn’t noticed, big corporations are still making a killing. What gives?
It was only last week that a slew of companies reported …
A slew of economic indicators out this week has ratcheted up fears of a double dip recession. Many think Friday’s jobs’ report could be the death knell of the U.S. recovery. But there’s a silver lining to the disappointing stats on housing, jobs, and manufacturing: No matter how bad it gets, the dollar will probably stay weak. And …
SAC Capital Advisors, one of the world’s biggest hedge funds run by zillionaire Steven Cohen, is finally under the gun for insider trading, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The issue is over trades made in an account Cohen oversees, which were suggested by former fund managers of his who’ve already pleaded guilty to insider …
With home buying reaching a new low, more people are looking to rent. Even with increased demand, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found some U.S. cities that are still refreshingly rent-friendly.
Today’s story in the Wall Street Journal about Goldman Sachs’ shifty dealings with Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund is yet another blow to Goldman’s once-rock solid rap. That begs the question: how much more negative publicity can Goldman’s business take?
As Stephen Gandel argued on this blog a few weeks back, they can handle a lot. …
The U.S. economy is still only muddling through, according to revised GDP numbers out by the Commerce Department. That’s bad news. But more disturbing is the accompanying dollar slump against the euro, and what it says about perceptions of our economy versus Europe’s.
The Commerce Department’s revised report on first quarter GDP …
So far, the G8 is all about getting a Marshall plan for the Arab world, a little juice for Japan, and a dose of sanity for Europe. But what ever happened to that global deal on trade?
It’s not like boosting trade isn’t on everyone’s minds. In a letter to the G8, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim …
The eye-popping IPO for Yandex, a Russian search engine few Americans have ever heard of, which managed to raise $1.3 billion on the NASDAQ, is raising more questions about whether we’re in a new tech bubble. So are we? Probably, …
For several decades, economists have been dancing around the idea that economic growth doesn’t equal happiness. And yet, politicians and the media are constantly using growth rates as the way to assess whether a country is really getting ahead. Why? Because GDP is one of the few economic indicators that everybody measures and …
We are back in the throws of the eurozone crisis. Greece’s debt has been downgraded again, Italy is facing new scrutiny about its growth prospects, and poor results for the ruling Socialist party in Spain’s local elections are adding to market jitters.
The torrent of events sound about the same as they did a year ago. So why are …
“Too Big to Fail,” the HBO film based on Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book that premiers tonight, has its moments. For a story that’s already been hashed out in countless books, magazines, and documentaries, HBO’s rendition of the Wall Street meltdown still manages to feel fresh, entertaining, and even educational. But does it get to the …
