For a couple of years now, one of my very smartest sources, Ruchir Sharma, head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley
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What Ukraine Means for the Markets
Global markets have been falling on worries over conflict in the Ukraine. Is this the end of the multi-year bull market that has taken stocks to record highs recently? In a word no, but there are some important economic impacts …
Can Pensions Be Fixed?
This is a topic I’ve been obsessed about in recent days. From San Jose to Detroit, Illinois to Rhode Island, cities and states are struggling with the issue. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie is proposing a new $34.4 billion …
What To Like (and Dislike) in the Camp Tax Proposal
There are things to like and things not to like about Republican congressman Dave Camp’s new 979-page tax plan. But here’s what I like most about it – it starts a serious conversation about tax reform that we definitively …
A Robust Housing Recovery? Not So Fast
That’s a question I’m asking after reading some new housing data and real estate market studies out this week. The national numbers make it seem like we’re having a pretty good year for housing, which is one of the keys to …
This Is How You Fix Ailing Public Pensions
A tough problem to crack
Is the Internet Really a Utility?
That’s the question at the heart of a new FCC effort to rewrite the rules of net neutrality. With the proposed merger of Time Warner Cable and Comcast, there’s a growing fear that giant cable operators as well as internet …
VW, Grover Norquist, and the Future of American Unions
If there’s a more fascinating business story out there right now than today’s vote in Chattanooga, TN, on whether VW plant workers should be allowed to unionize, I don’t know what it is.
The School That Is Changing American Education
Two years ago, I visited a school in Brooklyn called P-TECH, the Pathways in Technology early college high school, which seemed very much like the future of education to me. It knitted together educators and job creators, and …
3 Things Janet Yellen Must Focus on as Fed Chair
This morning, Janet Yellen began her first testimony to Congress as Federal Reserve chair. As she sums up the economic health of the nation and the direction that monetary policy will take over the next couple of hours, there are …
Carl Icahn Wins by Losing in Epic Fight With Apple
Carl Icahn is withdrawing the precatory proposal he filed on November 26 to try to get Apple to part with more of its $160 billion cash hoard. But that doesn’t mean he’s lost his war with the tech giant.
Management is from Mars, Labor is from Venus
The most important labor debate in the country right now isn’t the minimum wage issue that President Obama spent so much time on in his SOTU speech this week. Rather, it is a fascinating fight that’s going on at a VW plant in …