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Better Times By Super Bowl XLIV (the one next year)
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2009 Comment (2)Here’s an important new economic indicator: The Super Bowl Playboy Party.
This year’s cleavagefest got canceled, just one sad sign of the joyless times we’re living in. Sports Illustrated also canceled its Super Bowl party. NBC has discounted its prices for commercials. Even scalpers are hurting: The going price for a ticket is down $2,000 from last year.
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How Wall Street Continues To Doom Itself
Tweet Share on Facebook January 30, 2009 Comment (347)We’ve arrived at an ah-ha moment.
Virtually everybody who butters their own bread is outraged that Wall Street, which is becoming a de facto government agency thanks to billions in bailout money, found $18.4 billion in bonuses for bankers who nearly wrecked the world’s financial system in 2008. President Obama’s criticism – “shameful” – is mild compared to what many of us think.
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Ford Veers Closer To a Bailout
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2009 Comment (88)For a guy not asking for anything, Ford CEO Alan Mulally was awfully agreeable when he came to Washington late last year to testify about a possible auto bailout.
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The Stimulus Plan: 5 Missing Pieces
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (263)Stimulate me. Please.
I’m feeling gloomy. And I’m not sure that a Washington plan to fill a bunch of potholes, build some shiny new schools, or construct windmill farms on the Great Plains is going to bounce me out of it.
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Let the Wall St. "Talent" Walk
Tweet Share on Facebook January 28, 2009 Comment (169)Here’s another Wall Street bromide that needs to be retired: The need to pay lavish bonuses to retain the best talent.
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Bottom Hunting: The New Economic Pastime
Tweet Share on Facebook January 26, 2009 Comment (8)We used to seek deals, steals, and undiscovered treasures. Forget all that. Nowadays, all anybody wants to know is, where’s the bottom?
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Why Falling to No. 2 Is Good for GM
Tweet Share on Facebook January 21, 2009 Comment (22)Last year at this time, the drama was thick among auto analysts as General Motors and Toyota announced their total global sales for 2007. GM had been the world’s biggest automaker for 77 years, but it seemed inevitable that Toyota would bump the fading giant from its perch. When both automakers said they had sold 9.37 million cars in 2007, analysts had to scrutinize decimal points the automakers don’t usually break out. The unsatisfying outcome was the equivalent of a technical knock-out in favor of Toyota.
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Chrysler Needs Another Move, Besides Fiat
Tweet Share on Facebook January 21, 2009 Comment (6)So now we know why Chrysler executives have been insistent that Chrysler isn’t folding its tent just yet: It turns out there is another automaker interested in teaming up with Detroit’s ailing No. 3 automaker.
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Why Obama's Bailouts Will Look Like Bush's
Tweet Share on Facebook January 20, 2009 Comment (16)The financial markets didn’t seem to be listening while Barack Obama was kicking off his presidency with a pledge to “begin again the work of remaking America.” As Obama spoke, the share prices of America’s biggest banks were plunging toward 20-year lows. Wizardly prognosticator Nouriel Roubini of New York University said the U.S. banking system is “effectively insolvent.” In Britain, the government advanced a plan to completely take over the Royal Bank of Scotland, which faces 2008 losses of $40 billion or more – a move some think Obama will have to make with regard to some of America’s landmark banks.
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Bush's Last Bailouts, Obama's First Migraine
Tweet Share on Facebook January 17, 2009 Comment (83)The last days of the Bush/Paulson bailout regime reveal just how tough it's going to be for new President Barack Obama to rescue the right companies - while letting the rest go under.
