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A Boost For GM, a Ding For Chrysler
Tweet Share on Facebook March 20, 2009 Comment (22)At General Motors headquarters in Detroit, there's finally a bit of vindication.
For several years, GM has been insisting that its cars and trucks are much better than the slapdash cookie-cutters that helped trash the automaker's reputation in the '80s and '90s. Executives frequently complain about a "perception gap" between the poor vehicle quality Americans expect, and GM cars that are supposedly as good as the competition.
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7 Surprises Buried Beneath the AIG Bonuses
Tweet Share on Facebook March 20, 2009 Comment (16)The recent Congressional hearings on AIG generated intense heat. But was there any light?
Actually, quite a lot. The scandal over bonuses paid to AIG’s rogue trading unit has obviously dominated news coverage and public attention. But while explaining the bonuses, AIG CEO Ed Liddy and other experts also provided lots of information on the most important question of all: Is the $170 billion AIG bailout working, or not? And what would happen if the government simply pulled the plug? Here’s some of the new information that has emerged:
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5 Lessons From the AIG and Merrill Bonuses
Tweet Share on Facebook March 19, 2009 Comment (8)Score one for common sense.
American taxpayers may not have much of a say over which banks get bailout money or what a fair price for toxic derivatives may be, but basic logic is finally winning out when it comes to lavish bonuses.
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The AIG Bonuses: A Welcome Scandal
Tweet Share on Facebook March 18, 2009 Comment (17)Finally. A scandal we can relate to.
For the last year, something has been really wrong with the U.S. economy. But what, exactly? The collapse of Bear Stearns in March 2008 was the first indicator. The government stepped in with a $29 billion bailout, marking the first time many Americans may have heard of “mortgage-backed securities.”
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What’s Good, What’s Bad About the AIG Bailout
Tweet Share on Facebook March 17, 2009 Comment (28)"There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.”
The latest surreal twists in the AIG bailout bring to mind Mark Twain, who could spot folly as if he were hunting for it with a spyglass. Had Twain had AIG to work with as raw material, we’d probably have another couple dozen enduring epigrams skewering the greedy and the foolish.
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Wreck Company, Earn Bonus
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2009 Comment (6)At AIG, the hotshots who lost a staggering $41 billion in 2008 and injected poison into the world’s financial arteries are in line to earn at least $165 million in bonuses. Merrill Lynch, which lost nearly $28 billion last year, insists it must still pay $3.6 billion in bonuses to hundreds of dealmakers.
[See the real harm caused by the AIG bonuses.]
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The Real Harm Caused By the AIG Bonuses
Tweet Share on Facebook March 16, 2009 Comment (35)It used to be such a nice, benign word. “Bonus.” In Latin, it literally means “good.” Way back in school, a bonus question on a test earned you extra credit if you got it right, with no penalty if you got it wrong. When tacked onto your salary, a bonus was a reward for doing your job especially well.
Credit the pillagers at Merrill Lynch and now AIG with yet another epic perversion.
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Why Bad Times Breed Better Habits
Tweet Share on Facebook March 13, 2009 Comment (8)Everybody’s getting poorer.
This year’s Forbes billionaire list includes just 793 worthies, down from 1,125 last year. And the overall list is a major sob story – 83 percent of the world’s billionaires lost money last year.
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More Outrage Over the Merrill Bonuses
Tweet Share on Facebook March 12, 2009 Comment (18)The last time Merrill Lynch tangled with the New York attorney general, it didn’t go so well. In 2002, after a bruising battle with Eliot Spitzer over conflicts between its research and investment banking divisions, Merrill finally agreed to widespread reforms, paid a $100 million fine, and issued an embarrassing “statement of contrition.”
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America and China, Dragging Down Each Other
Tweet Share on Facebook March 12, 2009 Comment (28)Think American workers have it bad? It's worse in China.
You may not know that by scanning the headlines. Late last year the Chinese government passed its own stimulus package of about $600 billion, to meet its target of 8 percent GDP growth. That's right, 8 percent. That would be outlandish growth here, where the economy is now shrinking, not expanding.
But in China, that's barely enough to keep a restless workforce employed. And the government might not be able to make its 8 percent target. Unemployment is soaring, and there's even a possibility that economic woes could lead to angry public protests like those that preceded the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Rick Newman
The global economy is mysterious, even scary. Chief Business Correspondent Rick Newman connects the dots. In addition to his writing for U.S. News, Rick is the co-author of two books: Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11, and Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Read Rick's latest blog entries here.
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