Economy

The U.S. government is throwing money at the financial sector like nobody's business. The latest salvo in this ridiculous affair comes in the form of more money for AIG. Rather than prattle on about how shambolic the U.S. bailout has…

After stalling at 6.1% in September, the U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 6.5%. This was a truly ugly report as we saw payrolls go down by 240,000 - more than forecast and September was revised up significantly from 169,000 to 284,000.…

Tomorrow is the day that we get a big piece of the data puzzle for the U.S. when the unemployment report is released. Most economists are expecting something very ugly with over 200,000 jobs lost. In the interim, we might be able to use…

Barack Obama promises to make some dramatic changes in U.S. foreign policy after eight years of a neo-conservative agenda. The question really is what would those changes be. Below, David Ignatius outlines a reasonable argument that Obama…

The Bank of England has cut interest rates to 3%, a 1 1/2 point cut. Just weeks ago, the BoE Governor Mervyn King was writing to the Government explaining how they had let inflation run out of control. However, with the economy tanking,…

This past week I have been particularly distracted by the political headlines in the run-up to the U.S. Presidential election, so I apologize if I have missed a few stories in the financial press.The writedowns do continue unabated and we…

Teddy Forstmann, one of the co-Founders of LBO giant Forstmann Little & Company, sounded the alarm earlier this year on the credit crisis. In an article from the Wall Street Journal that I chronicled here, Forstmann warned of impended…

Barack Obama has won the U.S. presidential election in convincing fashion. While I am clearly not a liberal nor a Democrat, I am pleased with the election's outcome. It signals a new beginning - a new era in American politics and in…

Source 2008 Political Landscape Map - Washington Post

If you were not convinced about the severity of the present recession in the United States before, then the ISM Manufacturing index data for October will serve as a wake-up call. The index plunged to the deep recessionary level of 38.9…