United States

America's security concerns due to terrorism are having unwanted side effects in relations with the EU. Handelsblatt, the German newspaper is reporting that visa requirements for some EU citizens is causing the EU to retaliate with visa…

Starbucks has released the full list of the 600 stores it expects to close in the coming year. Long a Wall Street darling, Starbucks' retrenchment is very much representative of the magnitude of the slowdown we are now seeing. Apparently,…

As you know, the CPI registered a whopping 5% yesterday. Year-on-year inflation hasn't been this high since the Gulf War. So much for the 'Great Moderation.' But the increase in inflation begs another question: why are interest rates so…

The LA Times got a front row seat with one of the Bureau of Labor Statistics staffers as she drove some of her 850 miles per month to record all of the prices that eventually make their way into the CPI. This is a nuts and bolts look into…

Last month, in a post called 'Chart of the day: real hourly earnings' I said that U.S. real wage rates were lower today than they were a generation ago on the eve of the first oil hock. hat's pretty poor. Today 'UK Bubble' highlights the…

On the heels of a story about Spanish giant Santander buying Alliance & Leicester in the UK, it comes as good news in the marketplace that another Spanish giant, BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria), is on the prowl as well.After…

Zeitenwende, a German-language blog from Switzerland I subscribe to made a very good point this past holiday weekend after the Dow reached bear territory. U.S. investors had lost 20% on the Dow, but European investors would have lost much…

In the Wall Street Journal today, Ted Forstmann, of LBO giant Forstmann and Little fame, has warned that the credit crisis is far from over. Forstmann, who presciently called the bubble in High Yield ad LBO financing twenty years ago, is a…

The latest bit out from the U.S. is that the services sector has unexpectedly contracted.From Bloomberg News:U.S. service industries unexpectedly contracted in June as a gauge of prices soared to a record and employment reached an all-time…

With a slew of layoffs ranging from airlines to banking, expect both claims data and the unemployment rate to spike up substantially. This week may be the first such week as jobless claims came in at 404,000, the 2nd time over 400,000 this…