American Consumer Circa 1973
There may be some continued hope among the ludicrously optimistic that the current economic conditions will lead to a "soft landing" making it look a bit like most recent slow periods. The GDP dips…
Archive
Year: 2008
All Year: 2008 Articles
Newest first · Page 141Another Stent Failure For Boston Scientific (BSX)
Investors have another reason to bail out of Boston Scientific (BSX). It has been in a battle with the medical research community for over a year fighting the perception that its drug-coated stents may…
China’s Boat Gets Slower, US Economy To Benefit
The hopes of the Chinese central government that its economy can avoid a recession fade with each passing month. The CLSA China Purchasing Managers Index was unusually weak in August. According to MarketWatch "The…
Apple (AAPL) Get Closer To China
As Apple (AAPL) moves into India and Russia, it still needs an official foothold in the largest cellular market–China. On the mainland there are over 500 million cellular accounts. The consumer electronics company may…
Alitalia: US Airlines Are Not Off The Hook (AMR)(UAUA)(NWA)
Alitalia went belly up over the weekend. The causes were the same as for most recent airline failures. Fuel is too high, and do are debt-loads. Passenger traffic is being undermined by a slowing…
Gustav And OPEC Conspire To Alter Oil’s Math
With Gustav shutting most of the oil and gas production out of the Gulf of Mexico, it is unavoidable that prices for the commodities will rise. The US government will probably open the Strategic…
Media Digest 9/1/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, Hurricane Gustave is heading toward New Orleans after shutting down most oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Reuters reports that Commerzbank will buy Dresdner Bank for $14.5 billion. Reuters reports…
OPEC: No Production Increase
The people at OPEC don’t seem to worry about an interruption of oil supply at all, whether it is from the weather or falling production from large countries like Indonesia. The cartel has no…
Middle East Sovereign Funds May Invest In Lehman (LEH)
Through the weekend the management of Lehman (LEH) is desperately meeting with any investors who will hear its case. According to the Telegraph, these includes Korea Development Bank, Chinese broker Citic Securities, and "a…
UK: Worst Recession In 60 Years
If the US economy looks anything like the one in the UK, Americans should brace for the worst recession since WW II. That would probably mean unemployment of close to 15% and negative GDP…
Gustav And $5 Gas
The media is trying to make the case that Hurricane Gustav could drive gas prices back up, perhaps beyond mid-year levels and toward $5. The argument is fairly simple. When Katrina hit the Gulf…
The Five Stocks To Buy After Labor Day (VZ)(F)(LEH)(BA)(GE)
There was some ray of hope that the second half of the year would be OK when the government revised GDP up 2.2% for the second quarter. A number of economists looked at the…
Will Gustav Raise or Lower Crude Prices? (XOM, RIG, RDS, COP, CVX)
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 forced a halt to about 25% of US oil and natural gas production. Now Tropical Storm Gustav, which is predicted to gain hurricane status by the weekend, is…
Official Word: Economy Is A Mess
The federal government finally discovered what everyone already knew. The economy has gone to hell in a hand-basket. Personal income fell 0.7 percent in the month, the sharpest decline since a 2.3 percent plunge…
24/7 Wall St. Most Overpaid CEO Of The Day: Dell (DELL) CEO Michael Dell
Poor Michael Dell, CEO of Dell (DELL), only made $2.3 million last year. Of course, he is a billionaire and owns over 227 million shares in the company he runs. His shareholders have not…