Germany’s unemployment rose again and now has been up for eight consecutive months. Once again, evidence points to Germany’s inability to isolate itself from the European recession. Germany has been unable to make up a…
Unemployment benefits have cost the federal and state governments $520 billion over the past five years, another indication that the cost to create jobs may be less than to sustain incomes for those who…
At least one very large nation has managed to keep its credit rating at current levels. S&P released a report that affirmed the AA- long-term and A-1+ short-term sovereign credit ratings on the People’s…
courtesy of Hewlett-PackardAutonomy founder Mike Lynch has decided again to attack the Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) accusation that his big data company cooked its books before the U.S. public corporation bought it. At issue,…
ThinkstockOnce again, the Treasury Department has elected not to label China as a currency manipulator. Many economists and politicians believe that action is absurd because the People’s Republic clearly controls the value of the…
ThinkstockCostco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) became the most recent company to pay out a special dividend to help its investors keep more money if taxes go up at the start of next year. Many…
ThinkstockThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued its new Economic Outlook, and most of its forecasts were based on rising pessimism. That cannot come as a surprise. The organization has watched the…
courtesy of MicrosoftIn a bit of good news for Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), one of the world’s top authorities on software claims that Windows 8 sales have exceeded those of earlier OS Vista over…
courtesy of ZyngaThe stock prices of both Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and the game company Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA), which has relied on Facebook traffic, have risen in lock-step over the past five days. Each…
ThinkstockDiscussions of how to bail out of Greece have turned rapidly to what kind of write-off investors may have to take on Greek debt as the International Monetary Fund and European Union prepare to…
Wikimedia CommonsResearch firm Comscore announced two pieces of data. The first is that Black Friday e-commerce sales rose about $1 billion for the first time ever — to $1.042 billion. The other was that…
ThinkstockThe cost of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” rose to a record level, even though most economists say there is very little inflation in the economy. The combined price of the items rose to…
thinkstockThe latest rumors about Greece’s bailout suggest that a deal will be done soon. Only last week, battles among Germany, most European Union finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund made a compromise unlikely.…
courtesy of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) bribery probe has widened. It began last April when The New York Times reported that officials of Walmart Mexico had bribed government officials to…
courtesy of AppleThe ongoing patent wars between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung have escalated yet again. Samsung now claims that Apple’s new iPad mini, its new iPod and the iPad 4 infringe on…
courtesy NintendoNintendo has struck a positive tone about the launch of its new Wii U. There is not much initial data to support whether the Japanese consumer electronics giant can make much progress against…
courtesy of SamsungSamsung will ship 61 million smartphones in the current quarter, according to the Yonhap News Agency. That is well above forecasts, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 — the notebook that competes…
courtesy of Hostess Brands Inc.Some Americans hoarded all the Hostess Twinkies they could find after the company announced plans for a liquidation that would destroy 18,000 jobs. Now, the liquidation has been put on…
ThinkstockAfter months of wrangling, disagreement and partial compromise, Greece does not have the money it needs to avoid default. The Greek government claims it has gone along with all the austerity requests of the…
courtesy of Groupon Inc.An SEC filing shows that Tiger Global has taken a 65 million share position (9.9%) in Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN). That certainly will press its shares higher, at least temporarily. Tiger is…