Social Security Sends Nearly 72,000 Checks To The Dead
A new report from the Social Security Office of the Inspector General says that the agency sent nearly 89,000 checks for $250 each to people who were dead or in prison. The payments were…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Moody’s May Upgrade China As It Downgrades The World
Moody’s says it may upgrade the sovereign rating of China from its current A1 level. That would put it on a fast track to match the levels of several other European nations with faltering…
Media Digest (10/8/2010) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The federal government will supply states with $1.5 billion in funds for small businesses. Reuters: Financial leaders around the world have begun to work to stop a currency war. Reuters: Japan will continue…
Good News/Bad News About The Holiday Season
With the start of the baseball playoffs and football season, investors are starting to look past Halloween to the December holidays. So far, they are liking what they are seeing. Retail sales rose in…
The Gold Mania That Never Was
Sometime in 2010, gold fever became gold mania and then a gold panic. Now comes word from Brett Arends of the Wall Street Journal that that many investors are sitting on the sidelines. In…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report 10/7/2010 Gold & Jobless Claims
Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million…
Today’s Best Marker Movers 10/7/2010 iPhone Again
Updated throughout the day Verizon Wireless will offer the Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone next year (WSJ) Man Group shares rose on takeover speculation (Bloomberg) Douglas A. McIntyre
Poverty Threatens The Suburbs
Poverty is supposed to be primarily an urban problem. Many believe cities are home to the chronically unemployed and minorities and young people, who traditionally find it hard to get jobs in a recession.…
The World Gets To Sweat Oil Prices Again As Crude Move Toward $85
Oil prices came close to $84 today. The cost per barrel has moved up relentlessly for three weeks. It was only two months ago that light crude priced at just above $70 on the…
Panasonic Wants Back In The Video Game Business
Panasonic wants to join Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Sony (NYSE: SNE), and Nintendo as a large provider of video game consoles. It will launch a product into that market called “Jungle.” The Wall Street Journal…
China Asks The World Not To Beat The Yuan
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has told European leaders that if they join the US in an effort to devalue the yuan that all will regret the decision. “I say to Europe’s leaders: don’t join…
iPhone, Android, And 4G: Will People Carry Two Phones?
Verizon Wireless will begin to market the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone next year, if media reports are correct. The large cellular provider will also launch a super-fast 4G LTE wireless network in 38…
Stocks That Have Risen From The Dead
As investors ready themselves for Halloween, images of the macabre are hard to escape. The stock market also is filled with death metaphors. Companies SLASH costs and stocks are PUMMELED by bad news. Meanwhile,…
Google Loses To Apple And RIM In Mobile OS Market Share
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not the number 1 mobile operating system used in smartphones in the US. It is not number 2. Google is now in third place with only 19.6% of the mobile…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (10/6/2010) Rio Deal Falls Apart, Red Sox M&A
Updated throughout the day. BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) will kill an iron ore joint venture. (Sydney Morning Herald) Liverpool F.C. has agreed to sell itself to New England Sports…
Fitch Downgrades Ireland, Higher Taxes Unavoidable
Moody’s recently downgraded Ireland’s debt. Now Fitch has done the same, which makes a restructuring of the nation’s individual and corporate tax rates inevitable. The government cannot cut costs enough to make up for…
ADP Data Confirms Jobs Trouble
On the heels of disappointing news from Challenger, Gray & Christmas about planned lay-offs in September, ADP issued equally bleak news. Private-sector employment decreased by 39,000 from August to September on a seasonally adjusted…
September Layoffs Rise
The downward trend in layoffs is over. Employers announced plans to cut 37,151 jobs during the month, a 7% increase from the 34,768 job,cuts reported in August, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. For…
HP To Launch New Handsets Into Jaws Of Competive Market
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) made a mistake when it bought Palm. It is about to make a much more costly mistake in launching a series of smartphones that run the rickety Palm webOS, scheduled for…
Costco’s Magnificent Recovery
The results of Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) for the September quarter were impressive, even if they are already priced into the retailer’s shares. Net sales for the fiscal 2010 fourth quarter, the 16 weeks…