US Global Competitiveness Takes A Drop
The US is no longer one of the most competitive economies in the world, according to the World Economic Forum. The United States fell two places to fourth place, overtaken by Sweden and Singapore…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Mortgage Bankers Step Up Effort To Kill Freddie And Fannie
The debate among Congress, the Administration, bankers, and financial experts has raged on since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed into the arms of the federal government. Their portfolios of bad mortgages grew so…
The Death Of Credit Cards
Government statistics have shown that for several months American have cut back on the use of credit. The news would seem to be bad for credit card companies, but there has not been much…
Media Digest (9/9/2010) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The Blue Chip Indicators cut their growth forecasts again. Reuters: Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) was fined 20 million pounds by UK authorities. Reuters: New Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) technology will speed up web…
EIA Publishes New Estimates; OPEC Produces Less Oil
The US Energy Information Administration has released its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, and it does little to raise the dim economic prospects for the rest of 2010 and 2011. The EIA has lowered its…
Apple to Sell 28 Million iPads in 2011?
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL may be on target to sell 28 million iPads next year, which would almost certainly help lift its share price and would wreak havoc on the netbook fortresses like Asus and…
Nokia CEO Kallasvuo Defies The Skeptics
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, the chief executive of Nokia Oyj (NYSE:NOK), should have been fired by now if the many media reports predicting his ouster were true. Yet, he is the headliner at the Nokia World…
Are Gold Mining Mergers Reasonable?
Unwilling to match or beat Goldcorp Inc.’s (NYSE:GG) $3.48 billion offer for Andean Resources Ltd. (OTC:ANDPF), Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE:EGO) has withdrawn from the bidding for the South American gold miner. Goldcorp’s bid valued…
Job Openings Jump Higher, But Hiring May Not
In what could be a positive bit of jobs news, job openings rose to three million in July. Whether those jobs are filled quickly is another matter entirely. The job openings rate increased over…
Mark Hurd Oracle Comp Worth A Modest $10 Million
Mark Hurd won’t make much in salary as c0-president of Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL)–only $950,000. His bonuses will be relatively modest as well. In a letter from the company: “We offer you a starting annual…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report
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 Market Rumors (9/8/2010)
Updated throughout the day. “China’s state-owned Sinochem Corp has invited Temasek, the Singapore sovereign wealth fund, to join a consortium that may bid for Canada’s Potash Corp” (Reuters) “J.C. Flowers & Co. and three…
BP Report: Blame Transocean And Halliburton
BP plc (NYSE: BP) in its internal report on the Deepwater Horizon incident made certain that there was plenty of blame to go around. It is evident that a series of complex events, rather…
The Disappearing Greek Economy
The Greek economy has begun to disappear, or more appropriately, the process has begun to happen more quickly. Greece’s 240 billion euro economy, about 2.5% of the euro zone, contracted 3.7 percent in the…
Cybercrime Victims Blame Themselves
Seventy-three percent of American have been victims of cybercrime which includes computer viruses, online credit card fraud and identity theft. Oddly enough, 54% of those victimized believe that they should have been more careful–a…
Spend And Cut Taxes: No Admission That Earlier Plans Did Not Work
President Obama has presented a series of proposals for new programs that he says will help restart the economy. The president may be absolutely right, but he knows that odds that the legislation that…
Media Digest 9/8/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Japan’s plan to intervene in yen trading has not moved the currency lower. Reuters: Oil dropped as investor moved away from risk Reuters: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) sued to keep Mark Hurd from joining…
Oracle Says Mark Hurd Does Not Beat His Dog: An Ethical Issue
Mark Hurd does not beat his dog. He did not sexually harass a Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) contractor. He would never disclose HP trade secrets to his new employer Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) despite the fact…
The Nuclear Renaissance Is Here
If Germany, where most of the public hates nuclear power, plans to extend the life of its nuclear reactors, the world has entered a new atomic age. In fact, more than 150 reactors with…
Hewlett-Packard Sues Mark Hurd (Update) For What He Will Do In The Future
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has sued former CEO Mark Hurd who has just joined rival firm Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) as a co-president and member of the board of directors. Details of the suit are not…