Greece Keeps Shrinking
It is hard to see how Greece can repay it sovereign debt if its economy keeps shrinking. According to several media reports including MarketWatch, “Greek gross domestic product fell by 1.5% in the second…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Barnes & Noble Settles With Burkle–To What End?
courtesy Barnes & Noble Inc.Failing bookstore company Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), maker of the also-ran e-reader, the Nook, has settled with raider Ron Burkle, who bought enough shares in the company so that…
Spotting The Lying CEO
Public company CEOs are like politicians. They love to give out good news and avoid mentioning the bad. And it may be human nature that reaches well beyond the powerful to the average person…
The American Taxpayer–Who Needs Faster Broadband?
How fast is “faster” broadband and who wants it at any speed? The FCC has proposed spending tens of billions of dollars on broadening the high-speed internet infrastructure in the US. Even the agency…
Foreclosure Activity Up 4% In July To 325,299
Looking back to early 2010, this is about the time of year many economists and real estate experts believed that the housing market would recover. GDP growth in the third quarter, they reasoned, would…
Media Digest 8/12/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: India officials met over a decision about whether to ban certain services of the Research In Motion (NYSE: RIMM) BlackBerry. Reuters: GM put together a $5 billion bank facility and will probably file…
The July Federal Budget Numbers–The Trouble Continues
The Treasury should be happy with its July 2010 budget report. The deficit fell from $180 billion in the month last year to $165 billion in the most recent month–something that the Administration can…
Google’s Robotic Defense of Android
When a reporter asked Google Inc. (GOOG) Chief Executive Eric Schmidt recently about whether the search engine giant was making money on the Android mobile phone operating system, he had a strange answer: “Trust…
Today’s Best Market Rumors 8/11/2010
Updated throughout the day. India shut down Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry service (Reuters) GM earnings will rise sharply for the second quarter 2010 (Reuters) “Spyglass Entertainment was nearing a deal to run…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Watch (8/11/2010) Trade Deficit, Yen, And China Growth
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…
At Least A Quarter Of Home Sellers Have Cut Prices
Twenty-five percent of people with homes on the market as of August 1 have cut the prices of their homes at least once according to real estate research firm Trulia. The trend has lasted…
Amazon May Push Into Tablet PCs
Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) was ambushed by Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) when Jobs & Co. launched the iPad. It was close enough in price to the Amazon Kindle and had more features. Amazon eventually dropped…
Oil Demand Predictions Revise Up For 2010 And 2011, Maybe
The International Energy Agency has revised upward its forecast for oil demand this year and next. Demand is seen at 86.6 million barrels per day in 2010 , 50,000 barrels a day higher than…
Dell, Late To The Tablet Party, Hopes To Gain
Dell Computer (NASDAQ: DELL) has been a troubled company ever since founder Michael Dell returned as CEO. The company has fallen behind rivals in PC and server sales. Other large tech firms including IBM…
US Economists Wake Up And See A Crisis
The second half of this year will be worse than the first–economically. That is what economists are saying now that they have looked at the Federal Reserve notes, the unemployment numbers, and housing data.…
A Festering Pessimism In US And Other Developed Nations
People in nations with the most developed economies are extremely pessimistic about the future financial health of their countries, according to a new poll by the global research firm Ipsos Mori. Only 18% of…
Short Sellers Exit Telecom Shares
Short sellers pulled out of telecom stocks for the period ending on July 30, after many of them reported weak earnings. Investors are gambling that most of these shares are not likely to fall…
Media Digest 8/11/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Research In Motion will share some BlackBerry code with the Saudis. Reuters: The dollar hit a 15-month low compared to the yen Reuters: India will decide whether to restrict the BlackBerry. Reuters: Dell…
Nintendo Wii Sales Hit 30 Million In US
Nintendo Wii sales have not been particularly spectacular recently. The console is aged and the Sony (NYSE SNE) PS3 and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 have new features and have sharply cut retail prices.…
As Russia Burns, Who Wins And Loses?
Russia’s worst heat wave on record is going to complicate its recovery from the worst recession in 15 years. It also may wreak havoc on many of its trading partners. Though the human toll…