How Demand Increases Salaries
A person who graduated from Dartmouth last year was expected to make $51,600 in his or her first job. It makes sense. Dartmouth is an Ivy League school that graduates the best of the best students.…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest (9/18/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Chinese companies cut costs for items like safety features to bring down production costs. (Reuters) Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) sets a record with the sale of two million iPhones in 24 hours. (Reuters) The…
Why the U.S. Should Hold Its GM Stake
GM’s management has done a lot to badly cripple the company recently. Now, with its stock price down at least in part because of poor management decisions, GM wants the government to sell the…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/17/2012) GM Stock Sale?
Updated throughout the day on the 24/7 Wall St. Wire: General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has retained Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to review its $2.2 billion investment in Thailand-based Bank of Ayudhya. (Reuters) The Treasury…
Meg Whitman’s Audacious HP Revival Plans
Meg Whitman’s plans to revive Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) have become audacious. Various media report that she believes a more attractively designed family of PCs will bring back customers who have deserted to the…
What’s Important in the Financial World (9/17/2012)
Record iPhone 5 Preorders AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) claims the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 set a presale order record, supporting news over the weekend that even Apple itself is sold out. The news confirms…
Occupy Spain Protests
The Occupy Wall Street movement celebrated its first anniversary today without much to cheer. After a strong start, the whole effort sputtered out. There was not enough anger and determination to carry the protests forward.…
Did the U.S. Subsidize Its Car Industry as Much as China?
Three pieces of news came out of the auto industry recently. The first involves the decision of the Canadian Auto Workers union to target Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) in its negotiations over jobs and…
Can Activists Save the Office Products Business? No
Can the activist Starboard Value L.P. fund run Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP) better than its management or the managements of competitors Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) or Office Max Inc. (NYSE: OMX) have been able to run…
Media Digest (9/17/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
A government investigation into J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) focuses on whether its monitoring of illicit money transactions was adequate. (Reuters) The U.S. will initiate a case at the WTO against China for…
China GDP to Grow 7.7% to 7.8% — Economic Projection Department
It may seem nearly impossible to believe, based on China’s poor PMI data and slowing GDP growth rate, but one expert in the People’s Republic expects economic expansion to pick up again. Outside experts, which…
U.K. Could Oppose EADS Deal with BAE
Senior members of the U.K. government have told the Sunday Telegraph that the EADS “merger” with BAE could be challenged in Parliament. The deal is already controversial because it might create a new monopoly in parts of…
Richmond Fed President Lacker Attacks QE3
The most vocal opponent of QE3, Richmond Fed President Lacker, went so far as to issue a press release on the website of the Richmond Federal Reserve explaining why he opposed the monetary plan…
ITC Rules for Apple and Against Samsung
The International Trade Commission ruled in Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) favor in a patent dispute bought by arch-rival Samsung. Suits have gone back and forth between the two companies around the world as each…
Crude Surges Above $100
The price of NYMEX traded crude moved above $100, on the heels of the Fed’s QE3 announcement and civil unrest in the Middle East — much of its against U.S. interests. The price reached an intraday high of $100.42.…
NTSB Warns of Problems with GE Jet Engines
In a blow to GE’s (NYSE: GE) huge jet engine division, The National Transportation Safety Board issued two urgent safety recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding two recent occurrences in which the fan…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/14/2012) Apple Sold Out
Updated throughout the day on the 24/7 Wall St. Wire: Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 preorder inventory is sold out. (Reuters) Nintendo will price the entry level Wii U at below $300. (Guardian)…
What’s Important in the Financial World (9/14/2012)
EU Finance Ministers Meet The financial ministers of the euro area will meet over the next two days. There is a very wide range of topics that they might discuss. The gathering should begin with some…
The 10 Poorest Countries in the World
According to 2011 data released on Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, 15% of individuals in the United States live below the poverty line. While down from 15.1% last year, it remains statistically unchanged…
The Fed’s Deep Pessimism About Some Jobs
At the core of the Federal Reserve evaluation of the economy as it embarks on QE3 sits its forecast for job creation. The “central tendency” figures in the forecast from the Federal Open Market Committee…