What’s Important in the Financial World (9/10/2012)
Any Takers for ECB Bond Buying? One of the problems with the ECB bond-buying plan, which was hailed last week as a way to help curb the borrowing costs of financially troubled nations, is…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Martha Stewart Needs to Close Its Magazine
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) faces the same dilemma many multimedia firms do: it has a print division. Print is no longer a viable medium for these firms in many cases. Though a shutdown…
Time for Heidrick’s Chairman Beattie to Take a Stand
Executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles International Inc. (NASDAQ: HSII) has been falling apart for some time now. Most shareholders and analysts believe that the blame for this belongs to CEO L. Kevin Kelly, who…
U.K. and Chinese Economies Fall Apart
The Chines and U.K. economies could hardly be more different. With capital cities over 5,000 miles apart, England remains the leading example of the old financial world, and China holds its position at the top…
Free Haircuts Will Not Save JCPenney
Wikimedia CommonsAccording to several media sources, JCPenney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) will extend its program for free children’s haircuts. The original promotion, offered in August, brought in 1.6 million takers. The sinking retailer said it…
U.S. Gas Prices Continue to Rise
Each of the two major reports of national gasoline prices shows that the cost per gallon continues to rise. This at a time when the U.S. consumer needs as much discretionary income as possible as…
Media Digest (9/10/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) loses up to $49,000 on each Chevy Volt. (Reuters) J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) may change their compensation practices. (Reuters) China posts weak…
Treasury Announces Public Offering of AIG Common Stock
AIG (NYSE: AIG) will receive the additional measure of freedom it has been seeking since the government became its majority owner in 2008.By most estimates, the federal government has staked $185 billion on the firm…
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Worries About Economy
Like any other alliance of countries assessing the global economy the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) expressed worry about Europe, but did not provide any solutions. That is one more nail in the coffin of the eurozone which…
China Factory Output Sputters–Up 8.9%
In another sign the China has moved toward a recession of sorts, its factory output pace fell last month. The National Bureau of Statistics said production increased 8.9% year-on-year in August. The rate was 9.2% in…
Apple iPhone to Work on Super-Fast Broadband World Wide — WSJ
The Wall Street Journal reports that the new Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 will work on LTE networks around the world. One of the drawbacks of the current iPhone 4S is that it does not…
US Electricity Generation Suffers Due to Drought
Well, its official – the U.S. government has acknowledged that the U.S. is in the worst drought in over 50 years, since December 1956, when about 58 percent of the contiguous U.S. was in…
The World’s Best (and Worst) Economies
For most of the 20th century, the United States has been considered the world’s economic superpower. And up until four years ago, the World Economic Forum would agree. In 2008, it ranked the U.S.…
Nations with the Highest Unemployment Rates
This week’s economic and market news headlines have been dominated largely by Mario Draghi’s bond-buying program and now by an official unemployment rate of 8.1% with only 96,000 payrolls added in the United States during August.…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/7/2012)
Updated throughout the day on the 24/7 Wall St. Wire: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will start a business to compete with Pandora (NYSE: P). (WSJ) The Senate will begin an investigation of J.P. Morgan Chase &…
Twitter Beats Facebook in Mobile Ads, but Google Dominates
At first glance, the most interesting fact in the new eMarketer study of mobile ads is that Twitter will get more revenue from this source in 2012 than Facebook will. The figure represents another example…
Nasdaq Still 2,000 Points Below Record
bfishshadow via Wikimedia CommonsThe Nasdaq Composite Index reached an intraday high of 5,132.52 on March 10, 2000, and closed an at all-time high of 5,048.62 the same day. The close yesterday was almost 2,000 points below that…
Suppose Draghi Is Superman
nationsonline.orgWith President Mario Draghi out in front, the European Central Bank announced its new bond-buying program. The organization said the “sky is the limit.” It will purchase whatever sum of sovereign paper that is necessary to keep the…
What’s Important (9/7/2012)
China’s Extraordinary Stimulus Package China has decided that what its economy needs is an extraordinary stimulus package. As its growth in gross domestic product drops toward what is likely to be 7% and its…
Media Digest (9/7/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT
Poor jobless figures may force the Fed to adopt QE3. (Reuters) BP PLC (NYSE: BP) tries to blame workers on the Deepwater Horizon for the accident that caused a huge oil spill. (Reuters) Amazon.com…