The US housing market continues to collapse at a breathtaking pace despite a minor improvement in unemployment and record low mortgage rates Fiserv Case-Shiller reports that average US home prices are now a third below 2006…
Bricks-and-mortar stores have been concerned for some time that their shoppers would come to their stores, find products, and then go online to get the best prices. Store, in essence, has started to become…
Data held by Megaupload users may find that all of it could be deleted. The data is a combination of legitately sourced data and pirated files shared online. Megaupload says it has one billion…
Did Kindle Fires sales reach 6 million last quarter. Maybe. But, the figure is based on the opinion of only one analyst, which makes it thin. Another three or four analysts who cover Amazon.com probably have…
Carrefour is not as large as Walmart but it is large enough to be a proxy for retail sales in its home market of Europe. And, Europe is done badly Carrefour appointed a new CEO. Whether that…
Many economists segment the US employment pool into three pieces–large business, small businesses, and government. It has been broadly believed that job creation at small companies drives the size of the work force more than…
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) sold 37 million iPhones in its last competed quarter. Most analysts could hardly believe it. The consensus on Wall St was close to 30 million Apple still has two huge untapped…
As more and more citizens in financially weak EU nations try to buck off austerity, the political problem has become worse, or nearly as bad, and the financial one. There are concerns that France’s ruling…
Just because certain products have a low price tag does not mean they cannot sell for billions of dollars. In fact, some of the cheapest products make the most money for their companies. 24/7…
German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler wants an outside institution to control Greece’s budget. He claims the Greeks have proven they cannot enforce their own austerity plans. Evangelos Venizelos, the Finance Minister of Greece, released an…
EU leaders want to put aside as much as 22 billion euro to stimulate youth employment in the region. The sum is not likely to be enough because more than 5 million young people…
A number of media have accused Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) of using Chinese companies whose laborers are treated harshly by their employers as they make iPads and iPhones. Some writers have called for boycott. While a boycott may be…
There is still no settlement between Greece and the private investors who hold its debt. Greece also faces a call from Germany to have an independent agency supervise its budget. The Greek government voiced a…
EU leaders agree to create the European Stability Mechanism, which will have funds of 500 billion euro and begin its business in July. (Reuters) EU leaders probably will create a 20 billion euro fund…
In another sign that Italy may have fallen into recession, business confidence dropped in January. There are worries that Italy’s debt loan cannot be paid down if its economy falters and austerity pulls stimulus from…
Royal Dutch Philips is one of the largest companies in Europe and produces and sells a very broad array of products. That makes it a reasonable proxy for the global economy, much the way…
China wants to bring the trading of its currency “in house” and out of the hands of traders in the West and Japan. It makes sense. Why not control trading of your own currency?…
“Phishing”, the illegitimate use of email to trick recipients into a scam or other action that might harm them financially, has been a problem nearly since email was invented. There have been a number of…
RBS CEO Stephen Hester joined the ranks of financial firm chiefs who have been attacked for out-sized compensation packages. Opponents argue that bailed out firms should not pay their managements well. The reaction to comp…
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner says he may insist that a new highway bill be linked to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline meant to carry oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf…