Archive for January, 2009
GDP Sees Biggest Drop in 27 Years
Just in from Reuters: By Lucia Mutikani |Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:33am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economy shrank at its fastest pace in nearly 27 years in the fourth quarter, government data showed on Friday, sinking deeper into recession as consumers and business cut spending. In a report that showed a broad-based contraction nearly ...Read more.
More AIG Bailout Bonus Bonanza
Back in November we reported that AIG had decided to give a reported half billion dollars and change to its top executives to retain the services of the financial geniuses who drove the company to ruin and forced a $150 billion bailout. So today’s news should come as little surprise. Bloomberg.com reports that the earlier ...Read more.
Airlines In Tailspin
From the Financial Times: The airline industry reported on Thursday an “unprecedented and shocking” plunge in global air cargo traffic. Air freight accounts for 35 per cent of the value of goods traded internationally and the International Air Transport Association said traffic volumes had fallen by 22.6 per cent year-on-year in December. Giovanni Bisignani, Iata ...Read more.
CEOs Want To Use Bailout $$ To Bust Unions
Great post from In One Ear and Out the Other: Regardless of how you feel about the Employee Free Choice Act, you should be outraged that recipients of the bail-out are using that money to lobby Congress against the measure. Wikileaks managed to get its hand on an hour long phone call between some “Captains ...Read more.
What's the Matter with Michigan?
What’s the Matter with Michigan? The Rise and Collapse of an Economic Wonder Mason Gaffney, Groundswell Nov-Dec 2008 (posted 1/29/09) During the Golden Age of Georgist Progressives, roughly 1890 to 1935, lower Michigan stands out as one of the great success stories. Detroit Mayor, then Governor, Hazen Pingree pushed single tax principles. He reformed assessments ...Read more.
Kristof: Apologist for Sweatshops
When I saw Nicholas Kristof’s column on sweatshops last week (Where Sweatshops Are a Dream), I just rolled my eyes, since this is an argument that he has been making for years now. I was pleased to see that there were so many letters lambasting him a few days later. The one I liked best ...Read more.
Closures and Layoffs: Jan 25-31
From Mark Heschmeyer at CoStar. Caterpillar, Microsoft, Home Depot Layoff Tally Tops 32,000 A Weekly Report on Future Corporate Downsizings By Mark Heschmeyer | January 29, 2009 In this week’s issue: Caterpillar levels 20,000 jobs. Home Depot shuttering stores; cutting 7,000 jobs. Microsoft to lay off 5,000; halts data center project, office lease talks. Plus, ...Read more.
French Strike over Economic Crisis
From Reuters, via TV New Zealand. Hat-tip to Bob F. No mention of Sarkozy getting bitten by his dog (did anyone else hear about that, or did I make it up?). Hundreds of thousands of French workers staged a nationwide strike to try to force President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to ...Read more.
Jeff Sachs: But on the other hand…
Yesterday we posted Jeffrey Sachs’ op-ed in The Guardian (U.K.) congratulating Obama for his genius in using the current crisis as an opportunity to reshape U.S. capitalism toward public investment and a centrally planned transformation to new technologies. Thanks to Lynn Fries for pointing out that just one day earlier, Sachs had come down hard ...Read more.
Investors Can't Bank on Capital
Interesting commentary from Bloomberg; hat-tip to Larry P. Commentary by David Reilly (Bloomberg) Jan. 28—Sheila Bair shouldn’t try to jawbone these markets. The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. declared during a television interview last week that “98 percent of all banks are well capitalized.” Technically, she is right, since regulatory capital is different ...Read more.
