January 2009

Stories I'm watching on this Wednesday: Report: Chrysler in talks to sell most of itself and end its post-Daimler solo run Shades of GM: Citigroup sells its most valuable asset. The question is now: which of the storied Wall Street names goes away - Morgan Stanley or Smith Barney? Yahoo! hoping for a little "Bartz magic."   Autodesk was one of the best performing stocks in the S&P ... read more

Stories I'm watching this Tuesday: Waiting for Madoff trial?  You may wait forever as his lawyer seeks plea deal Madoff not only remains in his elegant penthouse but he does it in very expensive clothes Bad sign for economy?  Two leading indicator companies give lousy quarter Seeking Alpha: Hold off buying that house, mortgage rates may fall to 3.5% Ah, ... read more

Stories I'm watching this Monday: Bernie Madoff remains free on bail, can stay in his multi-million dollar apartment 3.6 million new jobs?   Major economic group says that may need to be 5.6 million since another 2 million jobs may be lost Citigroup may still need more capital, likely to sell most of its Smith Barney unit BusinessWeek makes the case for tax cuts Circuit City ... read more

Stories I'm watching over the weekend: Obama details his jobs plan (see my previous blog entry) Some commentators are already criticizing parts of the plan, saying the tax changes won't work Citibank's run as one giant company may be coming to an end Need a job?  Move to D.C. State of California finally starts to get serious about cost cuts; ... read more

Here come the jobs.   And they rely on two big things: construction and a consumer turnaround. This weekend President-elect Barack Obama unveiled more specifics about his proposed plan to create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.  That is an ambitious goal and has understandably faced skepticism, especially without specifics on how this would happen.     We now have a more ... read more

The economy is sick and only big government has the medicine. That was the primary message in a economy-focused speech today by Barack Obama.   It was a speech perhaps written to try and instill consumer confidence, though the message came through as one more of economic fear that will lead us to accept tax increases and bigger government.   You would've thought the President-elect ... read more

Today Barack Obama will give what he is calling a "major" speech on the economy.   The Wall St Journal has a preview of some of his prepared remarks.   That should occur around 11:00am ET.   Obama has said that the deficit could reach more than $1 trillion dollars.  With nearly daily speeches on the economy and announcements of job appointments one wonders when when the President-Elect ... read more

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave Fox Business the first interview from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas ahead of his keynote address.    This is the first televised interview Ballmer has done in months and the first since the economy took a major downturn. We asked him about what Microsoft was unveiling from the show, the economy and his future plans. ... read more

Stories I'm watching this Wednesday: Congressional Budget Office scares the heck out of everyone, sees recession lasting all year, deficit topping $1 trillion and unemployment climbing to more than 9% by 2010 Economic damages turns personal (again) as real estate executive kills himself Family Dollar proves Wal-Mart doesn't have monopoly on recession ... read more

Thanks to the following from the always excellent blog by Harvard Professor and former White House Council of Economic Advisors Chairman Greg Mankiw for finding the data behind the tax debate.   Pretty clear where the "shares" truly lie. Here is a link to the official report from the Cogressional Budget Office Here are the total effective federal tax rates for 2005, the most recent year ... read more