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markets
by leon on April 30, 2009
With the US economy convulsing in its sharpest contraction since 1958. down 6.1%, the Fed now seems to be sitting on the side lines. In its latest statement, the Fed said the economic outlook had imp...
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Information About
, risk
by leon on April 30, 2009
With the World Health Organization promoting swine flu to level five of its six-level pandemic alert and warnings in The Economist that there is little hope of having enough antiviral treatments for...
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strategy
by leon on April 30, 2009
What do pirates have to do with economics? Plenty, according to economist Peter Leeson in his book The Invisible Hook.Leeson starts out looking at the most fundamental of economic texts from the 17th...
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strategy
by leon on April 29, 2009
So Fox has announced it won't screen Barack Obama's prime time news conference and will instead screen the scheduled drama Lie To Me.Variety magazine says it's a matter of economics. It&#...
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markets
by leon on April 28, 2009
Is TV becoming a thing of the past? And is the recession changing our buying patterns? New research from the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends project suggests that yesterday&...
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markets
by leon on April 28, 2009
So world markets have been hammered by the swine flu outbreak with airlines leading the charge. The New York Times reports that countries are now tightening their borders and the World Health Organis...
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Ethics
by leon on April 27, 2009
Bankers and finance executives might have brought the world to its knees but they haven't learned their lesson. They reckon they're victims.In this striking piece from New York magazine, The ...
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markets
by leon on April 27, 2009
Anyone who thinks we have seen the worst of the recession should think again. Dr Doom, Nouriel Roubini says we haven't even hit the bottom yet.In this interview with Newsweek, Roubini says the ec...
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executive pay
by leon on April 26, 2009
The banks are imploding but that hasn't stopped the bankers raking in massive bonuses. Just what they're being rewarded for is anyone's guess.The New York Times reports that six of the bi...
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regulators
by leon on April 25, 2009
While the Federal Reserve says most US banks are well capitalized and will be okay in these stress tests, chances are the public and investors will still have to confront the n-word. Nationalization ...
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risk
by leon on April 25, 2009
While some say the global economy is going to pick up and the signs are looking good, the train is a long way down the track. In fact, the optimism might even be dangerous.Harvard economist Kenneth R...
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markets
by leon on April 23, 2009
There are forecasts that even if markets start growing again, unemployment will continue to escalate.That's borne out in the latest Bain executive survey, published in the Harvard Business review...
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markets
by leon on April 23, 2009
How much are economists to blame for the financial crisis? Most of them, with perhaps the exception of Nouriel Roubini and Robert Shiller, failed to see the weaknesses in financial markets. They just...
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markets
by leon on April 22, 2009
Should we read anything into the gyrations of the Dow Jones industrial average? Should we take heart when the market starts trading higher? If the experts are right, it's just a sucker's rall...
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markets
by leon on April 22, 2009
For the environmentalist who has everything.Back-to-Earth burials, low- energy, low-emission cremations, cardboard coffins and back-to-Earth burials and scattering cremated remains in state parks are...
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regulators
by leon on April 21, 2009
Earlier this month, I did a blog entry looking at how the TARP cop Neil Barofsky bemoaning the lack of accountability for the bailout funds being put up by US taxpayers.Clearly, the system is open to...
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markets
by leon on April 21, 2009
I really don't know what drives US markets sometimes. Today we had a Bloomberg report where US Treasury was called in to deny a blog report that 16 of the 19 banks being stress tested are insolve...
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risk
by leon on April 20, 2009
Dire warnings from Energy Secretary Steven Chu that some islands in the Caribbean will disappear and that Louisiana and even northern California could be overrun with rising water as a result of glob...
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regulators
by leon on April 20, 2009
Earlier this year, I did a blog entry looking at how the Obama administration was opening the door to nationalizing banks where the US government is repaid with common stock giving it a stake in the ...
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markets
by leon on April 19, 2009
While Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn suggests that the worst of the recession might be over, the impact of the economic catastrophe is likely to last for some time. With unemployment figur...
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risk
by leon on April 18, 2009
Say goodbye to Avis/Budget, Borders, AIG, Esquire Magazine, Chrysler and Palm. These are some of the brands that will be killed by the recession and that won't survive until the end of next year....
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markets
by leon on April 17, 2009
Can search engines predict economic trends? Yes they can, according to a new study which finds that the frequency with which people use certain phrases can predict trends like retail sales figures, c...
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markets
by leon on April 17, 2009
So the International Monetary Fund warns that this recession will be around for some time. So what implications does that have for society? How will that shape the way we live?In its latest report, t...
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markets
by leon on April 17, 2009
Interesting piece from Wharton on the psychology behind the financial crisis. It makes the point that the crisis was underpinned by a mix of optimism and delusion, which created the bubble in the fir...
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litigation
by leon on April 17, 2009
Fascinating to watch Woody Allen's court battle with clothing manufacturing behemoth American Apparel. As reported here, the comedian has sued the company after it posted billboards in New York a...
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markets
by leon on April 15, 2009
Is the United States becoming like Russia?Yes, that's the case says MIT management professor Simon Johnson. His piece in the Atlantic Monthly argues that the finance industry has effectively capt...
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SOX
by leon on April 15, 2009
Extraordinary that the debate about the impact of Sarbanes Oxley on IPOs still continues almost seven years after it was introduced. Particularly in this economic climate.Last week, The Wall Street J...
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regulators
by leon on April 14, 2009
The US jail system continues to grow with the latest Department of Justice figures showing 2.4 million Americans were now behind bars. While the rate is slowing, it's still growing.Is it any wond...
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corporate crime
by leon on April 14, 2009
Let's spare a thought for the Madoffs.Facing the prospect of a lengthy spell in the slammer, Bernard Madoff's niece has just a hired a consultant to teach her how to survive in jail and, if p...
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Ethics
by leon on April 14, 2009
McDonalds, Starbucks and Nike are named on Ethisphere's list of the the world's most ethical companies for 2009.Now, there might be a few problems with the methodology, starting with the fact...
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markets
by leon on April 13, 2009
Last week, we saw President Obama expressing some guarded optimism with the US economy and declaring that there were "glimmers of hope".that coincides with economists surveyed by The Wall S...
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litigation
by leon on April 13, 2009
Oh dear, such a sensitive lot at Goldman Sachs. They are a somewhat thin-skinned about Florida blogger Mike Morgan's site www.goldmansachs666.com.With headlines like Did Lloyd Blankfein of Goldma...
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regulators
by leon on April 11, 2009
First, we had Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke talking about "green shoots" and how the recession will come to an end this year. Now we have Lawrence Summers, director of the White Hou...
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markets
by leon on April 11, 2009
Despite the global recession, flower sales and Easter baskets are doing great business.The Economist reports that while overall flower sales are down slightly, selling tulips is a thriving business. ...
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strategy
by leon on April 10, 2009
Last year, I did a blog entry looking at the way consumer patterns have changed in the recession. The earlier this year, I did a piece looking at thrift chic, the latest trend where people are embrac...
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risk
by leon on April 9, 2009
The airline industry goes from bad to worse. A crumbling global economy means fewer seats on planes declining profits for the world's biggest airlines.More details here.The big problem lies in th...
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strategy
by leon on April 9, 2009
What are the secrets of the downturn leader? What sort of strategies are needed during a recession. I identify 10 of them in my piece here.The 10 secrets are communication, keeping up staff morale, m...
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markets
by leon on April 8, 2009
Don't listen to the talk about "green shoots" in the US economy. Dr Doom, Nouriel Roubini, is expecting more bad news. All the stimulus packages are doing, he says, is slowing down the ...
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risk
by leon on April 8, 2009
If you're a boss in France, you better pack some clean underpants when you go into work. The latest poll shows that nearly half the French population think it's fine to kidnap the boss in pro...
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strategy
by leon on April 7, 2009
It had to happen. USA Today reports how cash strapped communities have taken a Depression era idea and started printing their own money. Ylu buy it at a discount and spend it at stores that accept cu...
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regulators
by leon on April 7, 2009
The financial crisis is more than just a global recession. It's a Panic, according to Kevin Warsh, a member of the Board of Governors of the federal reserve system.In a speech to the Council of I...
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markets
by leon on April 7, 2009
Plenty of speculation at the moment that Google wants to buy Twitter. Or for that matter, Rupert Murdoch.Twitter's co-founder Biz Stone has left the markets guessing, playing it both ways, claimi...
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regulators
by leon on April 6, 2009
Last week, I did a blog entry bemoaning the lack of oversight into the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailouts. Some of the banks have not been able to say where the money has gone.Now, the US ...
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Accounting
by leon on April 6, 2009
As if last week's ruling the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which I have renamed the Fake Accounting Standards Board, wasn't bad enough. The FASB has ruled that companies can us...
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risk
by leon on April 5, 2009
More fallout from the Financial Accounting Standard Board's latest attempt to make the banks happy. From now on, it should be called the Fake Accounting Standards Board.As Peter Schiff, the CEO o...
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corporate crime
by leon on April 5, 2009
Hard to go past this hilarious Woody Allen story in the New Yorker about how investors, who came back into world as lobsters, take their revenge on a hapless Bernard Madoff at a swank Upper East Side...
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executive pay
by leon on April 4, 2009
Don't for a second think that the fat cats on Wall Street are doing it tough.The Wall Street Journal tells us that the pay of the people who have brought America to its knees has gone done 3.4% t...
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Accounting
, Information About
by leon on April 4, 2009
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown might proclaim the G20 summit as the beginning of a "new world order" but the reality is the financial crisis will be around for some time yet. Don't...
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regulators
by leon on April 2, 2009
In testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Neil Barofsky there were $3 trillion worth of bailout programs, the equivalent of ...
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risk
by leon on April 2, 2009
Last week, I did a blog entry asking whether the Internet was shattering the advertising industryWell, if it's not the Internet, it's certainly the recession. The Wall Street Journal reports ...
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markets
by leon on April 1, 2009
With Conrad Black's Sun-Times Media filing for bankruptcy, the Paper Cuts blog estimating that the newspaper closures have resulted in the loss of nearly 8000 jobs and with GM and Chrysler headin...
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markets
by leon on April 1, 2009
And so General Motors will be eased into bankruptcy.The New York Times reports it will be a controlled bankruptcy, essentially splitting the company in two much like the "good" and "ba...
