Economy

November 13, 2008

Vital Signs: More Gloomy Economic Reports Are Coming

Get ready for more dismal October economic data this week. It begins with industrial production, moves on to housing starts, and ends with the leading indicators ...

November 7, 2008

Around the Street: Labor Pains Worsen

Confirming Wall Street's fears, the U.S. employment report for October, released Nov. 7, showed a worse-than-expected pace of job losses for the U.S. economy. Nonfarm ...

November 7, 2008

Stocks Higher after Jobs, Inventory Data

U.S. stocks moved solidly higher Friday as a weak jobs report failed to prevent a rebound from steep declines earlier in the week. Some observers argue that Friday's ...

November 6, 2008

Vital Signs: Business Activity Shows a Deepening Recession

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks in both politics and the economy. The data are starting to make it clear that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit the ...

November 6, 2008

The Rise of the Super-Discounters

As the U.S. faces a serious economic downturn, many Americans are seeking out the cheapest possible option when buying necessities. Enter ultra-discounters like Dollar...

November 6, 2008

U.S. Job Losses Poised to Accelerate in October

The October U.S. employment report, scheduled for release Nov. 7, should prove the worst one yet for the current downturn, and will set the stage for the degree of ...

November 6, 2008

Stocks Slammed for a Second Straight Day

U.S. stocks on Thursday extended the steep losses from the previous session, with the Dow industrials logging a second straight decline of over 400 points. A negative ...

November 4, 2008

The Bailout: More Changes, More Questions

Is it too soon to wonder whether the government's $700 billion financial rescue program has gone off track? The U.S. Treasury has taken a lot of flack in the past few ...

November 4, 2008

Stocks: Reading the Post-Election Landscape

Investors will be spending the morning after the election of a new U.S. President figuring out what it means for their investments and the stock market as a whole. (At...

November 3, 2008

Around the Street: The Election Heats Up, the Economy Cools

We're almost there. The U.S. Presidential contest between Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) marked its final full day on Nov. 3 before U.S. ...

November 1, 2008

Better Off? Probably Not

"Are you better off?" It's a question the candidate of the challenging party asks during each Presidential campaign. The economy, of course, is the No. 1 issue this ...

October 30, 2008

Vital Signs: Employment Outlook Gets Gloomier

It’s election week, and investors will finally get a look at the political backdrop the markets will be facing for the next few years. However, as important as that ...

October 30, 2008

Memo to the Fed: Pace Rate Hikes Carefully

In June 2004, Alan Greenspan—remember him?—raised the fed funds rate target from 1% to 1.25%. As BusinessWeek wrote at the time, the then-Federal Reserve ...

October 30, 2008

Around the Street: GDP Drop Confirms the Fed's Gloom

The Federal Reserve said in its Oct. 29 policy statement that "[t]he pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly," and a look at the U.S. third-quarter ...

October 28, 2008

Around the Street: Tracking the Fed's Moves

One phrase you probably haven't been hearing in recent weeks: "do-nothing central banker". The U.S. Federal Reserve and its counterparts have been busy slashing rates,...

October 24, 2008

Five Myths About the Election and the Stock Market

For the first time in 76 years, a financial crisis is occurring at the same time as a Presidential election. Based on recent polls, the coincidence seems to have ...

October 23, 2008

Credit Markets: Finding the Weakest Links

Jacinto Torres, an associate director of S&P Rating Services, contributed to this report. Who are the "weakest links" in the global debt market? At Standard & Poor's ...

October 20, 2008

Around the Street: Stocks' $8 Trillion Haircut

Feeling poorer these days? Between the big hit to the stock market and declining real estate values, consumers appear ready to shut their wallets, based on recent data...

October 18, 2008

The Financial Crisis Blame Game

Tune in to Anderson Cooper on CNN and watch as he counts down the "10 Most Wanted Culprits of the Collapse." Pick up the New York Post and read about FBI ...

October 17, 2008

How Low Can We Go?

The economy will likely suffer a moderate, but long recession, and a sluggish recovery, according to S&P Economics. From the December 2007 peak to a trough in May ...

October 17, 2008

A Volatile Market, a Vulnerable Economy

The stock market's head-snapping volatility continues, with the Dow Jones industrial average posting an 800-point swing during the Oct. 16 session, ultimately ...

October 16, 2008

Vital Signs: Weak Economy Weighs on Profits

In the coming weeks, faint-hearted investors need not apply. Two imposing questions are weighing on the minds of all market players right now: Will the efforts by ...

October 15, 2008

Financial Crisis Slams Retail, Manufacturing

If there were any doubts that a sizable credit market jolt is now rippling through the U.S. economy, reports on September U.S. retail sales and the October Empire ...

October 15, 2008

Banks: The Fight over Fair Value

The current market disruption has triggered a chorus of complaints from many financial institutions and other market participants about the effect of fair value ...

October 14, 2008

Paulson's $250 Billion Bank Deposit

The first salvo in the U.S. government's battle to repair the nation's battered banking system featured a staggering amount of financial firepower. On Oct. 14, ...