Like 24 million others, I received an interesting email message today from Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix. It went as follows:
Dear Bay,
I messed up. I owe you an explanation.
It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation [...]
Last week, it emerged that a rogue trader working for the Swiss Bank UBS, Kweku Adoboli, was able to bypass system checks and cause losses via rogue trades totaling $2.3 billion.
UBS is Switzerland’s biggest bank and the announcement last week by the Bank stunned the Swiss banking industry.
UBS in particular, was struggling to emerge from [...]
Prices rose in August – by 0.4%, eliciting some concern by economists about the possibility of stagflation – a combination of economic stagnation coupled with inflation.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this number alongside a 3.8% annual inflation rate.
This seasonally-adjusted increase in the all items index was broad-based, with continued increases in the indexes [...]
It seems to me the 2012 election will be a struggle for the soul of America. I also believe that the election result will determine which direction the United States goes economically and societally over the next generation.
Thus it is that Robert Reich, former U.S. Labor Secretary addresses the question, “Is Social Security a Ponzi [...]
The Department of Commerce released numbers today showing that retail sales in the U.S. stagnated in August.
U.S. seasonally adjusted retail sales for August were $389.5 billion, virtually unchanged from July. Sales for June through August 2011 were up 7.9% from the same period a year ago.
The June to July 2011 percentage change was also revised [...]
The Census Bureau today let us know something we’ve felt instinctively all year, namely that poverty is rising in the United States.
The Bureau states that in 2010, household income declined and the poverty rate increased.
The poverty rate rose to 15.1%, up from 14.3% in 2009. This is the third consecutive annual increase in poverty and [...]
A few nights ago, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress. He asked them to pass a $447 billion jobs bill designed to halt the stagnation in the U.S. economy and stave off the threat of a new recession.
Dubbing his plan the “American Jobs Act”, the President has been very very vocal in challenging [...]
As things go in Europe, the prospect of a Greek default is becoming likelier by the day.
Although French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will make a joint statement about Greece later today, this will be just one more development among many that may not prevent a Greek default.
To recap, the issue was [...]
As the declining economy drags down millions of its customers, Wal-Mart has brought back its layaway program to aid mainly poorer shoppers.
For those unfamiliar with the term, since it has been dropped by most retailers (Wal-Mart in 2006 for everything but jewellry), here’s a primer on layaway:
It’s a way to purchase an item without paying [...]
Following the recent firing of Yahoo’s CEO, Carol Bartz, the question arises as to whether Microsoft should again make an offer to buy Yahoo.
Let’s backtrack a bit to 2009 when Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer made the original offer of $44 billion for Yahoo. Under Jerry Yang, Yahoo made the fateful decision to spurn Microsoft’s offer in [...]
The number of first-time filers for unemployment benefits spiked in the week ending September 3 to 414,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 412,000.
This underlines the continuing malaise in the job market just hours before an important jobs speech by President Obama to a joint session of Congress.
The 4-week moving [...]
With the economy slowing and no jobs added last month, President Obama will make an important speech to a joint meeting of Congress tonight.
You may recall that even scheduling the speech was not without rancor as the President’s first choice of a date – yesterday – was rebuffed by House Speaker due to “security reasons”.
More [...]
Home prices in the U.S. increased by 0.8% in July 2011 compared to June 2011, the fourth consecutive month-over-month increase, according to Corelogic’s just released July Home Price Index (HPI).
However, national home prices, including distressed sales, still declined by 5.2% in July 2011 compared to July 2010 after falling by 6.0% in June 2011 compared [...]
The price of gold has continued its ascent in recent days as uncertainly in Europe grows and the US economy falters. In Europe, the future of the Eurozone is becoming more cloudy as the banks face huge pressures.
Italy is the latest country to face rising costs of borrowing as they debt levels reached an unsustainable [...]
The Department of Labor released data today showing little progress in hiring during the month of August. The number of unemployed people stayed stuck at 14 million as did the jobless rate of 9.1%.
This must be somewhat disappointing news for an administration hoping for some progress in the jobs numbers.
Some bright spots include healthcare, which [...]
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