A lot of people agree with me in thinking the Paulson-Bernanke bailout plan needs to be thought out a lot more before it’s given the go-ahead. Seems obvious and it looks like it’s going to happen. Newt Gingrich says that conservatives in Congress are confused by the fact that it’s a Republican administration’s proposal: If…
Category: Business
Wal-Mart and Unions
The Wall Street Journal says that Wal-Mart is getting the word out to employees that electing Barack Obama would be bad for business and increase the likelihood of unions taking over in the companies stores. Both of these changes would be hazardous to employees’ future job prospects, the company insinuates. In recent weeks, thousands of…
Telecom Immunity a Fact of Life
PBS says: The Senate approved a bill Wednesday overhauling the rules on government eavesdropping and granting immunity to telecom companies that assist with government-ordered communications monitoring. The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 69-28. And the NY Times says that until now: …more than 40 lawsuits continued churning through federal courts, charging AT&T,…
Telcos, Money, and Immunity
Glen Greenwald’s latest piece on immunity for telecom companies that helped the government in the aftermath of 9/11 is one worth reading. Fundamentally the issue hasn’t changed – telecoms that cooperated with the Bush administration deserve protection as is currently given – but Glen’s analysis of their contributions to lobbying firms and the money’s subsequent…
Credit Crash Coming?
At the Washington Post, Kevin Phillps compares financial and business trends in the U.S. to those of other, failed global empires and finds our situation unenviable: The U.S. economy faces unprecedented debt levels, soaring commodity prices and sliding home prices, to say nothing of a weak dollar. Despite the recent stabilization of the economy, some…
Telco Immunity Deal Coming?
That’s what Jane Hamsher thinks. According to the ACLU, there is rumor of a backroom deal being brokered by Jay Rockefeller on FISA that will include retroactive immunity. I’ve heard from several sources that Steny Hoyer is doing the dirty work on the House side, and some say it will be attached to the new…
Houston Energy Summit Part II
Americans usually hear that energy-producing natural resources are in scarce supply. With regard to the current technological, regulatory, and economic context that is true. However, when industry experts discuss energy sources of the future they focus on which known resources to develop instead of whether they can find and produce more energy. One important question…
Microsoft Buyout of Yahoo?
The Washington Post says Yahoo may be acquired by Microsoft: Yahoo was one of the first companies to popularize Web searching, and it still attracts one of the Internet’s largest audiences to its main Web site, an amalgamation of services and content that includes its search engine. However, the company has had trouble translating that…
Bad Business of Recession
Investing in markets, stock, real estate, and otherwise, is a gamble and with all such bets there are inevitably going to be winners and losers. At the NY Times, David Leonhardt writes that the Federal Reserve’s "great moderation" may have been a mere illusion fueled by stock and land rushes over the last 16 years….
Oysters a Bad Business
Get a bad one and you’ll wish you’d never tried shellfish, for sure. In Texas, some oyster processing companies are having a bit of indigestion with their end of the business cycle because they can’t find enough labor to perform the unpleasant labor needed to turn a pile of oysters into a viable food product….