Economy

October 9, 2008

Vital Signs: How Bad Is the Damage to the Economy?

As investors await nascent signs that Washington’s massive and paradigm-shattering policy response to the financial crisis is working, they realize a great deal of ...

October 8, 2008

Around the Street: Rate Cuts the World Over

Central banks are trying anything, and everything, to shore up confidence in the global financial system amid the current crisis. On Oct. 8 they acted in concert: The ...

October 7, 2008

Global Stocks: Should You Pull Out?

It doesn't seem fair. The current financial crisis started in the U.S., but stock markets in the rest of the world have felt more pain. That's not to say that American...

October 6, 2008

Keeping Customers in a Crummy Economy

Even before the U.S. economic outlook darkened as the gravity of the financial crisis came into focus, companies started to get more aggressive in their attempts to ...

October 6, 2008

Wall Street: The Financial Crisis Carnage

The global credit crisis appears to have intensified on Oct. 6, with equity indexes around the world suffering heavy losses and credit markets still frozen. The market...

October 3, 2008

September U.S. Payrolls Fall as Economy Worsens

The data pointing toward a U.S. recession have been accumulating steadily over the past few weeks, and the release of the dismal September employment report on Oct. 3 ...

October 3, 2008

Citi, Wells Fargo: Why the Wachovia Fight?

Consolidation of the banking sector took a strange turn Oct. 3 when giant banks Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) began wrangling over the chance to take over ...

October 2, 2008

Vital Signs: Recession Risks Rise

It’s a slow week for economic data, but that doesn’t mean the next few days will be boring. On the contrary, attention in the markets is starting to turn increasingly ...

October 2, 2008

Jobs: Slammed by Gustav, Ike, and Boeing

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, as well as the Boeing (BA) strike, will conspire with an already-deteriorating labor market to depress U.S. payrolls in the September ...

October 2, 2008

Around the Street: Credit Freeze, Economic Chill

As investors await the fate of the U.S. financial-system rescue plan, scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives on Oct. 5, credit markets remain under ...

October 2, 2008

Around the Street: More Evidence of Recession

While recession fears have increased thanks to the current U.S. financial crisis, data released Oct. 1—including a sharply lower than expected reading on a ...

October 1, 2008

The Consumer and the Stock Market Storm

Only two months ago, the idea of crude oil falling below $100 a barrel and sharp drop in agricultural commodity prices would have seemed like a godsend to ...

September 29, 2008

Around the Street: The Bailout, the Economy, and the Fed

As lawmakers prepared to vote on the government's $700 billion financial rescue package on Sept. 29, a new report showed that U.S. consumers kept a tight hold on their...

September 27, 2008

Investing: Are 'Safe Havens' Still Safe?

In finance, safety isn't what it used to be. After a couple of money-market funds came perilously close to breaking the buck last week, and given the unsettling ...

September 26, 2008

Ending the Credit Crunch: Four Benchmarks to Watch

From a report released Sept. 22 by Standard & Poor's Market, Credit and Risk Strategies The credit crunch has been with us for more than a year. The Federal Open ...

September 26, 2008

The GDP Revision Raises Recession Risk

As if the worries about a congressional stalemate on the government's proposed $700 billion financial rescue plan weren't enough, two economic reports released on ...

September 25, 2008

Vital Signs: Measuring the Stress on Consumers, Jobs

Investors have been too riveted to the drama in Washington over Wall Street’s mega-bailout to focus much attention on economic data. Now, with an agreement among ...

September 25, 2008

The Economy: Key Signals Beyond the Bailout

Even as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke continue to make the case on Capitol Hill for a speedy delivery of a gigantic ...

September 24, 2008

How World Growth Will Withstand the U.S. Recession

Economic growth worldwide has slowed in 2008 because to some degree, high oil prices and recession in the U.S. have affected most industrial countries. Although the ...

September 22, 2008

The Big Bailout: Measuring the Aftershocks

Capping possibly the wildest week in U.S. financial history, the markets breathed a sigh of relief on Friday, Sept. 19, at the U.S. government's multipronged plan to ...

September 22, 2008

Wall Street Talks: What the Bailout Means

After a powerful stock market rally on Sept. 18-19, major U.S. indexes pulled back on Sept. 22 as investors took some time to consider the implications of a signal ...

September 19, 2008

Keep Wall Street Out of the Retirement Business

Remember the Bush Administration's push to partially privatize Social Security? The privatization advocates warned that insolvency loomed unless dramatic changes were ...

September 18, 2008

Vital Signs: How Will the Economy Fare in the Crisis?

Economic reports will be of secondary interest to the markets this week, as investors try to sort through the implications of the historic events of the past few days....

September 18, 2008

Around the Street: Talking Liquidity and the Economy

Money, money everywhere, but no one wants to lend. Global markets continued to feel the effects of a liquidity squeeze, as yield spreads extended to record wide levels...

September 12, 2008

Data: Inflation Cools; Retail Sales Slip

By BusinessWeek, Standard & Poor's, and Action Economics staff A batch of U.S. economic reports released on Sept. 12 carried some mixed messages for the U.S. economy: ...