Nov 23 Introducing Tool$ Tuesday: A New Feature By Elizabeth Shell UPDATE NOV. 25, 2010 | Editor's Note: See update at end of post. Today we present Tool$ Tuesday- the first in a series of online calculators and tools that I or others on the Making Sen$e team have actually used. Continue reading
Nov 22 Small Business Owners and the Bush Tax Cut Debate: No Easy Answers By Paul Solman Paul Solman answers questions from NewsHour viewers and web users on business and economic news most days on his Making Sen$e page. Here's Monday's query: Name: Howard Herbst Question: Republicans say they want to keep the Bush… Continue reading
Nov 22 Small Business Owners and the Bush Tax Cut Debate: No Easy Answers By Elizabeth Shell Name: Howard Herbst Question: Republicans say they want to keep the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to protect small businesses. Can't the tax code be quickly and easily redesigned to allow small business income reported on an individual (personal)… Continue reading
Nov 19 The Confidence of Ben Bernanke in Germany By Elizabeth Shell "The Fed chairman's message, though scholarly in tone, was unusually blunt," wrote the Wall Street Journal, "laying blame for inflationary pressures in emerging markets and for tensions over currencies on countries like China." The Financial Times underscored another… Continue reading
Nov 19 The Confidence of Ben Bernanke in Germany For a speech by a Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke's remarks on "global rebalancing" certainly weren't designed to fly under the radar. "The Fed chairman's message, though scholarly in tone, was unusually blunt," wrote the Wall Street Journal,… Continue reading
Nov 19 Joe Nocera’s Economic ‘Hall of Shame’ By Paul Solman "We titled the book 'All the Devils are Here'," said Joe Nocera's co-author, Bethany McLean, "because in the wake of the crisis there has been this search for a simplistic answer. Ah! Fannie and Freddie, they must be the… Continue reading
Nov 18 Joe Nocera’s Hall of Shame By Elizabeth Shell "We titled the book 'All the Devils are Here'," said Joe Nocera's co-author, Bethany McLean, "because in the wake of the crisis there has been this search for a simplistic answer. Ah! Fannie and Freddie, they must be the… Continue reading
Nov 18 GM: Worthless to Record-Breaking By Elizabeth Shell Over a year ago, General Motors told investors its stock was worthless and to stop trading it. To say the company has experienced a turnaround is a bit of an understatement. After a month of speculation and a last-minute… Continue reading
Nov 17 Economics is Missing A Funny Bone | An Interview With ‘Merle Hazard’ By Elizabeth Shell The [Fed's announcement](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/11/fed-slow-growth-disappointing-will-engage-in-second-round-of-quantitiative-easing.html) of another round of so-called "quantitative easing" (QE2) is much in the news. Basically, it's an announced commitment to create $600 billion dollars or more of new "Federal reserves" - i.e., U.S. dollars - and [pump them… Continue reading
Nov 16 Was Ireland’s Financial Crisis Predictable? By News Desk He told you so. Ken Rogoff is one of this page's favorite economists. Long known for being ahead of the curve, Rogoff was a National Master of chess at age 14 and dropped out of high school to… Continue reading