Feb 12 Watch GM Offers Employee Buyouts After $38.7 Billion in Losses After announcing record annual losses Tuesday, General Motors said that it would offer buyouts for all 74,000 of its union employees -- allowing GM to hire lower-wage workers -- to help reduce costs. New York Times business reporter Micheline Maynard… Continue watching
Feb 12 Watch Billionaire Buffett Offers to Help Insure Municipal Bonds Billionaire investor Warren Buffett announced Tuesday that he would help shore up three insurance bond firms by offering additional insurance on up to $800 billion in municipal bonds. The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel explains how bond insurers impact Wall… Continue watching
Feb 12 Watch Lenders Sign-on for Plan to Help Prevent Home Foreclosures The Bush Administration and six of the nation's largest banks agreed on a plan Tuesday that would delay some home foreclosures by 30 days, allowing lenders to negotiate more affordable terms. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson discusses the details of the… Continue watching
Feb 12 GM Reports Record Loss, Offers Round of Buyouts By Admin, PBS News Hour In an effort to stave off record losses, General Motors Corp. announced Tuesday it was offering a new round of buyouts to all 74,000 of its U.S. hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers. Continue reading
Feb 11 Where is the Fed rate cut felt in the economy? Question/Comment: A Fed rate cut presumably has a cost; where is that felt? Paul Solman: Encouraging folks who made bad decisions before – invested stupidly, say, in mortgage-backed securities – to invest stupidly again, since the Fed will bail them… Continue reading
Feb 08 Bush Set to Sign $168B Economic Stimulus Bill By PBS News Hour President Bush said Friday he would sign the $168 billion economic stimulus bill that was passed Thursday by both houses of Congress in a bipartisan effort intended to ward off a possible recession. Continue reading
Feb 08 If the Dow Jones goes up by 200 points how are these 200 points measured? Question/Comment: If the Dow Jones goes up by 200 points how are these 200 points measured? Paul Solman: Roughly, the sum of the stock prices of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones industrial average, companies chosen as the biggest… Continue reading
Feb 05 How can a nation with manufacturing employment being replaced by “service” jobs expect to have a trade balance with the rest of the world? Question/Comment: Did you ever hear about the two old ladies who made a precarious living taking in each other’s laundry? My question is this: how can a nation with manufacturing employment being replaced by “service” jobs expect to have a… Continue reading
Feb 01 Microsoft Offers to Buy Yahoo for $44.6B By PBS News Hour Microsoft Corp made an unexpected bid to buy struggling Internet icon Yahoo Inc. for $44.6 billion in cash and stock late Thursday, raising a new effort to challenge the dominance of search-engine giant Google Inc. Continue reading
Feb 01 Is it possible that Boomers are not spending as we used to do? Question/Comment: Is it possible that Boomers are not spending as we used to do? I know that my purchases of clothing, food, and what is known as durable goods, are not something that I purchase as much as I used… Continue reading