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
Jan 30 Watch Fed Cuts Key Interest Rate Again in Bid to Avert Economic Anxieties The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by half a point Wednesday -- the second rate reduction in eight days in a bid to help ease pressure on jittery financial markets. Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel examines… Continue watching
Jan 30 Should we have a central registry of mortgage lending so that trading can be more transparent? Question/Comment: As it is with all financial crisis, I guess, a lot of the damage stems from uncertainty. No one knows how much bad debt is out there and who’s holding it. My question is: why is it not possible… Continue reading
Jan 29 A correction from Paul Solman: I want to apologize for misunderstanding a former professor and not checking myself the assertion I made with such assurance on the Friday, January 25, 2008 program that the stock market had gone up in the wake of the… Continue reading