April 2008

It's hard to say what's tougher for Citigroup's chief executive Vikram Pandit as he struggles mightily to get Citigroup out of intensive care, as a notably difficult Wall Street analysts meeting bears down on him on May 9. The bank has been racing to raise capital, with capital infusions and new share offerings, some $40b raised since November. Citi just announced it has widened a new stock ... read more

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is now squarely in the bulls-eye, held largely to blame for the housing bubble that has blown up in the country's face, because he and the central bank kept rates down at 1% for too long. Greenspan has also been laughed out of the room for saying that the Fed can not prick any incipient asset bubbles whatsoever by raising interest rates. Guess ... read more

Big guns in the stock market are trying to dodge the thunderbolts thrown down from Mount Washington DC over Wall Street's creation and handling of the credit crisis. They've come up with a new central clearinghouse that would oversee for the very first time credit derivatives, beginning with credit default swaps. This is yet another historic move arising from the Great Credit Crunch. Credit ... read more

It's an election year, US workers are under duress and NAFTA bashing has hit the boiling point. But try to affix a bulls' eye of blame on NAFTA, even just for job losses, and you'll find it's a moving target.  Both Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama promise they will get the US to back out of NAFTA unless it's amended if they win the White ... read more

Some bad economic numbers out this week, a rise in jobless claims, and also the Federal Reserve said economic growth has slowed in 75% or nine of its 12 districts since February, up from two-thirds in its last report. So is the US economy headed for a national nervous breakdown? And when will we see the end of the Stygian gloom in the financial sector? Have we seen the worst of it? Before we ... read more