GOP: We've been lying all along … Boehner's admission that we don't really have a debt crisis reveals his party's ulterior, program-cutting motives … I never thought I'd write these words, but here goes: thank you, John Boehner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for finally admitting on national television that all the fiscal cliffs, sequestrations and budget battles you'...Read More
Has military Keynesianism come to an end? … The outcome of the sequester ultimatum appears to have taken everyone by surprise. Two long summers ago, when the president and House speaker John Boehner conjured a prospect so terrible that even spending on defense would be deeply cut, they both assumed Congress would buckle rather than approve such a blow to the nation's pride. According to...Read More
Welcome to the new model of retirement. No retirement. In 1983 over 60 percent of American workers had some kind of defined-benefit plan. Today less than 20 percent have access to a plan and the majority of retired Americans largely rely on Social Security as their de facto retirement plan. As many Americans enter into retirement they are realizing one unfortunate thing. The new retirement plan is...Read More
Analysis: Europe's social shock-absorbers show crisis strain … With more than 26 million unemployed in the 27-nation European Union, including nearly 6 million young people, the system is struggling, and in some places failing, to cope. Many of the jobless have exhausted their benefit entitlements. "In many countries, the poor are getting poorer," says Laszlo Andor, the EU'...Read More
Is the US holding back IMF reform? … The legislation would implement reforms agreed by the G20 in 2010, which were described by then IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn as 'the most important decision on the governance of the IMF since its creation in 1944.' He went on to say that 'what we did today puts an end to a discussion on legitimacy that had lasted for years, alm...Read More
QE for the People: Grillo's Populist Plan for Italy … Comedian Beppe Grillo was surprised himself when his Five Star Movement got 8.7 million votes in the Italian general election of Feb. 24-25. His movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, says The Guardian, which makes him "a kingmaker in a hung parliament." Grillo's is the party of "no.&qu...Read More
Why the Global Economy Is Still Stuck … In the wake of the financial crisis, policies the world round remain focused on the wrong things, especially speculation … The U.S. government has been embroiled in a fight over something called "sequester" for weeks without a solution. The resulting US$ 85 billion cuts in government spending rekindle the risk of double-dip recession. T...Read More
Bureaucracy will set you free … Two movements, fundamentally opposed, are at work in the world: corruption and anti-corruption. The marketization of the economies of China, India and Russia in the past two decades has exacerbated the corruption in those countries. Businesspeople and politicians, often hardly distinguishable, become billionaires in tandem. But corruption is falling out of fav...Read More
Investors in China should be wary of revolution. China is heading for a social revolution, according to Fidelity fund manager Anthony Bolton. Mr Bolton is one of Britain's most famous fund managers, having earned investors in his Fidelity UK Special Situations fund an average of 20pc a year for 27 years. He stepped down in 2010 to launch a China-focused investment trust for Fidelity, but perfo...Read More
'A cesspit': Libor scandal may be going on elsewhere …The market for determining one of the world's key interest rates was a "cesspit" and banks cannot be trusted … The market for determining one of the world's key interest rates was a "cesspit" and banks cannot be trusted to be honest in several other major markets, the deputy governor of the Bank o...Read More
QE for the People: Grillo's Populist Plan for Italy … Comedian Beppe Grillo was surprised himself when his Five Star Movement got 8.7 million votes in the Italian general election of Feb. 24-25. His movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, says The Guardian, which makes him "a kingmaker in a hung parliament." Grillo's is the party of "no.&qu...Read More
Why the Global Economy Is Still Stuck … In the wake of the financial crisis, policies the world round remain focused on the wrong things, especially speculation … The U.S. government has been embroiled in a fight over something called "sequester" for weeks without a solution. The resulting US$ 85 billion cuts in government spending rekindle the risk of double-dip recession. T...Read More
Bureaucracy will set you free … Two movements, fundamentally opposed, are at work in the world: corruption and anti-corruption. The marketization of the economies of China, India and Russia in the past two decades has exacerbated the corruption in those countries. Businesspeople and politicians, often hardly distinguishable, become billionaires in tandem. But corruption is falling out of fav...Read More
Investors in China should be wary of revolution. China is heading for a social revolution, according to Fidelity fund manager Anthony Bolton. Mr Bolton is one of Britain's most famous fund managers, having earned investors in his Fidelity UK Special Situations fund an average of 20pc a year for 27 years. He stepped down in 2010 to launch a China-focused investment trust for Fidelity, but perfo...Read More
'A cesspit': Libor scandal may be going on elsewhere …The market for determining one of the world's key interest rates was a "cesspit" and banks cannot be trusted … The market for determining one of the world's key interest rates was a "cesspit" and banks cannot be trusted to be honest in several other major markets, the deputy governor of the Bank o...Read More
Credit Suisse urges investors to jump into stocks … One month after turning cautious on global stock investing, the investment committee of Credit Suisse Group's U.S. private bank has reversed course. "Plentiful liquidity, attractive valuations and low inflation make equities among our best options in an asset allocation context," a team led by Barbara Reinhard, the unit's...Read More
The particle found in the Large Hadron Collider last year "strongly indicates" that it is the long-sought Higgs Fri, Mar 8 2013 boson, the CERN physics research center said on Thursday. But a statement on the latest findings from huge volumes of data gathered during three years of collisions in the LHC stopped short of claiming the boson, believed to be the particle that gives matter to...Read More
Method for Making Cheap, Clean Water Is Announced … Pentagon weapons-maker finds method for cheap, clean water … A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global...Read More
Henrik Fisker has quit as executive chairman of Fisker Automotive, the plug-in hybrid car company he founded in 2007. A dispute with other executives over a survival strategy for the struggling start-up led to his departure. A former designer for BMW, Ford and Aston Martin, Fisker created the high-style Karma, a $100,000-plus plug-in luxury car with a backup gasoline engine similar to the powertra...Read More
Top House lawmaker questions validity of consumer bureau funding … Obama has renominated Cordray, who will have his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, and nearly all Senate Republicans have promised again to block him. − Los Angeles TimesDominant Social Theme: This new bureau will really help make US consumers prosperous again.Free-Market Analysis: Why do US consumers need protection...Read More