November 24, 2008

What's ahead for GM?

Source: CNN Money

Nobody from Detroit got a particularly warm welcome in Washington last week, but the reception was coolest for General Motors, the largest and most vulnerable automaker.

November 22, 2008

Road Ahead Is Long for G.M.

Source: Joe Nocera, NY Times

Is it really possible that General Motors has not yet begun drawing up contingency plans for a bankruptcy filing — as the chief executive, Rick Wagoner, told Congress this week?

November 22, 2008

And You Thought 1931 Was Bad for the Market

Source: Floyd Norris, New York Times

THIS is shaping up as the year when almost nothing went up.

Even after Friday’s large stock market rally, only 10 of the stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500, the premier American stock index, are higher than they were at the...

November 21, 2008

Fear overtakes the markets

Source: Boston Globe

The fear in capital markets is different from the near panic experienced in September and October, before governments around the world began organizing plans to deal with a global credit freeze. The cause is different this time,...

November 19, 2008

“Fighting the Financial Crisis, One Challenge at a Time”

Source: U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

New York Times, 11-18-08 - We are going through a financial crisis more severe and unpredictable than any in our lifetimes. We have seen the failures, or the equivalent of failures, of Bear Stearns, IndyMac, Lehman Brothers,...

November 18, 2008

A Rescue Plan Without Taxpayer Money

Source: New York Times

HELLO, taxpayers. Worried about the fate of the $350 billion that the government has asked you to fork over so far to help rescue financiers from themselves?

November 18, 2008

For Wall Street, Less Is More

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Bring out the hair shirts? The decision by top executives at Goldman Sachs to join peers at Deutsche Bank and UBS in forgoing bonuses for the year is a sensible act of contrition. But it is hardly radical. Against the backdrop of...

November 16, 2008

A Safety Board for Hedge Funds

Source: Joe Nocera, NY Times

Although it received almost no mention in the media, a panel of academic witnesses preceded the five hedge fund billionaires who appeared Thursday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is led by...

November 16, 2008

A Rescue Plan Without Taxpayer Money

Source: Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times

HELLO, taxpayers. Worried about the fate of the $350 billion that the government has asked you to fork over so far to help rescue financiers from themselves? Last week, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. gave you every...

November 16, 2008

Be Glad You’re Not Warren Buffett

Source: Floyd Norris, New York Times

FEELING bad about how much you have been hurt by the stock market plunge? At least you don’t have a lot of stock options. A survey of the paper losses suffered by 175 chief executives of American companies shows that they lost a...