Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with a $39 billion payment to the U.S. Treasury by the end of the year, will be close to repaying the government almost the entire amount that was injected [...]
The media attention on the upcoming initial public offering of Twitter obscures a much bigger and possibly worrisome economic phenomenon: junk bonds. Global high-yield-bond issuance dwarfs new equity offerings. The Twitter initial public offering [...]
"More needs to be done to strengthen the recovery. Too many Americans still can't find a job and worry how they'll pay their bills and provide for their family." - Janet Yellen, nominee to [...]
"I should state that at all times the idea of doing only first-class business and that in a first-class way, has been foremost in our minds." - J.P. Morgan Jr., 1933 Mr. Morgan's comments truly [...]
Five years after the Sept. 15, 2008, collapse of Lehman Brothers and the paralysis of the global financial system, it is important to recognize that some of the causes of that calamity remain unsolved. [...]
We now have a classic case of being careful about what you wish for. When the Federal Reserve was ramping up its purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds to support the American economy, many overseas [...]
I was as surprised as the companies and everyone else seemed to be when the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Aug. 13 seeking to block the proposed $11 billion merger between US Airways [...]
Recently, when visiting our public library, I checked out a book devoted to Lincoln’s Second Inaugural. This speech along with the Gettysburg Address are considered to be two of the finest speeches in English ever [...]
One of the benefits of my column for the Herald- Tribune has been dramatically increasing my friendships. When I first started writing for our newspaper in 2008, I was a newcomer to Sarasota. The [...]
My story of the financial crisis and recovery might sound familiar to you. According to the Federal Reserve, the net worth of Americans is now the highest in history. We have rebuilt much of [...]
As a child growing up in Texas, I was terrified of polio's dangers and personally knew several people who were paralyzed by this insidious disease. That's probably the main reason I applaud the philanthropic [...]
After reading Peggy Noonan’s editorial “A Battering Ram becomes a Stonewall” I agree with her assessment we need an independent counsel to get to the bottom of this controversy regarding the Internal Revenue Service [...]
On Friday, the Obama administration cleared the way for broader natural gas exports by approving a $10 billion facility near Freeport, Texas. The Department of Energy said it had given conditional authorization to the [...]
On Monday, after a building collapse that killed at least 1,127 workers in what is being called the deadliest accident in the industry's history, some of Europe's largest retailers agreed to improve the safety [...]
In recent months, sexual violence against women in India has received significant global media attention. The coverage has shown that assaults against Indian women are frequently trivialized and few offenders are convicted. This shows [...]
After 40 years as an investment banker, an incident on Tuesday brought into focus many of my basic beliefs in what makes for a sound investment strategy. On Tuesday, the Dow briefly plunged more [...]
"May you live in interesting times." Living in interesting times is a curse. Uninteresting times of tranquility are more life-enhancing than are interesting chaos. Amid sluggish global growth, many central banks, such as the [...]
On Nov. 3, 2009, legendary investor Warren Buffett made his biggest bet yet. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, agreed to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., one of seven major American railroads, for $44 billion. [...]
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana On March 14, a 301-page, bipartisan U.S. Senate report provided damning evidence of breakdowns at the nation's largest bank, JP [...]
I began writing columns for the Herald Tribune in March 2008. My second article, entitled "To Bear Stearns' shareholders, JPMorgan CEO is no Goldilocks," discussed JPMorgan's proposed acquisition of Bear Stearns at a severely [...]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2010 delivered an apology, some 23 years after news first surfaced of outrages to close to 150,000 children. The movie, Oranges and Sunshine, highlighted the infamous treatment of children who [...]
It has Nothing to do with the Stars "Since the crisis, one by one, the stars came into alignment, and it was only a matter of time before you had a week like we [...]
"Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It's to see my dividends coming in." - John D. Rockefeller While I like to think my life is not as narrowly focused as [...]
"Our destiny is Europe." - Then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 1988 On Jan. 23, British Prime Minister David Cameron laid out a road map for a more independent Britain. Cameron wants Britain to [...]
In a December article entitled "Going Nowhere Fast," The Economist reported that the S&P 500 has outperformed its hedge-fund rivals for 10 straight years, with the exception of 2008, when both suffered grievously. "A [...]
Whatever the outcome of the upcoming political machinations regarding the looming fiscal cliff, one thing is certain: The tax code will change. One of the changes being debated is the tax rate on dividends, [...]
A Dec. 4 Wall Street Journal article, "Top U.S. Firms are Cash-Rich Abroad, Cash-Poor at Home," discussed the liquidity problem confronting many of our major corporations. At a time when U.S. companies hold near-record [...]
On Nov. 19, the Paris-based International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization, predicted that the United States will become the world's biggest oil producer by 2017. Other forecasters, such as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting [...]
Unless something is done between now and then, taxes are slated to go up across the board beginning early next year. Altogether, higher taxes -- the result of the dreaded "fiscal cliff" -- will [...]
"The last thing the world economy needs right now is the threat of rising protectionism" - World Trade Organization Director-General Paul Lamy Trade has fueled economic growth over the centuries, from the gold trade [...]
I believe that the decision by New York’s top prosecutor to sue J.P. Morgan for $ billions for widespread fraud in the sale of mortgage-backed securities is reprehensible. The case is the first to [...]
On Sept. 14, in response to protests by thousands of Japan's people, the country's national policy minister, Motoshisa Furukawa, announced: "We will introduce policies to bring down nuclear power generation to zero within the [...]
Economists debate whether the Federal Reserve has the tools to fix today's unemployment problems. They express frustration that, after four years of super-low interest rates and the Fed's extraordinary money-pumping, we still suffer from [...]
In August 2011, after months of wrangling over the deficit ceiling, political leaders from both parties decided to postpone solving our fiscal problems until January 2013. To resolve the impasse over the budget ceiling, [...]
"We are facing a fiscal train wreck at the end of this year. It is time to move off of fixed positions." - Sen. Kent Conrad, Democratic chairman of the Senate Budget Committee Congress [...]
On June 28, the Bank for International Settlements, an intergovernmental organization of central banks, in its annual report warned central banks against keeping interest rates low for too long. BIS, a kind of central [...]
