ECONOMICS

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." -- Winston Churchill, Nov. 10, 1942, Announcement of British victory [...]

The $30 billion deficit of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. highlights the difficulties the federal government faces in balancing different constituent interests. On the one hand, the PBGC protects the defined benefit pensions of [...]

"The only thing that gives me pleasure is to see my dividend coming in." -- John D. Rockefeller For many long-term investors, dividends are the straw that stirs the drink. Over time, a stock's [...]

A woman recently approached Richard Fisher in a Dallas Starbucks and thanked him. She had refinanced her mortgage at 4.3 percent, down from more than 6 percent, and she wanted him to know she [...]

"No one should be confused about what a bankruptcy process means, This is not a sign of weakness but rather one more step on a clearly chartered path to Chrysler's revival." -- Barack Obama [...]

The obstinate refusal of a small group of hedge funds to accept the government's terms for helping Chrysler avoid bankruptcy will probably unleash the legislative equivalent to waterboarding. Hedge funds have strong legal precedent [...]

When I initially considered joining the board of directors of a publicly traded company, my first thoughts were the images conveyed by the film industry. I pictured myself sitting with nicely dressed people around [...]

In his first presidential news conference on Feb. 9, Barack Obama highlighted Japan, the world's second largest economy, as an example of a country that has suffered from mistaken financial policies. Obama argued the [...]

I nostalgically wish to hear my father's perspectives on today's challenging economic environment. Having endured through World Wars and the Great Depression, Dad shared Warren Buffett's sunny disposition: "America's best days are ahead." On [...]

'If there is a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can't think of one other than AIG." -- Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman The government is [...]

"If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians." -- Warren Buffett Warren Buffett is no librarian, but he is considered to be the greatest investor of [...]

Several years ago during a visit to the Palace of Versailles, my guide made the following observation: Louis XIV built it, Louis XV enjoyed it, and Louis XVI paid for it. Like the luckless [...]

Legendary Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach traditionally lit a cigar to celebrate his team's victory. Unfortunately, we cannot smell the scent of victory over our escalating recession despite spending trillions of dollars that have [...]

"We thought the enemy was Mr. Madoff. I think it is you." -- Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., in comments to Securities and Exchange Commission officials on Feb. 4 America's love-hate attitude toward regulation found [...]

Could our financial prescription of creating a "bad bank" to acquire trillions in toxic assets be similarly misguided? The shifting of toxic assets from private borrowers to the federal government might be no more [...]

Our commercial banking system does not currently provide the needed financial lifeblood for our society. As New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, founder of global economic and financial analysis firm RGE Monitor pointed out [...]

Brother, can you spare a dime? Although I studied the Great Depression as an economics major in the 1960s, its dread faded. I even underrated the relevancy of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's expertise [...]

The extraction in the U.S. of oil and natural gas from shale rock remains controversial. On the one hand, the benefits from this domestic power source are so great that they have changed the [...]

I spent two years in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the height of the American automobile industry (1966-1968). Many of my colleagues took positions with automobile related companies. If Detroit would have enjoyed the weather [...]

World stock markets have dropped 5 percent to 10 percent following the G-20 meeting that ended Nov. 16. Investors lack confidence that governments can halt the slumping world economy or unfreeze credit markets. For [...]

This past week, executives from the Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- pitched key congressional leaders for an increase in bailout funds to $50 billion. Mounting legislative opposition, especially from [...]

In this week’s Barron’s, Jack Willoughby interviewed Anna Schwartz, one of the most respected economists of our time. Ms. Scwartz felt that the bailout plan was too opaque and ad hoc to work. Ms. [...]

This past week witnessed almost a complete meltdown of the global financial system after derivatives knocked down Lehman Brothers and AIG. Worldwide losses from speculative excesses could exceed $1 trillion, and the word "derivative" [...]

By Jon Hilsenrath, David Enrich and Deborah Solomon A year into a credit crisis that started with troubled mortgages to sketchy borrowers, the financial system is reeling once again, casting a pall over a [...]

As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totter toward a government bailout, we might recall that they may have been "conceived in sin." In an July 28 New Yorker article, "Sponsoring Recklessness," James Surowiecki pointed [...]

In today's Mad Hatter World, we might remember the Queen of Hearts, the mean-spirited sovereign created by Lewis Carroll in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." She sentenced her subjects to death for the slightest offense, [...]

Since the cracks that turned into earthquakes began convulsing the economy in the summer of 2007, pundits have actively debated both the depth of the financial downturn and its duration. More than $300 billion [...]

Over the past decade, the fortunes of Russia and its leading oil and gas company, Gazprom, have improved dramatically. A decade ago, the price of oil was languishing and Russia was facing possible bankruptcy. [...]

In order to convince his subjects of the wisdom of surrendering after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced over the radio to his beleaguered people that they [...]

During the past few weeks, a consensus has emerged that Wall Street has entered a new era of lower returns on equity, thinner profits, fewer jobs and more federal oversight. The declining fortune of [...]

In recent weeks, key economic data highlight concerns that the economy will not rebound until sometime in 2009. In at least three key areas -- housing, automobiles and retail sales -- recently reported numbers [...]

The proposed purchase of Calpine Corp. by NRG Energy Inc. would create the largest independent power company in the United States. The nearly $11 billion takeover would double NRG's capacity in the United States [...]