A list of all of Doc Werlin’s writings pertaining to economics.
MetLife, the insurance giant that in 1985 secured the rights to use Snoopy in its company logo, has won a major victory, allowing it to avoid more strict federal scrutiny. Despite being the nation’s [...]
Six years after the government bailed out U.S. banks and auto companies, Chinese regulators are coming up with strategies to clean up their own banks’ bad debts, primarily caused by loans to state-owned enterprises [...]
“Negative interest rates are spreading like the Zika virus.” — Bill Gross, co-founder of PIMCO Bill Gross, a legendary fixed-income investor, recently expressed his alarm in his monthly newsletter over the increased use of [...]
On Thursday, Caterpillar, the world’s largest construction and mining equipment maker, warned that 2016 would be a grim year for it. It predicted that its revenues would decline for a fourth straight year — [...]
As 2015 ended, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, Christine Lagarde, lowered her forecast for 2016 in a guest column published by the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt.Earlier, she had said at a Brookings Institution event [...]
Several years ago, news organizations described the inventors of new financial instruments as “financial engineers.” Since then, the Great Recession has taught us that a financial Mr. Hyde, not a Dr. Jekyll, conceived some of [...]
“The junk bond market was a keg of dynamite that sooner or later will blow up” — Carl Icahn, on CNBC On Dec. 12, Carl Icahn warned that a lack of liquidity could cause [...]
Pfizer has approved a deal to buy rival drugmaker Allergan for $160 billion, making it the largest pharmaceutical merger ever. Pfizer CEO Ian Read has repeatedly stressed his desire to move his New York-based [...]
The Labor Department last week reported the strongest jump in payrolls this year, some 271,000 in October, the fastest rate of wage increases since 2009. Unemployment fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent. Average [...]
On Friday, the People’s Bank of China took several major steps to stimulate that country’s economy after it slowed to its lowest level since the 2008 global financial crisis. The bank: Cut its benchmark [...]
The U.S. Labor Department recently released the disturbing news that our job growth for non-farm payrolls only rose 142,000 in September. Adding to the woes, labor gains in July and August were revised downward. [...]
Global mergers and acquisitions could set a record this year of close to $4.6 trillion, according to data provider Dealogic. This would exceed the $4.3 trillion reached in 2007, the previous record year for [...]
China’s recent devaluation of its currency, the yuan, highlights Beijing’s attempt to reverse the country’s domestic economic slowdown. Until now, the country’s stimulus efforts focused solely on its domestic market: Beijing encouraged its banks [...]
Investors are fleeing commodities amid mounting worries about the slowdown in global growth and the significant price declines in commodities. The World Bank, in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook, predicts that commodity prices will [...]
The communist Chinese government has now tasted the bitter medicine of the downside volatility that accompanies capitalism. That nation’s stock market has sold off $3 trillion — some 30 percent during the past four [...]
In recent weeks, global interest rates have risen dramatically because of the improving economies of many of the largest developing countries. Interest rate increases in Europe and America have recently been following each other [...]
Investors and savers -- those who buy bonds and put money in bank deposits -- are paying banks to hold onto and use their money. Mark Kiesel, chief investment officer for Global Credit at [...]
Merger and acquisition volume could reach $4 trillion globally this year, trailing only 2007's record. This time, America is much more active in deal making than Europe. The weaker countries in Europe are holding [...]
In recent weeks, U.S. oil companies have announced $8.3 billion in cuts in capital expenditures for calendar 2015, primarily because oil prices have declined some 50 percent in the last year. Capital expenditure in [...]
Something weird is happening in Europe: negative interest rates. Some $2 trillion, about 16 percent of the world's government bonds, now offer negative yields, according to John Apruzzese, partner and chief investment officer at Evercore [...]
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, 1776 [...]
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" Well meaning efforts by the Swiss National Bank have backfired, sending shock waves through international markets. In 2011, the Swiss central bank took dramatic steps [...]
America enters 2015 with more momentum than it has had since 2007. Hopefully, our fire power can pull the rest of the world out of its doldrums. Despite this week's plunge in the stock [...]
An article in the New York Times entitled "The goal of 2 percent inflation, rethought" shows the improbable evolution of this important economic target. According to the piece by Times senior economics correspondent Neil [...]
In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest oil producer, took two extraordinary steps to maintain its market share. These measures have helped triggered a near free-fall in the oil market, with prices hitting their [...]
Tumbling gas prices make me feel like dancing when I pull into a filling station. Gas prices in Sarasota now hover near nationwide levels below $3 a gallon, according to AAA. Prices of oil, [...]
The central banks of Europe and the U.S. are on different paths: The U.S. Federal Reserve is ending its quantitative easing program because it worked; the European Central Bank is considering starting such a [...]
Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, remains a key player in efforts to save the Eurozone. Two years ago, he halted a Eurozone crisis by loosening the interest-rate logjam that threatened beleaguered countries [...]
"The best is the enemy of the good."- Voltaire France and the U.S.-based General Electric Co. have become unlikely business pals. On June 23, after a nearly two month's battle, the French government and [...]
"The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash." -- Zhu Min, deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund In the space of a few days, June 11-12, a [...]
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 [...]
Pfizer Inc. is trying to acquire AstraZeneca for both tax and strategic reasons. First, the tax reasons: Internal Revenue Service regulations have made it difficult for companies to leave the U.S. to go to [...]
Recently, activist investors have performed alchemy, burnishing their base image into one with a golden tint. It is beneficial and informative when these hedge-fund managers -- notably David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, Dan Loeb [...]
The popularity of dividend-paying equities has grown tremendously as investors looking for ways to generate meaningful income in today's low-interest world. But Mebane Faber, a portfolio manager at Cambria Investment Management, argues that dividend [...]
"There cannot be a single currency without economic convergence, or the euro zone will explode." - Mario Draghi, European Central Bank president, Dec. 1 Last week, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, [...]
We Need to Heed Warnings of power grid's vulnerability "The power grid now faces a range of threats it was never designed to survive." - Paul Stockton, former assistant secretary of defense We can [...]
