The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Optimism, Inc.

Wall Street analysts consistently overestimate the profit potential of companies: Some economists look at the global economy and see troubles — the European debt crisis, persistently high unemployment worldwide, and housing woes in the U.S. Stock analysts as a group seem unfazed. . . . Caterpillar, a multinational that gets much of its revenue abroad, […]

AIG’s $100 Billion I.O.U.

Good luck collecting on this one: A watchdog panel reviewing the bailout of American International Group Inc. said U.S. taxpayers “remain at risk for severe losses” and that the government didn’t act aggressively enough to protect U.S. taxpayers during the 2008 rescue. In a lengthy report, the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel concluded that the U.S. […]

Glenn Beck Goes Hayekian

When I laid down to go to bed in the wee hours this morning, I flipped on Fox News and caught the re-run of Glenn Beck. He was talking about Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, and The Other Glenn informs us that the book is now No. 1 at Amazon. It’s unfortunate, really, that […]

Obamanomics: Still Not Working

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost another 115 points Monday, after losing 324 points on Friday, for a two-day loss of 439 points (4.3%) — and a cumulative loss of 1,389 points (12.4%) since April 26. In short, if your 401(k) is mainly in stocks, you’ve lost about 1/8th of that money in about six weeks. The […]

Black Monday?

Probably not. It would be foolish to think that Wall Street would repeat Friday’s performance when there were more bears than a birthday party for Andrew Sullivan and the Dow fell 324 points. The more likely scenario today would be for the Dow to regain a hundred or so points. On the other hand, Asian […]

Black Friday?

OK, it’s not a complete meltdown, but the release of a jobs report today showing a weak employment picture — temporary Census jobs making up most of the gain — evidently punched a hole in investor hopes of recovery. As of 3:30 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was below 10,000, more than 300 points […]

Report: Bottom Falls Out of Housing After First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Expires

Home sales enjoyed an uptick in April, but Diana Olick of CNBC reports that sales are now in freefall: [Y]ou had to sign your contract by April 30th and close by June 30th in order to get your $8000 if you’re a first time buyer and $6500 if you’re a move up buyer. And then came […]

Second Half of the ‘W’?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 113 points Friday, having lost 1,181 points (10%) since its recent peak of 11,205 on April 26, and 4,069 points (29%) below its historic high of 14,093 on Oct. 12, 2007. For the past two weeks, the Dow has been struggling to stay above the 10,000 level. To close below that […]

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