As Lori Montgomery reports in the Washington Post, “Senate Republicans are rolling out a plan to permanently extend an array of expiring tax breaks that would deprive the Treasury of more than $4 trillion over the next decade, nearly doubling projected deficits over that period unless dramatic spending cuts are made. The measure, introduced by …
Today in The Wall Street Journal, Eleanor Laise and Kelly Green report that many companies that suspended 401(k) contributions during teh depths of the financial crisis have yet to restore them–despite a return to “surging profits and rising dividends.” Among the companies named in the article: FedEx, which last week boosted its profit expectations for …
My latest assignment has me working for Mr. Joe Plumeri, the chairman and CEO of the Willis Company. Have you ever heard of Willis? Neither had I, until this relationship began. Turns out Willis is a venerable British insurance company, now approximately 175 years old. Mr. Plumeri is an astute and charismatic businessman from the …
There was a set of astonishing statistics in the New York Post today, in an article by Michael Snyder: According to a 2009 poll, 61% of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, up from 43% in 2007. 43% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement. 36% of Americans say that …
Coming to the end of the second year of the Obama presidency, what is sadly apparent is that one of the most gifted politicians of my lifetime–gifted intellectually, gifted rhetorically–has completely failed to articulate the narrative of our times. It’s perplexing, but he has never explained chapter and verse how and why we have found …
In On theatlantic.com, images from the Gulf.
Yesterday Rep. Michele Bachman, the insane yet oddly alluring Republican congresswoman from Minnesota (is it the gleam of insanity that makes her eyes shine so bright?), offered a commentary on the G-20 nations. During an interview, when a conservative radio host asked Bachmann for her thoughts on the G-20 summit in Toronto, the congresswoman said …
With cold, methodical clairvoyance, Paul Krugman has been chronicling our descent through subprime madness, into recession, into crisis, liquidity trap, and into the green shoots on the other side. He applauded Ben Bernanke‘s firmness and leadership in 2008, and warned very early in 2009 that the stimulus wasn’t large enough to do the job, that …
Just in time for tax season comes the report in yesterday’s New York Times that the top 25 hedge fund investors earned a collective $25.3 billion (with a B) in 2009. This includes seven who earned more than $1 billion, one of whom, David Tepper of Pittsburgh (pictured), earned a record $4 billion. “We bet …
WHY AREN’T WE TAXING THE SNOT OUT THE HEDGE FUND MANAGERS? Read More »
In Washington tomorrow, the first hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, what hopefully turns out to be as revealing as the Pecora investigation into the crash of ’29 did in the thirties, will convene. In his column today in The New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin, whose book Too Big to Fail is an …