Filed under: Economy California may soon have a budget and the ability to repay the IOUs it started issuing on July 1. The damage this budget stand-off has caused to California’s bond rating could take a year or more to fix. California’s bonds are just two steps away from junk status. Lawmakers must vote on 31 bills [...]
Filed under: Economy, Investing I was just as happy as anyone who owns stocks to see the Dow close over 9,000 yesterday. But the question that remains unanswered is why exactly did stocks rally? There are four reasons commonly offered to explain the recent rise in stocks: their prices were cheap relative to earnings, the economy [...]
Filed under: Economy With 15 million Americans unemployed, state unemployment systems are overwhelmed and millions of people have had to wait weeks to get their benefits, according to a report in today’s New York Times. Of the 12.8 million eligibility reviews that have occurred during the recession, 4.6 million took more than three weeks — that’s [...]
Filed under: Economy Big financial events bring economists and analysts out of the wood work, anxious to give their opinions and get their names in the media. The increase in the minimum wage, which is effective today, is a prime example. The federal minimum wage will go from $6.55 to $7.25. That is an 11 percent [...]
Filed under: Economy, Earnings When the Treasury released an update for the budget in June one of the notable aspects arising from the figures was that revenue, particularly from businesses, is evaporating. The operating income from large corporations is not a perfect sign of future government collections from companies, but it is, at least, a sign [...]
