-
Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.
Thomas Edison Categories
Tag Archives: Wall Street
Wall Street’s ride compounds states’ pension fears
Wall Street’s volatility has hit state pension funds just as they were beginning to recover from the recession. Read More
Once bullish, contrarian Jim Grant likes cash now
Jim Grant quotes obscure dead economists at length. He pines for an earlier time of gas lights and top hats when the dollar was convertible to gold. He wears bowties. Read More
Profits are so last quarter: Wall St. eyes revenue
Even in a tough economy, increasing profits can be easy: Just cut costs enough and the bottom line keeps improving. But companies can only do that for so long.
Now Wall Street wants evidence that they’re actually pulling in more money . . . read more Read More
Nervous investors turn focus to corporate profits
NEW YORK (AP) — Will corporate profits save the stock rally — or kill it?
Most companies won’t announce second-quarter earnings for a few weeks yet. But already Wall Street is buzzing about what might lie ahead. One worry: With investors on edge from bad economic news, the market is riding more than ever on these upcoming reports.
“It’s too early to tell if growth is tapering off,” but people are concerned . . . read more Read More
Summary Box: Slow road ahead to rebuild wealth
GAINING GROUND, BUT WILL IT LAST? Americans’ wealth grew by a modest 2.1 percent last quarter to $54.6 trillion, lifted by stock market gains. Since then, Wall Street has slumped. Net worth in the current quarter could fall or come in flat, analysts say.
CLIMBING OUT OF DEEP HOLE: Even with the first-quarter gain, Americans’ net worth would have to rise an additional 21 percent to . . . read more Read More
Bernanke says recovery on track despite headwinds
The European debt crisis is likely to have only a “modest” impact on the U.S. economic recovery as long as Wall Street stabilizes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday, June 9.
Testifying before the House Budget Committee, Bernanke struck a more confident tone that the recovery will remain intact despite problems in Europe as well stubbornly high unemployment and a fragile housing market here at home.
“The economy … appears to be on track to continue to expand through this year and next,” Bernanke said.
However, the pace of the expansion — 3.5 percent this year by the Fed’s estimate — won’t be strong enough to quickly bring relief to the 15 million Americans who are unemployed. . . . read more Read More
SEC proposing uniform ‘audit trail’ for orders
Federal regulators moved Wednesday, May 26, toward requiring a uniform system for tracking all securities orders on U.S. exchanges, in hopes of making it easier to investigate market disruptions like the May 6 plunge.
Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed, on a 5-0 vote, requiring exchanges to maintain an “audit trail” covering trading orders from start to routing to execution.
The regulators say that would make it easier to investigate market . . . read more Read More
Regulators, once deemed lax, get big say on rules
Banking regulators shared the blame for the financial crisis that buckled Wall Street. Now they’re the ones lawmakers are counting on to give final shape to the new overhaul of financial rules.
In section after section of the massive 1,560-page Senate bill, lawmakers leave much of the details for the regulators to figure out. These are the bank and market overseers — the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission — who took a beating for not overseeing Wall Street more strictly and for failing to see the danger before it struck in 2008.
When it comes to key decisions about how to rein in complex, previously unregulated securities, how to liquidate large, interconnected failing financial firms . . . read more Read More
Investors’ biggest mistake was trusting Wall St.
Good sense has vanished from many areas of American life including how families manage their money, says economist and television commentator Ben Stein.
“You’ve got to correct your spending patterns so that you’re saving every week or every month,” Stein says. “You’ve got to correct your spending so that you’re not even remotely spending more than you earn. You’ve got to live a life of good sense.”
Legions of consumers lived well beyond their means and failed to save for an emergency. It’s the financial mayhem that ensued that still burdens the economy. In “The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing,” Stein and co-author Phil DeMuth provide guidance to investors . . . read more Read More
Wall Street’s fear gauge sinks to 2-year low
What’s not to like about this stock market? It’s been steadily rising for more than a month. And it’s been the kind of gentle climb that appeals to investors eager for a respite from a couple years of sharp ups and downs.
As stocks have ticked upward from a Feb. 8 low, a measure of the market’s volatility has sunk to its lowest level in nearly two years. The Chicago Board of Index Options’ Volatility Index — informally known as Wall Street’s fear gauge — has closed below 17 points for five trading days in a row, and finished Tuesday at 16.35. The last time the VIX closed below 17 was May 16, 2008. It’s even slightly below its historic average of around 19 points. . . . read more Read More
Diviners Divided: Economists clash, sow confusion
If you’re confused about the outlook for the economy and stocks one year after the market hit bottom, then you’ve got good company — the Wall Street economists and strategists who are supposed to have this all figured out.
Rarely have the experts seemed so divided about the future . . . read more Read More
Regulatory Reform
The bloodletting on Wall Street is still in full swing, yet we’ve already begun to hear calls for greater regulation of the financial services industry. Given the magnitude of the crisis, it is likely some regulatory reform will occur. As we go through this process, it’s critical that we keep our wits about us and make decisions based on fact and not emotion. Read More
