Drop in consumer confidence in the ailing economy
Markets finished at record lows in 2008, but perhaps more significant than the final number, is that the volume of sales has dropped. This can be seen as an indicator that consumer confidence is...
View ArticleAs one stimulus package is debated, the legacy of another is demolished
President Obama is pushing Congress to finalize his stimulus bill —a plan that would provide federal dollars for projects across the country. At the same time, hundreds of buildings commissioned by...
View ArticleStates that face growing number of unemployment rates
A growing number of states are suffering double-digit unemployment rates, fueling fears that the national jobless rate could hit 10 percent by the end of the year. In January, jobless rates rose in...
View ArticleGreat explanations: Steve Coll blogs the stimulus plan
Veteran journalist Steve Coll has turned his investigative skills on the SEC’s relationship with Wall Street, the secret history of the CIA and the legacy of the Bin-Ladens. Now he is taking on a great...
View ArticleIs the traditional press conference obsolete?
President Obama worked to rally the country behind his economic agenda last night in a press conference that focused heavily on the budget and skimmed almost entirely over foreign policy issues. But...
View ArticleThe Vertigo Years: How the early 20th century compares to today's dizzying...
Historian and author Philipp Blom’s latest endeavor makes the case that the period between 1900 to 1914 in Europe was, as the title of his new book calls it, The Vertigo Years. Those tumultuous times...
View ArticleProm Night: Taking the economy out for a spin
It's May, which means one thing to high school students: Prom. That's right, across the country teens are biting their nails over getting invited by the right guy, lining up the limo, picking a...
View ArticleGeithner's Message to Beijing: Your Money Is Safe
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is in Beijing for a two-day visit to meet with top Chinese government officials including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. He is there to reassure...
View ArticleNo More Cash for Clunkers
Having run out of money two weeks ahead of schedule, the Cash for Clunkers program officially ends at 8 p.m. tonight. Now that it's winding down, how are car dealers and automakers going to get people...
View ArticleDoes Income Inequality Lead to Financial Crisis?
There's long been a growing gap between the rich and the poor in the United States, but some believe that disparity could actually cause more harm than previously thought. A group of economists,...
View ArticleWhat Does it Mean to be a Middle Class American?
For many years, an integral part of the American dream has involved making it to the middle class. We associate the phrase with steady, secure work, home ownership and providing for a comfortable — if...
View ArticleGM Stock Price Goes Public Today
After unexpectedly strong interest from potential investors made itself apparent, formerly-bankrupt carmaker GM raised its initial price on last night's stock offering to $33/share. This morning, the...
View ArticleGiving Thanks in Tough Economic Times
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and with the nation’s unemployment rate at 9.6 percent, many Americans are facing a difficult holiday season. Lyndon Dees, a listener from Stillwater, Oklahoma, knows...
View ArticleHome Loans to Minority Applicants Plunge
In the 1980s and 1990s banks avoided lending in minority neighborhoods and Blacks and Latinos were denied mortgages at disproportionately higher rates than equally credit-worthy whites. Redlining and...
View ArticleNYC Economic Outlook
Greg David, director of the business and economics program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, with a local economics roundup.
View ArticleHalloween Sales Creep Upward
Retailers that traffic in orange-and-black are expected to see a boost, in these spooky economic times. The National Retail Federation estimates that nearly 150 million Americans will participate in...
View ArticleSunset of the West
Dambisa Moyo, Zambian-born economist and the author of Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost: Fifty Years of Economic Folly--and the Stark Choices Ahead, says Western government's short-sighted policies...
View ArticleMoving Working Families Forward
Robert Cherry, Brooklyn College Broeklundian economics professor and co-author of Moving Working Families Forward: Third Way Policies That Can Work, talks about his new book and how third way policies...
View ArticleStarting Over
New York Times columnist David Brooks talks about the latest news from the Beltway, and his picks for best essays of 2012. Plus: what the longshoremen’s strike threat means in the context of recent...
View ArticleIndia’s Lesson; NYC Bike Share; CUNY Chancellor Steps Down
Hear why Washington got closer to a possible immigration deal but stepped back from a gun control compromise. Then, what you need to know about the bike share. Plus: the latest on the Boston marathon...
View ArticleThe Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East
In the midst of the political turmoil in the Middle East, Christopher Schroeder, a seasoned investor in emerging markets, says that there’s a quieter revolution emerging—one that promises to reinvent...
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How Important Is A Bee?
This is an alarming story, not because it ends badly. It's alarming because it ends well. It shouldn't have, but it did, and biologists (and especially conservationists) now have a puzzle to...
View ArticleFeds: One Year of Car Crashes Cost the U.S. $871 Billion
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says one year of traffic crashes costs $277 billion in direct economic losses and another $594 billion in harm from the loss of life and pain from...
View ArticleEconomics and Government, Poetry and Politics
On today’s show: two editors at The Economist explain why we need to reimagine the role of government. We’ll get a preview of Poets House’s annual Bridgewalk, where poets walk across the Brooklyn...
View ArticleSilk Road Redux - a conversation with Tobias Buck
We talk to Tobias Buck, Madrid correspondent, about the series of FT articles that investigated the modern trail of Chinese investment, migration and ambition in Europe, and he answers a selection of...
View ArticleNot Down with T.P.P.
Signs reading “No T.P.P.” were everywhere at this year’s Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia. The agreement, the largest regional trade accord in history, has become something of a...
View ArticleThe Hidden Costs & Casualties of Supermarket Slotting Fees
Kate Cox, an editor for The New Food Economy, Chase Purdy, a global business reporter for Quartz, and investigative journalist Gary Rivlin discuss supermarkets and slotting fees. We’ll look into how...
View ArticleOpioid Crisis Costs Employees and Employers
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview. All over the country, as the opioid crisis continues to spread, mandatory drug tests have kept otherwise qualified workers from entering...
View ArticleCharlotesville Fallout: Big Business Bucks Trump
Click on the 'Listen' button above to hear this interview.On Wednesday, the president announced on Twitter that he would end two executive councils — the Strategic and Policy Forum and Manufacturing...
View ArticleChina’s third plenum could lead to far-reaching reforms
Xi Jinping was appointed Chinese president just over a year ago and promised to shake up China's economy. Now Mr Xi's agenda for the next decade has become a little clearer with the conclusion of a...
View ArticleThe tug of war over the future of Ukraine
Ukraine finds itself caught between Russia and the EU ahead of a summit next week in Vilnius, where the country’s president Viktor Yanukovich will have the opportunity to sign a major free trade deal...
View ArticleCan Hollande get the French economy back on track?
By an unfortunate coincidence, President François Hollande’s efforts to relaunch his presidency with an announcement of bold economic reforms have coincided with the revelation that he appears to be...
View ArticleCan Renzi break Italian deadlock?
In Italy, the government of Enrico Letta has fallen and the country is set to have its youngest Prime Minister ever. Matteo Renzi promises to be a radical reformer. In this week’s podcast Guy Dinmore,...
View ArticleEurope’s response to the Crimean crisis
Ben Hall is joined by Peter Spiegel, Brussels bureau chief and Neil Buckley, East Europe editor to discuss Europe’s response to Russia’s summary annexation of Crimea, the first such grab for sovereign...
View ArticleHow should Nigeria tackle the militant threat of Boko Haram?
Nigeria’s status as the new economic powerhouse of Africa was supposed to be the talking point of a meeting of African leaders and top executives in Abuja this week. Instead, the world is in uproar...
View ArticleEurope's budget wrangles
Gideon Rachman is joined by Peter Spiegel, Brussels bureau chief, and Tony Barber, Europe editor, to discuss the threat that the European Commission will reject the budgets of some of Europe’s biggest...
View ArticleWhat hopes for detente between Japan and China?
What are the prospects for some form of detente between Japan and China? Ahead of next week's Apec summit, where leaders of the two countries are expected to meet, Ben Hall discusses the reasons for...
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