Economy | News-Opinion
TOP NEWS: Economy: September 19th, 2012
Excerpts and More Top News and Analysis
ELECTIONS 2012/MARKETS: Who’s better for stocks: Obama or Romney? - FORTUNE Allan Sloan: Wall Street loves a Republican president, right? Not so fast. With history as our judge, the answer is not so clear.
MARKETS: Will Dow gyrations determine W.H. race? - USA TODAY, OPINION Adam Shell: History has shown that a favorable 50-plus approval rating is pretty much a prerequisite for a president to get re-elected.
MARKETS: For Fast Traders, a Way to Jump Ahead in Line - WSJ Wall Street insider sparked a sweeping SEC inquiry that is looking at whether stock exchanges sometimes allow high-speed trading firms to trade ahead of less-sophisticated investors.
MARKETS: Stocks Rise on Housing Data; Oil Slumps, Yen Weakens - Bloomberg U.S. stocks halted a two-day drop as a jump in home sales bolstered confidence in the economy, while oil plunged for a third day. The yen weakened after the Bank of Japan increased its asset-purchase program.
MARKETS: No Shortage of Overpriced Stocks in US Market - Bloomberg Jim Chanos, who oversees about $6 billion as the founder and president at Kynikos Associates Ltd., is finding companies to bet against as the U.S. stock market heads for the biggest rally in three years.
HOUSING: Sales of U.S. Existing Homes Climb to a Two-Year High - Bloomberg Sales of existing homes rose more than forecast in August to a two-year high, an additional sign the U.S. housing market is gaining traction in the second half of the year.
HOUSING: An Enigma in Mortgage Market Elevates Rates – NYT DEALBOOK A 30-year mortgage with a 2.8 percent interest rate could already exist, but something in the banking system is holding it back. And right now, few agree on what that “something” is.
FED: Fed drama set for fascinating epilogue - FT Monetary policy innovations take central bank into new world
FED:QE3 is a sign of the Fed’s policy purgatory – FT, OPINION Mohamed El-Erian: Thursday’s move confirms the US central bank is incapable of delivering the good economic outcomes it desires
FED: Bernanke makes a historic choice – FT, OPINION MARTIN WOLF: Fed is correct in its decision to err on the side of expansion
FED: Banks may see a windfall from QE3 - WP Lenders are seen keeping mortgage rates high to curb a rush of borrowers.
ARCTIC RESOURCES: Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures - NYT The jockeying among nations has begun as areas of the Arctic once regarded as barren wastelands now offer an abundance of oil, gas and minerals.
BANKING: Take on Wall St titans if you want reform – FT, OPINION
JOHN KAY: It is futile to expect stability in a system that is driven by volatility
BANKING: Documents Shed Light on Early Barclays Concerns – NYT DEALBOOK Hector Sants, the former chief of the Financial Services Authority, raised concerns about Robert Diamond Jr., the former chief of Barclays.
WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Best of Breed - BARRONS Our ranking of the top 40 wealth managers for the superrich reveals that the private banks have finally embraced “open architecture,” offering clients significantly more financial products from outside managers.
WEALTH GIVEAWAY: Providence’s Nelson, Netflix’s Hastings Join Giving Pledge – NYT DEALBOOK
Jonathan M. Nelson of Providence Equity Partners and Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix and a Facebook board member, are among the latest signatories to the Giving Pledge, joining a growing number of billionaires who plan to give away most of their wealth.
TAXES: The Great American Tax Debate – NYT, ANALYSIS EDUARDO PORTER: Maybe the way to start building a consensus about how much people should be taxed is to make the connection between the taxes people pay and the benefits they finance.
FISCAL CLIFF: Fund managers fear US ‘fiscal cliff’ - FT Investors rotate into eurozone stocks
GOLDMAN: Executive at Goldman Is Retiring - NYT Goldman Sachs said Tuesday that David A. Viniar, the bank’s chief financial officer, would retire at the end of January and be replaced by Harvey Schwartz, a senior executive at the bank.
GOLDMAN: Behind Goldman Sachs’s Success Is a Focus on Survival – NYT DEALBOOK STEVEN M. DAVIDOFF Goldman Sachs has made an effort to heal self-inflicted wounds and maintain its dominance in investment banking.
GOLDMAN: Goldman in Changing of Guard - WSJ Goldman Sachs said Chief Financial Officer David Viniar will retire, with Harvey M. Schwartz, global co-head of the securities division, succeeding him.
GOLDMAN: The Next Generation at Goldman – NYT DEALBOOK Goldman Sachs may be readying the next generation of leaders. | Apple closed above $700 a share for the first time. | The new 1,004-foot tower known as One57, in Midtown Manhattan, may be the new haven for billionaires.
CORPORATE CYBERSECURITY: Senator Presses on Cybersecurity - WSJ Sen. Jay Rockefeller is sending letters to every Fortune 500 CEO, asking them to describe their company’s handling of computer security.
JOBS/SKILLS: Ohio Compresser Maker Hunts for Workers Amid Skills Gap - Bloomberg Ariel Corp. couldn’t find the machinists, mechanics and maintenance workers it needed to make natural-gas compressors, so it turned to the roads and highways of Ohio for help.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION: Not everyone who needs help is a moocher - WP, OPINION Well-off individuals frequently talk about the less fortunate with without the self-realization that they, too, are often just a job loss away from needing help.
ROMNEY TAX POLICY: Romney’s Tax View Conflicts With Longtime G.O.P. - NYT With his defense of his surreptitiously recorded remarks, Mitt Romney waded into an ideological clash pitting two strands of conservative thinking against one another.
ROMNEY FINANCIAL PLAN: Romney rescue plan – Cut the accountancy – FT, OPINION The governor can win if he ventures out of his comfort zone
CONSUMER SPENDING: The iPhone and Consumer Spending – NYT, ANALYSIS CASEY B. MULLIGAN: American economic data can be misleading because it recognizes the contribution of researchers at the wrong stage of the development process.
ENTREPRENEURS: Katrina Survivor Spreads Entrepreneurship Word – NYT, ANALYSIS After Hurricane Katrina wiped out his construction business in New Orleans, Kevin Langley refocused his life as he rebuilt his company, traveling the world as head of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
REGULATION/FTC: FTC Shines Light On Food Ads, Kids - WSJ Federal officials concerned about childhood obesity say they are closely watching the kinds of food advertised to children, but there isn’t much they can do.
REGULATION/FDA: FDA moving to limit arsenic in rice - WP The announcement is set to coincide with the release of a Consumer Reports study of 200 samples that found the ‘inorganic’ form of arsenic known to cause some cancers.
FEDEX/CHINA: FedEx Downbeat on China - WSJ FedEx’s CEO sounded a warning about the fate of China’s export-driven economy as the world’s largest air package shipper cut its forecast for global growth in 2012 and 2013.
UNIONS/FLYING: American’s Flight Schedule Disrupted - WSJ American Airlines has encountered a sharp increase in late and canceled flight in the past few days, as it implements new concessionary labor contracts for most of its unions and cost-saving work rules for holdout pilots.
ROBOTICS: Baxter Robot Heads to Work - WSJ Rethink Robotics introduced Tuesday a low-cost robot named Baxter that can do such factory chores as picking parts off a conveyor belt. The robot is priced at $22,000.
APPLE/SAMSUNG: Samsung-Apple Fight Moves to Marketing– NYT, ANALYSIS Samsung’s campaign takes on the iPhone 5 directly, claiming its new Galaxy phone is better.
More Business News and Analysis
MEDIA: Media Chiefs Form Venture to E-Publish- NYT DAVID CARR: Two powerful entertainment moguls, Scott Rudin, the film and theater producer, and Barry Diller, the chairman of IAC/InterActiveCorp, are entering the turbulent world of book publishing.
MEDIA: Investors start to tune out from Netflix - FT US equities slip from multiyear highs in wake of Fed action
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Closes $7.6 Billion Alibaba Deal- WSJ Alibaba completed the initial repurchase of shares from Yahoo for $7.6 billion, representing half of Yahoo’s 40% stake in Alibaba.
TECHNOLOGY: Cisco Defends Switch Turf – WSJ Cisco is hoping to leapfrog a small start-up called Arista that has gobbled up much of the market for high-speed networking gear favored by Wall Street traders.
TECHNOLOGY: AMD suffers after finance director quits – FT Energy and financials lead declines on S&P 500
SAMSUNG RULING: Samsung Fails to Overturn Ban on U.S. Tablet Sales – WSJ A California court denied Samsung’s appeal for dissolution of a temporary sales ban on its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S.
IPHONE: The iPhone 5 Scores Well, With a Quibble – NYT, ANALYSIS DAVID POGUE: Apple has upgraded nearly every feature on the iPhone 5, but there’s a problem with universal compatibility.
HOME SECURITY: Blackstone to Buy Control of Home Security Provider – NYT DEALBOOK The Blackstone Group has agreed to buy control of Vivint, a provider of home security services, for more than $2 billion, Vivint’s chief executive said in an interview on Tuesday.
AUTOMOTIVE: Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal – NYT DEALBOOK Canadian labor deal puts pressure on Chrysler and General Motors. | Debt collectors find a partner in prosecutors.
FOOD/CEO OPINION: Green Mountain Takes the Heat, Looks Ahead- WSJ Green Mountain Coffee CEO Larry Blanford discusses his company’s rollercoast er year, and how it plans to deal with upcoming competition from Starbucks.
FOOD/EARNINGS: Acquisitions Boost General Mills - WSJ General Mills posted a 35% rise in quarterly earnings, helped by recent acquisitions, but the food company’s sales missed consensus estimates.
ENTERTAINMENT: Sports Giant, Part Owner of Lakers, Weighs Sale – WSJ Anschutz Co. is planning a sale of Anschutz Entertainment Group, its powerhouse sports-and-entertainment subsidiary.
MINING: Alpha Natural Resources closing eight mines, cutting hundreds of jobs – WP Alpha Natural Resources becomes the latest in a series of coal mining companies to trim output and jobs this year as domestic coal-fired power plants shut down in the face of cheap new U.S. natural gas supplies, a weak economy, and environmental regulations.
BEVERAGES: Heineken Wins Support for $4.6B Bid for Asia Pacific Breweries – NYT The Dutch brewer moved a step closer on Wednesday to securing the rights in Asia Pacific Breweries that it did not already own after a major shareholder backed the proposed $4.6 billion deal.
HOTELS: Hoteliers Race to Expand in Africa – WSJ Marriott is joining hoteliers like Hilton and Carlson to expand in Africa as business travelers flock to the continent thanks to rich stores of minerals, oil and natural gas.
RESTAURANTS: Restaurant Chains Flock to the Malls – WSJ Restaurants are signing leases for vacant space in shopping centers as struggling retailers move out.
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