How the World Works

Welcoming our new Comcastic overlords

Andrew Leonard — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:24:00 PST

If all goes as planned, Comcast, the nation's largest cable network, will buy NBC Universal from GE. The new entity will be a bigger entertainment/distribution monster than Disney, News Corp. or Time Warner. That sound you hear is the final nail getting hammered into the coffin containing the corpse of the traditional broadcast network's cultural primacy.

The trial of Ben Bernanke

Andrew Leonard — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:50:00 PST

If we know a man by the enemies he keeps, then who is Ben Bernanke? His foes range across the political spectrum from left to right, and during his confirmation hearings today, few senators offered anything more than a lukewarm endorsement.

Goldman foretells an unemployment nightmare

Andrew Leonard — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:58:00 PST

Just in time for President Obama's jobs summit, Reuters columnist James Pethoukoukis gives us a glimpse at Goldman Sachs' economic outlook, compiled by ace forecaster Jan Hatzius. (Found via Calculated Risk.)

Out, out, damn TARP!

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:53:00 PST

As of 6:30 p.m. EST, Bank of America's promise to pay back, soon, the $45 billion in TARP funds that it owes the government was the lead story on the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Bloomberg News. (BofA's lengthy press release explaining its strategy is here.)

Eric Cantor's magic pony jobs plan

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:13:00 PST

Along with about 400 to 450 other streaming-video-via-Facebook attendees, I just watched the Republican Minority Whip, Rep. Eric Cantor, deliver what was billed as a "major address" outlining the GOP plan to boost U.S. job creation.

Christianity's role in the financial crash

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:34:00 PST

"Did Christianity Cause the Crash?" is the kind of leading headline question ever-popular with bloggers desperate for readers to click through. (Yes, I plead guilty.) Whether the answer that pops in your head is yes or no, you're impelled to read the story, if only to disagree viscerally or happily find your worst prejudices confirmed.

Goldman Sachs stocks up on ammo

Andrew Leonard — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:14:00 PST

How tough is it to be a Goldman Sachs banker these days? Despite the record-breaking profits and unprecedented employee compensation, we learn from Bethany McLean's lengthy profile of the company in Vanity Fair that "there is an embattled feeling about the place," according to one person "who knows the firm well."

Paul Krugman's Tiger Woods economics lesson

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:21:00 PST

On Tuesday afternoon, at 4:31 p.m. Paul Krugman delivered a Policy Statement:

The latest insult from the credit card industry

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:45:00 PST

So let's say you are a typical American facing a tough recession. You are having trouble making your mortgage payment. You've been carrying a lot of debt on your credit cards. Maybe your partner loses his or her job or you get a pay cut. You read the newspapers and figure times will be hard for a while.

Bailout hater goes over to the dark side

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:20:00 PST

The blogosphere is having a field day with the news that Willem Buiter, the caustic London School of Economics professor who has delighted in launching blog posts like grenades throughout the course of the global financial crisis, has been named Citigroup's Chief Economist.

Is the Dubai World debacle the new Lehman?

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:47:00 PST

Good news! It's Monday morning, and global stock markets aren't dissolving into a downward spiral of panic and despair (at least not yet). Two hours after the opening bell, the Dow is down a paltry 30 points, and more importantly, Asian markets performed well starting the week -- Japan's Nikkei ended up nearly 3 percent.

The wrong response to ClimateGate

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:31:00 PST

At the New York Times DotEarth blog, University of Chicago Geophysicist Raymond Pierrehumbert sidesteps any discussion of the controversial content of the hacked climate change e-mails and focuses solely on the computer network break in, calling it "a criminal act of vandalism and of harassment of a group of scientists."

Peak globalization

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:47:00 PST

Wishful thinking or apocalyptic doom forecasting? Fred Curtis, an economist at Drew University, has put together a mashup of peak oil, global warming, and patterns in global trade liberalization and arrived at the principle of "Peak Globalization." (Found via Globalisation and the Environment.) A double whammy of higher energy costs and extreme climate events will disrupt global transportation patterns, reversing the historical trend towards greater and greater levels of global trade and forcing a process of "relocalization" -- "The major implication is that supply chains will become shorter for most products and that production of goods will be relocated closer to where they are consumed, although this will happen neither quickly nor easily."

The plot against Google

Andrew Leonard — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:32:00 PST

On Sunday, the Financial Times broke the news that Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. were cooking up a plan in which Microsoft would pay News Corp to "delist" its media properties from Google. Today, Bloomberg reports that a couple of other publishers, MediaNews (publisher of the Denver Post, among many other papers,) and A.H. Belo Corp., (publisher of the Dallas Morning News), were also considering "blocking" Google and putting up paywalls, although payments from Microsoft to those organizations were not mentioned.

Treasury Secretary Jamie Dimon?

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:24:00 PST

Most ridiculous economics-related story of the week (I know, it's early yet, but it's a short week): A New York Post article by Mark DeCambre suggesting JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as a replacement for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Pfizer's Thanksgiving road-trip pet agenda

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:34:00 PST

I've seen some self-serving press releases in my day, but this beauty from Pfizer, "Pfizer Encourages Families To Bring Their Dogs To This Year's Holiday Celebration," (found via Jim Edwards' BNET Pharma blog) deserves a special award, by deftly managing to combine pets, holidays and pharmaceutical marketing into one neat package. And Twitter!

Explaining ClimateGate: A history of distrust

Andrew Leonard — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:40:00 PST

If there is one thing that the case of the hacked climate-change e-mails proves, it is that scientists are human. And humans do stupid things. Because no matter what the context or motivation, some e-mails should never be written:

Climate-gate!

Andrew Leonard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:00 PST

The climate-change obsessed blogosphere -- including both those who accept the science behind anthropogenic climate change and those who deny it -- is in an absolute uproar today after the revelation that an unknown party hacked into the computer system of an important climate research center and posted hundreds of private e-mails to a Russian FTP server.

A Goldman Sachs shareholder revolt?

Andrew Leonard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:18:00 PST

All morning long, the lead story on the Wall Street Journal's home page has been "Goldman Holders Miffed at Bonuses." According to reporter Susanne Craig, some of Goldman's largest shareholders have been privately expressing to Goldman management that a record-large bonus pool might not be in the best interest of the real owners of the investment bank, i.e., the institutions and investors who own Goldman's stock.

More fun with corn cobs and ethanol

Andrew Leonard — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:28:00 PST

POET, the ethanol producer referenced in yesterday's post, "Who Cares About Peak Oil When You Have Corn Cobs?", has a public relations department that is on the ball. Nathan Schock, POET's public relations director, posted (and e-mailed to me) the following response, this morning: