Five years later: Time versus Businessweek
It’s been five years since the crisis, and the two leading weekly magazines (or the only two left) have vastly different takes on Wall Street and the coverage. Let’s take a look, starting with the covers. Time’s cover was of the Wall Street bull on a white background wearing a party hat complete with confetti. […]
AP seeking economics reporter in DC
The Associated Press is looking for a reporter to cover the economy out of its Washington bureau, says Brad Foss, an assistant business editor. This position has a broad mandate: explaining the economy to readers in daily coverage of government and industry reports, and through enterprise stories. The successful candidate must be an aggressive reporter and critical […]
Thomson Reuters gave data to 16 firms early
Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone writes that a whistleblower complaint has been filed to the SEC identifying 16 of the world’s biggest banks and hedge funds as the allegedly even-earlier recipients of key economic data from Thomson Reuters. The complaint alleges that this select group of customers received the data anywhere from 10 minutes to […]
Summers faces opposition for Fed chair
Lawrence Summers, considered by many to be the front-runner to be the new Federal Reserve chairman, isn’t likely to have an easy nomination process if he’s President Obama’s pick. But Obama knows that his confirmation may be difficult, according to the New York Times story. As President Obama turned to second-term job openings soon after […]
So, what’s the Fed going to do?
The last time I wrote a story about the topic of parsing the Federal Reserve’s signals, it was rightly pointed out that I used stories too early in the day. So, I waited until after newspaper deadlines to look at the coverage in order to be fair. But the media’s focus was also vastly different. […]
Federal Reserve says bank tests could be better
The good news is that banks have been passing their so-called stress tests. The not-so-good news is that those tests may need some improvement. The Federal Reserve continues to push banks to make sure the tests accurately reflect the ability to withstand an economic downturn. Here’s the story from the Wall Street Journal: The Federal […]
The Atlantic launches “Economics in plain English” series
The Atlantic is beginning a series of videos called “Economics in Plain English,” writes Derek Thompson of its business news staff. Thompson writes, “We sifted through more than 300 submissions, which ranged from the super-serious (‘explain monetary policy’s effect on long-term interest rates’) to the super-not-serious (‘why are cupcakes cheaper than Banh Mi sandwiches?’). “We’ve […]
The week’s economic stories
Given the many different economic stories out previewing the week, it’s hard to know what to think. Gauging sentiment as investors and money managers sort through the stories remains important, especially as many of the stories point the economy is moving in different directions. The Wall Street Journal piece talked about the decline in the […]
FBI finds problems in government’s system to prevent leaks of economic data
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered vulnerabilities in the government’s system for preventing market-moving economic reports from leaking to traders before public release, reports Brody Mullins and Devlin Barrett of The Wall Street Journal. Mullins and Barrett write, “The black boxes are key to the government’s control of the data. Media firms in the […]
Health care law hurts unions
The new health care laws are putting pressure on unions and municipalities to trim prices in anticipation of higher costs down the line, according to a New York Times story: Cities and towns across the country are pushing municipal unions to accept cheaper health benefits in anticipation of a component of the Affordable Care Act […]
