Big Ticket Buffet(t): The World's Most Expensive Dinner Guests
Want to break bread with one of the country's top movers-and-shakers, or perhaps a movie star or musical icon? Here are a few of the most expensive dinner dates in history.
alan greenspan
Without Taxpayer Aid, Too Big to Fail Banks Would Only Break Even
Today brings a new milestone in big banks' fall from grace: a Bloomberg editorial alleging that Wall Street's largest financial firms wouldn't be profitable without taxpayer backstops, and calling for an end to the perverse incentives the current arrangement produces.
The Hair Index: What Your Cut Says About the Economy
The oracles who read economic tea leaves have a host of conventional forecasting tools, but housing starts and job growth figures can only tell you so much. To cut through the haze of data, sometimes it takes an unconventional indicator -- for example, the Hair Index.
Greenspan: Rising Stock Markets Are Key to Recovery
The former Fed chief told CNBC Friday that the Fed's policy to boost liquidity is helping stock values. "I think we are underestimating. . .how important asset prices, very specifically equity prices, are not only to shareholders but the economy as a whole," he said.
Greenspan: Deficit Fears Could Trigger Bond Market Crisis
The U.S. must act to rein in its massive budget deficits or face the risk of a bond market crisis, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday. If deficits begin to frighten the bond market, interest rates will rise, undermining the recovery, and possibly causing a double-dip recession.
Why the Fed's Economic Plan Is Failing
Bernanke's zero-interest-rate policy is backfiring. Only the wealthy benefit from rising financial assets, as average Americans take on more debt and grow poorer. Worse, risky speculation is again being rewarded.
Millionaires on Unemployment? There Must Be a Better Way
Data from the IRS shows that 2,840 households reporting at least $1 million in income on their tax returns that year also collected a total of $18.6 million in unemployment benefits in 2008.
Growth May Still Leave 95% of Americans Behind
America's big income disparity is creating an economy that's dependent on the spending and investing of the wealthiest. As a result, economic growth may increasingly mean 95% of Americans are still not doing better financially.
Greenspan: Repeal All the Bush Tax Cuts
Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is calling for the complete repeal of the Bush tax cuts, a position that goes further than that of the White House. President Obama advocates keeping tax rates steady for all but the richest Americans.
Ahead of G-20, Obama Pushes 'Balanced' Approach
Next week, the G-20 summit will get under way in Toronto, but political posturing and grandstanding among the nations has already begun. In a letter to G-20 leaders, President Barack Obama says, "We must act together to strengthen the recovery."
Greenspan Sees More Oomph for the Economy
The former Fed chief says that apart from the residential and commercial real estate markets, the U.S. economy is "showing some buoyancy," and he expects the pace of job creation to pick up. He also cites inventory rebuilding.
Ayn Rand, Thomas Malthus, and the Cost of Bad Ideas
The philosophical ideas of three writers, taken to illogical extremes, have wreaked havoc on the world's economy. Here, a look at the danger of embracing the wisdom of James Surowiecki, Thomas Malthus, and Ayn Rand.