Market // Current TV

AIG bailout was a mistake

As the title says, the AIG bailout was a terrible idea. This is more about politicians... more

tarheelbusiness
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Editorial: This too will pass

To put the weekend’s events in some perspective, Investors Business Daily has... more

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3 years ago
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McCain on 'Black Monday': Fundamentals of our economy are still strong

John McCain may want to refine his economic message a bit more during this potentially disastrous week for the financial sector.

On the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Florida, the Senator declared this morning that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," despite what he described as "tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street."

The line may seem like GOP boilerplate, save for the fact that this morning, the McCain campaign released a television ad that began: "Our economy is in crisis." Moreover, with financial and job markets in disarray, and with Lehman Brothers, the troubled investment bank, filing for bankruptcy, it may not be the wisest political message to tell voters that the fundamentals are a-okay.

"You know," said McCain, "there's been tremendous turmoil in our financial markets and Wall Street and it is -- people are frightened by these events. Our economy, I think, still the fundamentals of our economy are strong. But these are very, very difficult time. And I promise you, we will never put America in this position again. We will clean up Wall Street. We will reform government."

Many conservatives and McCain supporters have argued, against the prevailing sentiment, that despite Wall Street's failings, the economy is actually on firm footing. Donald Luskin, who described himself as "an adviser to John McCain's campaign," made such an argument in Sunday's Washington Post. But despite modest growth and relatively low unemployment rates, many economists see dire signs in today's economic landscape. On Sunday, former fed chairman Alan Greenspan said the market was the worst he had ever witnessed and predicted another major bank would close soon. Meanwhile, inflation is rising, real wages are declining, and the problems in the housing market persist.

McCain acknowledged, to various degrees, these topics in his Monday morning speech.

"I promise you we will never put America in this position again," McCain said. "This is a failure. We've got take every action to build an environment of robust energy supplies, lower inflation, control health care costs, access to international markets, low taxes and reduce burden of government to allow people to move forward toward a future of prosperity."

John McCain may want to refine his economic message a bit more during this potentially... more

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Asian Markets Dip Amid Wall Street Shakeup

Asian stock markets tumbled Tuesday as the collapse of Lehman Brothers and takeover of... more

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Canadian banks in much better shape than American

Canadian banks have mostly not left themselves exposed to risky asset-backed... more

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3 years ago
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Report: BofA to buy Merrill Lynch

A report posted a few minutes ago in the Wall Street Journal has stated that Merrill... more

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3 years ago
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Market recap and outlook: Week of Pain

All hell broke loose in the markets last week. First Fannie & Freddie collapsed,... more

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Corti Brothers store began a gourmet-food revolution

ans rally behind Darrell Corti, who started a movement in California, and his threatened Sacramento grocery.
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SACRAMENTO -- The news in July that the Corti Bros. grocery on Folsom Boulevard was closing spread through town like wildfire. You'd have thought the city was losing its NBA team, or even the state Capitol.

A petition to keep the store in its current location was started and quickly amassed almost 1,500 signatures. Mayor Heather Fargo got involved in the effort.

Then, when a who's who of the area's chefs gathered last week for a press conference to protest the closing, the event turned instead into a celebration when it was announced that the seemingly unprepossessing market -- home base of Darrell Corti, chief provisioner of the 1970s California food revolution -- would remain where it is, at least for now.

The competing gourmet business that had leased the building even took out an ad in the Sacramento Bee to announce it was abandoning the site and to explain its side of the story.

All this fuss over the closing of a single grocery might seem hard to believe, but only if you don't know about Darrell Corti.

And these days, when once-exotic ingredients such as Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, good olive oil and balsamic vinegar are available even at supermarkets, why should you know about him?

But back in the day, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Corti Bros. in Sacramento was a name that conjured up a then-unimaginable bounty of hard-to-find ingredients.

Gourmet magazine editor Ruth Reichl, who was then just starting out as a restaurant critic for New West magazine, says, "I remember the first big thing I got from Darrell was Parmigiano-Reggiano. If you can imagine, there was a time you had to send to Sacramento for Parmigiano."

"What did we get from Darrell? Balsamic vinegar, white truffles and fantastic olive oils . . . and lots of beautiful ingredients from Amador County," says Alice Waters, founder of Berkeley's Chez Panisse. "Darrell opened my eyes to products from around the world. He is an amazing person who knows everything about everything. Not just what it is, but how it's produced from beginning to end. That's very unique."
ans rally behind Darrell Corti, who started a movement in California, and his... more

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Housing market declines

The turn of the Lower Mainland real estate market's cycle has been more dramatic... more

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3 years ago
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Internet challenges modern business

Businesses that face this new form of competition -- which effectively comes from... more

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3 years ago
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Flying Fish bet you can't catch one

Pike Place Market, Seattle goes wild with flying fish

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Tomato scare ending; fears linger for many people

The tomato scare may be over, but it has taken a toll — it's cost the... more

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3 years ago
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Stocks tumble as Fannie, Freddie fall sharply

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks tumbled Friday as investors focused on troubles at mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and watched oil prices climb further into record territory. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 170 points and neared the 11,000 mark for the first time in two years.
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Investors seemed unimpressed by a statement from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said the government's focus is ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain as presently constituted to carry out their mission.

The government-chartered companies at times each lost more than 40 percent on growing speculation that a government bailout is needed. A collapse of the two financiers would cause further shock to the financial system, and trigger more losses to banks and brokerages with significant holdings of mortgage-backed securities.

Global banks and brokerages have scrambled to sell assets and raise capital in an effort to offset nearly $300 billion of write-downs linked to the credit crisis. Citigroup Inc. announced Friday it will sell its German retail banking operation to France's Credit Mutuel for $7.7 billion.

Meanwhile, oil continued its ascent on supply concerns. A barrel of oil vaulted to a record above $147.

The confluence of negative news offset a mostly positive quarterly report from General Electric Co. The conglomerate that owns everything from television network NBC to jet engine plants reported second-quarter profits that met analysts' expectations. However, the outlook across its business lines was mixed.

In midmorning trading, the Dow fell 173.83, or 1.55 percent, to 11,055.19. It last traded below 11,000 on July 25, 2006.

Broader stock indicators also lost ground. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19.58, or 1.56 percent, to 1,233.81, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 33.03, or 1.46 percent, to 2,224.82.

Light, sweet crude rose $5.08 to $146.73 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Behind the rise are concerns about a disruption to tight global supplies amid tensions over Iran's launch of test missiles and the possible renewal of oil-related violence in Nigeria.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.83 percent from 3.80 percent late Thursday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks tumbled Friday as investors focused on troubles at mortgage... more