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29 Mar 2009 20:29

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Biz, U.S.: GM’s head guy, Rick Wagoner, is apparently gonna step down.

  • Why now? GM wants help General Motors’ top man is leaving now in part because the White House made strong hints that they wanted new leadership if the automaker wanted more bailout money. Wagoner has been with the company for over three decades and has been CEO for almost a decade. There’s no word yet as to who the new CEO’s going to be, but we’ll probably learn more later this week. source
  • Why now? GM wants help General Motors’ top man is leaving now in part because the White House made strong hints that they wanted new leadership if the automaker wanted more bailout money. Wagoner has been with the company for over three decades and has been CEO for almost a decade. There’s no word yet as to who the new CEO’s going to be, but we’ll probably learn more later this week.
  • A cruddy legacy Wagoner has led GM through some of the more questionable periods of the company’s history – between the fumbled response to Japanese carmakers, the legacy payments to union employees, the over-leaning on SUV’s to save the company’s fortunes and the utter lack of creativity in the company’s vehicles, it’s kind of tough to say what was the one thing that made GM fall so far. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2009 13:42

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Biz: Charter has a crapload of debt, guys. They filed for bankruptcy.

  • $21.7 billion amount of debt the cable company, part-owned by Paul Allen, had on the books as of late 2008 source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 Mar 2009 13:03

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Biz, World: An example of the mushroom effect of the credit crunch

  • The Royal Bank of Scotland, well-known for its globalization efforts, has been ordered by the British government to pump billions into the British credit market. source
  • So RBS can redouble its efforts in its homeland, the company has recently started to scale back and tried to sell a number of its global endeavors – in countries big and small. source
  • Due to the new tightening of credit in developing countries such as Vietnam and Romania, the world credit market takes a hit and begins to constrict even more. Yikes. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2009 18:07

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Biz: Stocks sucked today. But this week, overall, ruled.

  • 6.8% increase for the Dow this week; not bad duders source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Mar 2009 11:14

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Biz, Offbeat: Behind the curtain is an Ikea car. Maybe.

It could be an April Fool’s joke, but if it’s real: 1) We hope it’s pre-assembled and 2) In-dash Swedish meatball dispenser! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Mar 2009 10:56

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Biz, U.S.: Timothy Geithner wants to add more financial industry oversight

  • Our system failed in basic fundamental ways. The system proved too unstable and fragile, subject to significant crises every few years, periodic booms in real estate markets and in credit, followed by busts and contraction.
  • Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner • In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee (which is headed by awesome guy Barney Frank). He wants to fix the broken system. Hey, if he pulls it off, maybe people won’t hate him anymore. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 Mar 2009 10:18

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Biz, U.S.: The economy’s showing signs of life, but not in jobless claims

  • 5.56 million ongoing jobless claims, which is a (sad) record source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

25 Mar 2009 10:40

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Biz, U.S.: Pre-existing conditions may cease to exist at health insurers

  • If you happened to have a pre-existing condition, you were charged higher premiums by your health-care provider. They sucked for millions of people. source
  • If Obama’s insurance plan goes through, insurance companies will drop the premiums like a bad habit. This is really good news for millions of people. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Mar 2009 10:30

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Biz: Another piece of the economy, durable goods, unexpectedly perks up

  • +3.4 increase in durable goods (computers, machinery, etc.) sales in February; that’s really good. Time to party! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

24 Mar 2009 10:34

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Biz, U.S.: Bankers falling off the wagon in high numbers, rehab clinics say

  • We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff.
  • Sigurd Ackerman • The medical director at New Canaan, Connecticut’s Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility, on the high number of former bankers coming in with alcoholism problems. Many (well, former) bankers live in New Canaan. • source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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