Finance Newsfeed Update

Winners, losers and what they all have to do from here. A scorecard for the network chiefs.

Filed under: International markets, Forecasts, Politics, Financial Crisis

Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein does not mince words: too many people just don’t get it.

Moreover, yours truly is not one to alarm, and typically views ’sweeping and dramatic statements’ with a journalist’s skepticism and a scholar’s critical review.

But when the best economists you talk to, and business executives, and others in financial and investment circles, start reaching the same conclusion, from decidedly different vantage points, the dramatic statement begins to take on more weight, becoming more compelling.

‘The reality of the facts on the ground’

Further, as Pearlstein incisively points out, there are reasons why a considerable portion of the American people are not ‘getting it’ regarding how serious the current situation is. Politicians are more concerned about ideology, partisan posturing, and teaching people a lesson — if you can believe that they could be so irresponsible (my astonishment added, not Pearlstein’s). Financiers have been very slow to admit to greed, arrogance, and incompetence. And foreign government leaders still view the financial crisis as ‘an American problem.’

But none of the above changes what Pearlstein, and what my closest economist colleagues (David H. Wang, Richard Felson, Peter Dawson, M. Chandler, and Glen Langan) all argue is “the reality of the facts on the ground,” to borrow a phrase from Israel’s former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. Namely, that a massive, global deleveraging is taking place, and that absent a systemic rescue/intervention by the U.S. Government, in conjunction with interventions by other governments around the world, the world risks the bursting of a credit bubble that threatens to bring down the global financial system.

Continue reading Pearlstein: Lack of rescue package threatens global financial system

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Stocks rebounded Tuesday on growing expectations that lawmakers will salvage a $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector, …

U.S. securities regulators and accounting rulemakers plan to release guidance on fair value accounting this week, the Securities …

Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, Boeing Co (BA)

What a September.

The Yankees fade during the stretch and don’t make the play-offs. And Yankee Stadium, The House That Ruth Built, has closed, forever. Meanwhile, the stock market frequently looks like it wants to close.

Well, at least Boeing (NYSE: BA) is doing well. No, wait, Boeing too is closed, temporarily, due to a strike.

And now there’s word that Boeing will reassess its 787 Dreamliner delivery schedule for the Japanese market once the ongoing strike ends, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Analysts fear that a failure of Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers to reach an agreement that has idled 27,000 machines could further push-back the 787’s delivery timetable. The IAM strike began September 6. Boeing has already delayed delivery of its next-generation 787 airplane by 18 months. Boeing’s shares rose $1.52 to $56.99 Tuesday afternoon amid a broader market rally.

Not a September Sinatra would sing about

“I guess this September was meant to be a month with all bad news, because it certainly seems that way,” Stock Analyst C. Leonard Bauer said. “Boeing was one of the few bright spots on a pretty dismal domestic economic landscape. Great new products, solid orders, a good future for the company and the stock. But then management and the union can’t agree on compensation. Pretty sad.”

Continue reading Potential Boeing 787 order delay for Japan ends sad September for investors

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