Sino-American relations are quickly reaching a breaking point, as the Obama administration continues to spar with the People’s Republic of China over a variety of issues. The first clash was seen in the tariffs proposed on Chinese steel pipe manufacturers last year, followed by another dispute related to tire producers shortly thereafter. The Chinese took a hard line approach in their response, threatening to apply similar duties to American products such as agricultural goods, much to the dismay of American producers. Although tempers cooled over the winter, tensions are heating up between these two economic rivals following a series of recent developments. [click to continue…]
Barack Obama’s first year in office has, by most accounts, been a mixed bag. The massive $787 billion stimulus plan helped to avoid an even deeper recession, but failed to impact joblessness in any meaningful way. Instead of seeing a downturn in the unemployment rate as promised, Americans have seen the rate grow to double digits. Comprehensive healthcare reform was seemingly within days of becoming a reality, but now seems like a long shot. Outrage at Wall Street has ebbed and flowed, reaching a fever pitch in recent weeks following massive bonus payments in the financial sector. [click to continue…]
On Monday, news of coordinated bomb attacks in Baghdad made headlines around the world, highlighting the ongoing violence that continues to grip Iraq. Also on Monday, the government reported that the man known as “Chemical Ali,” one of the most ruthless allies of Saddam Hussein, was executed for crimes against humanity. Receiving far less attention [...]
Google, the world leader in online search, has frequently been in the news as of late. With the announcement of their new open source phone, the Nexus One, and their threat to leave China over censorship concerns, it has been a very tumultuous quarter for the search giant. The rocky year continued late Thursday as [...]
When the Obama administration unveiled last week its proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility tax, it appeared that the primary targets would be large banking institutions that had accepted billions of dollars in federal bailout funds last year. But a closer look at the proposal indicates that a handful of large insurance companies, many of whom did [...]
Google set off a frenzy on internet message boards and in the human rights community earlier this week when the search engine giant announced in a blog post that it had been the target of a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China” that was apparently carried out with the [...]
The banking industry has been on a wild ride over the past few years, as the unprecedented economic environment of 2008 resulted in a wave bankruptcies and bailouts that many figured would forever change the business. But less than two years removed from the disaster, many financial institutions have staged an impressive return to glory, [...]
PowerShares announced yesterday that 116 out of its 117 ETFs paid zero capital gains distributions in 2009. The only PowerShares ETF to make a capital gains distribution on the year was the NASDAQ-100 BuyWrite Portfolio (PQBW), which paid out Long-Term Capital Gains of just under 15 cents a share. PowerShares noted that the unique index [...]
After sweeping into power last year, democrats have fallen on hard times. Approval ratings are slipping across the board and several incumbents are vulnerable heading into mid-term elections. The latest blow came from Senator Chris Dodd, the Chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, who announced that he will not be seeking reelection later this [...]
Investors in the Japanese markets had been hoping that the flip of the calendar to 2010 would bring new hope for the country’s stalled economy, following a bitterly disappointing 2009 that saw Japan lag global economies by a considerable margin. But only two days in to the year, health problems of the finance minister have [...]
Trade tensions between the U.S. and China continue to mount, with the most recent dispute focusing on the damage done to the domestic steel industry by cheap overseas imports. The U.S. International Trade Commission announced that duties of between 10% and 16% will be imposed on future imports of steel pipes. One day earlier, the [...]
Research In Motion, the Canadian Maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphone, reported strong third quarter results on Thursday, beating Street expectations by 6 cents a share and sending shares soaring up by more than 7% in early Friday trading. Many analysts had anticipated that increased competition from other device makers would drag down sales, but [...]
