Category: Business

What are Occupy Wall Street’s wins and losses?

Bank fees: Every time you use your Bank of America debit card and don’t pay $5, thank Occupy Wall Street.
Changing the national conversation: Coming out of the summer, the economic debate in Washington was dominated by talk of cutting the deficit — not jobs, not the wealth disparity in America, and certainly not the role of money in politics.
Getting Wall Street’s attention: Perhaps even more impressive is how OWS has seeped into Wall Street’s own conversation. This is partly due to the early attention paid by a few influential financial bloggers, such as bank critic Barry Ritholtz. But bankers were clearly stung by the 1% tag and angered by suggestions they hadn’t earned their bonuses.

Wal-Mart: What Went Wrong?

Wal-Mart reported its ninth-straight quarter of same-store sales losses for its U.S. unit. Overall profit was up 5.7%, carried by overseas gains, but the U.S. business continues to suffer.
Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) the second-largest U.S. discount retailer, may have found a strategy to oust Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) as the No. 1 discount-shopping source.

Another Recession is on the way!

WASHINGTON — Discouraging economic data from around the globe have heightened fears that another recession is on the way.

Fresh evidence emerged Thursday that U.S. home sales and manufacturing are weakening. Signs also surfaced that European banks are increasingly burdened by the region’s debt crisis and sputtering economy.

The rising anxiety ignited a huge sell-off in stocks that led many investors to seek the safety of U.S. Treasurys.

A Glimpse of America in 2015

The year is 2015, and it’s late in the month of June. Central bank policymakers have been meeting for two days. Now it’s late in the afternoon of that second day, and Bernanke’s traditional press conference is set to start at any moment. Investors the world over have stopped everything to hear what the U.S Fed leader has to say.

Bernanke is still not the longest-serving Fed chairman: With only nine years under his belt, he has a decade to go before he’d have more service time than predecessor Alan Greenspan, or the legendary William McChesney Martin.