How Wall Street boldly saved big exec bonuses

This article is about Wall Street's large firms first being saved by the government and the taxpayer's money and still paying out huge bonuses after the fact. The stipulation was that as long as the banks pay the TARP funds back they are free. With BofA leading the charge and others following, huge bonuses were and still are being paid out even without support of President Obama who called it obscene. However, the real question to contemplate is why these firms are paying it out instead of investing or saving it. Firstly, they are making huge profits now - not even through lending- which is their bread and butter, but through investments and trading. So, if most of their profits are coming from investments, the investment managers should be compensated right? Well the banks think so because they do not want to lose these people or "assets" as some CEO's may think of them. The article describes the whole situation after the 4 major bank CEO's went to Congress to explain their case and get reprimanded for the bonuses: JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley were the banks.

Good News

This article discusses how firms have started to spend more money on public relations as a whole. Spending rose 4% in 2008 and 3% in 2009. Much of this has come in the wake of the global recession. Companies have faced negative press in the wake of government bail-outs and huge company bonuses. This negative press could easily bring down a company. In a capitalist economy, only companies that can stay popular and sell products will survive. Those who cannot will be forced to leave the market.

Staying in a positive light is getting harder. Besides the aforementioned bad press, traditional media is dying out. There are less reporters reporting on business in traditional media. This makes it much harder to get positive stories into the press. In addition, companies need to deal with new media on the Internet that allows people to post whatever they want. Companies must now worry about blogs like this one and take action to fight negative press. This greater need for public relations and media monitoring is surely to continue even when the economy improves. Doing business in the capitalist economy is bound to change very soon.

Dubai trying to get some respect back

This is a good article on cnbc.com which talks about the U.N. possibly relocating to Dubai. After reading this one has to wonder, what are the implications of this to the U.S.? Dubai sure has a lot of empty real estate in those new towers but will New York allow this to happen? I was not aware that New Yorkers were looking down upon the U.N.. I suppose it is a privilege to have it in this country and I hope the global organization stays here.

Iraqi oil may rival Saudi Arabia

Iraq sits on at least 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves (not including what may be in unexplored desert areas), and is the world's third-largest behind Saudi Arabia and Canada. Today, Iraq produces about 2.4 million barrels a day. By 2017 Iraq is aiming to produce 11.65 million barrels a day. There are major obstacles to overcome that stem from decades of mismanagement, sanctions, and war. This article delves deeper into the current and future challenges Iraq faces in the oil industry.

How the Glazer family have milked debt-ridden United for millions

This is for all of you who follow the other football...this article talks about how one of the world's most famous sport clubs is on the brink of collapse because of debt accumulation by the owners of the club. One of the problems that has been brought up by the Glazer ownership of Manchester United is that England allows foreign ownership of their sport clubs whereas other European clubs, despite operating in the same European Union economic regulations, only allow domestic ownership. This, coupled with the massive debts incurred by Manchester United and fellow football clubs, has led to fears that these 'superclubs' will collapse and destroy a large part of the sport in England.

For those of you who follow English football, these developments could be very disheartening and need to be watched. For those of you who are more interested in American sports, one of the things that have been argued for to control costs in Premier League and other European clubs is the concept of a salary cap. Since the ownership structure in leagues such as the NFL and NHL is more centralized than the virtually anarchic, winner-take-all system in the EPL, a salary cap is more difficult to enforce. How to reconcile the decentralized structure with the need to control costs is also an interesting thought for any system, be it a nation or a group of soccer teams.

Google’s Threat Echoed Everywhere, Except China

This article discusses how Google plans to stop all cooperation with the Chinese Internet censorship program, and is considering shutting down through out the country. The Chinese, however, heard a very censored version of this news.

I thought this was very interesting and especially related to our discussion today in class about economics systems, and how there are so many different ones. This is also an interesting topic about public choice. It would be interesting to see how censored our news is and we might not even know it.

Many Reluctant to Hire Because of New Taxes, Rules

A potential wave of new regulation and higher taxes may be scaring many businesses from hiring, prolonging any rebound in employment, say business groups and economists.

The prospect of increased federal and state regulation and taxes has been particularly disruptive to the hiring plans of small- and medium-sized businesses, which have historically generated about two-thirds of the nation's jobs.