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Why Any President Would Have Spent Like Obama
Tweet Share on Facebook May 31, 2012 CommentThe latest digression in the presidential campaign between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama is a fresh argument about government spending that took place in 2008 and 2009. Should it count as Obama's spending? Or that of his predecessor, George W. Bush? The answer, apparently, will determine whether Obama is an "old-school liberal" addicted to spending, as Romney insists, or a more thrifty leader carefully husbanding taxpayer dollars.
The Obama campaign has latched onto a recent analysis by the financial-news site MarketWatch, which claims that federal spending under Obama has been rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower administration. Get used to hearing that phrase, because it's probably going to surface repeatedly in Obama ads and utterances.
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What Nobody's Telling American Workers
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2012 CommentThe simmering debate over income inequality got a jolt of energy recently with the publication of Edward Conard's book Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You've Been Told About the Economy Is Wrong. Conard is a former partner of Mitt Romney's at Bain Capital, so his book can be interpreted (rightly or wrongly) as the Bain View of the Universe.
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Mitt Romney's Missing Answers
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2012 CommentIf you've been paying no attention to the presidential campaign, there's probably one factoid about Republican Mitt Romney that has penetrated your consciousness by osmosis: He's a successful businessman.
With the economy sputtering, Romney's experience running private-equity firm Bain Capital for nearly 20 years ought to make him the go-to candidate for ideas on how to create jobs, outcompete other nations, and bring back prosperity. But anybody wondering how Romney's years as a business titan will help the middle class get back on its feet will apparently have to ask somebody else.
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How Politicians Are Making You Stupid: Part 3
Tweet Share on Facebook May 25, 2012 CommentMitt Romney wants you to be angry at China.
In his "Day One" TV ads, Romney reiterates his pledge to make "standing up to China" one of the top priorities he'll tackle on his first day in office, if elected president.
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How Politicians Are Making You Stupid: Part 2
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2012 CommentIn his new TV ads, here are some of the things Mitt Romney is promising to do on his first day in office, if elected president: Reduce the deficit. Cut government spending. And cut taxes.
[Photo Gallery: Europeans Rise Up Against Austerity Measures.]
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How to Graduate From College and Go Precisely Nowhere
Tweet Share on Facebook May 24, 2012 CommentNearly 2 million new college grads are about to join the workforce, and for many the prospects are discouraging. The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds is 13.2 percent, more than five points higher than the overall rate. Many popular degrees, such as education and psychology, are in fields where there are few jobs. And many students are saddled with debt that will force them straight back into the arms of Mom and Dad.
If there's a bright side to this bleak picture, it's that many recent grads doom their own career prospects through arrogance, laziness, or unrealistic expectations. A recent survey of hiring managers by the Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania found that 40 percent of young job applicants show up dressed inappropriately, 29 percent are late for interviews, and 26 percent don't know much about the company they're interviewing with. More than 11 percent send text messages or use their phones during an interview. Put another way, it's not hard to distinguish yourself from the rude and clueless blunderers at the bottom of the heap.
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How Politicians Are Making You Stupid: Part 1
Tweet Share on Facebook May 23, 2012 CommentIs Mitt Romney an amoral, job-killing buyout king? Or a vital cog of capitalism whose financial worth and know-how make prosperity possible for others?
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What the Bungled IPO Says About Facebook
Tweet Share on Facebook May 23, 2012 CommentCBS News recently invited me on-air to discuss the flubbed Facebook IPO, and what it means for the company's future.
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A Business Story That's Not About Facebook
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2012 CommentHere are 10 things that have happened recently that had nothing to do with a social-media startup that just went public:
1. Investors traded shares in more than 12,000 companies that are publicly listed in the United States, without any technical glitches.
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Why Europe's Austerity Regime Won't Change
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2012 CommentThe economists and politicians who argue that Europe (and the United States) need more emphasis on growth and less on punishing cutbacks are probably right. But that doesn't mean anything is going to change.
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Rick Newman
The global economy is mysterious, even scary. Chief Business Correspondent Rick Newman demystifies it and explains what matters to you. Rick is the author of Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success and the co-author of two other books: Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11, and Bury Us Upside Down: The Misty Pilots and the Secret Battle for the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
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