May 1, 2024
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The argument against ‘pound foolish’ travel, United offers nonstop lift to Jackson Hole, Wyo., putting a 13-year-old safely on Facebook and other consumer-focused news from The New York Times.
Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/wednesday-reading-the-irrational-cheapskate-traveler-trap/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Ben Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole, Wyo., was sketchier than it might have been about monetary policy but strikingly detailed about fiscal policy.
As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bernanke’s official purview is in the monetary, not the fiscal realm, of course. But in a conversation in the new Weekend Business podcast, Catherine Rampell says he seemed to be deliberately vague about the central bank’s own plans.
While he said the Fed’s full toolkit is available as needed, he didn’t spell out what the bank’s actions might entail. On the other hand, he said that short-term fiscal stimulus, combined with longer-term debt reduction, would do much to invigorate the economy.
In another podcast conversation and in the Economic View column in Sunday Business, Richard Thaler, the University of Chicago economist, says Congress has been much better at spending than at budget-cutting, which is part of what he calls a self-restraint problem.
Like people with a New Year’s Day hangover, many members of Congress find it easy to make promises if they needn’t fulfill them for months or years to come. In his view, imposing legal constraints on spending, through a balanced budget amendment or other means, is unlikely to compel effective action. Voters need to be willing to elect mature adults, who, in turn, need to exercise willpower to make better choices for the country, he says.
Steven P. Jobs, who is stepping down as chief executive of Apple, has had an enormous impact in many fields. In a podcast conversation and in the Unboxed column in Sunday Business, Steve Lohr discusses the qualities of Mr. Jobs as a role model. Above all else, he says, Mr. Jobs is an innovator, and his entire career may be seen as a relentless effort to improve the odds of bringing forth innovation, both for himself and in the organizations he has managed.
And the problem of illegal products passed off as health supplements is the focus of a conversation with Natasha Singer, who tackles the subject on the cover of Sunday Business. Federal authorities are struggling to stop the distribution of these black-market goods, which may endanger consumers’ health.
You can find specific segments of the podcast at these junctures: Catherine Rampell on the Fed (33:53); news headlines (25:04); Steve Lohr on Steve Jobs (22:13); Richard Thaler on Congress (15:49); Natasha Singer on black-market supplements (8:59); the week ahead (2:06).
As articles discussed in the podcast are published during the weekend, links will be added to this post.
You can download the program by subscribing from The New York Times’s podcast page or directly from iTunes.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f434080d8000f43d378220ee5041036a
LONDON — Stock markets in Europe fell for a second day Friday as investors braced for a speech by the chairman of the Federal Reserve and more data on the U.S. economy.
Anticipation that there would be some message from the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, on more economic stimulus at a symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, had helped to push global stock markets higher at the beginning of the week but had waned by Thursday.
Markets in Asia were mixed on Friday, with the MSCI Asia Pacific index up 0.3 percent after dropping several times during the day.
“Investors are waiting what Bernanke says and I don’t think there’s a great deal of expectation in the market,” Ian Scott, global head of equity strategy at Nomura, said. “Clearly people would rather hear what he’s going say and decide their strategy after that.” Mr. Bernanke is scheduled to speak at about 8 a.m. Mountain time — about 10 a.m. in New York and 5 p.m. in London.
Mr. Scott added that Mr. Bernanke’s speech was not the only information investors were waiting for. With uncertainties around the state of the global economy continuing, investors are holding out for more economic data to back up some recent disappointing survey figures.
“It’s a question of letting time pass and see some harder data,” Mr. Scott said.
As a sign of just how jumpy some investors are, Germany’s DAX index dropped 4 percent in 15 minutes in late trading on Thursday, surprising many investors who said there did not seem to be a clear reason for the sharp drop. Some analysts blamed it on speculation about an extended short selling ban in Europe or fear of a possible cut of Germany’s credit rating, but authorities quickly denied both rumors.
Still, the nervousness spread to Wall Street, where the Standard Poor’s 500-stock index closed down 1.56 percent on Thursday. After a positive report earlier in the week on durable goods sales, the outlook for the U.S. economy darkened somewhat Thursday with a government report showed that new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week. A report by the Commerce Department on the U.S. economy is due at 8.30 a.m. Friday in Washington.
Markets continued downward Friday in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng index was 0.86 percent lower by midafternoon, and in India, where the Sensex was down 1.1 percent by the afternoon. The Nikkei 225-stock index rose 0.3 percent after Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced his resignation.
Gold rose 0.5 percent to $1,783.57 an ounce after falling earlier. Prices of the metal fell 4.3 percent this week after reaching a record on Aug. 23. Investors were spooked by four weeks of sharp declines on the stock markets and sought a haven, traders said.
Financial regulators in France, Italy and Spain extended a ban on short selling by another month on Thursday with the aim to calm large market swings. The ban, which regulators promised to review next month, did not prevent steep drops in banking shares earlier this month.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9eeab646294f320096b4220d93804716
With a late-day surge, all of the sectors of the Standard Poor’s 500-stock index closed higher, led by a nearly 3 percent rise in financial stocks, capping off a day that wavered between modest gains and losses.
It was the third consecutive session that the major indexes had pushed ahead, partly as investors scooped up stocks that had become cheaper after recent sell-offs. Gold futures fell more than 5 percent, or more than about $100 an ounce, on the Comex in New York, and prices of the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond fell.
Some investors have been betting on the likelihood of more stimulus from the Federal Reserve, whose chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, will speak at the Fed’s symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday. Mr. Bernanke outlined stimulus options at the same meeting in 2010 in response to the economic slowdown.
At the close of trading, the S. P. was up 15.25 points, or 1.3 percent, at 1,177.60. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 143.95 points, about 1.3 percent, at 11,320.71. The Nasdaq composite index was up 21.63 points, or 0.88 percent, at 2,467.69.
The rally in stocks eased demand for bonds. The Treasury’s 10-year note fell 1 7/32, to 98 16/32. The yield rose to 2.29 percent, from 2.16 percent late Tuesday.
“You are seeing a lot of people, rightly or wrongly, sitting on the sidelines until they see what Bernanke says in Jackson Hole,” said Brian Lazorishak, portfolio manager at Chase Investment Counsel, before the day’s final kick.
“People are adopting a wait-and-see attitude,” he added.
The financial sector was led by Bank of America, up about 11 percent at $6.99.
Bloomberg News reported that the bank had sent a memo to employees dismissing speculation that it was considering a merger with JPMorgan Chase, and described as “just wrong” a report that it needed to raise as much as $200 billion.
Gold, which sagged sharply on Tuesday only to rise in Asian trading, fell further on the Comex exchange. It was down $104.20 to $1,754.10 an ounce for the August contract. The metal had been used as a safe haven in recent market volatility and risen to record nominal highs, and some analysts saw Wednesday’s decline as a technical reversal.
Jeffrey Nichols, the managing director of the American Precious Metals Advisors, said that the recent run-up in gold had been “so large in magnitude and fast” that “to have a significant correction here really makes sense.”
“Some of the rally was a function of speculative demand by short-term-oriented institutional traders,” he said, adding that the consequence would be for them to sell, take profits and move on to other instruments. But he said that the long-term economic outlook was basically unchanged.
On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that overall orders for durable goods rose 4 percent last month, the biggest increase since March. But a category that tracks business investment plans fell 1.5 percent, the biggest drop in six months.
Analysts noted that, considering recent talk of another recession, it would take more than one economic data point to convince investors that the economy was on solid footing. But Abigail Huffman, director of research at Russell Investments, added that some of Wednesday’s early gains may have been a result of the durable goods numbers and the market’s momentum from the previous day.
Stocks in Europe rose as some investors bet that the Federal Reserve would act soon to strengthen the economy and that the sharp stock market drops earlier this month were overdone.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index closed 1.8 percent higher in Europe, while Germany’s DAX index increased 2.7 percent and France’s CAC 40 index rose 1.8 percent.
Stock markets in Asia slipped as investors took in the downgrade by Moody’s Investors Service of its rating on Japanese government debt.
The Nikkei 225-stock index ended down 1.1 percent at 8,629.61 points. Similarly, the yen remained persistently strong in the international currency markets, hovering at about 76.60 yen per United States dollar.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was 1 percent lower by midafternoon, the Straits Times index in Singapore fell 0.4 percent, and in India, the Sensex was down 0.8 percent by the afternoon.
Julia Werdigier and Bettina Wassener contributed reporting.
Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4d042e9e4fd3b2b1f7f3cee50633da73
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