GM's New Capital and Union Concessions

In addition to receiving new federal funds, General Motors has gotten labor concessions from both its American and Canadian auto workers' unions. With these recent events, will GM be bolstered enough to propel itself out of this downturn, or will it ultimately fail? 

Mankiw's Times Article

Dr. Mankiw of the Harvard Economics Deparment wrote this article about how intro econ courses will have to change because of recent economic events. Definitely a must-read article. 

Facebook's Newest Suitor

This article outlines the recent overture by a Russian internet investment group to Facebook to purchase 200 million dollars of preferred stock. With 70% revenue growth forecasted and an estimation that the company will be cash-flow positive by 2010 makes the company attractive. I'd like to see an IPO by 2010 or 2011, allowing the company to raise a lot of capital and perhaps expand in ways that it hasn't before. 

The Elimination of Foreign Tax Havens

With the Obama Administration's populist agenda, they have found it as their duty to clamp down on lack of taxes paid by companies since some of their elements are overseas. Obama is oh so proud of finally having the federal government strike down on big businesses that have no heart and...

Yes, but what about the change in tax incidence? Who ultimately pays the price for the federal government's divine crackdown on tax havens? It is the very person who Obama wishes to help. If corporations are suddenly being inflicted with average tax rates then  how are they expected to maintain the salaries of their employees, their levels of R&D research, or even their sheer numbers of employees? The fact of the matter is that the elimination of these so-called "tax havens" can greatly hurt the economic well-being of many Americans, and increase the ever increasing unemployment rate. Obama would be cripple the financial statuses of many of the Americans he has been trying to help. Not to mention the potential decrease in the competitiveness of American firms with those from different nations...

Stress Tests and The Stock Market

Despite some banks being tagged as needing more capital to stay solvent, the stock market rallied today. Such an occurrence is representative of a current rise in optimism in the country that the economy will recover by year's end. 

Sometimes I'd like to think that what people think is more important than what actually is true. In this case, a rise in faith coming from the American people can only help the nation recover as better spirits should increase consumption just as stimulus packages can.