Business and Economics

Imagine there was this industry--Industry A--that had been flying high for years. It benefited from major regulatory shifts, and changes in the tax code. … [Read more]

Stock markets in Asia have gone into free fall following a record fall on Wall Street overnight despite efforts by the US central bank to si … [Read more]

This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global financial meltdown. … [Read more]

Distinguished geographer David Harvey joins host Harry Kreisler for a discussion of how the analytic tools of geography and Marxism can contribute to our understanding of the new imperialis … [Read more]

From the New York Review of Books, a review of George Soros's new book, "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means." … [Read more]

In a moment of historic import in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry. … [Read more]

This year’s serial bailouts are proof of a colossal regulatory failure. … [Read more]

WASHINGTON – Talk about a rough way for a Republican president to end two terms in office: The era of big government is back. … [Read more]

 President George W. Bush and other world leaders sought on Tuesday to contain the fallout from a financial crisis engulfing Wall Street and sending shock waves across the globe. … [Read more]

Barack Obama approaches the Presidency at a critical moment in American history, facing simultaneous crises of war, the environment, health care, but most especially in the economy. … [Read more]

From the American Prospect, "The Great Depression was caused not by a stock crash but by a banking … [Read more]

From The Nation, William Greider describes how an epic deflation of wealth sweeps away financiers and their fraudulent gimmicks, setting the stage for reform. But the rest of us are doomed to go along for the ride.

The epic deflation of Wall Street rolls forward like a blood-spattered steam roller, claiming more important victims. It takes down noble old names like Merrill and Lehman Brothers, destroys the savings of large pension funds and mom-and-pop investors, throws tens of thousands of financial workers out of jobs.

But let's not dwell on the downside. This is the process Joseph A. Schumpeter famously described as "creative destruction"--capitalism's way of clearing away debris from the past so that new flowers may bloom. In this drama, what is being swept away is the monumental arrogance of celebrated financiers, also the fraudulent gimmicks that created lots of new billionaires by selling bad paper to the world's investors. A great bubble of wealth grew in the canyons of Wall Street--a run-up of falsified financial assets that lasted for roughly twenty-five years. Now the air is rushing out of that balloon, no way to stop it. … [Read more]

Another story about the financial collapse 

A news report from MSNBC about the Crisis on Wall street 

From the New York Times, an article about how the financial giants’ downfall has been refusing to see that their investments were worth less than estimated.

How can this be happening?

How can it even be possible that we wake up on a Monday morning to discover that Lehman Brothers, a firm founded in 1850, a firm that has survived the Great Depression and every market trauma before and since, is suddenly bankrupt? That Merrill Lynch, the “Thundering Herd,” is sold to Bank of America the same weekend?

Just months ago, Lehman assured investors that it had enough liquidity to weather the crisis, while Merrill raised some $15 billion over the last year to shore up its balance sheet. Now they’re both as good as gone. … [Read more]