There are few economists who predicted the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression (and, quite likely, of all time) and the first economic downturn in the world's developing countries in sixty years (which makes you wonder why they even studied the discipline to begin with). Still, that doesn't mean that a number of them haven't added value with their ex-post analyses of what happened and why. Indeed, I'd be the first to admit that some published commentary has helped me better understand certain aspects that were harder to discern before it all went bad. While I can't say for sure whether he had correctly anticipated the events of the past two years, it does seem that Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia University professor Joseph E. Stiglitz has been quick off the mark in terms of recognizing what has been unfolding, the severity of the[More...]

Late on Thursday, Guess Inc. (NYSE: GES) announced that its fiscal third-quarter 2009 net income rose to $64 million, or 69 cents a share from $58.3 million, or 62 cents in the corresponding quarter of 2007.[More...]

Nearly a year ago, on October 30th, 2007, I first began petitioning Congress with the following message (among others):"Congress MUST NOT bail out – under any circumstances – mortgage companies and investors who voluntarily entered into risky mortgage and derivative contracts during these last several years due to lax lending standards, poor due diligence or as a matter of business policy. Failure must be allowed irrespective of the damage done to these firms, because[More...]