R.J. Matson/Post-Dispatch
Back in January, we suggested that President Barack Obama should call for a “New Normal” in America, one in which shared civic responsibility comes ahead of personal aggrandizement. Lately, we’ve found our phrase has been kidnapped.
Celebratory caps were the rage on the Street.
As an economic indicator, the Dow Jones industrial average always is problematic, but never more so than last Wednesday, when it closed above what analysts call the “psychologically important” 10,000-point mark for the first…
Citigroup execs canceled an order for a French-made Dassault Falcon 7X only after it was shouted in their tin ears that taxpayers were irate at being stuck with the tab.
Every day in the lobby of the Charles F. Knight Executive…
Hey, what’s with all these bonuses
They’re givin’ to the rich?
They’re fillin’ up their pockets,
Walk away without a hitch.
Gotta get myself some TARP
Because I hear it’s going fast. . . .
Things were hunky-dory last September between CEOs John Thain of Merrill…
“Attorney general nominee Eric Holder said as far as he is concerned, waterboarding is torture. And Treasury secretary nominee Tim Geithner said, “So is paying taxes.”“
Timothy F. Geithner (AP Wirephoto)
So joked Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” last Thursday. Late night…
Last week’s 18 percent stock market plunge was sparked by fear that the American economy is headed into a deep recession driven by a disastrous worldwide freeze-up of the credit system. Monday’s 11 percent rally reflected hope that the industrial…
Post-Dispatch photo by Robert Cohen
Nine Days before the Feb. 5 presidential primaries in Missouri and Illinois, this editorial page endorsed Barack Obama and John McCain in their respective races.
We did so enthusiastically. We wrote that either Mr. Obama’s message of…
The St. Regis Monarch Beach resort, where AIG recently held a retreat.
A reader sent in this letter to set us straight on the $400,000 retreat for AIG employees, held after the government lent AIG a small sum (about$85 billion, mere…
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday joined five other central banks across the world in slashing interest rates to try to head off a globe-spanning recession.
The joint move is unprecedented, particularly in that the Chinese Central Bank joined with the Fed, the…
Wall Street on Monday rendered its verdict on the government’s $700 billion financial rescue plan. Put simply, the Street thinks it’s not enough.
The stock market rode a roller coaster. The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 800 points at…
Either the credit markets will seize up in the next few days, or they won’t.
Businesses either will get the short-term operating loans they need in the commercial paper market, or they won’t. Either they’ll get the money somewhere else (old-fashioned…
It would have been a shame if the first presidential debate had been postponed. The televised meeting between Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama restored a sense of gravitas to the 2008 presidential campaign after a week in which it turned…
After asking that tonight’s “Debate the Debate” party on The Platform be postponed so he could attend a sick cat, Post-Dispatch commentary page editor Eric Mink now has agreed to take part.
Together with John McCain’s decision to un-postpone his campaign and…
The Ides of September 2008 someday may be recalled as the time when the American economy faced its greatest challenge since the stock market crash of 1929 ushered in the Great Depression.
The nation’s response will test us in ways that 9/11…
No, but you . . . you . . . you’re thinking of this place all wrong — as if I had the money back in a safe. The money’s not here. Your money’s in Joe’s house, right next to…
Monday was one of the most wrenching days in the history of the American financial system. One blue-blooded investment bank, Lehman Brothers, sought shelter under Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws, while another, Merrill Lynch & Co., announced it had sold itself at…
The prevailing notion today among most domestic economic and media observers is that the U.S. economy is in a recession — and most believe it will get worse before it gets better. But is that really the case?
Representing the prevailing view,…
It’s hard to think of $21 billion as pocket change. But as a fix for the subprime mortgage mess, $21 billion barely will buy a Band-Aid. Nevertheless, the Senate seems determined to push ahead with this “rescue lite” for struggling…
Here’s an advance look at one of the editorials that will appear in Tuesday’s Post-Dispatch and online at STLtoday.com/news/editorials.
MORE REGULATION, PLEASE
In the middle of a grinding credit crunch, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Monday unveiled plans for a massive overhaul…
