Wall Street- The Week Ahead

It should be an interesting week.

High anxiety on Wall Street won't subside this week as the deepening credit crunch pushes the global economy into recession, and corporate profits increasingly become an afterthought as investors scramble to raise enough cash to weather the credit crisis.

On the heels of a panic-riddled sell-off that caused the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 to plummet for eight days in a row, finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven met on Friday -- followed by meetings of the Group of 20, International Monetary Fund, World Bank officials and European leaders over the weekend -- to discuss jammed credit markets and the staggering global economy.

While corporate earnings season gets into full swing this week, results will likely be on the back burner as investors struggle to see through the fog of fear that has engulfed the market.

Another Blow to the Environment

There always seems to be an excuse as to why climate change cannot be tackled head on. The latest? The economic crisis, of course.

Attempts to tackle global warming are being made more difficult by the spreading economic crisis even as Democratic congressional leaders say it's still a top goal for next year.

At the very least, fear of a prolonged economic downturn is expected to delay attempts by the United States to cap greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate as well as both presidential candidates say addressing climate change by imposing mandatory restrictions on heat-trapping pollution — especially carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — remains a priority.

Only months ago, the prospect of climate legislation passing in the next Congress and becoming law looked promising. Both presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain support mandatory emission cuts and a Democratic majority vowed to act on the problem early in the new year.

The Presidential Debate in Nashville

Here is a good preview of what we should expect to see tonight.

If Senator John McCain is in fact trying to shift the focus of attention away from his ability to deal with the economy, it should show up tonight on the debate stage.

Mr. McCain meets Senator Barack Obama at Belmont University in Nashville in the second of three presidential debates.

The event starts at 9 p.m. Eastern and runs for 90 minutes. You can see it on the networks, most of the cable shows, all over the Internet and, of course, right here, live. We will also be live blogging the debate as it unfolds and fact-checking along the way. And tonight we have asked members of the U.S. military to watch the debate along with us and share their thoughts.

The debate comes just a month before Election Day, a time when undecided voters — are there really any left? — traditionally start making up their minds. It affords Mr. Obama a chance to “seal the deal,” since most opinion polls show him leading Mr. McCain.

This should make for a riveting encounter. Mr. McCain needs to do something dramatic to halt his slide. He and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have taken a sharply negative turn on the campaign trail, and he may well continue that tone tonight.

Number of Homeless Rising

This is so sad. To think you still hear the 'We're the richest country in the world' line...

The nation's financial crisis has plunged more Americans into a personal financial crisis that sees the number of homeless individuals and families rising nationwide.

In Massassachussets, a surge in homeless families has swamped shelters and caused state officials to house more than 500 families in hotels, versus the 27 it housed in hotels at this time a year ago, according to reports.

The usual culprits of unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing coupled with rising energy and food costs are driving more people into homelessness. But Massachussets officials have also begun tracking how many people are homeless because of foreclosure.

And it isn't just heavily populated states such as Massachussets that are struggling to cope with growing numbers of homeless families.

In Montana, homeless advocates put on a fundraiser this weekend to raise $30,000 to assist homeless families in getting back on their feet. Some 382 homeless children attended school in the Billings school district during the 2007-2008 school year.

eBay to Cut Workforce By 10%

Going, Going...Gone!


EBay Inc. plans to eliminate 1,600 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, to reduce costs as the company tries to revive its slowing growth.

Separately today, eBay revealed its intent to spend $1.34 billion on three acquisitions, the biggest of which is Bill Me Later, an online credit service.

The staff cuts include 1,000 full-time, temporary and part-time workers, plus some open positions that will be left unfilled. They come on top of 125 dismissals earlier this year by the San Jose company, whose core online marketplace is slumping in the face of stiff competition from Amazon.com and users' growing preference for shopping for products at a fixed price rather than by auction.

Dow Finishes Below 10,000

This isn't good.

Wall Street joined in a worldwide cascade of despair Monday over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest loss ever during a trading day. Even a big afternoon rally failed to keep the Dow from its first close below 10,000 since 2004.

The sell-off came despite the $700 billion U.S. government bailout package, which was signed into law Friday after two weeks in which traders had appeared to count on the rescue as their only hope to avoid a market meltdown.

At its worst point, the Dow was down more than 800 points, an intraday record. The stock market rallied during the final 90 minutes of the trading day, and the Dow finished down about 370 points at 9,955.50.

Your Real Inflation Rate

A look at some of the projected price increases for the year.

Is A Recession Around the Corner?

The economic clouds continue to darken.

The unemployment rate surged to 5 percent in December as the economy added a meager 18,000 jobs, the smallest monthly increase in four years, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Economists viewed the report as the most powerful indication to date that the United States could well be falling into a recessionary downturn. Evidence of widening unemployment heightened anticipation that the Federal Reserve would further cut interest rates this month, perhaps by an unusually large half a percentage point, in a bid to prevent the economy from sliding into the muck.

“This is unambiguously negative,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The economy is on the edge of recession, if we’re not already engulfed in one.”

A recession is typically defined as an extended period of at least several months during which economic activity shrinks and unemployment rises.

The swift deterioration in the job market resonated as a warning sign that troubles once confined to real estate and construction are spilling into the broader economy, threatening the ability of American consumers to keep spending with customary abandon.

On Wall Street, the report led to a big sell-off that sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging nearly 2 percent.

Mitt Romney Swipes Clinton

I do believe that Republicans somehow are stuck in the 1990's. It's all so simple, you see. Bad = Anything Clinton. Good = Bush?

Republican Mitt Romney said Wednesday that if elected president he and his wife will not embarrass the nation by their conduct in the White House as happened in "the Clinton years."

In an interview on CNN, Romney was asked about comments he made at recent house parties in Iowa that he and his wife, Ann, would not embarrass the nation in the White House. He is campaigning for Thursday's Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa, while Hillary Rodham Clinton is campaigning on the Democratic side.

"We'll try and represent ourselves and our nation well also to our kids because I think, I think kids watch the White House and there have been failures in the past in the White House — if you go back to the Clinton years and recognize that — that I think had an enormous impact on the culture of our country," Romney said. "And we'll do our very best, our whole family will to — well, if we can't be perfect, we'll do our best to uphold and to be a good example for the kinds of values I think people expect from our leaders."

Not a word about the current travesty in the White House. I suppose that lying us into war was a good thing for the country?

The Dreaded M Word

Such much news..so little time! There is so much that I would like to be writing about now but unfortunately I am in the process of packing and moving. Moving is perhaps one of the most unpleasant and frustrating experiences that we all encounter at one time or another. The shit that accumulates is incredible. I just finished one of the 'junk drawers' in the kitchen that had among other things grocery store receipts from ages ago, old bread ties never used, camera film with pictures of who knows what and so much more. Packing, in itself, is stressful but packing and not being sure how you are going to finance the move is, well...almost instant ulcer material!

If all goes well and I can get back on my feet, I plan a few changes for this blog. Overall, the blog will be much expanded and offer my readers a much greater interactive experience. Besides increasing the frequency of updates, I plan to offer a much more in-depth look at some of the most important political and financial news stories of the day. I also have many other new ideas that I think will greatly enhance this blog.

Although I have only been at this for a very short time, I have enjoyed every minute of it. Blogging is a learning experience in itself and a chance to met people along the way. If all of my plans work out (I am keeping my fingers crossed!), I should be back in about four weeks. I really appreciate those of you who come and the many wonderful people I have met. Talk to you soon!

Domestic Surveillance Documents Subpoenaed

According to Think Progress, the Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, the Justice Department, and the National Security Council for documents related to President Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program. This should get interesting...