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CNBC's Tyler Mathisen looks back at the week's top business and financial stories. Bernanke's comments concerned investors. There was good housing news and Apple's Tim Cook faced the Senate's music. Also, Jamie Dimon held on to his dual titles.
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Barack Obama's economics adviser Austan Goolsbee (see video link below), a professor at the University of Chicago, had another pursuit as an undergraduate at Yale. Goolsbee was part of an improv comedy group called Just Add Water. "We were actually pretty funny and even toured at Second City," Goolsbee says. As an economist, he dryly observes, he "wasn't necessarily the best guy in the group." But one of his colleagues made real headway in the business--and is now head writer on Jon Stewart's The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Lesson to Wall Street: be alert for hidden laugh lines in Obama economic speeches.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to redirect nuclear missiles toward western Europe, and that will affect investors in the domestic Russian market, according to one portfolio manager. "That's a sign of their [Russia's] inexperience and their poor handling of this public relations challenge, and it definitely does increase political risk," said John Connor, portfolio manager at Third Millennium Russia Fund. "The stock market has indicated that."
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Barack Obama's record-shattering fund raising performance in the second quarter raises a legitimate question: is Hillary Clinton really the Democratic front-runner after all? Obama didn't just outraise Clinton in the months April through June. He blew past her vaunted political machine with 50% more primary cash--$31-million to $21-million. He has amassed an enormous list of more than 250,000 donors, to whom he can return again and again before the primary season is over.
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This week's collapse of comprehensive immigration reform made all of Washington look inept. But here's a glance at the biggest losers: Arizona Sen. John McCain. Once the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr. McCain has seen his poll numbers dwindle as conservative activists cried “amnesty” over the bipartisan legislation he co-sponsored. His campaign blames fallout over the issue for contributing to his lagging fund-raising. .
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Speaking at a real estate conference in New York, the CEO of luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers, Robert Toll, said, “I see no reason to expect a change in confidence until probably April ’08, when the candidates will fairly well be settled for the presidential election and we’ll start to listen to speeches about how we’ll get better.”
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In my earlier post, I talked about the taxation debate swirling around private equity and hedge fund managers. Well, one asset those hedge fund managers enjoy right now is the presidential fund-raising chase. As all the top candidates sprint toward the June 30 second-quarter fund-raising deadline, even left-leaning Democrats aren’t rushing to embrace the “carried interest” issue. Sen. Hillary Clinton hasn’t a position. Nor has the populist champion John Edwards--who also happens to be a former employees of Fortress Investment Group.
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Welcome to Political Capital. If you’ve seen me on TV you know that my business is politics. And in one way or another, politics is everyone’s business. It sometimes looks like a game, but the outcome shapes the taxes you pay and the rules of the road for economic competition–-in the U.S., and around the world. Here at Political Capital, I’ll take you behind the headlines to offer my take on events and issues facing Congress, the White House, and the key places in the 2008 race for the presidency. From Washington or the campaign trail, I’ll explain what’s happening-–and why. Let’s get started.
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Sometimes scheduled news events hold a great deal of promise -- and just as often, they don’t deliver. After New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg dropped his affiliation with the Republican Party Tuesday and switched to independent status, the speculation began that this was merely a prelude to a presidential run.
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg left the Republican Party on Tuesday and switched to unaffiliated, a move certain to be seen as a prelude to an independent presidential bid that would upend the 2008 race.
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White House budget director Rob Portman is stepping down and will be replaced by former Iowa Rep. Jim Nussle, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
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President George W. Bush made a rare visit to Capitol Hill to drum up support for the beleaguered immigration bill. Observers wonder if the bill still has a chance to pass -- and who, if anyone, actually wants it. On "Power Lunch," CNBC's Bill Griffeth hosted a triumvirate of veteran political watchers weighing in on the issue: Jay Carney, Time Magazine's Washington bureau chief; Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post White House correspondent, and John Harwood, CNBC's chief Washington correspondent.
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The Group of Eight wealthy-nation summit in Germany is ending Friday. Now, the question arises: Is the G8 still able to confront global issues or has it become outdated? Ian Vasquez, director of the CATO Institute’s Center for Global Liberty & Prosperity, and P.J. Crowley, senior fellow and director of homeland security at the Center for American Progress, presented differing views on “Morning Call.”
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The U.S. International Trade Commission ordered a ban on Thursday of some imported cell phone models containing Qualcomm chips that infringe on a Broadcom patent.
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The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.
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This meeting of the world's richest nations may be the most challenging one for the U.S. in years, given the growing power of Russia and China.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to US President George W Bush setting up a joint missile radar base in Azerbaijan to overcome a crisis between the two countries.
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Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate, told “Squawk Box” he’s “running the electric car of presidential campaigns.” Huckabee advocated change on several key fronts: taxation, health care and U.S. relations with Russia -- and used the NASCAR race as an analogy for his competitive edge.
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The White House remains optimistic about the U.S. economy, despite its forecast that the gross domestic product will drop from 2.9% to 2.3% for 2007. Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors Edward Lazear shared his insights with CNBC’s Liz Claman on “Morning Call.”
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President Bush challenged lawmakers to have the political courage to pass an immigration bill amid intense pressure from critics who call it amnesty and advocates who believe the current system is broken.
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President Bush, seeking to blunt international criticism of the U.S. record on climate change, urged 15 major nations to agree by the end of next year on a global target for reducing greenhouse gases.