A weird thing is happening right now, and it borders on the dangerous. Companies want to merge, and partner, and collaborate, and they have lots of cash on the balance sheet, ready to do deals that may help jumpstart their businesses, light a fire under sluggish markets, increase efficiencies, and generate nice returns for their investors. Yet federal agencies in this country and abroad aren't merely getting more active when it comes to scrutinizing the deals, they're getting activist.    Read More

You’ve heard it before, but a health care bill looks likely to pass the House that would create a public option and ultimately cover at least 95% of the nation.   Read More

Despite what you’ve heard, the public option might not be off the table after all.    Read More

While at this time I don't expect a regulation bill to be ready for the President to sign this year, I believe it is likely there will be one ready before the mid-term 2010 elections next year. Again, change is coming whether it makes sense or not.    Read More

Tuesday could well be remembered as a turning point in our nation’s efforts to reform health care.   Read More

New standards and models are being developed around the world for how to measure things that don’t have a smokestack, driving even more business to this new business of carbon counting.    Read More

As the Department of Justice scrutinizes Ticketmaster and LiveNation's proposed merger here in the US overseas the UK's main antitrust regulator already decided it has some problems with the combination of the ticketing giant and the world's largest concert promoter. This morning Britain's Competition Commission provisionally ruled against the planned merger, saying it "will limit the development of competition in the market for live music ticket retailing."    Read More

President Barack Obama has described how his Administration intends to overhaul U.S. financial regulations. The hallmarks of these reforms, he said, would be transparency and accountability. A more difficult challenge will be to persuade the Federal Reserve System to release similar information on the $2 trillion of emergency loans it made as part of its economic recovery program.    Read More

One thing that’s missing from this recovery is jobs. Where will they come from? Karen Finerman asks Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.   Read More

One thing that’s missing from this recovery is jobs. Where will they come from? Karen Finerman asks Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.   Read More