President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team is reportedly putting the finishing touches on an economic recovery plan that could run from $675 billion to $1 trillion, though many experts believe the program will most like range between $700 billion and $800 billion.

Briefings for top congressional Democrats were to start either over the weekend or today (Monday), a senior transition-team official told The Associated Press late last week. President-elect Obama is slated to meet today with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a Democratic strategy session that is likely to focus on the economic recovery package.

It’s time to look forward, not back. The 111th Congress meets tomorrow (Tuesday), and a comprehensive economic stimulus package is at the top of its agenda.  Hopefully, the lawmakers can put partisan bickering aside (fat chance) and have a bill in place for President-elect Barack

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Per The Phnom Penh Post: Cambodia will move forward with plans to establish a stock exchange in 2009 despite concerns over the global market crisis and suggestions that it would be delayed until 2010, Finance Minister Keat Chhon announced. “We will not rush to establish the stock exchange in Cambodia, but we will build a strong base, including hard and soft infrastructure,” Keat Chhon said at the InterContinental hotel. The country is in the process of finalising securities rules and has broken ground on the exchange building, he said. He added that the Council of Ministers has begun drafting subdecrees to implement new laws about an initial public offering. “The establishment of a stock market will help Cambodia develop additional sources of finance currently buried in various places, and it will boost economic growth,” Keat Chhon ...

There's a great story at the Washington Post today about the interplay between retail spending and retail hiring. Specifically, the Post notes that because the holiday shopping season looks so grim, retailers aren't doing much of the seasonal hiring they typically do this time of year. More below ..."This is the time of year when retail jobs are supposed to be as plentiful as holiday cheer, when stores gear up for the Christmas rush by filling their sales floors with college students, moonlighters and anyone else looking to shore up their income."But no one is feeling very jolly this year."Faced with plummeting sales and spooked shoppers, retailers have cut back on holiday hiring at a time when their pool of applicants is swelling with those who have been laid off from other industries. About 272,000 retail jobs were open at the end of

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What are the two most expensive goods you’re likely to buy in your lifetime?  A home and a car, probably.  And the news today on both is an indicator of how screwed up things are.

The Washington Post figures the country has about one million homes too many.  And close to 30,000 of them are in Las Vegas alone.  “The solution, local executives say, will come not from Washington policymakers but from the market itself,” reports the Post. “When there are too many houses, builders stop building them. That has already happened, and many Vegas home builders have gone out of business.”

But of course, that’s not going to stop politicians from intervening anyway and trying to prop up home prices — that is, keep them unaffordable.  There was Jack Kemp, that paragon of supply-side virtue, stumping in Florida this weekend for John McCain and his $300 billion mortgage bailout.  Barack Obama’s

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What are the two most expensive goods you’re likely to buy in your lifetime?  A home and a car, probably.  And the news today on both is an indicator of how screwed up things are.

The Washington Post figures the country has about one million homes too many.  And close to 30,000 of them are in Las Vegas alone.  “The solution, local executives say, will come not from Washington policymakers but from the market itself,” reports the Post. “When there are too many houses, builders stop building them. That has already happened, and many Vegas home builders have gone out of business.”

But of course, that’s not going to stop politicians from intervening anyway and trying to prop up home prices — that is, keep them unaffordable.  There was Jack Kemp, that paragon of supply-side virtue, stumping in Florida this weekend for John McCain and his $300 billion mortgage bailout.  Barack Obama’s

...

The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to cut rates tomorrow (Wednesday), possibly in conjunction with central bank counterparts in Europe, as fears of a global recession have intensified. However, the Fed has little room to maneuver as its benchmark Federal Funds rate is already at 2% and analysts remain skeptical that reducing it any further keep the United States from sliding into a prolonged recession.

The next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee is scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday Oct. 29. There is no doubt that growth will be the central issue of the committee’s discussion, as fears of a global recession are intensifying alongside deteriorating economic data.

The British Office for National Statistics’ said Friday that, after a flat second quarter, U.K. gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.5% in the three months ended Sept. 30. There’s little doubt that other European nations have already succumbed to recession, and the near

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Readers, I'm happy to announce that the Financial Post, the daily business newspaper of Canada's National Post, today published my analysis in their 'Manager Picks' section. I read the Post daily as it's an indispensible resource for anyone investing in Canadian equities.Continue reading