Posted Oct 20, 2009 07:30am EDT by Aaron Task in Newsmakers
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The U.S. is an empire in decline, according to Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The Ascent of Money.“People have predicted the end of America in the past and been wrong,” Ferguson concedes. “But let’s face [...]
ALLISON ROSS
PALM BEACH POST Homeowners’ efforts to get relief from their Chinese drywall problems are moving ahead as court-appointed inspectors began examining a handful of affected properties this week.
A house in the Cobblestone Creek subdivision west of Boynton Beach will be inspected next week. It and 14 other Florida homes will help set a [...]
LESLEY CLARK
The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from Florida and Louisiana Thursday pressed new Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman Inez Tenenbaum for answers to the Chinese drywall problem plaguing thousands of homeowners in their states.
Tenenbaum – who took over the agency in June – pledged to lawmakers that the agency will “vigorously pursue its investigation” [...]
Gary Bogdon for The New York Times
Lee Figliuolo of Palm Coast, Fla., bought a Hyundai Genesis.
As if Detroit didn’t have enough worries.
In addition to the recession, and the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors, a new threat has appeared in the rearview mirror.
Many smaller automakers are gaining a bigger share of the market, [...]
“We’re just fighting to stay alive,” said Tim Knisley, PMT’s chief financial officer.
The high-profile bankruptcies of Chrysler, General Motors Corp. and a few big suppliers have overshadowed the financial peril now facing the hundreds of small subsuppliers whose fate is also tied into the auto industry.
Yet the woes at PMT are being replicated across [...]
Michael Mandel
This morning the BLS released its “International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost Trends, 2008”. And guess what? According to the BLS, the U.S. manufacturing sector had the fastest productivity growth in the world in 2008—1.2%, tied with South Korea. Meanwhile, Japan, Canada, Germany, France and Japan all had manufacturing productivity [...]
By Vivek Wadhwa
The list of challengers to U.S. tech supremacy may be getting longer. Many pundits say the greatest threats to the nation’s status as a tech superpower are China and India. Those people would do well to look south.
Aside from notable exceptions such as Venezuela, South America is a growth dynamo with [...]
By MAX COLCHESTER And CHRISTINA PASSARIELLO
PARIS—France’s specialized embroiderers, seamstresses, tailors and hatmakers—once the backbone of a thriving fashion business—are today among the hardest-hit victims of the global slowdown in luxury-goods sales. As fashion houses cancel orders and cut costs, these small businesses are now turning to the French government for help.
On Monday, France’s Prime [...]
By JOAN E. SOLSMAN
Boeing Co. swung to a third-quarter loss on $3.5 billion of previously disclosed charges caused by the delay-plagued programs for the 747-8 Freighter and the 787 Dreamliner.
The commercial-aircraft manufacturer and defense contractor lowered its forecast for 2009 earnings to between $1.35 and 1.55 a share, down more than $4 from its [...]
BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Commerce said Monday it has made a preliminary ruling to impose tariffs of up to 36% on nylon 6, or polycaprolactam, from the U.S., saying the imports have damaged the domestic industry.
The antidumping measure is the latest in a series of trade measures by China after the Obama administration [...]