More H-1B Visas, More U.S. Tech Layoffs
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on April 8 it has received enough H-1B applications to meet the congressionally mandated cap of 85,000 H-1B visas for fiscal year 2009....
Sectors
Newest Bailout: Auto-parts Suppliers
The Obama administration is now in the business of subsidizing the auto parts industry. In yet another slug of taxpayer money intended to prevent the collapse of GM and Chrysler, the...
Stimulus Results: Unemployment Soars
“The U.S. may suffer further job losses in the coming months” began the April 3 Bloomberg.com story on federal government reports that the U.S. economy shed an estimated 633,000 jobs in...
Obama Administration Ousts GM CEO Wagoner
In a move heralding the Obama administration’s most aggressive intervention in the business sector to date, the federal government has forced GM CEO Rick Wagoner to step down. The change in...
Bill Would Give Feds Control Over Family Farms
On February 4, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875) in the House. Its stated objective sounds rather benign — even beneficial: "To establish...
AIG’s Latest (Fourth) Federal Bailout
For the fourth time in six months, the federal government is giving billions of taxpayer dollars to AIG, following the latter’s announcement of a $61.7 billion fourth quarter loss — this...
$750 Billion Bank Bailout in Obama Budget
Figuring prominently in President Barack Obama’s newly released budget proposal for fiscal 2010 is another massive bank bailout. The Bush administration’s gargantuan $700 billion bank boondoggle was bad enough, but President...
Creeping Nationalization
Though the Obama administration continues to deny it, the U.S. government continues to move closer to nationalizing the nation’s largest banks. The last week of February the Federal Reserve and the...
Automakers Seek Another $21.6 Billion
General Motors and Chrysler submitted “financial viability” plans to the U.S. Treasury on February 17 that included combined requests for another $18.6 billion in federal bailout funds — $16.6 billion for...
Obama’s Homeowner Lifeline Not a Lifeline
“President Barack Obama threw a $75 billion lifeline to millions of Americans on the brink of foreclosure,” the Associated Press reported after the president’s February 18 speech in Phoenix, Arizona, where...
Coming Soon: Nationalization of the Banks?
Will the banks be nationalized? That question would have seemed preposterous prior to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to bailout major financial institutions. But with the TARP money comes...
Experts Warn of Oil Price Rise
Oil prices dropped from $141 per barrel to below $40, but experts say that this decline is going to end in 2009, according to 24/7 Wall Street. When oil prices tumbled,...
True Unemployment Rate Higher Than Reported
The unemployment rate in December rose to 7.2 percent, according to the Labor Department. This represents a steep 0.4 percent rise from November's official rate of 6.8 percent, topping off a...
Bailing Out Chrysler Becoming a Bad Habit
The federal government handouts to the auto industry continued over the weekend with the announcement of a $4 billion bridge loan to Chrysler LLC to help keep the Big Three automaker...
Jobs’ Health and Apple’s Stock
On Monday Apple's stock rose dramatically, gaining 4.22 percent by the end of trading and closing at $94.58. Analysts attribute this dramatic rise to an announcement made today by Steve Jobs,...