At a meeting in Cairo last weekend, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministers decided to not cut oil production. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Saturday that OPEC will “do what needs to be done” to shore up falling oil prices when the group meets December 17 in Algeria, but for now it was [...]

The United States Military at Guantánamo Bay announced that after seven years of imprisonment Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, will be released from confinement. He will serve out the remainder of his four-month term, of which he is expected to serve for one month, in Yeman, according to officials. He was held since [...]

On November 24, 2008 President-elect Barack Obama announced his plans for his upcoming administration’s economic team at a speech in Chicago. The group faces what are viewed as unprecedented economic challenges for the United States, including economic crisis, paranoid economic markets, rising unemployment, dwindling house values and rising foreclosures, and a fragile banking system at [...]

Germany In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the German government has introduced what she calls a “bridge” for the economy of 50 billion euros ($65 billion U.S. dollars) in investment in 2009 and 2010. The stimulus package is geared towards protecting jobs. Germany, with the largest European economy, recently put into affect a bank [...]

Barack Obama, 47, Democratic Senator from Illinois, was elected president by defeating John McCain, 72, the Republican Senator from Arizona. Obama is the first African American elected President in the United States in its history.
Obama, 47, who declared “change has come to America” at his election night victory speech, will begin his transition to the White House. He will be inaugurated as the 44th president on January 20, 2009.

The consolidation in the banking industry continues as Cleveland-based National City Corporation has agreed to be acquired by PNC Financial Services for approximately $5.2 billion. Unique to the situation is that PNC will be utilizing funds from the U.S. Treasury to make the acquisition.

A country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the size of its economy and a means of validating its production ability. When news of the GDP is positive, confidence in a country is strengthened. Business entities are interested in investing in the region, capital and resources are injected, goods and service production rates [...]

On Friday, October 10th, the price of oil fell below $80.00 to $77.85 a barrel. This is the first time, within the last 12 months. that the price has fallen below $80.00 a barrel. The drop was accredited to an expected decline in demand stemming from the world economic crisis, and an expected subsequent drop [...]

If there was doubt that we live in a globalized society, the late events of Wall Street which have reverberated around the world, have all but erased them. Reactions from abroad and at home about the U.S. efforts to confront the financial crisis have been in great abundance, both positive and negative. The reactions are built with varying logic– some reactions are shocking and dumbfounding.

As they say, cash is king. At the core of our financial crisis is a lack of liquidity stemming from increasingly over-leveraged banks and large financial firms. They did not have sufficient liquid assets to prevent a decline in their credit ratings, nor cover their non-performing assets, and a run on their stock occurred. The [...]

With Hank Paulson’s $700 million no-strings-attached proposal dead on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Plan B has emerged from the Senate Republicans who have wanted the legislation to be of a more conservative nature. Committee members and leaders of the Senate working diligently over the past two days– since the defeat of the $700 billion House bill– have arrived at what they think will be passable legislation. Subsequently, the House will have to vote again if passage is achieved at the Senate level.

While the financial news media last week were focused upon the actions of Morgan Stanley possibly merging, and Goldman Sachs seeking to raise funds in lieu of being the next mega investment bank to fail, both took another direction that surprised just about everyone following their actions. Days later, they both were successful in beginning [...]

The Congressional Budget Office recently released details of the funding of the U.S. war efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the general war on terror.

Weekends are normally a quiet time on Wall Street as the U.S. markets are closed and trading is halted. However, lately they have become a fearful stretch of time for the U.S. finance industry. Recent weekend developments include the failure and bailout of Bear Stearns, the seizure of IndyMac, the conserveratorship effort of Fannie Mae [...]

The Congressional Budget Office released its Budget and Economic Outlook report this week and it included some stinging realities of the declining economic situation of the United States, particularly about the budget deficit.

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) have been placed in conservership by the U.S. Government after Treasury officials determined that the two entities had major structural flaws and that its officials’ use of accounting methods had overstated the value of its capital base or capital cushion. A conservator is defined as a [...]

Antibiotics have saved the lives of countless millions. However over-prescription causes unintended side-effects. They are less effective in time because our immune systems have developed a tolerance. Pain medications have provided significant benefits to millions on a daily basis– again, overuse proves harmful. They sometimes have side effects, and their effects are short term—when they [...]

Boston Dynamics is an engineering company that develops robotics and human simulation systems. The firm was founded in 1992, originating as a result of research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The firm produces products that range from military robots to simulation-based training to physics-based virtual prototyping. Significantly, their robots can perform agility functions [...]

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a UK-based concern that has a 8 year history of working with the world’s largest corporations. It gathers and discloses greenhouse gas emissions records from its participants and makes its results available for public viewing. The group recently announced that at least 30 U.S. urban centers will participate in their surveys as well under the new CDP Cities program.

The Walt Disney Company, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich announced that they would establish new research centers in a joint venture. The move from Disney positions it with top high tech firms in an ever-growing Collaborative Research Center effort hosted by Carnegie Mellon University.

Micro-credit is the practice of giving small loans to impoverished borrowers with no collateral. Micro-credit has been hailed by many economists as a pragmatic, market-based approach to global poverty, and the idea gained global recognition in 2006, when Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for the development and implementation of micro-credit strategies. Today, some estimates indicate that there are over 100 million borrowers of micro-credit loans worldwide from over 10,000 micro-credit institutions.

The United States banking system, already shaken by a string of financial upsets, is bracing for another round of potential bad news: more banks failing. Black and White reports on the nature of the bank failures, the role of the FDIC, and the new housing bill legislation designed to bolster Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and rescue millions of Americans from housing foreclosure and loss of homes.

The debate about the development and use of nuclear energy is heating up as the United States grapples with rising demand and energy costs, and the desire to reduce its reliance on foreign oil. Washington and Wall Street are included in the demographic of marketing campaigns from parties on either side of the issue. Black and White explores this active debate and takes a look at status of nuclear energy in the U.S. and abroad.

Social networking sites are a growing phenomenon partly due to the way in which they increase the efficiency of users’ communication. Posted for the masses are members’ personal profiles that may take the form of text, images, and music for other members to enjoy, comment on, and share. Users can be social at the time of their choosing, independent of the initiating communicator. The one-on-one communication of email, text messaging, and phone is outpaced considerably by social networking platforms.

Black and White takes a look at recent massive South Korean political protests over a U.S.-South Korea beef import deal. The protests, highly effective and organized with the tools of text messaging on the populous 3G internet networks, have prompted public apologies by President Lee Myung-bak to South Korean citizens.

When all is said and done, 130 million Americans will receive more than $100 billion in tax-stimulus checks from the federal government. The theory is that once people start spending that money, the economy will start to rebound. But it’s unclear how this theory translates into practice.

Black and White takes a look at oil and gas prices in the U.S. and Europe, examines contributing factors to escalating prices, and reviews global sources of supply. The report explores the impact of current news on supplier costs and pump prices, as well as excessive oil and energy company profits.

Black and White speaks with George Davison, President & CEO of Davison, Inc.; Keith Grezelak, Chair of the IEEE-USA Intellectual Property Policy Committee; Chiara Orsini, Associated Director of Intellectual Property at University of Pittsburgh; Marc Malandro, Ph.D. Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Management and Commercialization at the University of Pittsburgh; and Jack Lasersohn from the Board of Directors of the National Venture Capital Association. Contributing statements were provided by co-sponsors of the bill Senator Arlen Specter (R – PA) and Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT); legislative strategist for the high tech industry Marc Isakowitz; and vice presidents for Dupont, Dean Oestreich and Uma Chowdhry.

The Patent Reform Act of 2007 promises to revitalize current patent procedures of the United States Patent and Trade Office. Although the bill has been heavily contested, it is currently making its way through the U.S. Senate. In a two part report Black and White explores the proposed changes, the USPTO’s placement among its counterparts in the world, and impact that the act could have on stakeholders.

General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner issued public statements indicating that a vast remaking of the Detroit based motor company will make it nearly indistinguishable from its current form. Wagoner, who appeared before Congress twice seeking federal taxpayer bailout money to save the auto concern, said that the company will not resemble the GM that [...]