Asian stocks tumble as dollar slumps and fears of a US recession persist.
TOKYO, March 3 (AFP) -- Asian stocks plunged Monday with Tokyo ending down almost 4.5 percent, battered by a slumping dollar and fears that the US economy is slipping into recession, dealers said. Investors dumped shares after heavy losses on stock markets in the United States and...

Keep the Internet open.
Byline: The Register-Guard Diving into the deep end of the net neutrality debate is just asking for a splitting headache. Take two aspirin and try to decipher Comcast's explanation to the Federal Communications Commission about the cable company's controversial decision to delay some Internet traffic on its...

Responding to nervous customers.
Are customers asking you about the safety and soundness of your bank? The subprime mortgage problem and the recent failure of the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns has created some public confusion about the security of the financial services industry. ABA has generated a series of...

Financial Stability Forum tells banks: Come clean quickly on subprime losses.
Byline: Brian Love WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) -- The world's industrialized powers urged banks on Friday to come clean quickly and clearly on losses incurred since the credit boom of recent years went belly-up last August. Banks, investors and credit rating agencies grossly underestimated the...

Scent sales slip ... again: after another year of soft sales and an economic slowdown ahead in the U.S., can the next round of scents turn the tide for the fine fragrance business?
IT WAS ANOTHER YEAR of steady launches and a few high notes, but by the numbers, 2007 was just so-so, according to analysts tracking the fine fragrance market. According to Port Washington, NY-based NPD Group, prestige fragrance sales fell one percent in 2007 to $2.94 billion. On...

Liberate, don't stimulate, the American economy.
Fearing a recession in the wake of the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and other economic difficulties, Washington is offering a "stimulus package" to come to the rescue. "However," points out Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, Irvine, Calif., "we don't need the government to...

The rest of the story might not be what you expected.
Byline: Chris SINACOLA COLUMN: SINA-CISM The news media are often accused of not following up on what they report. Well, we can't have that. Before spring intoxicates us with its wiles, it's time to untangle winter's brain and get up to speed on matters great...

Global economic growth continues at expense of ecological systems.
In 2007, gross world product (GWP)--the global total of all finished goods and services--was expected to grow 5.4 percent to US$72.3 trillion (in 2007 dollars, purchasing power parity basis). This was less than earlier estimates due particularly to economic disruptions in the U.S. housing market and ripple effects in...

Education reform going in circles.
Byline: Clive McFarlane COLUMN: CLIVE MCFARLANE The more things change, the more they seem to remain the same. At the dawn of the state education reform law, we had a secretary of education post. We had a large Department of Education board, of...

Sub-prime history.
In analyzing the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Robert VerBruggen starts with 1977's Community Reinvestment Act ("Straw Predators," May 5). He could usefully have gone back another decade, to 1968's Housing and Urban Development Act. This act extended Federal Housing Authority insurance to home-mortgage loans given to low-income, inner-city borrowers. The...