Economics Roundtable
-- Recession? --
Are back-to-back quarters of 0.6% GDP growth a recession? The blogs weigh in at Recession?
Will a 2% Fed Funds rate help? Fed Watch
-- Economic Principals --
David Warsh reports the latest on this year's free agent season for academic economists.
-- EconModel --
The Economics Roundtable is sponsored by EconModel.
Online, interactive models cover micro, macro, and financial markets.
-- Statistics --
137 Commentators
As of 2/19/08, the Economics Roundtable includes
137 commentators.
Oligopoly Watch
"The latest maneuvers of the new oligopolies and what they mean”
First a merger, then a demerger
The constant boasting about synergy and enhanced market power that accompany any merger or acquisition is just talk. There are other reasons for such deals, including the financial advantage of the principals, the megalomania of a CEO, the fact that ...
Bristol Myers Squibb sells off wound care division
Drugmaker Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) announced it has sold off its ConvaTec division to a private equity consortium for $4.1 billion. The buyers were Avista Capital Partners (US -based) and Nordic Capital (European). These two companies own Denmark-based pharmaceutical ...
More on Yahoo-Microsoft
With the absurdly high Microsoft bid for Yahoo even more absurdly refused by Yahoo management, Microsoft shareholders should breathe a sigh of relief that their management's foolish move failed. Bidding far too much for too little is a commonplace in the Web 2.0 ...
Fertilizer shortage
The current food shortage is being driven by another key shortage: one in fertilizer. The addition of inexpensive chemical fertilizer to developing countries' fields, as much as anything else, has driven a worldwide trend to more abundant crops and low-cost food. No longer, according ...
Gum is from Mars
Mars Inc., the privately-held maker of Mars bars, Snickers, M&Ms, Skittles, and Three Musketeers, announced it would purchase Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., the world's #1 chewing gum company, in a $28 billion deal. Mars, which is already the #1 seller of ...
Oi
That's the name of a new company to be formed as Brazilian telephone company Telemar acquires Brazilian landline telecom provider Brasil Telecom. The deal is for $3.5 billion.
Oi will control almost two-thirds of the country's land lines and be the #4 mobile phone company. The ...
Swallowing up Wendy’s
Triac Companies, led by billionaire Nelson Peltz, announced it would acquire fast food chain Wendy’s for $2.4 billion. Wendy’s ...
Shaking off the wires
A few weeks ago, Verizon, the #2 US telephone company, took a dramatic step. It finalized the sell-off of its wired telephone lines and its high speed Internet service in northern New England (Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire). The buyer was a company ...
Ferilizer giant
Canadian-based Agrium, the largest North American retailer for farmers and the #3 producer of potash- and nitrogen-based fertilizers, got the go-ahead from the US Federal Trade Commission to buy US-based United Agri Products (UAP), a farm store retail chain. The deal is for $2.5 ...
Fire sale at Citigroup
Citigroup announced another big loss, this time for $5.1 billion and announced it would fire another 9,000 employees. And yet the stock market went up. Apparently, analysts thought the losses would be even greater. But Citigroup is low on cash, and it's ...