PODCAST: Goldman Sachs CEO says U.S. must act responsibly on fiscal cliff
The New York attorney general has sued JPMorgan Chase. The issue is mortgage-backed securities peddled by its Bear Stearns unit, leading up to the financial crisis. The case could be a bit of a game-changer.
The National Retail Federation this morning predicts we’ll buy 4 percent more stuff this holiday season. That would be slower growth than in the past two years.
CoreLogic says U.S. home prices rose almost 5 percent in August, the biggest annual gain in six years.
Greece started a round of talks with its European lenders today. The government put out its new austerity budget yesterday. It’s stuck between creditors who are skeptical the reforms will be enough, and Greek protesters who say the cuts will destroy the Greek economy.
Meanwhile, whispers and nameless sources this morning are signaling Spain is preparing to ask the European Central Bank and its creditors elsewhere in Europe for a sovereign bailout. Bond and equity markets in Spain and elsewhere in Europe have zigged and zagged throughout the day depending on the winds.
Perhaps more than any other, Goldman Sachs is the U.S. investment bank people love to both idolize and demonize. Goldman’s balance sheet has tracked the highs of the asset bubble and the pit of the financial crisis — when it took a federal bailout. Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, agreed to talk to Marketplace as Goldman hosts a small business training event this week in California.
Tomorrow night at 9 o’clock eastern time channel surfing will be mostly ineffective because the presidential debate will be all over TV. Except on the CW Network.
In the Czech Republic, evidently presidential security is not all it probably should be. The other day President Vaclav Klaus was making his way through an outdoor festival. A man in a camo jacket walks right up with a handgun, puts it to the president’s arm, and fires off seven shots — it’s all caught on video. The gun fires plastic BBs, so no physical harm done. And the plastic assassin… just walks away. He got arrested, but only after he did an interview with the local news. The man said it was a protest against a president who is “blind and deaf to the laments of the people.” And whose staff is apparently blind and deaf to people walking up with handguns. The president’s reported comment to his bodyguards: “You really did not manage this well.”
And finally, want to know what the earth sounds like from space? NASA has just released a new recording. It’s the sound created by the earth’s magnetic field, a phenomenon called “chorus.” This was recorded by a satellite that happens to be listening from space, right in the sweet spot right now. And if you listen very, very closely you can hear millions of people watching “Gagnam Style” on YouTube.
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