Filed under: Company News , Earnings Today we have another example of why it is such a huge mistake to let companies write their own report cards . That’s right folks, Citigroup, Inc. ( C ) reported a $1.6 billion profit for the first quarter of 2009. Doesn’t this sound great? It sure does...

Filed under: Company News , Earnings The wave of optimism that swept over the financial services sector on Monday’s news of Wells Fargo’s larger than anticipated profit could crash when Citigroup ( C ) announces its first quarter earnings on Friday. The latest consensus estimates by Thomson...

Filed under: Economy At Virginia Tech, where I taught for 10 years, the magic number was one million dollars. According to many of my fellow teachers, that was the cost of closing the campus for a day and, although I never saw any evidence that it was true, that number ruled my life. I sometimes walked...

Filed under: Economy The song remains the same in the nation’s labor market. Continuing claims surged 172,000 to a record 6.02 million, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday, as more Americans found it hard to find comparable employment amid the nation’s worst recession since 1981-82....

Filed under: Economy The song remains the same in the nation’s labor market. Continuing claims surged 172,000 to a record 6.02 million, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday, as more Americans found it hard to find comparable employment amid the nation’s worst recession since 1981-82....

Filed under: Company News , Economy General Growth ( GGP ), the big mail operator, will file for Chapter 11. According to The Wall Street Journal , which broke the story, “Many analysts suspect General Growth will survive a lengthy bankruptcy intact, but perhaps smaller after selling properties,...

Filed under: Company News , Earnings JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ), the largest U.S. bank by assets, reports its first-quarter earnings early tomorrow morning. Analysts are expecting profit of 32 cents a share , compared with a loss of 28 cents a share last quarter and a 68-cents-a-share profit a year ago....

Filed under: Economy Say one thing about the financial crisis : it’s certainly scrambled — or at least temporarily suspended — the usual economic coalitions. Economic liberals, like U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, and Chairman of the pivotal House Financial Services Committee...

Filed under: Columns , Economy If the economy has a canary in the coal mine, it’s advertising. Companies tend to slash their budgets at the first sign of a slowdown, and this recession is no exception. Global advertising spending is forecast to drop 6.9 percent this year, the biggest decline in...

Filed under: Economy So far, the inflation hawks — who argue that the large fiscal and monetary stimulus deployed by the federal government will lead to raging inflation — have a pretty weak case. Producer prices fell 1.2 percent in March, with the core rate registering no increase, the...