Zachary Karabell on the European Debt Crisis: Watch Video
Zachary Karabell talks about what Europe’s debt problems mean for us—and why we shouldn’t be scared.
Read moreKarabell: Raising Taxes on Millionaires
Zachary Karabell on whether raising taxes on millionaires will help the economy.
Read moreKarabell: Understanding Europe's Economic Crisis
Zachary Karabell on what Americans don't understand about the crisis in Europe.
Read moreEuropean Markets & Debt Crisis with Zachary Karabell, Daily Beast Contributor
European Markets & Debt Crisis with Zachary Karabell, Daily Beast Contributor
Read moreGermany’s Risky Eurozone Bailout a Positive Step in Right Direction
The German government voted in favor of a European bailout fund designed to aid Greece tentatively set at $600 billion. That rivals in size the bailouts the United States passed at the urging of then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the fall of 2008 and again in February 2009, which prevented a complete implosion of the financial system whose consequences would have made the resulting recession and market plunge look inconsequential by comparison.
Read moreGreece and the Growing Economic Crisis: Why Europe Won’t Implode
Europe will act to prevent Greece from defaulting and triggering a global financial crisis
Read more2011 BCLS - Markets of Discord Panel
Please watch the 'Markets of Discord' panel session featuring Robert Armstrong, Richard Robb, Paul Wilmott, Donald Marron, Zachary Karabell, Ersin Ozince, and Asher Edelman at the 2011 Blouin Creative Leadership Summit.
Read moreObama Embraces Warren Buffett’s Call for Higher Taxes on the Very Rich
At a press briefing at the White House Monday, President Obama formally announced a package revealed over the weekend to trim $3 trillion off the federal deficit over the next several years. Picking up on the theme of his recent jobs speech, Obama demanded that Congress move on the act immediately.
Read moreObama’s Deficit Plan Falls Short
This is becoming like the War of the Roses. President Obama advanced the needle on deficit reduction and budget negotiations by providing a new set of proposals this morning for what the White House calculates will be $3 trillion in reduced spending over the next 10 years. That follows his congressional address last week calling for additional spending and tax breaks to boost economic activity, which in turn followed months of Washington stalemate on the debt ceiling.
Read moreThe End of Wall Street's Big Payday
On Sept. 15, a 31-year-old UBS trader in London was arrested for fraudulently attempting to hide “rogue” trades that led to at least $2 billion in losses for the Swiss bank. How could a large financial institution, Swiss no less, let its risk controls slip so much that a person in a relatively junior position could lose so much of the bank’s capital?
Read moreEurope’s Economic Crisis: Could Default in Greece, Eurozone Sink Us?
As Americans fixate on the battle for the Republican presidential nominationand the continuing travails of the U.S. economy, the real story in financial land is what is happening in Europe. The issues aren’t new: concerns over the contagion of a default of Greek debt, or Irish or Portuguese or Italian, have been percolating for more than a year and a half. But there is a definite sense of late that these issues are potentially spinning out of control.
Read more9/11 Anniversary: Al Qaeda’s Failure on Wall Street
The World Trade Center was never seen as an overly attractive piece of architecture, but as a symbol of American economic might, it was undeniably powerful. Never mind that it was built just as New York was imploding financially in the mid-1970s; it still stood as a set of dual icons representing the economic primacy not just of the United States, but of Wall Street and the entire financial industry.
Read moreObama’s Job Speech Not to Blame for Economic Market Turmoil
It was another rough day for global markets. The major indices in the United States were down nearly three percent, and European markets fared even worse. That much is undebatable. The reasons, however, are. And the reasons initially given were, today at least, totally wrong.
Read moreObama Jobs Speech: Nothing New, Is Incidental to Creating Jobs
President Obama’s speech to Congress hewed closely to the details that had already been leaked, save for the dollar amounts, which were considerably larger. Even so, the $450 billion price tag is somewhat misleading in that much of that is not new spending or new tax breaks but rather an extension of breaks and unemployment benefits that are already in place. Given that payroll tax cuts have not generated employment in the past two years, it’s is a stretch to see how they will suddenly do so now.
Read moreObama’s $300 Billion Jobs Plan Will Fail, Could Begin End of His Presidency
By now, the White House has leaked the most salient aspects of President Obama’s plan to reinvigorate the American jobs market. It is said to amount to $300 billion, give or take, the largest component being an extension of both the current payroll tax break and unemployment insurance benefits.
Read moreIs Unemployment Caused by a Skills Mismatch?
"Can America's Unemployed Fill American Jobs?" looked at the extent to which high unemployment is structural and how much is cyclical. Zachary Karabell of economic research and consulting firm River Twice thinks much of what we're seeing is structural. Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute, on the other hand, argues unemployment is mostly cyclical, or tied to the economic cycle.
Read moreThe Carlyle Group Goes Public: Why the Stocks Won’t Thrive
The Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private-equity firm that manages in excess of $150 billion, is going public. That, at least, is the intent of the company, which has filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission to set the process in motion.
Read moreCan America’s Jobless Fill American Jobs?
With the U.S. unemployment rate stuck around 9 percent, economics correspondent Paul Solman explores whether widespread joblessness is simply the result of a weak economy or if a broader shift toward higher-skill work is occurring that could leave many Americans behind even when the economy recovers.
Read moreJobs Report and Fixing the Crumbling Market
Another month, another sign that the job market remains unchangingly, distressingly stuck. The official unemployment rate according to just-released figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is at 9.1%, but that fails to capture the weakness of the overall employment picture. The headline number has been essentially unchanged since April – and indeed there has been almost no net job creation for the past year.
Read more