With about five months until the election and seven months until the departure of Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, Glenn Somerville and Felix Salmon have two of the first goes at guessing his successor.On the Democratic side, possibilities include Laurence D. Fink of BlackRock, the asset manager; Erskine Bowles, who served on President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform; Daniel K. Tarullo, a member of the Federal Reserve Board; and Roger C. Altman, the investment banker.For the Republicans, the front-runners include Robert B. Zoellick, the head of the World Bank; John B. Taylor, the Stanford economist; Glenn Hubbard, the head of Columbia Business School and a Mitt Romney adviser; and Kevin Warsh, a former member of the Federal Reserve Board.From the Democratic list, ... Continue reading →
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BY DREW HINSHAW AND LIAM PLEVEN DAKAR, Senegal—A military revolt in the tiny African nation of Guinea-Bissau is unsettling the market for prized cashew nuts. Some of the world's tastiest cashews are rotting in roadside piles on rural byways leading to and from the capital of the wetland nation, where a recent military uprising has left farmers stranded with no way to ship their nuts to the Indian factories that steam the cashew out of its poisonous shell. On April 13, soldiers kidnapped Prime Minister Carlos Gomes, Jr.—for the second time in two years—weeks before he was set to be elected president of Africa's fifth-biggest cashew ...BY DREW HINSHAW AND LIAM PLEVEN DAKAR, Senegal—A military revolt in the tiny African nation of Guinea-Bissau is unsettling ... Continue reading →
Pete Souza/The White House In the photo that has hung in the West Wing for three years, President Obama looks to be bowing to five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia, his arm raised to touch the president’s hair — to see if it feels like his. WASHINGTON — For decades at the White House, photographs of the president at work and at play have been hung throughout the West Wing, and each print soon gives way to a more recent shot. But one picture remains after three years, its staying power testifying to the thousand words it seems worth to those who see it. In the photo, President Obama looks to be bowing to a sharply dressed black boy, who stands erect beside the Oval Office desk, his ... Continue reading →
BY DAVID WESSEL Is Europe going to disrupt the U.S. economic recovery again? Can the mighty U.S. economy really be vulnerable to Greece, an economy roughly the size of Massachusetts'? Just a few months ago, it seemed Europe had found a way to keep Greece in the euro. But Greek voter resistance to austerity prescribed by Germany ups the odds that Greece, which already has reneged on its debts, will leave the currency union. If that happens, Spain and Italy could be next in line for bank runs, bond-market skepticism, skyrocketing borrowing rates and deep recessions. Updating its global forecast this week, the ...BY DAVID WESSEL Is Europe going to disrupt the U.S. economic recovery again? Can the mighty U.S. economy really be vulnerable to ... Continue reading →
A New Way to Reduce Pension Risks? Ford says it has a better idea as it looks to "de-risk" its pension funding by offering lump-sum buyouts to retirees. The impact on HR could be significant among large employers, if this becomes a trend. By Tom Starner The Ford Motor Co., fresh on the heels of a major turnaround achieved over the past few years, is making change again. This time, the Dearborn, Mich.-based automotive giant is not announcing a new hybrid model or supply-chain strategy. For its latest act, Ford is offering to make a one-time, voluntary lump-sum payment to nearly all of its salaried retirees by the end of 2013. It appears to be the first such program to specifically target retirees without being ... Continue reading →
