Author: Tom Silva

Will the real 47 percent please stand up?  Although Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a now famously leaked video suggested that nearly half of Americans believe that they are victims for relying on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, etc., we thought it might be helpful to look at who benefits the most from […]

As the nation celebrated the 40th anniversary of Title IX this summer, the previously all-male Augusta National Golf Club invited the first two women to join its ranks.  The invitation to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — whose handicap is reported to be between 13 and 14 — and South Carolina financier Darla Moore […]

As Hurricane Isaac barreled its way up the Gulf Coast, the GOP was forced to cancel the first day of its Tampa-based 2012 nominating convention because of the whims of Mother Nature. The storm brought back unwanted memories of 2008’’s Hurricane Gustav, which forced the Republicans to postpone the start of the convention that nominated […]

Facebook’s first earnings report is now public and it’s making people a little cool to the world’s biggest friendship chain (955m users by the end of June). Facebook made a quarterly loss, of $157m. Since its IPO on May 18th, the company’s share price hasn’t regained its $38 initial price. On August 1st Facebook’s shares […]

My recent column on the Huffington Post reported on the advent on Wall Street into the housing market as companies like Blackstone and Colony Capital commit billions of dollars to bulk buying bank-owned (REO) single-family homes. I agree that there are pros and cons to this program. The clear source of popular resentment is that […]

What will solve the housing crisis? The Keynesians think it’s a government bailout and the Hayekians think it will ultimately be the invisible hand and spontaneous order of supply and demand that will ameliorate the underwater single-family home sector. Well, could it both? In other words, the government steps in to structure a private sector […]

During this campaign year, you’ve heard about politicians referring to our country as a welfare state, heavy with unaffordable entitlements for seniors that are stalling our economic growth.  Our growing welfare state is slated to cost $10.3 trillion over the next 10 years-that’s $72,000 a household, said Mitt Romney to voters in Bedford, N.H., on […]

80,000 was the number. 200,000 is what we need for this to feel like a recovery. And 8.2 is the number that keeps hanging on.  The nation’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2% (that’s 13 million unemployed workers) for the second consecutive month, the Labor Department said Friday.  Businesses added just 84,000 jobs, while governments […]

Wobbly economies that shook up markets in 2011 took their toll on the world’s rich, though fast-growing Asia for the first time had more millionaires than North America.  According to the report, the global personal wealth of people worth $1 million declined in 2011 for the second time in four years, a side effect of […]

In a sign that no Eurozone nation is completely immune to the shocks of the European debt crisis, ratings agency Moody’s Investor Services has cut the credit ratings of six banks in Germany.  The largest bank to be downgraded is Commerzbank, Germany’s second-biggest lender, which was cut to A3 from A2. “Today’s rating actions are […]