Regardless of what you think of John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, it has become clear that his campaign blew the Palin vetting and selection process...and that McCain himself made a last-minute impulse decision designed to appease critics within the party who objected to his preferred...

Did you hear George Bush's speech about the Russian invasion of Georgia this morning? It sounded an awful lot like his father's "this will not stand" speech about Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. That one ultimately led to the first Gulf war.

Bush II stopped short of threatening violence, but he...

NBC is trying, I'll give them that much. They've covering 2,200 hours of Olympic events live online (albeit not the stuff you want to watch). They're also covering 3,600 hours of Olympic events on TV (albeit mostly taped). In other words, they're producing more Olympics coverage than has ever been...

In the past three and a half years, General Motors (GM) has lost more than $67 billion. In the past eight years, the company's market cap has dropped by $37 billion. Add the two numbers together, and GM's shareholders have lost more than $100 billion so far this decade.

GM's...

The top brass of the hapless New York Mets have had up to their ears with the team's crappy play. Unfortunately, when it came to addressing the problem, they put on a clinic in abominable management practices.

The New York Mets Guide to Bad Business

* Take forever to make...

Oil prices soared to new highs ($138, up $11) as brokerage firm Morgan Stanley predicted that oil will hit $150 a barrel by July 4th and Israel suggested it might attack Iran. Needless to say, stocks got clobbered (with the exception of ExxonMobil).

In case you haven't been watching CNBC...

Funny thing, politics. An arena in which people who have already lost get to choose to "concede."

For example, Hillary Clinton's campaign officially ended two nights ago, when she lost, and unofficially ended several months ago, when it because crystal clear that she was going to lose. But in...

Bear Stearns chairman Jimmy Cayne (JPM) personally apologized to the firm's employees yesterday (and, as the NYT describes it, heard silence in return). He also implied that Bear Stearns failed because it ran into a "hurricane."

This interpretation is convenient -- because it makes it sounds as though Bear's...

Was it satisfying to learn that even George Bush's staffers think he lied the country into the Iraq war? Yes. Should we admire former press secretary Scott McClellan for telling us this now...as he prepares to launch a national book tour?

No.

Stabbing former colleagues in the back is a...

As Congress holds panicked hearings to figure out what to do about the oil crisis--and, yes, it's now a full-blown crisis--it's worth stepping back and asking who really is most to blame. The answer shouldn't surprise anyone: George W. Bush.

True, the US blew its first opportunity to assemble an...

One of the most popular videos on the web these days (among business types) is the one of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer being forced to dive behind the podium to avoid thrown eggs while speaking at a university in Budapest. The video also follows the triumphant moron who threw...

Guess what? After a month or so of better-than-expected US economic data, economists are feeling better about the economy.

Nine months ago, of course, economists were feeling great about the economy. In fact, they were in almost complete agreement that the future looked terrific. Then the economy began to...

Where have our benighted energy policies of the last eight years left us? On our knees--begging OPEC to please, pretty please, open the spigots and pump more oil so we can ease the pressure on our sputtering economy.

FedEx delivered a Friday afternoon bomb, announcing its second business shortfall of...

Wall Street predictions are wrong about half the time, so take them all with a grain of salt. That said, the current views of Morgan Stanley strategist David Darst have more logic going for them than most. And Darst is about as bearish as brokerage strategists get.

Contrary to the...

Whatever you do in your personal portfolio, don't fall for that crap about how "great companies make great investments." In order for a great company to be a great investment you have to buy it at a great price. The "great company" part won't do you a lick of good...

Gas prices killing you? ExxonMobil is NOT feeling your pain. In fact, thanks to skyrocketing oil prices, they're now making $5 million an hour.

That's profit, not sales.

ExxonMobil booked $11 billion of net profit in the first quarter--almost $1 billion a week.

See Also: Sure The Economy...

The recession-deniers were out in force yesterday after the "better-than-expected!" GDP figures came out: See? The economy GREW in Q1! We aren't in a recession! All that horrendous economic and housing data is just media hysteria!

Here's what they didn't tell you:

First, those are just preliminary numbers. Maybe hold...

How bad are things in the (print) newspaper industry? Don't ask. After another jarring 3.5% decline over the past six months, print-paper circulation will drop to about 50 million this year -- the lowest level since 1946 (62 years ago).

That's during a period in which the US population has...

On Wall Street, happy days have returned. The emergency liquidity injections have worked, the credit crisis is history (R.I.P. Bear Stearns!), and it's off to the races again. In the second half of the year, this theory goes, we'll have a rip-roaring "V-shaped recovery."

Or so the theory goes.

How bad is the economy these days? So bad that one of the nation's largest purveyors of custom-made addictive drugs is slashing its forecast yet again as customers tighten their belts.

In the salad days, of course, many Starbucks fans argued that $5 Mocha Frappucinos and $3 coffees were no...