According to the pundits, the Potash saga is about to heat up.

From the day that BHP Billiton, the Australian mining giant, sprung a $40 billion offer for fertilizer producer Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan in mid-August, the reaction of the market has been that a better offer would come...

There is a sharp divergence of views about the economy’s near-term prospects. Some speak of a V-shaped snap-back, others of a W-like double-dip, yet others of an L-pattern driven by a secular change in consumer spending.  This seems just one more indication of how elusive the nature of this crisis...

What a difference a fortnight makes! Two weeks ago, as the G8 were meeting, concerns lingered about continued weakness in world economies. "Crude tumbles on doubts about economic rebound" and "EU: crisis could cripple euro economy potential" were some of the headlines on July 6. "Commodities slide on doubts about...

Dear Mr. Secretary,

After 100 or so days of your secretaryship, many pundits and a small number of government officials are pointing to hopeful signs that the worst may be over - or, at least, that the rate of deterioration in such measures as overall economic activity and financial losses...

Financial fraud typically takes a long time to detect and yet, paradoxically, the tell-tale signs are (almost) always in plain sight. Whether it is Enron, Fannie and Freddie, or more recently Madoff, we are invariably surprised that we failed to listen to those who sounded an early warning or that...