economy »
Fed’s Lacker expects rebound by 2010
The Richmond Federal Reserve bank’s President says that the economy has hit bottom and will start bouncing back later this year. Jeffery Lacker told state legislators that he was starting to see improved consumer
Read More »Area sales still slipping
Local spending is still in the doldrums, down about 6.4% in the first quarter compared with the same time a year ago. But some sectors of the consumer economy are seeing a sales increase,
Read More »Sandston shops mourn Qimonda
Sandston, the small Henrico village near the airport, isn’t exactly a company town. But the thousands of employees at Qimonda helped support a handful of locally-owned shops and eateries
Read More »“Perfect Storm” watch
Memo to everyone, please stop using the expression “Perfect Storm.” It’s not only a cheap attempt at trying to make something sound more important, but it’s also misleading. It insinuates that a given event
Read More »Fasten your safety belt for more bumps, economist says
Economist Chris Varvares looked into a crystal ball yesterday and saw a stormy few quarters in our future. Varvares, who is president of Macroeconomic Advisors, told business leaders at a lunch event held by
Read More »The recession special
Local advertisers, it seems, don’t want to remind us of the lousy economy. But national advertisers are rolling out more and more ads that address the country’s current economic situation, sometimes opting for a
Read More »If it ain’t broke, don’t touch it!
In 16 years of working on cars, Ronnie Bowen has never seen it so slow. Or seen so many motorists opt for the bare minimum to keep their cars on the roads. “The economy
Read More »Iceland has it worse
As bad as things are starting to get here, Iceland has it worse. The small country’s government took over its major banks, and the currency has all but stopped trading internationally. In this fascinating
Read More »What’s happening to lending: a Q&A with the CEO of First Market Bank
Banks, like humans, fear the unknown. If they can’t assess the value of an asset, say a 10-acre piece of dirt in Henrico County, they don’t want to touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Read More »The bottom?
Is the failure of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch the Bottom? Robert Bruner, the dean of the business school at UVA, says the odds are 50-50 in a story just posted on the NY
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