- Paul Volcker’s been relatively quiet for much of the last 12 months. Not anymore. On important policy, the former Fed chairman won’t easily yield. “Expect him to pound away until he prevails,” former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson says.
- Palm has something up its sleeve for CES. The company unveiled the Pre and its WebOS operating system last January. What will it announce in 2010?
- Just days after Google said it will introduce a branded cell phone, TechCrunch says Google is in talks with an undisclosed hardware maker to build a Google-branded netbook in time for the 2010 holiday season.
- Not enough acknowledgment of TARP’s successes? Former Dallas Fed President Bob McTeer says he “still expects the recovery of TARP funds as applied to banks will be close to 100%.”
- Newspaper publishers’ optimism on advertising market seems to be wishful thinking.
- Little sign of recovery in rail freight traffic.
- Profits may “explode” in 2010, former Merrill investment strategist Richard Berntein says.
- Chip sales were bad in 2009, but they could’ve been much worse.
- Ten privacy organizations filed a complaint against Facebook to the FTC, arguing that recent changes to the social-networking company’s privacy policies and settings violate federal laws.
- Spendthrift to penny pincher: a vision of the new consumer.
