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WorldNetDaily / Commentary Shock and awe not only for Iraqis Posted: April 16, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joan Veon © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com While jubilant Americans can't help but be fixated on "revolutionary" military operations they have witnessed on television for the past two weeks – called "Shock and Awe" – most are not aware that Americans are about to receive their own economic "Shock and Awe." Many forget that while Rome burned, Nero was busy deflecting attention away from the real center of action. For example, the front page of the March 8 Washington Post featured a huge picture showing the...

FED WATCH: Looking For Clues, Just Like Everybody Else By Michael S. Derby of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Federal Reserve officials are finding themselves in the same boat as private sector economists as they try to figure out where the economy's heading. In a limited number of speeches since the conclusion of the major fighting in the Iraq war, several Fed policy makers have said they're hopeful better days lie ahead for the economy. Speaking in New York on Tuesday, Richmond Fed President Alfred Broaddus and St. Louis Fed President William Poole, the former a voter on the...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ever hear the one about how markets climb a wall of worry? Yeah, it's a bit of a cliche, but it gets at an important point: Oftentimes the best moves in the market occur when Wall Street reckons things are looking bleak. When the prevailing outlook is pessimistic, even incrementally good news can send the market higher. Bad news, because it merely confirms what everyone already thinks, has little effect. But suddenly the market seems to be showing a worrisome lack of worry.

<p>Despite today's grim talk of `jobless recovery,' experts say several signs point to an upcoming shortage of talent in the workplace--and a bright future for job seekers.</p> <p>Rising unemployment, a steady increase in the number of "discouraged workers" and constant talk of a "jobless recovery" have disheartened even the most determined job seeker in the past two years.</p>

Fresh from victory in Iraq, President George W. Bush will on Tuesday turn to the lacklustre US economy in the knowledge that a second term in office depends as much on American prosperity as military acclaim. As US-led forces on Monday took Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's last stronghold, the White House appeared to mark the conclusion of the military campaign with a presidential message of thanks to the troops. "This time of war has been a time of hardship," Mr Bush said in a televised statement to US service personnel and their families. His remarks came as the US moved to...

NEW YORK - The US economy is now poised for some kind of postwar bounce. But it's going to be a tempered improvement, not a rip-roaring economic revival. A rebound will be subdued primarily by the economy's structural problems - excess capacity, high consumer debt, weak markets abroad, and lack of confidence on Wall Street. In fact, economists expect the unemployment rate - one measure of the nation's economic vitality - to remain at 6 percent through the year. "The end of the war [in Iraq] will be a stimulus, but not as big as some expect," says Ken Peng,...

<p>April 13, 2003 -- THE battle plan is being readied, unconventional weapons may be deployed, and the stock market is cautiously bracing for the unknown.</p> <p>Syria? North Korea? No. As Saddam's regime toppled to jubilant cheers in Baghdad this week, Wall Street returned its attention to an enemy closer to home: the stubbornly weak economy.</p>

The bear market that seemed to be losing steam earlier this year could be catching its second wind. Investors are bracing for a flood of bad news in the next two weeks, when more than half of the companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 report first-quarter earnings and forecast their performance for the next three to six months. The war in Iraq has been blamed for hurting first-quarter sales and profits at companies across a wide range of industries, from retail to high-tech. Many companies are, in effect, already telling Wall Street that the war against Saddam Hussein stole...

<p>NEW YORK — With the Iraq war mostly behind Wall Street, investors will get a reality check in the holiday-shortened week ahead when some of America's biggest companies such as IBM and Intel hand in quarterly scorecards.</p> <p>The grades may not be that good. Investors are struggling to determine how much earnings were hurt by uncertainty over the Iraq war and how much profits will pick up once it ends.</p>

Bush's Next War to Liberate the American Economy by Don Luskin (April 12, 2003) Summary: Capitalism means economic liberty, and Bush understands that you can't run a war of political liberation abroad without economic liberation at home. Last week I sat across a table from President George W. Bush in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He told me and a dozen fellow economists that "the American economy is a theatre in the war on terrorism." With steely conviction he told us that he intends to win the war to liberate Iraq, and he intends to win the war...

U.S. stocks slip ahead of rush of earnings reports Friday April 11, 11:39 am ET By Denise Duclaux (Updates to late morning) NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - Stocks dipped in light trading on Friday, erasing an opening rally of more than 1 percent, as nagging worries over the U.S. economy and corporate earnings took the luster off surprisingly strong readings on retail sales and consumer sentiment. Next week is one of the busiest of the quarterly earnings season, and many companies have warned that results will fall short of estimates. Investors are struggling to determine how much uncertainties over...

While national and international media focus their attention almost entirely on the political differences between the America-led coalition and western European nations such as France and Germany, BuzzCharts has been keeping an eye on the daily opinion poll that never lies — the marketplace. While opinion polls and elections are certainly useful in gauging public opinion, the financial markets reflect public sentiment on a minute-by-minute basis. BuzzCharts believes that ordinarily people give a lot more thought to their decisions when their retirement is on the line than they do when answering questions from a pollster in a phone call....

WASHINGTON -- Confronting new fears of recession, the Federal Reserve is refining an emergency economic rescue plan that includes further interest rate cuts and billions of dollars in extra cash for the banking system. The Fed's effort would be aimed at pulling the country out of a nosedive that has seen 465,000 jobs evaporate in just the past two months, raising fears among economists that the weak recovery from the 2001 recession is in danger of stalling out altogether. 'Clearly, the Fed is in uncharted territory,' said economist David Jones. 'I think they will try some experimental moves.' One key...

Contrarian Chronicles Business stinks, but don't blame the war In fact, don't blame anyone except the execs who polished the numbers and the cheerleading bureaucrats who helped them do it. The bear market isn't over until we stop making excuses for stocks. By Bill Fleckenstein Until somebody can come up with a filter that extracts fact from Wall Street fiction, investors will have to hone their sense of skepticism. In the 1990s' stock market mania, many companies could count on a wide-eyed public to accept their spew, no questions asked. Despite the rot that the ebbing market tide has left...

<p>It is now clear that the fog of war and a rise in energy prices threaten to block the economy from any significant upward movement this year. The current economy appears to be growing just short of 2 percent in real terms (or inflation-adjusted). That's unacceptably low growth.</p>

Gloomy outlook hits Wall Street March 30 2003 As the reality of war sinks in, the sharemarket roller-coaster takes a dive, writes Richard Webb. Growing concern that the war with Iraq will last months rather than weeks sent the US sharemarket lower for the third consecutive day in New York on Friday night. The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 5.04 points, or 0.6 per cent, to a close of 863.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 55.68 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 8145.77, while the Nasdaq Composite index shed 14.73 points, or 1.1 per cent, to 1369.52. In...

The Dow is down — these days often attributed to war jitters. Oil prices and health costs are up, and over 8 million people are unemployed. On March 8, 2003 the Department of Labor released new figures that were, according to news analysts, "far more severe" than had been predicted. Recently, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ran a page one story on a worker who had sent out over 700 resumes without landing a job. The White House now estimates the budget deficit will hit a record $304 billion this year. On March 6, 2003, the NEW YORK TIMES reported that...

War Ignites Earnings Worry At Tech Companies PALO ALTO, Calif. (Dow Jones)--The first week of fighting in Iraq has ignited a deep sense of worry over first-quarter financial results at technology companies and raised concerns second-quarter business could suffer as well. The fear is that cautious corporate customers are putting off plans to purchase software, computers and technology services. The longer the conflict lasts, the greater the probability June-quarter sales will be hurt, many investors believe. Wall Street appears braced for gaping sales shortfalls in the March quarter, which ends on Monday. Nervous analysts began trimming financial outlooks en masse...

When the United States marches off to war, taxes usually rise with the occasion. But as with the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War of 1846-48, President Bush plans to pay for Persian Gulf War II with federal debt.The 21st-century twist is that the president's latest tax-cut package is supposed to spur the U.S. economy to cover the war's cost, unlike tax increases that accompanied U.S. combat from the Civil War to Vietnam.To finance the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the first income tax in 1862 as part of a sweeping statute that also taxed...

NEW YORK, March 28 (AFP) - With employees glued to the television, public morale down and sales on the wane, the war on Iraq is making itself felt in the world of American business. "We speak about it all day," says Mike Mancuso, a web designer for the company Hylotek. The war has become the center of discussions in most companies -- though many leave their own opinions behind as they cross the threshold. "In the United States we're not supposed to give political opinions at work. But everybody wants it to be over as soon as possible," says Jeff...