Reuters

Solary energy company SunEdison filed for bankruptcy on Thursday. According to Reuters, the company's stock traded as high as $33.44 in July 2015. The stock closed at 22 cents today. Nine years ago, the company's market value was over $17 billion. According to the Associated Press, in July of last year it was still worth $10 billion. The losses aren't limited to investors, however, a fact that…

An Italian anti-Mafia prosecutor wants to make marijuana use legal in an effort to cut off profits for ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) streaming in from its drug trafficking through Libya, according to an article posted on Wednesday by Barbie Latza Nadeau, Rome bureau chief for the liberal Daily Beast website. “It's well known that ISIS leaders are are punishing those who use…

In another blow to the U.S. and worldwide economy, chipmaker Intel announced today that it is reducing its worldwide workforce by 12,000 people, a cut of 11 percent. Of course, there are tech-related reasons why the company made the move, most notably the shift by some users to tablets and smartphones, where the company's market penetration has been weak and almost non-existent, respectively, as…

The government reported this morning that seasonally adjusted March housing starts and building permits fell by 8.8 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, far worse declines than analysts and economists predicted. After the report, the business wires at least communicated the facts accurately, but continued to insist almost to the point of editorializing that there's no reason to be worried…

Today's report from the government on retail sales was awful — "unexpectedly" so, according to both Bloomberg and Reuters. Following on the heels of a 0.4 percent seasonally adjusted decline in January and a flat February, March sales fell by 0.3 percent. Two of the three main U.S. business wire services blamed the American people, not the worst post-recession economy since World War II during…

For the past month, the conventional wisdom about the U.S. economy has been that consumer spending and "(not really) robust" job growth will continue to prop up the economy, even as weaknesses in manufacturing, trade and other areas continue to present problems. President Obama bragged in early March that the economy is "pretty darned good now." Today, the first of those two pillars got pulled.…

Ridicule by media critics has apparently made some headway against the business press's annoying habit of describing bad news about the economy as having occurred "unexpectedly." Now they seem to be reserving the "U-word" for unexpected improvements, which haven't been seen very much during the past seven-plus years. Instead, reacting to today's bad news from the National Association of Realtors…

Actual sales at the wholesale level in January, as reported today by the Census Bureau, fell sharply from December. That's to be expected. But this time was different — really different, because the drop was to a level lower than January 2012, i.e., four years ago. Four press outlets which covered today's release either missed (or ignored) this shocking news. They only told readers about what…

As of Tuesday morning, ABC, CBS, and NBC's morning and evening newscasts have yet to cover the attack by suspected ISIS gunmen in Aden, Yemen on Friday which left 16 people dead — including four nuns of Mother Teresa's order — at a nursing home. According to a Friday article by the New York Times, the deceased Nobel Peace Prize winner founded the home, which was "one of several care facilities in…

The press is mostly thrilled over yesterday's Employment Situation Summary from the government, which reported that the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9 percent and that the economy added 242,000 seasonally adjusted payroll jobs. President Barack Obama took the opportunity to take what CNBC's Jeff Cox described as "a victory lap ... in Friday remarks to the media." Well, why not? Obama was secure…

The simmering feud between the Democratic Party establishment and leftists who believe that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has acted more like "Democrats Nominating Clinton" than a genuine political party presenting viable alternatives to Hillary Clinton, visibly erupted today. This morning, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard resigned her position as Vice Chair at the DNC and…

Yesterday, Matt Balan at NewsBusters noted that only two of the Big 3 broadcast news networks covered "the assault allegation against former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer that emerged over the weekend," and that only NBC mentioned Spitzer's Democratic Party affiliation. A broader look at news coverage of Spitzer's latest encounter with law enforcement indicates that omitting his party…

John Llloyd spotlighted how Ted Cruz has picked a fight with the media in a Thursday item for Reuters: "Most Republican contenders take a swing at the media, but Cruz swings more than others." Lloyd pointed out how after his victory in Iowa, Cruz "did not forget to say that it was the American people, not the media, who had chosen him. A supporter emphasized the point by waving a placard in front…

One of the economy's more important bellwethers has been on a steep year-long decline which shows no signs of abating this year. It's barely news, and much of the sparse reporting seen has been incomplete and sloppy. Truckinginfo.com reported today that "January was a tough month for truck manufacturers as Class 8 truck orders were down 35% compared to the previous month, according to a…