The surprise resignation of PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian rocked the investment world.  Such an abrupt leadership change is almost unknown among investment firms, and with El-Erian’s sky-high public profile his departure was even more newsworthy. The change signals a big shift for PIMCO and a greater focus on restoring its performance after a poor few years.  […]

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Thanks to a strong and unexpected performance today, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is likely to survive the “bridgegate” traffic-blocking scandal.  He took a risk that few political or business leaders caught in a scandal could even imagine, holding a two-hour, unscripted press conference to take all questions on the subject. 

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Bloomberg News has landed in an unusual place: the front page of the New York Times, in an article saying Bloomberg pulled back on a controversial story to avoid angering China’s leaders.  Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matt Winkler denied it, but the Times ran the piece anyway. He shouldn’t have been surprised.  Some stories are unstoppable, […]

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It’s not easy to be in the news business today. Reuters said recently it will cut its newsroom staff by five percent – a sharp turnabout from two years ago when it was boldly hiring talent from rival news organizations.  There are bright spots in the business, but they happen to be far away from […]

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There’s something to be said for surprise.  It keeps us on our toes and makes life interesting.  That’s especially true in financial markets, where we’ve grown accustomed to apparent certainties – from “consensus” earnings estimates to interest-rate forecasts.  So it was good to see Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke remind everyone on Wall Street that Fed […]

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