Sustained unemployment would eventually put a damper on the market's early gains
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says so far, the U.S. recovery has mostly helped the affluent. Photo: Jon Fortt.
So far the main beneficiaries in the nascent recovery have been well-off, says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. For things to really bounce back, things need to get better for everyone else.
I caught up with Ballmer at Microsoft's (MSFT) Redmond headquarters last week, and we covered a wide range of topics. His overall message: Microsoft has a lot of big launches across productivity, mobile and entertainment, and expects to do well. But he also offered his nuanced perspective on the U.S. economic picture. More
The preferred exercise at Davos so far is hand-wringing.
Rajan: The finance prof frets about the U.S. economy. Photo: University of Chicago.
Concern over the future of the economy and finger pointing over what went wrong have dominated the first day's discussions. There's even an emerging buzz expression to capture the fears of the financierati. It is "10 and 10," and refers to the unhealthy combination of 10% unemployment in the MORE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Intel Corp | 26.73 | -0.43 | -1.58% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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