SHORT BIO
Paddy Hirsch is a former Contributing Editor at Marketplace and the creator and former host of the Marketplace Whiteboard.
Latest Stories (452)
Is American girl power waning?
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 25, 2011
Forbes magazine has dropped 20 Americans from its list of the world's 100 most powerful women. This sorry state of affairs sets The Marketplace...
What's up with ... capital goods orders?
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 24, 2011
--Not much. They're actually down this month.
--OK, well, what are capital goods, anyway?
--They're durable goods.
--So what the heck are dura...
Companies buy less capital goods
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 24, 2011
Capital goods are the things that companies buy to make stuff. Like factories, machinery, tools, equipment, and buildings. Unfortunately, compani...
Consumer confidence slumps in Europe
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 24, 2011
European consumer confidence dropped the most in 20 years this month. The European Commission said the decline was steeper than the one after...
What's up... with the Baltic Dry Index?
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 23, 2011
It's higher, that's what. And that's good news (maybe!). The Baltic Dry tracks the cost of shipping, and a 16 percent bump in the Index has jazze...
Are the banks lending more?
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 23, 2011
Banks lent more money in the last quarter, the FDIC said in a press release today. Total loans and leases increased by 0.9 percent, $64.4 billion...
You think it's tough doing business here?
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 23, 2011
Try Kyrgyzstan. At least one major foreign-run gold mining operation had its license suspended there, another was slapped with a $5 million fine,...
The shipping news
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 23, 2011
Some good news on international trade from Egypt, home of the Suez Canal....
15 percent of Americans are on food stamps
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 23, 2011
Almost 46 million Americans are on food stamps now. That's up 74 percent since 2007, according to Reuters. Bad news for Americans, and bad news for...
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Word on the street
by
Paddy Hirsch
Aug 22, 2011
I'm still on the fence on the issue of whether we should spend our way out of the economic doldrums or cut back and save, to prevent even more...