As Wall Street's influence on corporate America has shrunk, interest in it has drifted to its baser and more absurd aspects.
Yet if sales fall and profits shrink, interest bills must still be paid.Perhaps the biggest factor distorting reported profits comes from the treatment of employee stock options, the use of which has grown hugely in recent years.
For that matter, I can ignore my stock market losses, incredibly shrinking interest income, the proposed commuter tax and increased sales tax, rising utility bills and next year's college tuition.
The shrinking interest-rate spread between the two economies makes the dollar a less-attractive investment for traders, resulting in its continued decline.
Shares of MF Global have struggled; the company barely broke even for the last few quarters as trading volumes shrank and interest rates dipped.
A handful of states, including California and New York, guaranteed tobacco bond interest and principal in order to shrink the interest rate they have to pay a bit.
More important, the Fed's arsenal is shrinking, since interest rates cannot go below zero.
Investors were spooked, in part, by shrinking net interest margins, which is the profit margin achieved from lending and investing.
Currently, Japan's GDP is shrinking, its interest rates are low, and its central bank is printing money in an effort to reflate the economy.
Shrinking viewer interest — in the films that the Academy celebrates, and in the Oscars — is exactly the kind of problem that the expanded best picture category was meant to fix.
