David Greising -- chicagotribune.com

David Greising

David Greising: Chicago Olympic bid needs more passion

April 3, 2009

The streets were swept, the banners unfurled, and the riverwide posters unveiled, but a lonely electric sign on lower Illinois Street on Thursday seemed to stand as a symbol of the passion behind Chicago's Olympic bid.

Recent columns

Obama's policy for automakers might also be a good corporate strategy

March 31, 2009

President Barack Obama is commander in chief and chief executive of the U.S. government, and after what transpired Monday, he is now in many respects chief executive of the U.S. auto industry too.
Geithner plan restores key piece: Market price

March 24, 2009

President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner say runaway borrowing was a root cause of the economic crisis, so there is irony in the way they are trying to get financial markets unstuck with a new program that depends on—you guessed it—access to easy credit.
Tax on AIG bonuses: Congress shouldn't confuse pandering with policymaking

March 20, 2009

I didn't like the AIG bonuses. You didn't like the bonuses. Even AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy didn't like the bonuses. Add up the outrage, though, and it still doesn't mean there oughta be a law.
A little hardball might be just the medicine AIG needs

March 17, 2009

The last time Edward Liddy faced a vexing compensation issue, as chief executive of Northbrook-based Allstate Corp., he cut costs with all the finesse of a blunderbuss: He axed 6,000 of Allstate's highest-paid agents.
A case like Bernard Madoff's calls for justice

March 13, 2009

Anyone who has visited the old federal courthouse in Fort Smith, Ark., can't help but remember the re-created gallows that exist where Judge Isaac Parker, "The Hanging Judge," sent 79 frontier outlaws to their deaths in the late 1800s.
Economy regressing to a not-so-fond time in past

March 10, 2009

As the historic economic downturn takes root, confusion and consternation abound—not just about what is going on in the economy but about what to call it.
Stimulus a fiscal tourniquet

March 7, 2009

When President Barack Obama visited Columbus, Ohio, Friday and boasted that his economic stimulus package had helped save the jobs of 27 police recruits who were being sworn in, it was a metaphor for the hard slog ahead for the economy.
Motorola CFO's firing contrary to 'public interest' lawsuit alleges

March 6, 2009

On the January night before he was fired, Paul Liska attended Motorola Inc.'s audit committee meeting. As Motorola's chief financial officer, it was his duty to do so. But he was asked not to attend the next morning's meeting of Motorola's board. And after that meeting, he was dismissed.
On soap box, Edward Lampert no match for Warren Buffett

March 3, 2009

Sears Holdings Corp. Chairman Edward Lampert probably didn't expect it to turn out this way, but in writing a lengthy, policy-laden shareholders letter last week he performed what can only be described as a full Jindal.
Northern Trust doesn't know score on golf event

February 27, 2009

Like the rest of the world, I am shocked—shocked!—that Northern Trust Corp. would spend millions of dollars sponsoring a golf tournament while it had more than 1 billion taxpayer dollars in its vaults.
Nationalizing banks poses risk but other options look worse

February 24, 2009

Each new term we add to the lexicon of financial disaster is a scary next step into the unknown. Last fall, there was the bank bailout, then the Detroit bailout. Next came the stimulus plan, and last week the great mortgage bailout.
Singapore port no safe haven in economic storm

February 20, 2009

SINGAPORE—On a typical day, more than 500 ships sail in or out of the harbor here, an armada of mercantilism that makes Singapore one of the busiest ports in the world.
Indonesia in cross hairs of global economic slowdown

February 13, 2009

TANJUNG PRIOK PORT, Indonesia—Customs officer Tiko Murtiadji is no economist, but as he watches a truck-size X-ray machine inspect a cargo load of car tires here, he knows evidence of the global economic slowdown is standing just outside his window.
Tide seems to be turning on big corporate paydays

February 6, 2009

The word in the markets about President Barack Obama's effort to cap executive pay on Wall Street and at the big banks is that it won't work: Like water finding its level, top executives always find a way to get top pay.
AT&T;'s U-verse service gives short shrift to public-access programming

February 3, 2009

AT&T; has cutting-edge technology and a beefy balance sheet, but the company's handling of community programming channels in Illinois and other states is putting a big black blot on its sky-blue logo.
Chief Performance Officer Nancy Killefer faces a political pork fight

January 8, 2009

Appointed by President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday to the new position of chief performance officer, Nancy Killefer faces a struggle as old as government itself: vanquishing the forces of pork politics while trying to cut waste.
If we didn't already have a president, Obama could fill the bill

November 25, 2008

We may have only one president at a time, but the guy at the lectern Monday urging sudden action to stop the economic tailspin was acting presidential—and thank goodness.
U. of C. heavyweights weigh in on a bailout

September 30, 2008

Last Monday, in the cafeteria at the University of Chicago business school, a knot of free-market economists drafted a petition against the $700 billion plan to bail out the financial system.