Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

Quick hits on a hectic Tuesday morning . . .

Oil futures have been holding steady above $80. That’s not quite the highest inflation-adjusted price ever, but it’s not too far off, either, and it doesn’t look like the price is headed down much in the near future.

We may be living in a world where $80 oil becomes normal. Recalibrate your expectations accordingly — everyone in the business world is having to.

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In the past few years, we’ve heard a lot less about Microsoft the monopolist. The EU is changing that now:

Microsoft must ‘change its illegal behavior’

Microsoft is trying to spin the EU ruling as potentially threatening to the business practices (and interests) of many large companies, but Europe’s competition commissioner, Neelie Kroes, isn’t buying it: “Let me be clear, ladies and gentlemen, there is one company that will have to change its illegal behavior as a result of this ruling, and that is Microsoft.”

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The US home mortgage foreclosure rate is getting worse, not better, and the damage is spreading across the country. We have not seen the end of this mortgage mess, and while I think it won’t lead to a general recession (or not a long one, anyway), I do think we’re apt to see much more misery among homeowners, and more failures of big businesses involved in the real estate, home building, and mortgage markets.

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