In early 2005, General Motors' chief financial officer dismissed some of the darker speculation about his company, saying, "The idea of bankruptcy is nuts."Such talk has sounded more and more sane as the company struggles with huge losses and sagging sales. Last year, G.M. lost $38.7 billion."Bankruptcy is not impossible," wrote John Murphy, an analyst with Merrill Lynch in cutt...

The only thing surprising about the capture today of Samuel Israel, the hedge fund scam artist who had been on the lam since June 9, is how long it took. Today, Israel surrendered to police in Southwick, Massachusetts, near Springfield.That's just 105 miles from Stamford, Connecticut, the home of his Ponzi scheme hedge fund, Bayou Group.From the beginning, his escape was not very convincing. On the...

Learning about the back-and-forth between Microsoft and Yahoo is like eavesdropping on teenagers talking about the opposite sex. Do you think she likes me? How can you tell that he's really not that into you? Well, she said that, and he said this. Someone make it stop—now!But today there is a new twist to the Microhoo romantic melodrama: Maybe if I can get a bunch of friends together, we can...

As oil prices escalate and supplies tighten, and as new technologies vie with old ones (and with special-interest groups), the debate over the next generation of energy sources reminds me of the birth of an earlier energy source: steam. Most people think the steam engine—that paragon of the Industrial Revolution—was invented in the 18th century, maybe even later. That would be wrong. Th...

To any casual TV-watcher, the future of television lies somewhere near a snippy Simon Cowell lashing out at American Idol contestants and Padma Lakshmi preening among Top Chef hopefuls. The fate of the franchise drama, on the other hand—shows such as Law & Order and CSI, tent-pole series at the center of their networks' programming schedules—has seemed considerably dimmer. Strangely...