Finance Geek

Investors pay extra for active mutual fund managers who can steer clear of trouble when the market heads off a cliff. In this bear market, though, most followed right along.

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Financials help the market after Fed boss Ben Bernanke says again that the government doesn’t want to nationalize banks. Existing-home sales in January disappoint. Insurance stocks fall on dividend cuts.

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Do the markets hate Barack Obama?Consider the following:The Dow has fallen about 11% since Election Day.The Dow’s fall on Obama’s Inauguration Day was the worst

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As President Obama took the podium Tuesday night, all minds were fixed on the economy. As expected, the President addressed the economy first, front and center. “Now is the time to act boldly and wisely,” he said, “to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.”

However, if by “boldly and wisely” he means increasing government spending to unprecedented levels, the near future will bring not a foundation for lasting growth, but a still-limping economy.

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The $787 billion economic stimulus bill, the $2 trillion fiscal stability package to keep banks solvent, and the $275 billion housing stability package to rescue the housing sector were just a start.

On Tuesday night, in an address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama called for still more spending, for energy, health care, and education. To pay for these, he called for increases in some individual, business and environmental taxes. As Congress pores over the budget outline—details to come later—that Mr. Obama is sending to Capitol Hill today, the big question remains: Is this fiscal responsibility?

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It’s a rule-of-thumb among many well run U.S. companies that they must routinely make redundant the 5 to 10 percent of their least productive employees. One obvious reason for doing so is to keep costs down, but there are many other reasons unrelated to cost for doing so.

For one, just as bad apples in sports tend to ruin chemistry such that total team performance declines, subpar performers in an office setting tend to worsen the performance of the most productive for wasting resources, all the while giving the productive an unworthy benchmark of success that allows them to become needlessly satisfied. To shed the least effective is to infuse a more competitive atmosphere among the survivors that aids the bottom line, plus the departed are a flashing signal to the survivors of their fate should they stop working hard.

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Collective wisdom can help investors discover stocks poised to survive a spectacular fall. One candidate: Dow Chemical, the nation’s largest chemical company.

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In his first address to a joint session of Congress last night, President Obama called for expensive and broad efforts in three major areas — energy, health care and education. He also suggested government bailouts are far from over. In short, Obama outl

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MOLINE, Ill. — Deere & Co.’s stockholders will consider three proposals — all centering on the company’s board of directors — at the company’s annual shareholders meeting today.

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From The Business Insider, Feb. 25, 2009: We are very much in favor of the US government forcing banks to tell the truth about how little their assets are worth (take the writedowns) and then going to the shareholders and bondholders to fill the capital h

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While many salivated over this week’s arrival of “the iPod of the book world,” supporters of open e-book standards are opining anew that the Kindle’s proprietary format is not only bad for readers but, in the long run, probably for Amazon as well.

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I woke up yesterday morning in Silicon Valley to the sound of virtual screeching.
Gmail was down for a whopping two and a half hours starting at 9:30 GMT. That
meant it was hugely disruptive across the pond, but also hugely disruptive for
nocturnal

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google has added its voice to the case against Microsoft as the European Commission probes antitrust charges related to the software giant’s Internet Explorer browser.

“Google believes that the browser market is still largely uncompetitive, which holds back innovation for users,” Sundar Pichai, Google vice president product manager, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

Google introduced the Chrome browser last year, which has taken little market share.

The Internet company joins the Mozilla foundation, producer of the Firefox Web browser, and Norway’s Opera, a privately held company. Google adds the voice of a significant and well-financed player in the case against Microsoft.

In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world’s personal computers.

If the preliminary views expressed in the EC’s Statement of Objections are confirmed, Microsoft could be subject to a fine and an order requiring it to cease bundling its browser and operating system.

In 2007, European Union courts upheld the European Commission’s finding that Microsoft violated antitrust law by bundling its Windows Media player with the Windows operating system. It also found Microsoft used illegal tactics against RealNetworks real player.

The company has been fined more than $2 billion for its violations and for failing to carry out remedies imposed by the Commission.

In 2000, a U.S. judge decided that Microsoft had broken the law after it combined its Internet Explorer browser and the Windows operating system. The most serious violations of the law were upheld on appeal, but the company continued to bundle its operating system and browser.

Google competes with Microsoft in several markets, including online search engines.

Pichai wrote that the company hopes its perspective in launching Chrome will “be useful as the European Commission evaluates remedies to improve the user experience and offer consumers real choices.”

Interveners traditionally provide background information, legal theories and proposed remedies to the Commision in cases.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic and David Lawsky, editing by Matthew Lewis)

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The insurer is struggling to sell assets and could need more government aid. Sears’ earnings report could beat the Street. The price of oil rises, and the improvement could help energy stocks.

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The mortgage and credit sickness that brought banks and brokers to their knees has now infected the companies that insure our lives and protect our families.

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