Finance Geek

With the financial sector in a correction, key survivors are newly humbled banks that can still afford bargain takeovers. There are 2 standouts now: 1 to buy, 1 to watch.

More…

A bull on China and
commodities, Jim Rogers’ bold, prescient calls on the markets have made him – and his
followers – rich. Two years ago, Rogers sold his beloved NYC mansion and moved to Singapore,
largely to witness the Asian markets&r

More…

Citigroup is selling $20.5 billion in stock and debt to repay the government $20 billion, leaving Wells Fargo as the last major bank still operating under TARP. The move relieves Citi from having to deal with government-mandated compensation restrictions,

More…

Ahead of Monday’s meeting with top Wall Street CEOs, President Obama talked tough about the industry Sunday on “60 Minutes”, declaring: “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street.”Obama also t

More…

From The Business Insider, Dec. 14, 2009: Nouriel Roubini’s nickname is “Dr. Doom,” but unlike other noted
doomsayers who warn about massive debt and deflation, he’s a Keynesian.
So his views are more in line with the likes of Paul Krugman –

More…

Insurance applicants often fudge on issues ranging from DUIs to drug use. But it’s hard to hide baldfaced lies — even though some folks go so far as shaving their heads.

More…

With more delinquent accounts and fewer people able to pay, collection agencies are more willing than ever to accept settlements. These tips will strengthen your hand.

More…

First the good news on the economic recovery that everybody loves to hate:
Retail sales totally beat Wall Street estimates with a huge 1.3 percent gain in November. Core retail sales have increase 5.6 percent at an annual rate over the past three months. Family net wealth has rebounded $5 trillion over the past six months. Jobless claims keep trending lower. Business sales, up 1.1 percent in October (the latest data), have jumped 10.1 percent annually over the past three months. And business inventories, led by manufacturing, also rose in October.
The data suggest that fourth-quarter real GDP…

More…

China’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter, and November’s export numbers were the best in a year.  Driving the recovery is major government stimulus and, importantly, massive lending by China’s banks.Meanwhile, in the U.S., our less-

More…

Earlier this week, President Obama laid out his latest plan to promote job growth. On the delicate issue of how to pay for the program, Obama declared: “Even as we have had to spend our way out of this recession in the near term, we have begun to mak

More…

It’s hard these days to forecast what’s going to happen in the next 12 minutes, much less the next 12 months. Still, as 2009 comes to a close, we can’t help but ask our guests to predict the big themes of 2010.Todd Harrison, CEO of Minyanville.com, is a s

More…

Ten percent unemployment, foreclosures at an all-time high and an economy struggling to climb out of recession; many folks are in need this holiday season.Unfortunately, for those same reasons mentioned, many charities are struggling to raise money, just

More…

Apple and Google have been edging into each other’s markets for some time now and post Apple’s acquisition of music streaming service Lala and the launch of YouTube’s VEVO service earlier this month they are now firmly head to head.  It won’t be long before an antipathy between the two companies builds – similar to the one they separately have with Microsoft.

According to AppleInsider Google was in talks with Lala before Apple sealed the $85m deal, a purchase which takes Apple into direct competition with music videos streamed from YouTube and now also songs streamed direct from Google’s search results.  The same post also reports rumours that Apple was attempting to acquire Admob before Google picked up the company for $750m last month.

Further, as you may have seen Eric Schmidt resigned from the Apple board back in August.

I guess this is another step in the maturation of the consumer tech industry as the leaders expand into new categories  as they seek to leverage their brands across as many categories as possible.  Apple has pushed from its hardware and software heritage to embrace content and advertising.  Google meanwhile started from an advertising base, added content before moving into mobile software and are now rumoured to be launching a mobile phone (something Marissa Mayer refused to deny at LeWeb earlier this week).

More…

Economy: In a follow-on to the president’s jobs summit, Congress is cooking up a jobs bill for a vote next week. It’s the same tired recipe to expand government at the expense of the private sector. Call it a jobs kill.
Last week, we watched as 130 Big Labor bosses, community organizers, left-wing think tanks and a few token CEOs supposedly put their heads together to come up with a way to create jobs in the worst U.S. recession since 1929.
It was window dressing. Instead of looking to proven solutions to create jobs, like tax cuts and free trade, Big Labor’s agenda ruled.
The…

More…

Are you a victim of a check-cashing scam? The bank is, too. So even if authorities decide you are innocent of any crime, you’ll have to pay back the money.

More…