May 13 Watch Other News: Treasury Calls for System to Track Financial Instruments In other news, the Treasury Department called for a central electronic system to track risky financial instruments, including credit default swaps, and the Commerce Department reported retail sales fell for the second month in a row. Continue watching
May 13 Treasury Seeks More Regulation of Risky Derivative Trades By Admin, PBS News Hour The Obama administration is seeking new authority to oversee the virtually unregulated market for derivatives, a class of exotic financial instruments that includes the risky contracts that helped cripple insurance giant American International Group. Continue reading
May 13 After Layoffs, More Time to Focus on Art At the end of last year, "Joe Claus":http://www.joeclaus.com was working at a small electronics company in Silicon Valley doing photography, marketing and design. And then he got laid off. "I was pissed," he said. But there was an unforeseen upside… Continue reading
May 13 Why Doesn’t the Government Set Up a New Bank to Get the Economy Moving Again? Question: I’ve been watching the difficulties the government has had propping up the banks — the lack of control, the salaries, the fact that they’re trying to fix entities with a lot of toxicity on their balance sheets. The following… Continue reading
May 13 EU Levels $1.45B Fine on Intel for Sales Tactics By Admin, PBS News Hour The European Union leveled a record $1.45 billion fine on the Intel Corporation Wednesday for using illegal sale tactics to shut out its competition in the computer chip business after an eight-year antitrust probe. Continue reading
May 12 Watch Frontline Examines Role of Key Players in Madoff Affair An accountant and his partner helped Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff recruit clients beginning in the 1960s. The NewsHour airs an excerpt of Tuesday's Frontline, which explores the role of some of the key players in the fraud scheme. Continue watching
May 12 Watch Recession Impacts Social Security, Medicare; U.S. Soldier Charged With Murder In the day's top news headlines, new reports show the recession has cut into the Social Security and Medicare benefit programs, and a U.S. soldier accused of killing five comrades in Iraq was charged with murder. Continue watching
May 12 What’s the Real Madoff Math? By Business Desk Tonight, FRONTLINE tackles the Bernard Madoff affair, attempting to decipher the puzzle of the financier’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme. The program delves into the cast of characters involved in the case, including the… Continue reading
May 12 Social Security, Medicare Weakened by Recession By Admin, PBS News Hour The financial health of Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, has eroded amid the deep economic recession, according to reports released Tuesday. Continue reading
May 12 Who Owns the Credit Card Companies? Question: Who owns the credit card companies? Once upon a time, Bank of America owned Visa, but I’m not sure if it’s been spun off. So, if the stress tests have shown that the banks are not as healthy as… Continue reading