Share ideas on the topic of personal finance. Some topics could be saving, budgeting, retirement planning, investing, handling credit, obtaining a mortgage, etc.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The only viable option to save General Motors Corp <GMGMQ.PK> is a sale of its main assets to a "New GM," a U.S. Treasury official told a bankruptcy court on Wednesday as the automaker sought approval for the deal. GM was in the second day of a bankruptcy court hearing in Manhattan in which the automaker is asking Judge Robert Gerber to approve its asset sales, just one month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the beginning of the hearing, lawyers for a group of... Read Full Story
The top business news from The Associated Press for the morning of Monday, June 29, 2009: Day of reckoning comes for Bernard Madoff NEW YORK (AP) — It was a crime of epic proportions: a multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme that wiped out fortunes, drained retirement nest eggs, ruined charities and foundations, and even pushed some investors to commit suicide. Six months after the scandal came to light, the battle lines over Bernard Madoff's punishment have been drawn. His lawyer insists 12 years... Read Full Story
NEW YORK (Reuters) - American International Group Inc <AIG.N>, the insurer rescued by $180 billion of federal bailouts, on Tuesday expressed optimism it will be able to repay government loans as it tries to rebound from punishing losses tied to derivatives. AIG held its annual meeting in a company building next door to its Wall Street headquarters. It was the first public opportunity for shareholders to vent frustration since AIG's financial implosion last year. A series of federal bailouts... Read Full Story
Singapore said Tuesday its economy grew for the first time in a year in the second quarter, suggesting the city is emerging from its worst recession and offering hope for other battered Asian economies. Powered by electronics and biomedical exports, the economy soared 20.4 percent in the three months to June compared with the first quarter on a seasonally adjusted annualised basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said. A Dow Jones Newswires poll of 10 analysts had tipped an average 14.1... Read Full Story
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Freddie Mac <FRE.P> <FRE.N>, the second-largest U.S. home funding company, on Friday said its mortgage investment portfolio shrank by an annualized 9.9 percent rate in May, while delinquencies on loans it guarantees accelerated. The portfolio decreased to $823.4 billion, for an annualized 5.6 percent increase year to date, the McLean, Virginia-based company said in its monthly volume summary. In May 2008, the portfolio was $770.4 billion. Delinquencies, which increase... Read Full Story
NEW YORK/VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian fund manager Sonja Kohn did not receive any kickbacks from Bernard Madoff to steer Bank Medici customer funds to the swindler's investment business, a Medici lawyer said on Friday. "There were no Madoff payments to Kohn. There were no kickbacks," lawyer Andreas Theiss told Reuters. Theiss reiterated prior statements that Kohn, whose Bank Medici ran several funds that funneled at least $3.3 billion to Madoff, was one of Madoff's biggest victims. He was... Read Full Story
FIXING THE FLAWS IN AMERICA'S SAVINGS PLANS
The repercussions of the financial crisis will be felt for years in the retirement accounts of millions of Americans. Those who saved industriously have watched their account balances crumble, and the recession has set back that half of employees who lack even basic savings options such as 401(k)s. In Washington, long-simmering debates over how to improve, or even replace, the country's patchwork retirement system have taken on a new urgency... Read Full Story
A federal grand jury has handed up an indictment that charges a temporary employee at a Chicago-area AT&T office with stealing the personal information of some 2,100 employees of the telecom giant. Two others involved in the scheme also were indicted and charged with stealing $70,000 by applying for “payday loans” using some of the stolen confidential data, according to the indictment handed up last week. The trio, all women, also forged driver's licenses bearing the names of victims, using... Read Full Story
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday said that continued improvements in financial market conditions had lowered demand for many of its emergency liquidity programs. In a monthly report on its balance sheet, the Fed cited dwindling participation in programs designed to backstop short-term credit markets. The Fed also said that loan repayments to its AIG revolving credit facility were higher than drawdowns over the past four weeks. The Fed has pumped more than $1 trillion... Read Full Story
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Struggling No. 1 U.S. trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc <YRCW.O> has asked investment bank Rothschild to evaluate potential bond exchanges as part of its restructuring plans, according to a source familiar with the matter. Rothschild was retained early this year by Overland Park, Kansas-based YRC, but has only recently been asked to take a more active role, the source said. Rothschild which specializes in mergers and acquisitions and restructuring, including providing... Read Full Story
