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European finance ministers are working to resolve a quandary over how to talk banks into “voluntarily” contributing to a second Greece bailout and avoiding a destructive debt default. This attempt to rescue Greece’s finances hinges on how far banks, pension funds and insurers will accept new terms on old debts prior to repayment by Athens.  […]

Disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 of 20 corruption counts against him,  the majority for attempting to sell newly elected President Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder.  After leaving the federal courthouse in downtown Chicago, Blagojevich said “Patti and I are obviously very disappointed.  I frankly am stunned.” […]

The nation’s largest conglomerate – General Electric – is getting into the solar business in a big way with the firm’s announcement that it is investing $600 million to build a new solar-panel manufacturing plant as it pursues what it thinks could be a $3 billion business by 2015.  The firm, already a leader in […]

The dot.com era is moving on.  Websites will soon be able to end with anything from “.shop” to “.canon” after the group that manages Internet addresses approved the historic change.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which until previously allowed just 22 suffixes including “.com” and “.org,” will accept almost any word […]

Facebook is likely to file for an initial public offering (IPO) as early as October or November that could value the popular social networking site at more than a whopping $100 billion.   Goldman Sachs is the top candidate to manage the lucrative offering, which could come in the 1st quarter of 2012.  Facebook, whose chief […]

Homeowners who took out second mortgages, or borrowed against their homes to use the money as a cash advance,  may regret their decisions.  Close to 40 percent are now underwater on their loans — owing more than their home is worth, according to CoreLogic Data.  The data show 38 percent of borrowers who took second […]

Now that QE2 (quantitative easing 2) is winding down – and with the economy sputtering – will Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke call for a new round of stimulus in the form of QE3? The answer likely is “no”, although it’s doubtful that the Fed will tighten monetary policy until the economy is stronger.  The […]

As gas prices seesaw up and down at the pump and Americans reluctantly pay more to fill their tanks as the economy slows, OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States) could not agree on whether or not to increase production and provide some relief. The two key factors are Saudi Arabia and Iran. At an […]

Climate change and decreasing natural resources will put greater pressure on the world’s supply of food over the next several decades,  threatening millions of people with chronic hunger, according to a report from Oxfam International. The British-based charity says that the world’s food system is “broken,” and that food price increases have driven 44 million […]

The current national inventory of foreclosed homes represents a three-year supply, according to RealtyTrac.  Not surprisingly, that is depressing home prices.  “This is very bad for the economy,” said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac spokesman. In Las Vegas, the foreclosure situation is so dire that more than half of all homes sold in Nevada are foreclosures.  […]