SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
President Obama is moving forward on plans announced this month to freeze pay for federal employees for the next two years, a move his team cabinet says could save more than $5 billion through 2012.
“The hard truth is, getting this budget under control is going to require some broad sacrifice, and that [...]

Cited: Reuters

If Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives a reassuring assessment of the recovery and retail earnings that shows an improvement, Wall Street could keep going up after its best week this year. The chairman seems to believe that the retailers hold the keys for stocks.

Investors are eager to hear more on the thinking [...]

Cited: Reuters

Continued from “Is US Dollar Doomed? Part 1“

THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

The reserve currency status is conferred upon the United States that so-called “the exorbitant privilege”, as it was called by the former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing when he was finance minister, the past 60 years.

Because the dollar is in high demand, U.S. borrowing [...]

Cited: MSNBC

Ron Wolf loves to travel, which is a good thing since he is an airline employee in Omaha, but hates to overpay for hotels. He travels all over the world and has learned that he can bargain his way to better hotel rates.

Consider his recent experience at the Comfort Suites in Grand Cayman. [...]

Cited: Reuters

Even though Bank of America Corp. won its lawsuit with the United States Security and Exchange Commission over a merger with Merrill Lynch, the judge called it a “half-baked baked settlement of $150 million. This ended an embarrassing public battle between the largest US bank in the nation’s top securities regulator

Deals

U.S. District Judge [...]

Cited: Reuters/AP

On February 20, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Pres. Sandra Pianalto stated that there were too many variables that affect the value of the dollar to predict where it is headed.

Taking questions after addressing a group of high school students, Pianalto, a voting member of the Fed’s policy panel this year, was asked what policies [...]

Cited: Reuters

You would not think that an office building over a shopping mall in downtown Philadelphia could put fear in the hearts of bad guys on Wall Street. However, it does because that is where the regulator has set up a sophisticated computer database to catch insider traders and it is helping the US Securities [...]

Cited: Reuters

The US dollar is taking a beating; there is no doubt about that. Last time it took such a beating was when the country was facing a mounting inflation and the escalating cost of the Vietnam War. The then president, Richard Nixon (Tricky Dick), took the United States off the gold standard on August [...]

Cited: Associated Press

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced in February that Wall Street bonuses surged up 17% to $20.3 billion and stated that the bonuses were “bitter pill” after taxpayers bailed out Wall Street after its meltdown.

Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure and profits could surpass what he calls [...]