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After a short three weeks and in an increasingly dire economy, municipal bonds have already proven to be the trade of 2009.

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The disintegration of General Electric, once the nation's largest company, will be spectacular and it will be swift.

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Sure, it is pretty impressive that America has elected its first black president. Sure, we are a country at the brink of a major depression and need to celebrate something. Sure, someone has to feed the media's insatiable appetite for glitz. But at the very precipice of financial disaster, to see our new leader turn a blind and unfeeling eye on the financial woes of millions of Americans is disconcerting at the very least.

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I've been trying to move large amounts of money out of Smith Barney to the higher yielding online savings and CD accounts listing on this site. This week, Smith Barney made it very difficult.

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What is one person's misery is another's opportunity. Billionaire Wilbur Ross just received permission from regulators to buy a majority stake in Florida's First Bank and Trust Co. Many believe this is a platform to purchase other distressed banks.

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Freddie Mac's weekly survey says that the rate on a 30 year fixed rate loan has fallen below 5% for the first time ever. But you may have trouble finding a rate this low.

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Etrade is offering $25 to open a new online savings account and fund it with $1. The $1 minimum deposit required to receive the $25 is as low as they get.

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For some time it looked like Bank of America might fly over the banking crisis and actually prosper by vulture investing in Countrywide and Merrill Lynch. Now, it looks like it is choking on the bones it tried to swallow. It's stock is at its lowest point since 1992 and the future doesn't look so bright.

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Joshua Rosner, a managing director in New York at investment-research firm Graham Fisher says that housing isn't the core problem with the economy. Instead, it's the shutdown of the debt securitization markets, which has in turn... Read →
Today, Citi announced it had sold its Smith Barney brokerage division to Morgan Stanley, beginning the break-up of what was once the largest financial services firm in the world. But this is just the beginning. Citi grew with leverage and... Read →

Amid news that the company is selling Smith Barney, its prized asset, and selling off the rest of its assets, the stock is down 20% and is below $5 again. is it possible that it has entered the death spiral?

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Vanity Fair published an excellent article in December by Niall Ferguson entitled, Wall Street Lays Another Egg. It provides an in-depth look at the causes of the financial crisis/recession/depression we are now in. Mr. Ferguson is a... Read →

Bank of America is offering $50 to open a Bank of America checking account and fund it with only $100. That means a $100 investment can earn 50% in just a couple of days.

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The House, as part of the second installment on the $700 billion TARP, is considering permanently raising the FDIC limit to $250,000. It will also consider raising the amount the FDIC can borrow from the Treasury from $30 billion to $100... Read →