Efforts to extend the estate tax past its scheduled Dec. 31 expiration stalled in the Senate today amid heavy Republican opposition. Barring retroactive action being pondered by Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, beneficiaries of estates totaling more than $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples [...]
After a decades-long legal struggle, the Shinnecock Indians of Long Island have won designation as a federally recognized tribe, a decision that could lead to the construction of a Class II casino in the Southampton, NY area.
[...]Former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno was found guilty on federal corruption charges by a jury on Monday. Over the course of the three-week trial, prosecutors argued that Bruno, a Republican, improperly used his position in the State Senate to enrich himself.
[...]A single mother of two, making $10 an hour at Supercuts, was audited by the IRS for making too little money. The issue, you see, was that, according to the IRS’s calculations, it takes at least $36,000 to support two kids in Seattle, where she and her family [...]
New York State Senator Hiram Monserrate (D – Queens) will not serve jail time for having slashing his girlfriend’s face with a broken glass, having been sentenced, instead, to three years probation and 250 hours of community service.
[...]New reports show that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the institution responsible for bailing out troubled financial institutions so as to avoid nasty scenes like this one, may have overexerted itself during the latest financial crisis. According to the government corporation’s quarterly bank profile, a snapshot of the [...]
Famed financial titan Goldman Sachs, one of the few Wall Street players to come out of the financial crisis relatively well, may have realized, perhaps, that defending billions of dollars in bonuses, all while saying you’re doing God’s work, might not be the best way to endear [...]
The Republican Party in New Jersey and Virginia won handily over their Democratic opponents in last night’s elections while losing a House seat in a surprise upset. In New York City, meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg retained control of the city in a hard fought election battle, winning by a margin [...]
It’s one thing for the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be criticized by its own inspector general or the news media -- it’s kind of what they’re there for, after all. You live, you learn, you reorganize.
[...]Victims of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff’s multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme are suing the U.K. branch of Big 4 accounting firm KPMG, alleging that auditors for the jailed billionaire’s financial operations failed to notice or ignored ample evidence of financial misconduct, making them, according to the complaint, [...]
Apple Computers, the grammatically incorrect maker of innumerable products beginning with a lowercase ‘i', reported record fourth quarter earnings yesterday, its report to the shareholders showing a 47 percent earnings increase, which some have attributed to rising sales in products like the iPhone and iMac.
' [...]Legislation regulating over-the-counter derivatives, the financial product largely seen as being at least partially responsible for sparking off the current financial crisis, passed the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday with a 43-27 vote that fell largely along partisan lines.
[...]Canadian business researchers have discovered what may well be the worst 12-step program ever. While the majority of such programs are designed with the intent of improving the lives of those who in the thrall of addictions to things like alcohol, narcotics and gambling, this one liberates its adherents from [...]
The winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics has gone to two American academics whose work has challenged traditional views of the market as the most effective driver of economic activity by describing empirical examples that contradict long established notions in the dismal science.
[...]Like a paramedic with a broken leg, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a rescuer in need of a rescue.
[...]Comparative macroeconomic analyses of public debt just got a little easier today. The Economist, a London-based news and international affairs magazine, has recently released a rather interesting toy that lets you examine how much debt virtually every country in the world currently carries. Users can view the data [...]
New York Governor David A. Paterson said that he still plans to run for re-election in 2010, despite a direct request from President Barack Obama that he not, reported the New York Times on Sunday. The governor made his intentions known during a parade in Harlem, saying to interviewers [...]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Thursday that it was formally proposing a ban on the practice known as flash trading, the use of ultra high-speed computers to “flash” securities orders for fractions of a second in order to gain pricing information faster than any human mind [...]
Say you’re good friends with the CEO of Acme Corporation, the world’s foremost manufacturer of rocket sleds, giant slingshots and other implements of creative mayhem.
[...]Advancing convergence to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) will be a high priority for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the weeks and months ahead, said the organization’s new chief accountant, James Kroeker, during an NYSSCPA conference on Thursday.
At the beginning of his talk, Kroeker stressed [...]
Information released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) today shows that the United States, battered by the financial crisis, has lost its number one spot as the world’s most competitive economy to the Swiss Confederation,the politically neutral home of secret bank accounts and [...]
TheTaxpayer Advocacy Panel (TAP), a federal advisory committee composed of 99 citizens from across the country, released its annual report for 2008 on Wednesday, recapping the 112 separate recommendations made for the IRS last year, as well as outlining its accomplishments as a liaison organization.
[...]The SEC announced today that it has appointed James L. Kroeker as the agency’s chief accountant, responsible for overseeing matters relating to accounting interpretations, professional practice issues, and international accounting. The move probably won’t represent a big change in Kroeker’s duties or his impact on the [...]
A Delaware senator has called upon the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to perform a “zero-based regulatory review” of current market structures and techniques which would examine all contemporary trading practices from the ground up. Sen. Ted Kaufman (D – DE), who had been selected to fill the [...]
Senate hearings held on Monday revealed that financial regulators failed to follow up on warnings from a whistleblower regarding disgraced financier R. Allen Stanford’s alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme. The hearings, held in Baton Rouge, La., featured testimony from Leyla Wydler, a former financial advisor with the Stanford Group, [...]
Among many members of the financial punditry today, it seems, gauging the similarities (or differences) between today’s economic mess and Japan’s infamous Lost Decade is a parlor game second in popularity only to Great Depression comparisons.
[...]Hey everyone! Did you hear? The recession’s over! According to comments by the U.S. Federal Reserve yesterday, these troubling economic times, this challenging financial climate, this market mess fueling trading tumult may be finally, mercifully, leveling off. Time to break out the party hats, uncork the Champaign and party [...]
Sources are reporting that the deal reached between the U.S. government and European banking giant UBS earlier this month has, today, been made official, both parties initialing an agreement that could hold vast implications for the roughly 52,000 Americans believed to be hiding taxable assets in secret Swiss [...]
Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who could be the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in history and its third woman, is facing her second round of hearings today as the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee move past the reading of prepared statements that dominated yesterday’s meeting and begin [...]
James Davis, former CFO of former successful company Stanford International Bank Ltd, pleaded “not guilty” today to charges of conspiracy and obstruction connected with an alleged multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme overseen by Texas financier and cricket enthusiast Robert Allen Stanford, himself currently sitting behind bars awaiting trial.
