In the summer of 2008, steel giant Nucor decided to raise some cash. It issued new shares of stock and floated some corporate bonds. As financial markets crumbled, the company ignored pleas from some investors and analysts that it buy back shares, which are now selling for about half their peak.

Cherie Blair is backing The Women’s Leadership Fund to raise the number of women executives.

A fund that aims to invest in companies with a high number of women in senior roles will be launched next week, with backing from Cherie Blair and the former prime ministers of Canada and New Zealand, Kim Campbell and Jenny [...]

Last year, procrastinators were rewarded when they finally got around to booking flights for holiday travel. Back then, airlines were not prepared for the sharp falloff in travel and offered last-minute deals to fill up empty planes.  This year? Dilly-dallying, even waiting just a few days, could carry a steep price. Fares, though still lower [...]

Guess what? Times are changing and money isn’t what it used to be. Our faith in money isn’t what it used to be and virtual currencies are skewing our financial views even further in addition to gaining credibility…
Money. The stuff that makes the world go round. Every day we earn it, spend it, exchange it [...]

For years, the country’s makeshift network of payday lenders and check cashers has operated with little competition or federal regulation.  But as the financial crisis sparks a new wave of consumer protections, lawmakers and the private sector alike are training their sights on an industry that caters to the most vulnerable of populations: the estimated [...]

China’s economy has fewer influencers than the U.S.
Financial commentators are obsessively debating whether the recent rise in the Chinese stock market means there’s a bubble — and if so, when it’s going to burst.
My take? Who cares! What happens to the broader Chinese economy is what we should really be watching. It will have a [...]

Even with the success of Twitter many people have wondered how the company would begin to make money of off all the millions of tweets users post. Most people assume that Twitter will finally cave in and begin offering advertising on their website, though it seems the company is opposed to that currently, but has [...]

Pension funds for police officers and other public employees have been battered and face a long recovery
The financial crisis has blown a hole in the rosy forecasts of pension funds that cover teachers, police officers and other government employees, casting into doubt as never before whether these public systems will be able to keep their [...]

In the coming year’s military spending bill, members of a House panel continue to steer lucrative defense contracts to companies represented by their former staffers, who in turn steer generous campaign donations to those lawmakers, a new analysis has found.

Nevada is trying to get ahead of California with slogans such as this.
It is supposed to be the United States, but the recession has turned America into 50 competing parts.  As the economy bites, states across America are resorting to dirty tactics to steal business from their neighbours.  At stake are business start-ups and well [...]

After a six-year building frenzy that transformed this city, casino companies are shifting strategies dramatically toward slower growth, paying down debt and cutting back on spending.  Many casino executives don’t expect to break ground on another major building project in Las Vegas for at least 10 years.
 

China contributed 19.2 percent of the world economic growth in 2007, up from 2.3 percent in 1978, a report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.   It said China tops the world in contribution to the global economic growth.
 

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is using the IMF’s annual meeting here to campaign for turning the fund into a kind of global central bank with at least $1 trillion for lending developing nations in a crisis.
 

The swift rally in stock markets this year caught everyone’s attention. But with far less fanfare, a frenzy has been taking place in the market for corporate bonds.  When credit markets practically shut down last year, businesses had to pay huge premiums to raise money from investors, offering returns of 10 to 20 percent to [...]

 
Unlike most kinds of petty crime, a confidence game, or con, takes an enormous amount of skill and forethought to pull off. When done right, in many cases the grifters who perpetrate them have not actually done anything overtly illegal–they’ve simply used lies and manipulation to get their victim, or “mark,” to willingly hand over [...]

Nearly 1 million homes nationwide are in the process of foreclosure, according to a report Wednesday from the U.S. Department of the Treasury covering banks and loan servicers that make up 64 percent of all outstanding mortgages.  As of June 30, there were 992,554 homes in the process of foreclosure, up 15.3 percent from March [...]

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Tuesday proposed tough new credit card rules to protect consumers from potentially costly practices by lenders and moved to implement legislation enacted in May.  This action is considered by many to be a step in the right direction, and a step recommended in Thomas Frey’s paper titled the “Hornet Nest [...]

“We’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore”
7-Eleven Inc. said Thursday that its franchisees and store operators have collected 1.6 million signatures nationwide in its petition drive against what it calls unfair credit card fees.
The Dallas-based convenience store chain held the signature drive from June 22 through Aug. 10 at store counters [...]

U.S. airlines are raking in more money this year from extra fees, although fewer people are flying.In the first six months of this year, the airlines collected $3.8 billion for checking bags, canceling or rebooking flights, carrying pets and assigning seats, the latest data from the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics show. That’s [...]

The coming gold rush in apps
People looking to cash in on the next gold rush should consider developing applications — or apps — for the new generation of smart mobile phones, according to a forecast released Tuesday by the Yankee Group.
Consumers will spend more than $4.2 billion on apps in 2013, up from $343 million [...]

A Seiyu outlet in Akabane, part of Wal-Mart Stores.
Not long ago, many Japanese bought so many $100 melons and $1,000 handbags that this was the only country in the world where luxury products were considered mass market.  Even through the economic stagnation of Japan’s so-called lost decade, which began in the early 1990s, Japanese consumers [...]

For years the people in congress have ignored the outrageous
practices of banks and credit card companies
A backlash is brewing on Capitol Hill against banks that charge large fees for overdrafts without asking or telling customers, the latest sign that the financial crisis is shifting the balance of power from banks toward borrowers.
Banks struggling to survive [...]

Amazon is shaking up retailers, both big rivals and small independent stores.
THE hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side. But the center’s employees can almost always hear Terry Jones.  On a recent summer afternoon, Mr. [...]

The economic downturn is causing most marketers to decrease media spending budgets, and the remaining expenditures are shifting further toward digital, according to a Q2 2009 survey by Round2.
 

Web start-up companies at this year’s Tech Crunch conference face a financial climate that has dried up venture capital, forcing them to turn to friends, family and foundations.