A vending machine that dispenses gold.
While some buy water others invest in precious metals during times of possible apocalyptic turmoil.  The TG-Gold-Super-Markt is the first gold, yes gold vending machine.  In order to take it for a spin, though, you’ll have to travel to Germany’s Frankfurt Airport.  So if you happen to be in Terminal [...]

UBS has admitted that it schemed to defraud the U.S. government by helping Americans hide money in secret Swiss accounts
If your secret Swiss bank account was small enough, you can breathe easier: A landmark deal between the United States and Switzerland to expose American tax dodgers does not call for the Swiss to blow your [...]

When Holden Thorp, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina, was looking for ways to cut the university’s budget, he did what many executives in private industry do — hired a management consultant.
 

Here’s one way to deal with the brutal U.S. job market: Leave the country.  With the nation’s unemployment rate at a 26-year-high of 10.2%, more Americans are hunting for, and landing, work overseas, according to staffing companies and executive search firms.
 

Sirenia Avendano cries as she speaks of sending money to her sons in the U.S.
During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San Diego, would be sending home hundreds of dollars a month to support his struggling family in Mexico. But at times like these, with the American economy out of [...]

Households that could afford to have one spouse stay home find roles upended by layoffs in male-dominated industries
Jeff and Vicki Grenz celebrated their 25th anniversary on Sept. 12, 2007. The date marked another milestone for the California couple: Ms. Grenz went back to work. 
 

Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years.
 

Speaker lineup for this week’s ExpoManagement 2009 Summit in Mexico City
On November 19th Futurist Thomas Frey will take the stage with eight other global visionaries to help leading business executives in Mexico think through the challenges that lie ahead as businesses struggle to regain their footing in today’s turbulent economy.
Louisville, Colorado (PRWEB) November 16, 2009 — [...]

The Federal Reserve released a long-awaited rule Thursday requiring banks and credit unions to get consumers’ permission before charging steep fees to pay debit card and ATM overdrafts.The final rule, which comes amid intense congressional scrutiny of bank overdraft practices, will take effect by July 1, 2010, for new customers and Aug. 15, 2010, for [...]

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered Africa $10 billion in concessional loans over the next three years on Sunday, saying China was a “true and trusted friend” of the continent and its people.
 

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 [...]