Grave business - my financial world

Starbucks is closing more than two-thirds of its stores in Australia, days after announcing that hundreds of its American coffee outlets are also being shuttered.
The Seattle-based global coffee franchise said Tuesday that it will close 61 of its 84 locations in Australia by the weekend.
The closures will mean that only 23 cafes will remain […]

The percentage of vacant homes available for sale remained relatively flat in the second quarter, but still hovered in record territory.
Some 2.8% of homes, excluding rental properties, were empty and on the market from April through June, according to Census Bureau figures released Thursday. The vacancy rate hit a record high of 2.9% […]

A federal grand jury is investigating subprime mortgage lenders Countrywide Financial Corp., New Century Financial Corp. and IndyMac Federal Bank, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Subpoenas seeking documents have been issued to all three companies, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the […]

City and state leaders have selected the site of the aging First Mariner Arena as the best location for a new 18,500-seat sports and entertainment venue in Baltimore that could cost up to $300 million.
The decision, first reported July 18 by the Baltimore Business Journal, comes nearly eight months after the city […]

A federal task force set up to examine the sharp run-up in oil prices says in an interim report that fundamental supply-and-demand factors are most likely to blame.
A number of lawmakers and other critics have blamed the historic rise in prices on speculators that they say are manipulating prices.
The Interagency Task Force on Commodity […]

Merrill Lynch booked its fourth-straight quarterly loss Thursday, this time losing nearly $5 billion, as the nation’s largest brokerage was forced to once again take massive writedowns.
Merrill said it lost $4.9 billion overall. On a continuing operations basis, it lost $4.6 billion, or $4.95 a share, down from a profit of $2.01 billion, or […]

The U.K. budget deficit ballooned to the widest since records started in 1946, adding pressure on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to ease his decade-old borrowing rules.
The shortfall was 24.4 billion pounds ($49 billion) in the three months through June, the Office for National Statistics said today. Last month, the deficit expanded to 9.2 […]

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will suspend its dividend, sell off $4 billion to $7 billion worth of assets and cut 20% worth of salaried cash costs in an overall plan to save billions of dollars.
"We need to take some very tough actions to ensure our survival and success," said Chief Executive Rick […]

The maker of the King of Beers has agreed to go to work for the Belgian brewer InBev.
Anheuser Busch Cos (BUD, Fortune 500). said early Monday it had agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover bid from Inbev, heading off what had promised to be a long and acrimonious fight for the maker of […]

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an investment adviser to 12 years in prison on fraud charges related to the loss of $216 million in a hedge fund at the state agency for injured workers.
Mark Lay, chief executive and founder of the now defunct MDL Capital Management of Pittsburgh, also was ordered to pay […]