Grave business - my financial world

If General Motors really does run out of money by the end of the year, as it predicted was possible, the impact would be felt far and wide - to hundreds of suppliers, rival automakers and ultimately dealers across the nation.
"Once the first domino falls, it rapidly takes out all the other dominoes," […]

Stock prices have plunged in recent weeks. So have oil prices.
Most Americans probably see the former as terrible news and the latter as a ray of sunshine at a dark time.
But both could contribute to a growing concern among economists - deflation.
Simply put, deflation is the opposite of inflation: It’s when prices for a […]

Regardless of how much the government ponies up to salvage the financial sector, the global economic hangover may linger for years.
The Treasury Department has proposed buying as much as $700 billion in troubled assets from banks. Lawmakers hope to hammer out the details this week, although many sticking points remained, including questions over how […]

Oil futures on Tuesday tumbled to levels not seen since early April on a strengthening dollar and concerns that an economic slowdown has crippled demand for energy.
U.S. crude futures for October delivery dropped $5.75 a barrel to settle $109.71. It was the lowest oil has settled since April 8, according to the U.S. Energy […]

Alcatel-Lucent named its new leadership on Tuesday, handing the task of turning round the ailing Franco-U.S. telecoms equipment group to former British Telecoms Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen and French business grandee Philippe Camus.
The world’s biggest provider of fixed-line telecoms networks has seen its market value drop more than 60 percent in the 21 months […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

The problems do not get any easier as President Bush attends his final summit with leaders of industrialized democracies.
Disputes over global warming, worries about soaring oil prices and uncertainty about Iran and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions pose daunting challenges for Bush when he sits down with presidents and prime ministers Monday.
There are fewer than […]