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Year-end is a time for family and traditions. It is also a time for reflection and preparation: looking back at your investment decisions in 2009, but more importantly, looking forward to prepare your portfolio to realize its maximum after-tax returns in 2010 and beyond. The following ideas may be helpful for utilizing investment losses, protecting earnings and mitigating risk.

1 in 4 Borrowers Under Water By RUTH SIMON and JAMES R. HAGERTY The proportion of U.S. homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the properties are worth has swelled to about 23%, threatening prospects for a sustained housing recovery. Nearly 10.7 million households had negative equity in their homes in the third quarter, according to First American CoreLogic, a real-estate information company based in Santa Ana, Calif. These so-called underwater mortgages pose a roadblock to a housing recovery because the properties are more likely to fall into bank foreclosure and get dumped into an already saturated market. Economists...

Anyone trying to figure out what in the world is going on in today’s economy might remember Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express. When master sleuth Hercule Poirot boarded that train, he’d no idea that before the night ended he’d face the most perplexing murder case ever. A carful of passengers, all of whom had motive and opportunity, maneuvered around so skillfully that even Christie’s brilliant Belgian couldn’t figure out whodunit. The best he could do was point a perfectly manicured finger at the most likely culprits — in the end, everybody walked away, except the luckless victim....

The Associated Press noted last week that the federal deficit reached a record $1.42 trillion for the fiscal year that ended September 30. Up until now, most of the mainstream media have either ignored the exploding deficits or declared them a good thing, since they were supposed to lift us out of the recession. But now that the full figures have come in even some Obama-friendly media stalwarts are struck by their enormity. Read the Full Article.

It's getting to the point where it makes little sense to listen to the President speak. He speaks in broad generalities about laws and regulations he wants to enact. Often the generalities are such that they are difficult to argue with in the manner he presents them. For example, he says he wants to protect against future crises, like the kind we have now. Well yeah, who wouldn't? But the devil is in the details, which the president never discusses. Yet, he has added a master "nudger", i.e. detail man, who thinks he knows more about how people should eat,...

"When normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth. "Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee "amended" his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income. That number may be as high as $780,000, because Congress's ethics rules only require the Members to report their finances within broad ranges. This voyage of personal financial discovery brings Mr....

Rielle Hunter, John Edwards' former mistress, went inside the federal courthouse in Raleigh Thursday morning. A grand jury is meeting in the courthouse. FBI agents escorted Hunter into a back entrance ... Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina and two-time presidential candidate, is under investigation to see if campaign funds were illegally paid to Hunter. There is also widespread speculation that Edwards fathered her child.

RALEIGH (AP) — The former mistress of John Edwards arrived at a federal courthouse in Raleigh where a grand jury was meeting Thursday — an appearance that comes as federal investigators examine the two-time presidential candidate's finances. Rielle Hunter walked into the building through a back entrance and holding a young child. Edwards adamantly denied during his confessional interview with ABC News last summer that he had fathered a child with Hunter, and he welcomed a paternity test. His wife, Elizabeth, has said while promoting her book that she doesn't know if her husband is the father.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said on Monday that Wall Street banks had failed to show remorse for the "wild risks" that triggered a financial meltdown and helped to push the United States into recession. Obama unveiled a sweeping regulatory overhaul in June aimed at improving government oversight of banks and markets to avert a repeat of the financial crisis. "The problem that I've seen, at least, is you don't get a sense that folks on Wall Street feel any remorse for taking all these risks," Obama said in an interview with PBS television. "You don't get a sense that...

Brian Griffiths, Lord of Fforestfach and vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International, says Pope Benedict's Caritas in Veritate offers the single best analysis of the current global economic crisis. The language may be dense, but the message is sufficiently rewarding. The encyclical analyses modern capitalism from an ethical and spiritual perspective as well as a technical one. As a result it makes the Government’s White Paper on financial reforms published two days later look embarrassingly one-dimensional and colourless.It is highly critical of today’s global economy but always positive. Its major concern is how to promote human development in the context of...

H.R. 1728 passed the House by an overwhelming majority in a record three days time. Now it’s in the Senate and is widely expected to pass quickly as well. Why the rush? Is AIG planning to hand out zillions in bonuses again? My guess would be that our elected representatives and their banking benefactors would prefer that we don’t know anything about it. Consider this scenario: You own a house. You want to sell it. Someone wants to buy it. You decide to sell it to the person who wants to buy it and carry the paper yourself for whatever...

House Judiciary Committee member Steve King (R-Iowa) is demanding congressional hearings about the twisted finances of the radical activist group ACORN. “This spider web, this myriad web of ACORN dollars and revenue streams, every bit of them should be looked at, all the corporations that they are networked with all of the boards of directors of those corporations, the inner locking connecting, the faces that are the same from board to board,” King said.

LISTEN TO THE REAL REVEREND JESSE ON THE INTERNET OR A RADIO STATION IN YOUR AREA......BOND Action, Inc...Educating, Motivating and Rallying Americans! The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show Streamed live online from 6-9 a.m. PST / 9-12 a.m. EST. Call in the same times usually. For Live Questions or Comments Call 1-888-77-JESSE(5-3773) You can email comments and questions to radio@bondaction.org For more information on getting The Jesse Lee Peterson Show picked up on a station in your local area call Ermias Alemayehu at 1-877-WE ACT77 (932-2877)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Police launched an international search for two New Zealanders who allegedly took the money and ran after a bank mistakenly put 10 million New Zealand dollars ($6.1 million) into their account. The couple, who operated a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua, applied to Westpac Bank for a NZ$10,000 ($6,000) overdraft, but 1,000 times that amount was paid into their account. The two then withdrew some of the money and disappeared, Detective Senior Sgt. David Harvey said.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's personal finances appear to be on sound footing even as the nation's economy struggles, a financial report he released Friday shows. Obama and his wife Michelle have $1.4 million to $5.9 million in assets, not counting their Chicago home. Their holdings include up to $265,000 in checking accounts. The president's new financial disclosure report mirrors one he filed a few months ago. Much of the Obamas' wealth comes from the president's best-sellers. The books, "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope," brought in about $2.5 million in royalties last year, according to tax...

“The Obama Administration has reversed a ruling requiring labor unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation”

Even in the best of times, couples regularly argue about finances. But at this juncture, when so many Americans are feeling stung and frustrated by a weak economy, a housing-price collapse, and a stock-market crash, it's particularly critical that newlyweds -- and even long-time spouses -- are on the same page when it comes to money. Of course, that's not always the case, because not everyone is knowledgeable about money. Sure, most people reflexively think they understand money, because just about everyone has been handling cash in some fashion since grade school. More likely, though, they have a basic understanding...

WASHINGTON -- Confidence in the overall financial system has failed and a major overhaul of regulations is needed, Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner told a House panel Thurday. Calling the U.S. financial system the most stable in the world, Geithner said dangerous levels of risk were taken for short-term gain. "Over the past 18 months, we have faced the most severe global financial crisis in generations," Geithner said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game."

A Bay Area officer of the scandal-clouded Service Employees International Union has collected double salaries, one as a city transit worker and the other from a charity that receives much of its funding from the labor organization and corporate interests, records show. In addition, the nonprofit paid more than $16,000 in rent for the officer's home in 2007, the most recent year for which the charity's tax return is available, according to his son, who is also on the charity's payroll. James Bryant, who earned just under $68,000 as a transit station agent in 2007, received about $117,000 that year...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/WEEKLY-ADDRESS-President-Obama-Presses-the-Case-for-Bold-Action-to-Address-the-Economic-Crisis/ THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________________________ SATURDAY, March 7, 2009 WEEKLY ADDRESS: President Obama Presses the Case for Bold Action to Address the Economic Crisis WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama used his weekly address to detail his plans to fix our ailing economy, noting that reforming healthcare is necessary to ensure our long term fiscal health. While ending this crisis will not be quick or easy, the President’s plans will take the swift, bold, and responsible actions needed for the United States to emerge stronger and...

"We are the ones we've been waiting for," Barack Obama proclaimed many times during the campaign. He and his throngs of supporters preened in the glow of their own righteousness like cats in a puddle of sunlight. They were for "shared sacrifice" and a "new era of responsibility." They wanted to put aside the "old politics" and the "tired arguments" of the past. Well, where are those people now? Obama brags -- albeit dishonestly -- that he's only raising taxes on rich people. Ninety-five percent of the American people will get a tax cut, the president insists. Well, which is...

NEW YORK (AP) — A stunning 48 percent of the nation's homeowners who have a subprime, adjustable-rate mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure, and the rate for homeowners with all mortgage types hit a new record, new data Thursday showed. But that's not the worst of it.

Since August 15, 1971 the US dollar has been an irredeemable paper currency. Every irredeemable paper currency in history has failed. Yet, the experiment of the US dollar and the rest of the fiat paper world continues. During the current crisis, however, financial systems all over the world are increasingly struggling, and the end of the experiment seems closer. In fact, the Federal Reserve System has used up much of its "ammunition" for monetary interventions in an attempt to keep the experiment going, lowering its target interest rate almost to zero. Other central banks are also quickly approaching the "zero...

Is the author of this complaint any relation to Madoff. They appear to have the same last name.

Hello Freepers. It's that time of year again. Let's boost the economy. LET'S GO SHOPPING!!

These are times when you just feel like yelling at the people who write the news, particular the business press. They are happy to report, word for word, what the Fed and Treasury Department, and their message is always the same: hey, it's not our fault; in fact, we are fixing the problem! We are told that the economy has tanked because foreigners invested too much in the US, that foreigners saved too much money, that we all lived beyond our means, that greedy capitalists fed our materialist instincts until we popped, or any combination of the above. Or maybe...

Barack Obama has pledged to restore America's ailing economy and its "moral stature in the world". He made the comments during his first major televised interview since being voted America's 44th president earlier this month. The President-elect told CBS programme 60 Minutes he would deliver a clear break in foreign policy from the Bush administration. Mr Obama confirmed reports he will pull troops out of Iraq and limit the offshoots of the "war on terror", including bringing an end to the notorious Guantanamo Bay. He said the moves were an effort to "regain America's moral stature in the world". But...

You may have heard about Argentina's plan to nationalize private retirement accounts. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are inspired, and with their big election victory they may get the chance to test Peronist ideas in America. Meet Congressmen George Miller and Jim McDermott, who are eager to change the way Americans save for their golden years. They'll also be powerbrokers in the next Congress. Mr. Miller, who came in with the Class of 1974 from California, chairs the House Education and Labor Committee. Mr. McDermott, who has represented Seattle the past two decades, runs a House Ways and Means subcommittee...

California will face massive budget shortfalls through at least 2014 without immediate action by lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget analyst said Tuesday. In the midst of high unemployment, shaky consumer confidence and plummeting investments, the state needs a slew of tax increases and spending cuts to resolve a $27.8 billion problem over the next 20 months, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Those budgetary actions also would help narrow annual deficits of about $22 billion in subsequent years. While California faced a larger budget gap in 2002-03 under then-Gov. Gray Davis, Taylor said the longer projected duration...

Leader of New Congress Promises to Preserve, Build Affordable HousingPublished: November 06, 2008 By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor Boston--U.S. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, recently laid out affordable housing legislative priorities for the 111th Congress during the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association (NH&RA) Fall Developers Forum held recently in Boston. Representative Frank emphasized that an affordable housing preservation bill will be a top priority when the Congress convenes in January. Congressman Frank delivered his remarks after accepting NH&RA’s 2008 Affordable Housing Vision Award. “We are certainly happy that the chairman of the House...

Barney Frank explains government’s role in bailoutBy Julie Onufrak/GateHouse News Service Tue Nov 11, 2008, 02:54 PM EST Randolph - U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said on Monday that he believes sensible regulations and another economic stimulus package will play key roles in solving the nation’s economic crisis. Speaking at a South Shore Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Lombardo’s in Randolph, Frank said he believed that the root of the current crisis was a trend of pushing people toward home ownership who couldn’t afford it. He lamented what he called excessively negative reactions to the construction of affordable rental housing. Frank...

For several years, I've been writing about Bushenfreude, the phenomenon of angry yuppies—who've hugely benefited from President Bush's tax cuts—funding angry, populist Democratic campaigns. I've theorized that people who work in financial services and related fields have become so outraged and alienated by the incompetence, crass social conservatism, and repeated insults to the nation's intelligence, of the Bush-era Republican Party, that they're voting with their hearts and heads instead of their wallets. Last week's election was perhaps Bushenfreude's grandest day. As the campaign entered its final weeks, Barack Obama, who pledged to unite the country, singled out one group of...

Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, is a date that will live in fame (the opposite of infamy) forever. If the election of our first African-American president didn’t stir you, if it didn’t leave you teary-eyed and proud of your country, there’s something wrong with you. But will the election also mark a turning point in the actual substance of policy? Can Barack Obama really usher in a new era of progressive policies? Yes, he can. Right now, many commentators are urging Mr. Obama to think small. Some make the case on political grounds: America, they say, is still a conservative country,...

For those too sozzled or bozwozzled to track what we're spending on on bailouts these days, here's a quick tally: $29 billion for Bear Stearns $143.8 billion for AIG (thus far, it keeps growing) $100 billion for Fannie Mae $100 billion for Freddie Mac $700 billion for Wall Street, including Bank of America (Merrill Lynch), Citigroup, JP Morgan (WaMu), Wells Fargo (Wachovia), Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and a lot more $25 billion for The Big Three in Detroit $8 billion for IndyMac $150 billion stimulus package (from January) $50 billion for money market funds $138 billion for Lehman Bros. (post...

President-elect Barack Obama is planning to seize control of the American economic agenda, arguing it would be reckless to leave a vacuum until the end of the Bush administration. Mr Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden held talks in Chicago with 17 members of their transition economic advisory board before the president-elect gave his first press conference since his historic election victory on Tuesday. He has assembled an elite team of advisers to help him shape the agenda including billionaire Warren Buffett, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and the chairmen of Google, Xerox and Time Warner. The meeting came as...

Dealing with the BluesBy Rick Nauert, Ph.D. Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on November 6, 2008 Thursday, Nov 6 (Psych Central) -- The events that have occurred over the past few weeks have been emotionally charged. Now the election is over and reality sets in. Days are shorter and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is already here for many. “This is the time of the year when people are vulnerable to depression anyway,” said Dr. Thomas Nutter, assistant professor, psychiatry & behavioral neurosciences, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. “The fact that the election happened, the...

My plans are when Obama takes office. 1. Spend more time at home with the family. 2. Spend less on the economy. I don't want to pay any extra taxes to the liberal government coming in. (Any thoughts on what others will do.)

Reporter Clive Crook really likes Barack Obama and in a November 3 op-ed practically endorsed him for president. But, the Financial Times reporter worries, the Illinois senator has some loopy economic ideas. Yes, your just read that correctly. A reporter for one of the Anglosphere's well-respected financial newspapers admits he'd vote for Obama were he an American citizen -- Crook is a subject of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II -- but he hopes his stump speech populism is all a vote-getting gimmick. As you read this, imagine the clamor, if not outright outrage, if a conservative-leaning foreign journalist like say...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2008 – Coalition and Afghan forces today dismantled a drug-making facility in southeastern Afghanistan and destroyed 44 tons of hashish in what military officials say is a major blow to funding terrorists in the country. “Today’s discovery clearly demonstrated the links between the Taliban and drug trafficking,” said Army Col. Greg Julian, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman. “The huge amount of drugs destroyed today will greatly hinder the Taliban’s ability to fund their ongoing, hopeless struggle to subjugate the Afghan people.” Afghan commandos and coalition forces were searching an area known for insurgent activities in the Spin Buldak...

When the economic chips began to fall last winter, legislators on Capitol Hill spared neither time nor words informing us of their priorities: no matter what might happen in the financial markets, we were told, funding for student loans will continue to flow. This is one promise from Washington we can take to the bank. Our government, representing the forces of goodness itself, isn't about to abandon that holiest of all cash cows, vulgarly known as the education industry. If there were such a thing as academic stock, only an idiot would sell it short. Americans are raised to believe...

It is hard to imagine we’ve heard the last of Barack Obama’s interactions with William Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. But lately John McCain seems much more interested in talking about another Obama encounter. It’s the now infamous conversation Obama had with “Joe the Plumber”--and one particular phrase that Obama uttered in the course of it.For those who may have been in hibernation the last few days, Joe the Plumber--whose real name is Joe Wurzelbacher--met Obama during an Ohio campaign event last weekend. Wurzelbacher was concerned about Obama’s tax plan, which would raise taxes on wealthy Americans. In the course of...

Advertisement: A tool used by business to get money out of people that don't have it, for something that they don't need. Alimony: Two person mistake paid by one. Auditor: Person that arrives after battle to finish off the wounded. Bank: A place that will lend you money only when you don't need it. Bear Market: Eight months when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry and the husband gets no sex. Broker: The person that you trust with thousands of your hard earned dollars. Hello! Broker: What my broker has made me. Broker: Poorer than...

Exploding energy prices? Yeah, yeah. Cratering home values? So what? Sinking dollar? Yadda, yadda, yadda. Rising unemployment? Big deal. Market crashing? Yawn. Wanna know what keeps me up at night . . . and should have you popping Valiums, too? When politicians all have the same thing to say about the economy, that’s what. To wit . . . match these sound-alike sound bites regarding the current financial crisis with the appropriate solon: A. “We have to have a 9/11 commission to find out what went wrong and to fix what's going to happen in the future so this never...

Did Ken Lay Get to Write Sarbanes-Oxley? The $700 billion that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is requesting from Congress to restore liquidity in the financial markets is a breathtaking sum of money. But it is also important to remember Paulson has already committed $200 billion to recapitalize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The size of their bailout should tip Americans off: Fannie and Freddie were the key enablers of the mortgage crisis.Fannie and Freddie’s implicit government stamp of approval on these risky investments fueled Wall Street’s appetite for subprime securities. As of last June, Fannie alone owned or guaranteed more...

Eight-year-old T.F. Krause wanted an explanation. “Daddy, where’s Wall Street?’ “Why would you want to know that?” I asked. “Because I heard at school that there’s trouble there. I don’t even know anyone who lives there. Is it a bad neighborhood?” “Yeah, you could say that. There are a lot of weird people there. They wave their arms around and wear these lab-coat type things. And throw paper around.” “We do that in third grade too!” “Right, it’s actually not all that different.” “So what’s the problem?” “Well, a bunch of people loaned money to some other people, and they...

Here are ten things that this financial panic means for you. 1. Check that your bank accounts are federally insured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees deposits up to $100,000 per person. If you have to hold more than that, spread it across multiple banks. As a taxpayer you are paying for this insurance. Use it. 2. Make sure your brokerage accounts are federally insured, too. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) guarantees you at places like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, E-Trade and the like up to $500,000, including $100,000 worth of cash. The same rules apply: If you...

If money is the mother's milk of politics, then Senator John McCain seems intent on going on a hunger strike. Barack Obama has proved to be the most effective fund-raiser in the history of American politics, at a time when McCain seems to be doing all he can to make sure that he cannot raise enough in campaign contributions to stay competitive. If Senator McCain fails in his bid for the presidency, more than any other candidate in recent memory he will well and truly have been hoist on his own petard.

The Obamas often say they would still be in debt if not for his best-selling books, which began to swell the couple's bank account in 2005. In fact, for some period of time, Michelle Obama tells audiences, the couple's college loan payments cost them more than their monthly mortgage. As young lawyers, the Obamas pursued non-profit or public service during much of the 1990s. Obama once said he was so broke when he arrived in Los Angeles for the Democratic National Convention in 2000 that his credit card was rejected when he tried to rent a car. Still, it's hard...

Hello, Hillary? Hate to wake you, but it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and we have a real crisis. It's your campaign, senator. It's Hail Mary time. You've lost the bid for a revote in Florida and, it seems, in Michigan, which means your prospects for prevailing over Barack Obama in the primary popular vote by June are vanishing fast. The Illinois senator, meanwhile, has just delivered a JFK-like speech on race in America--a savvy move that may well have stanched the hemorrhaging of his campaign over the controversial remarks made by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright. The mood could be...

Americans don't understand debt, which may be one reason that they have too much of it, according to a survey released Tuesday. The survey presented 1,000 people with a hypothetical scenario about credit card debt and asked them to compute how long it would take to pay it off. Only 35.9% of the 1,000 respondents could figure out how many years it would take for the amount they owe on their credit cards to double. A full 18.2% did not know how to respond and 31.9% of those surveyed over-estimated the timeframe. The survey by Harvard Business School and Dartmouth...