When Citigroup warned in early November that it was likely to write down its portfolio by $8 billion to $11 billion in the fourth quarter because of exposure to bad loans, investors recoiled at the size of the losses. Some now say those early estimates appear drastically understated. ...more

December 28, 2007

Singing Its Praises The Orange Blossom Song! Ever since I heard about the search for a new Florida song, I've been humming it. When I was in elementary school in St. Petersburg in the 1940s, all Pinellas County schools were singing it. I do hope that it becomes the new Florida song. The new verses expand the vision of a 21st century Florida. ...more

December 16, 2007

The city last month withdrew $56 million from a troubled state-run investment pool. ...more

December 15, 2007

A Bloomberg article recently published in many Florida outlets used broad generalities, gross overstatements and outdated information to report on the Florida Retirement System (FRS) pension fund. ...more

December 14, 2007

Since the Federal Reserve last met in October, credit has become harder to obtain, Wall Street has convulsed again and the housing slump has intensified. And policymakers at the central bank now appear to have changed their minds about the need to drop interest rates again. ...more

December 10, 2007

SEBRING — On Nov. 14, Bob Jamison became aware that the Local Government Investment Pool might be in jeopardy. ...more

December 9, 2007

Toll Bros. Inc., the nation's largest builder of luxury homes, reported its first quarterly loss in 21 years Thursday as the housing downturn that the company called the worst in four decades deepened. ...more

December 7, 2007

Recent efforts to hammer out a proposal to temporarily freeze interest rates on certain troubled subprime mortgages have brought up an interesting quandary. Is it the government's job to intervene in what is in part a crisis wrought by greedy lenders and naive and imprudent borrowers? Agreed, the government should not bail out financial irresponsibility, but sometimes there's no alternative. Those opposed to any government initiative to rescue the market before 2 million loans adjust to a higher interest rate –– and borrowers are stuck with payments they cannot afford –– are forgetting that the ripple effect of not doing anything could seriously hurt the general economy. ...more

December 3, 2007

Now that you've blown your next two years' bonuses on subprime mortgages and homebuilder stocks, you need a recovery strategy. ...more

December 1, 2007

Wall Street barreled higher Wednesday for the second day in a row, giving the Dow Jones industrial average its biggest two-day point gain in five years after a Federal Reserve official hinted that the central bank may lower interest rates again. ...more

November 29, 2007