In a move much akin to Luke Skywalker’s attack run on the Death Star, President Obama signed the so-called “Credit Cardholder Bill of Rights” that will crackdown on the malpractice of card issuers. The bill passed in both the House and the Senate with overwhelming majorities in support, and se...

President Obama, in his latest push to shore up healthcare, has stated that he expects a plan from Congress by July 31 that will overhaul the current healthcare system.  Obama, making good on one of his campaign promises, has proposed to reduce the ballooning costs of healthcare, guarantee the righ...

It’s well known that the bank stress tests were as much a measure to build confidence as to shore up ailing banking practices, so it wasn’t a surprise when 9 of the 19 banks that underwent the stress test passed with flying colors.  The other 10 banks were asked to raise additional capital in t...

Citigroup, the proclaimed financial supermarket, announced the sale of its Smith Barney brokerage division to Morgan Stanley last week in a move that is expected to mark the beginning of a break-up for the banking giant.  With a massive government bailout just a few months prior, many are asking: h...

Monday, President-elect Barack Obama called for the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), passed by Congress in October.  Obama asked President Bush to submit a request to Congress making the remaining $350 billion available soon after his inauguration.  The first $...

Amidst one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, President-elect Barack Obama released information this week about his stimulus plan intended to put money into the pockets of average Americans and small businesses.  The plan, coined by Obama as the American Recovery and Reinv...

The price on a barrel of light, sweet crude fell as low as $35.13 just before the Christmas holiday as stockpiles of unused gasoline continued to grow.  It’s hard to imagine that less than a year ago the United States witnessed a record-high $4.11 per gallon at the pump; a time when several econo...

Reporters and photographers jostled and pushed against each other in front of Bernard Madoff’s Manhattan apartment last week, vying for a photo or a word with the disgraced investment coordinator.  Madoff smiled slightly as he moved past, declining to comment after returning from the Federal cour...

Friday morning shares of Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. surged on Wall Street (with private owned Chrysler cheering in the background) as news of President Bush’s $17.4 billion auto industry bailout sunk in with investors.  The President approved the immediate release of $13.4 billion fr...

Tuesday the stock market began with some modest gains, including a 1% increase for the Dow Jones, and several stocks rallying after Monday’s losses.  Nearing the close of the stock market, in an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve announced that it had cut its key interest rate to 0-0.25%, do...