There’s always money for Labour voters
Daily Telegraph - Ignorance on the part of Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, about how finance actually works precipitated the panic-stricken train of events that resulted in last Sunday’s nationalisation.

Loophole Irks Contract Watchdogs
Lincoln Journal Star - Charles Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, called it “a disservice to taxpayers to exempt overseas contracts when holding bad actors accountable.

Japan Posts Trade Deficit in January
Forbes - Japan’s trade deficit in January was more than 20 times greater than the deficit in the first month of 2007 as rising oil prices boosted the values of imports, the Finance Ministry said Thursday. The gap widened to 79.3 billion yen ($734 million

Giving universal education a fresh lease of life
Rwanda New Times - The same “success” story is told in all African countries pursuing the policy of UPE, with others like Uganda adding secondary education to the list of items crowding the over-burdened Finance minister’s table for budget support.

Ambac Rescue by Banks May Be Announced Next Week, Person States
Bloomberg - Ambac, which was already downgraded by Fitch, lends its credit rating to $376.6 billion of municipal and international bonds and $176.6 billion of structured finance debt, according to its Web site.

Prescott and Hain join rebels to back bill for bureau workers
Guardian Unlimited - John Prescott and Peter Hain put their heads above the parapet yesterday for the first time since leaving the cabinet when they joined forces with Labour rebels to endorse a backbench parliamentary bill to give new rights to bureau workers. In a sign

Banking Drags Allianz 4Q Profits
Newsday - The comments reaffirmed an announcement by Allianz in November that Dresdner Kleinwort would consider a strategic change in structured finance.

Brazil bank says debt crisis over
Macon Telegraph - It’s the first time in the history of Brazil that we’re not debtors,” said Finance Minister Guido Mantega. Brazil’s new status as a creditor could improve its debt rating to investment grade, which would lower Brazil’s borrowing costs for future

German Finance Ministry sees recovery in private consumption in 2008
Forbes - FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - The German Finance Ministry sees private consumption recovering in the course of the year, it said in its monthly report for February. ‘The situation on the labour market, which continues to be favourable, an increase

Brave of Awang Adek to contest Pas stronghold
New Straits Times - With his vast experience as deputy finance minister, former Tenaga Nasional chairman and former Bank Negara deputy governor, the 52-year-old politician should be able to bring about the much-needed changes and development to Kelantan, which the Pas

Nassau pol pans $720M bond-buyout plan
Newsday - County officials on Thursday proposed selling a $720 million short-term “revenue anticipation note,” which must be repaid within a year, to buy back about the same amount in auction-rate bonds issued by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority on the

Mortgage industry job help
San Francisco Gate - Change - or, rather, wrenching upheaval - is tearing through the mortgage and finance industry as the housing slump worsens. Nationwide, financial firms shed more than 150,000 jobs in 2007, according to Chicago outplacement firm Challenger Gray

Charities’ finance advice for young
Croydon Guardian - Two UK charities have announced that they are teaming up to offer young people advice on how to manage their money. Citizens Advice and YouthNet are working together to provide 16 to 25-year-olds with help handling their finances through the internet

Put your money where your heart is
Guardian Unlimited - Fairtrade Fortnight begins on Monday, and Triodos - a bank dedicated to ethical finance - is trying to entice savers into its Fairtrade Saver account.

Business Schools Break Tradition in Global Education
New York Times - The programs are not simply overseas duplications of standard courses in record-keeping and finance. “In our global access courses, we challenge teams, in a language that is not that of the United States, to drop an egg from two stories without

FDA clears Avastin for breast cancer
Miami Herald - Personal Finance A Genentech drug received federal approval on Friday to treat breast cancer, a surprise decision that could represent a

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Filed under: Banks, Borrowing, Debt, Home, Real Estate

If you’re facing foreclosure in California, New York, Kansas Massachusetts, or Ohio and your lender can’t find your original loan closing paperwork, there’s a good chance the judge will dismiss the case.

Lenders who want to foreclose regularly file what’s called a “lost-note affidavit” when they can’t find the original documents you signed at closing. That’s happening a lot lately because many times a loan is sold over and over again after the original loan closing. In a rush to package and sell mortgages, shortcuts were taken, and sometimes the lender who currently collects your payments does not actually hold the original note.

In fact, according to a report at Bloomberg this day, 19% of outstanding mortgages have been bundled into private securities for a total of $2.1 trillion in loans. Alan White, an assistant professor at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana told Bloomberg that in a rush to package these loans from 2003 to 2006 assignment of ownership was not always properly completed. If you hold one of these loans it is possible that the paperwork is lost forever because many of the originating loan companies have since gone bankrupt or were gobbled up by a larger lender.

Judges in at least five says — named above — have decided not to allow a foreclosure without the original note signed at the time the loan was shut. They believe that without that original paperwork the lenders can’t prove they actually hold the note. One of the first judges to take this strong stance was Judge Christopher Boyko in Ohio.

If you are facing foreclosure in a say not mentioned here and your lender is using a “lost-note affidavit,” contact an attorney for help. You may be able to save your home.

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including “The 250 Questions You Should Ask to Avoid Foreclosure.”

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Filed under: Borrowing, Debt, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Transportation

When I was 16 I drove my parents’ used ‘85 Subaru station wagon (a.k.a. The Silver Bullet). I was just thrilled to be behind the wheel of something with four moving tires. I could pack at least five friends in it legally and a few more if we avoided driving by the Dairy Queen in our small Texas Town. That was where you cops drank coffee.

The Bullet was great on gas mileage and 100% paid off. In fact my parents never took a loan out on a automobile. They purchased used cars in good condition with whatever they’d in their bank account. Now, we didn’t live under a rock, our family had two credit cards, but they either always had low or no balances on them. This lack of debt wasn’t because they had a lot of money to pay off cards off each month; it was because they never spent a lot on things that they “wanted.” They only made buys they needed.

I wish I had paid more attention to the way they handled money. For me it was about getting out of that small town as fast as I could and trying to live a lifestyle I had always wanted to live; a lifestyle un-deprived. When you come from nothing, the first major buy in your twenties is that brand new automobile that you can barely afford. For me it was a convertible sport scar. I loved that car but it nearly broke me at payments of $425 per month. Broke or not, I felt like quite the hot pocket in that car. I thought what I drove really made a difference in other people’s eyes.

After a year of sporting around, I moved to a city where it snows twice a year and decided what I really needed was a brand new SUV. So I traded in my sports automobile along with my $1,000 tax refund as a down payment. After all was stated and done, I left the parking lot with a zero interest loan on a brand new Durango with heated leather seats. I convinced myself that the payment of $550 for 5 years was more than worth it. That day my banking account had maybe $200 in it and my savings account had $50. Once again I was more concerned with what other people thought than what was actually the best financial decision for me.

Here is a hard lesson that took me nearly 10 years to learn, and I hope some other fool in his or her twenties reads this. No one gives a damn about what kind of car you drive, and if they do they probably don’t give a damn about you. Buying a brand new vehicle is never something you “need” to do. It’s something you want to do and the automobile dealers have no problem financing more than you can realistically afford.

I’ve had the Durango (my Hoopty) paid off for two years now. Does it get good gas mileage? No. Is it too massive for what I need in my life right now? Yes. Is it the coolest new ride in town? Most definitely not. But you know what’s cool? Having an extra $550 to add to my savings account each month.

So the next time you get that new vehicle itch, wash your old car. It helps, trust me. If your Hoopty is falling apart, think about buying a used car. If you can, use the money you’ve in the bank to finance all or most of the buy price. Also don’t forget to do some research, cars are lasting a lot longer than they used to.

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Filed under: Budgets, Cards, Debt, Saving, The Dolans

Ken and Daria Dolan, America’s First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Ken and Daria,

My credit score is 657. My wife and I want to refinance our mortgage, but we need a higher score to get a good interest rate. What can we do to boost our credit score before we speak to our lender?

Joe

Ken and Daria Dolan offer more advice on living credit smart in their new special report,”8 Secrets Your Credit Card Company Doesn’t Want You to Know.” Download it now.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

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Filed under: Debt, Extracurriculars, Tax

Actor Nicholas Cage is the latest celebrity to run afoul of the IRS.

According to Forbes magazine, Uncle Sam is accusing Cage of using a company he owns to wrongly write off $3.3 million in personal expenses including limos, meals, gifts, travel and his Gulfstream jet.

“In just-filed U.S. Tax Court lawsuits, the 44-year-old actor–using his legal name of Nicolas Coppola — is disputing a personal IRS bill for $814,000 in taxes and penalties from 2002 to 2004, while his Saturn Productions of Los Angeles is fighting a demand for $988,000,” the magazine stated. “The feds hit Cage both ways, denying Saturn a deduction for the disputed expenses while taxing Cage individually on the perks as salary and `constructive dividends.’”

Cage’s business manager, Samuel J. Levin, told Forbes the expenses were proper. The Tax Court may feel differently about the matter.

Maybe Cage should employ the legal team that got Wesley Snipes recently cleared of serious tax evasion charges. Snipes managed to convince a jury that he believed he wasn’t required to pay income taxes because he didn’t think he had to pay taxes. Nonetheless, Snipes owes the government $17 million in back taxes plus interest and penalties.

Cage is going to face a hefty legal bill, so he might want to unload some of his many properties such as a castle in U.K. and a multi-million dollar mansion in Rhode Island. I also have a suspicion that a “Face/Off 2″ may be in the works.

–Freelance writer Jonathan Berr edits the blog Ketchup and Eggs.

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Filed under: Movers and shakers, Raising money, GS Capital Partners

Carl Icahn is one of the top billionaire activist investors that traders actively watch (and follow with real money trades). On Thursday, an Icahn Enterprises (NYSE: IEP) subsidiary announced the closing of its sale of four Nevada casinos to a Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) managed real estate fund called Whitehall Funds.

Valued at $1.2 billion, the sale includes the Vegas-strip Stratosphere, two off-strip Arizona Charlie’s casinos and Aquarius Casino in Laughlin.

Last month the transaction was approved by the Nevada Gaming Commission, so Icahn is definitely getting the funds. Here is a full list of Icahn’s most current top holdings, and Mr. Icahn is buried in some of these positions. He might want to average down rather than go after new targets.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Flotzam is an application that makes pretty visualizations out of your social network updates. Each time someone posts new media or comments to your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Digg accounts, Flotzam floats a message across your screen. You can also add any RSS feed to receive updates from other sites.

Flotzam doesn’t offer much more than a pretty visualization. You can click on a message to open a web browse and see the message in its original context. But there’s no way to post your own updates from Flotzam. You can install the application as a screen saver, which could actually be useful. But unfortunately Flotzam’s a bit of a resource hog, so you might be superior off using a blank screen as a screen saver if you want to save energy while your computer is idle.

We also noticed that Flotzam had a tendency to crash while it was checking our Facebook page. Once we removed Facebook from our preferences the problem went away. Note that you’ll need to visits the Flotzam page using Internet Explorer if you want to install the application.

[via Go2Web20]

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Agger in frame for return to fill Liverpool gap
Guardian Unlimited - The Liverpool defender Daniel Agger could make a surprise return against Middlesbrough tomorrow, five months after the metatarsal fracture that has plagued his season. The Denmark international visited a specialist in Norway yesterday for a final

Plane with 46 passengers on board reported missing in Venezuela
MSN UK News - A commercial airliner with 46 people on board was reported missing Thursday in western Venezuela, officials said. The twin-engine plane failed to contact control towers in two cities as expected after it took off from the Venezuelan city of Merida en

Rutgers’ McCurdy out for the season
Bridgeton News - C. Vivian Stringer played the role of eternal optimist yesterday after the fifth-ranked Scarlet Knights were hit with a bit of sobering news. Myia McCurdy, the engine behind Rutgers’ full-court press, will miss the remainder of the season after

Advertiser Directory
Winona Daily News - WAUKESHA, Wis. — A father and son who allegedly appeared on YouTube stunning each other with a Taser gun stolen from an East Troy police officer have been charged with illegal possession of an electric weapon. Paul M. Crowell, 22, of North Prairie

Three years later, Jessica Lunsford’s parents plan lawsuit
St. Petersburg Times - On Thursday, Lunsford stood outside his Homosassa home, the same spot as those tearful news conferences three years ago. But this time he planned to sue the Sheriff’s Office, the county and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

David Miliband admits US flights used base
Daily Telegraph - A British military base was used for American “torture” flights, the Government admitted yesterday, despite categorical denials from Tony Blair and Jack Straw. Foreign Secretary David Miliband apologised to MPs David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary

Storming of embassy in Serbia sparks U.S. outrage
MSN UK News - BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serb rioters enraged by Kosovo’s secession stormed the U.S. embassy in Belgrade and set it on fire, leaving one person dead and drawing swift condemnation from Washington and the U.N. Security Council. The U.S. Say Department

Stream Data Center ready for users
Dallas Morning News - Speculative data center, Plano: The 150,000-square-foot high-tech building on Pinecrest Lane is in the Legacy Business Park. The building is constructed with a concrete roof and 9-inch-thick concrete walls. It’s designed to shrug off 175-mph winds

Surgeon: No support for burn unit
Charleston Post & Courier - The state’s only adult burn unit shut six years ago because cardiac surgery was the main priority at the Medical University of South Carolina, a former burn surgeon said Thursday. “It was a constant fight to get the unit enough attention, to get

Hospital visiting scheme extended
This is Hampshire - These sites - commonly called ’social bookmark’ or ’social news’ sites - have huge communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the internet.

Conroy’s filtering can’t fix Web 2.0 demons
ZDNet Australia - The main risks to Australian youth from the World wide web are those associated with Web 2.0 services that are not addressable by current filtering technologies according to a report released yesterday. “Risks to Australian youth are primarily the dangers

Economy echoes past recessions
The Washington Times - The figures, in conjunction with downbeat news about manufacturing and a murky employment picture, sent stocks down yesterday. More dour news came from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve, which reported a much lower-than-expected manufacturing index for

Pakistan coalition partners mull PM choice
MSN Philippines News - Pakistan’s two biggest opposition parties concurred to try to form a coalition government that could drive President Pervez Musharraf from power, but it was unclear Friday who would be prime minister. Ex-premier Nawaz Sharif and the widowed husband of

Peers and Treasury battle over Northern Rock
Daily Telegraph - Alistair Darling’s nationalisation of Northern Rock was attacked by the Home of Lords yesterday, with peers demanding that the state-owned bank be made more open and subject to scrutiny. Peers passed amendments that would subject Northern Rock to

STORY PHOTO
Winona Daily News - RUSHFORD, Minn. — At night, Karen Wilkemeyer and her four kids wrap a blanket around themselves and huddle near the heat register in the middle of the room. It’s just one aspect of the Wilkemeyer family’s new winter routine to stay warm in

Oil futures push past $101 a barrel
Times and Democrat - Oil investors can interpret such news in one of two ways: Selling on concerns that the economy, and thus demand for oil, is cooling; or buying on the prospect that interest rates will fall, weakening the dollar and feeding new buying of oil futures.

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