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SAN JOSE, Calif.
(AP) — After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a jury decided Friday
that Samsung ripped off the innovative technology used by Apple to
create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad. The
jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion in the latest skirmish
of a global legal battle between the two tech giants. An appeal is
expected. Apple Inc. filed its
patent infringement lawsuit in April 2011 and engaged legions of the
country's highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its
top smartphone competitor. Samsung Electronics Co. fired back with its
own lawsuit seeking $399 million.
The
verdict, however, belonged to Apple, as the jury rejected all Samsung's
claims against Apple. Jurors also decided against some of Apple's
claims involving the two dozen Samsung devices at issue, declining to
award the full $2.5 billion Apple demanded. However,
the jury found that several Samsung products illegally used such Apple
creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end
image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.
As part of its lawsuit, Apple
also demanded that Samsung pull its most popular cellphones and
computer tablets from the U.S. market. A judge was expected to make that
ruling at a later time.
The
outcome of the case is likely to have ripple effects in the smartphone
market. After seeing Samsung's legal defeat, other device makers relying
on Android may become more reluctant to use the software and risk
getting dragged into court.
Leading scientists on Thursday called on the upcoming Rio Summit to grapple with environmental ills that they said pointed to "a humanitarian emergency on a global scale." In a "State of the Planet" declaration issued after a four-day conference, the scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiralling demands for food.
"The continuing function of the Earth system as it has supported the wellbeing of human civilisation in recent centuries is at risk," said the statement issued at the "Planet Under Pressure" conference. "These threats risk intensifying economic, ecological and social crises, creating the potential for a humanitarian emergency on a global scale." "Climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy security threaten human wellbeing and civilisation as we know it." "Climate change, the financial crisis and food, water and energy security threaten human wellbeing and civilisation as we know it."
These changes have brought stability and innovation but created a system vulnerable to sudden stress, as the global financial meltdown and surge in food prices had shown. Existing international arrrangements are not dealing quickly enough with current global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss. It called for a "polycentric approach" for planetary stewardship, meaning a diverse partnership between local, national and regional governments that also includes business and grassroots groups. AFP
Five years ago, the world’s largest retail chain didn’t have to worry much about the world’s largest online mall. Only about a quarter of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) customers shopped at Amazon.com (AMZN), according to data from researcher Kantar Retail. Today, however, half of Wal-Mart customers say they’ve shopped at both merchants. That’s leaving the mega-retailer—which long ago bested local brick-and-mortar merchandise stores and supermarkets across America—with a massive online competitor that is too tough to ignore. Threatening Wal-Mart’s dominance are two trends: The discounter’s traditional customers—bargain hunters making less than $50,000 a year—are getting more tech-savvy, and more-affluent shoppers who began frequenting Wal-Mart during the recession are returning to Amazon as their finances improve.
In the last year Wal-Mart has increased its investment in its online business. The company has spent more than $300 million acquiring five tech firms since May and hired more than 300 engineers and code writers in the U.S. and India. Wal-Mart is trying to improve links between its store inventory, website, and mobile phone apps so that more customers can order online and pick up their purchases at stores, which half of Web customers do already. Wal-Mart is trying Web-based shopping tactics, like its Pay With Cash program for Wal-Mart customers who don’t have credit cards. The new program allows them to reserve products online and pay cash at their nearest store. To cater to its affluent customers, Wal-Mart is selling more expensive items—for example, high-end televisions from Sony (SNE) and Samsung—only online. What's my take on all this.... shop Amazon. MadOne / Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Former Lakers star Magic Johnson is putting together a potential ownership group that includes former Braves and Nationals executive Stan Kasten and the backing of a high-powered financial services firm with assets of $125 billion. Needless to say, Magic is not playing around.
From the Los Angeles Times:
"I am so hyped, I'm ready to start right now,'' said Johnson in a phone interview Friday morning. "The Dodgers have been so important to this community for so many years, for so many reasons. I've lived through it all like everyone else and I want to make them great again.''
Johnson is that rare former sports star whose business acumen has matched his athleticism. Since retiring from the Lakers in 1996, he has made millions in investments that have focused on rebuilding inner cities. His substantial portfolio includes Starbucks franchises and movie theaters and a piece of the Lakers, which he recently sold.
"The Dodgers are my next big thing," Johnson said. "This is not just millions of my money, this is dear to my heart. This is bringing back the brand for the people of Los Angeles."
The number of Americans who lack access to basic necessities like food and healthcare is now higher than it was at the peak of the Great Recession, a survey released Thursday found. And in a finding that could worsen fears of U.S. decline, the share of Americans struggling to put food on the table is now three times as large as the share of the Chinese population in the same position.
The United States' Basic Index Score, a Gallup measure of access to necessities, fell to 81.4 in September--even lower than the 81.5 mark it reached in February and March, 2009. The recession officially ended in June of that year, but the halting recovery hasn't provided a sustained boost to the number of Americans able to provide for themselves. The government reported last month that a record number of Americans is living in poverty.
Between September 2008 and last month, the share of Americans with access to a personal doctor plummeted from 82.5 percent to 78.3 percent. The share with health insurance fell from 85.9 percent to 82.3 percent. And the share saying they had enough money to buy food for themselves and their family dropped from 81.1 percent to 80.1 percent. Gallup's surveys are based on the phone and in-person interviews.
Meanwhile, Gallup found that just 6 percent of Chinese said there were times in the past 12 months when they lacked enough money for food for themselves or their family, compared to 19 percent of Americans. Just three years ago, those results were almost reversed: 16 percent of Chinese couldn't put food on the table at times, compared to 9 percent of Americans. Yahoo / MadOne
Imagine this scenario: The IRS may soon just do your taxes for you — and send you the bill. If this sounds farfetched, it’s not. With a new congressional “super committee” tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in cuts by November, creative ways to find additional revenue are in high demand. And allowing the IRS to prepare you taxes could be one solution. The idea has been around for a while, but has been picking up steam in recent years. In 2006, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) argued it would close a $345 billion annual difference between what the government believes taxpayers owe them and what the IRS actually collects, which he calls the “tax gap.”
But this isn’t just an idea floated by senators and presidential advisers. While running for president, then-Sen. Barack Obama touted it during a 2007 speech at the Tax Policy Institute: “The government already collects wage and bank account information,” he said, “so there’s no reason the IRS can’t send Americans pre-filled tax forms to verify.” While the notion of allowing government to encroach on yet another aspect of our lives might sound like a hard sell, members of the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) believe this is a very real threat. InfoWars
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, facing waning confidence among Americans in his economic stewardship, plans some $300 billion in tax cuts and government spending as part of a job-creating package, U.S. media reported on Tuesday. The price tag of the proposed package, to be announced by Obama in a nationally televised speech to Congress on Thursday, would be offset by other cuts that the president would outline, CNN reported, citing Democratic sources. Bloomberg News said the plan would inject more than $300 billion into the economy next year through tax cuts, spending on infrastructure, and aid to state and local governments.
Obama's aides have refused to go public with the estimated cost of Obama's package or provide many specifics in advance, except to say that the proposals will have a "quick and positive" impact on boosting jobs at a time of stubbornly high U.S. unemployment. Republicans criticized Obama for not including them in discussions on the package before his big speech and indicated any jobs bills could face tough passage through Congress, where they control the House of Representatives.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed Obama's job approval rating at a low of 44 percent, while an ABC News/ Washington Post poll found that six in 10 Americans now rate the president's job on the economy and jobs negatively. Obama must get unemployment down from levels currently above 9 percent to improve his chances of winning a second White House term in the November 2012 election.
LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar may fall and Treasury yields rise on Monday in response to the United States losing its top-tier credit rating from Standard & Poor's but any selling is likely to be tempered by the euro zone's escalating debt crisis. Equity markets' likely reaction was indicated by a drop of more than six percent on Sunday in Tel Aviv stocks, one of the first to open globally after S&P on Friday cut the U.S. long-term credit rating by a notch to AA-plus from AAA.
Investors will be all the more likely to withdraw to safe havens, such as the Swiss franc, the yen and gold, if euro zone officials cannot stem concern that their debt crisis risks engulfing Italy, the bloc's third largest economy, whose government bond yields have soared to 14-year highs. "The real effects of this (U.S. credit rating downgrade) will take time to show through but a weaker U.S. dollar and marginally higher yields are likely," said Charles Diebel, a strategist at Lloyds Bank.
After a week that saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global stock markets, they are under pressure to show political leadership and reassure markets that Western governments have both the will and ability to reduce their huge and growing public debt loads. Standard and Poor's deepened the urgency for action late on Friday by stripping the United States of its top-tier AAA credit rating, a move that over time could ripple through markets worldwide by pushing up borrowing costs and making it more difficult to secure a lasting recovery.
It cited the acrimonious debate in Washington on raising the debt ceiling and near political paralysis over the best way to reduce the its $14.3 trillion debt, which on the current trajectory could climb above 100 percent of U.S. national output this decade. S&P's one-notch downgrade of the U.S. sovereign credit rating to AA-plus, while not totally unexpected, adds another level of uncertainty. Loss of gold-plated status for the world's benchmark interest rate risks pushing up borrowing costs on everything from car loans, mortgages and corporate debt to government bonds worldwide.
China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, took the world's economic superpower to task for allowing its fiscal house to get into such disarray. It also revived its calls for a new stable global reserve currency to replace the U.S. dollar, gaining a sympathetic ear in the United Kingdom. "The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," China's official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary. Xinhua scorned the United States for a "debt addiction" and "short sighted" political wrangling. China, it said, "has every right now to demand the United States address its structural debt problems and ensure the safety of China's dollar assets." MadOne
WASHINGTON (AP) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle civil fraud charges that it misled buyers of complex mortgage investments just as the housing market was collapsing. J.P. Morgan Securities, a division of the powerful Wall Street bank, failed to tell investors that a hedge fund helped select the investment portfolio and then bet that the portfolio would fail, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
The settlement announced Tuesday is one of the most significant legal actions targeting Wall Street's role in the 2008 financial crisis. It comes a year after Goldman Sachs & Co. paid $550 million to settle similar charges. Still, the settlement amounts to less than 1 percent of the bank's 2010 net income of $17.4 billion -- or less than what JPMorgan earns in one week.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq's parliament is chasing about $17 billion of Iraqi oil money it says was stolen after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and has asked the United Nations for help to track it down. The missing money was shipped to Iraq from the United States to help with reconstruction after the ouster of Saddam Hussein. In a letter to the U.N. office in Baghdad last month, parliament's Integrity Committee asked for help to find and recover the oil money taken from the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) in 2004 and lost in the chaos that followed the invasion.
"All indications are that the institutions of the United States of America committed financial corruption by stealing the money of the Iraqi people, which was allocated to develop Iraq, (and) that it was about $17 billion," said the letter sent to the U.N. with a 50-page report. The committee called the disappearance of the money a "financial crime" but said U.N. Security Council resolutions prevent Iraq from making a claim against the United States. "Our committee decided to send this issue to you ... to look into it and restore the stolen money," said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters.
U.N. officials were not immediately available for comment.
The same type of attack used recently to get around security measures at Lockheed Martin, and possibly other defense contractors as well, could also be used to hack international banking services, security experts say. That's because both the defense and banking industries rely heavily on RSA's SecurID tokens, 40 million of which are in use around the world.
Small businesses and private users use SecurID tokens to access online banking services, while large corporations use them to authenticate employees who need to remotely or locally access internal networks and resources. "These attacks have shown that the most sophisticated technology is useless," Passeri said, "if users are not trained to face the new wave of cyberthreats, which leverage traditional form of attacks (such as malware or phishing) as the first step to perpetrate more complex multilayered attacks." Technews Daily
Last week's security breach at Citibank was just the latest in a string of incidents that have rattled consumers: Sony, Lockheed Martin, and iTunes are also among recent high-profile targets. With such big names falling victim to hackers, is it still safe to bank online? The answer, according to top security experts, is a qualified "yes." Using the Internet to bank, buy music, or shop is still as safe or safer than visiting brick-and-mortar locations, as long as consumers take precautions and know what to do if they notice any suspicious activity.
As long as consumers take a few basic steps (explained below) to help protect their information, security experts agree that online banking remains safe. That's a good thing, since it's almost impossible for consumers to avoid sharing personal data online if they want to participate in 21st-century life, from Facebook to online sales to paying bills.
1.Don't talk to cyber-strangers, and don't click on hyperlinks within emails from strangers. "That's the easiest way to download malware to your computer," says McNelley.
2.Treat your smartphone like the computer it is. Downloaded apps can contain malicious codes, warns McNelley. "You have no idea who created that app, and very little code-checking goes on," she says. If you're going to download apps, she suggests avoiding or minimizing the financial transactions you make with the smartphone.
3.Treat social networks like dark street corners. You never know who's lurking among your friends and acquaintances. Hackers have targeted Gmail, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and users of those sites should be especially wary of clicking on embedded links, even those "recommended" by friends.
4.Use the Net to your own advantage. If you bank online, you don't have to wait until the end of the month to check your statement. You can log in anytime and make sure nothing is amiss.
5.Get free help. Many credit card issuers offer free and automatic identify-theft protection to customers.
6.Think of a new word. Keep careful track of your passwords in a secure document, rely on mnemonic devices to boost your memory, or come up with some other clever strategy--but don't stick with simple passwords that are easy for strangers to guess. Also, change your passwords on a regular basis.
7.Never, ever give your Social Security number to anyone online. If a site asks for it during the checkout process, it's probably a scam site.
8.Shred or safely store financial mail. Bank statements, investment documents, and other financial paperwork can give thieves clues about account numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personal information.
9.Fight back quickly. If you are hacked, step one is calling your bank, says McNelley. That's because banks have sophisticated systems in place that can immediately begin closely monitoring your account for signs of identity theft. They can also and shut down and replace any accounts if necessary. In fact, banks are often the first to notice something amiss, even before the victim.
10.Trust your gut. "You often hear, after consumers used an ATM with a skimming device, they had a bad feeling about it. If you do have that feeling, listen to it," says McNelley, and remove yourself from the situation.
For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the "Age of America" will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China. According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China's economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 — just five years from now.
It provides a painful context for the budget wrangling taking place in Washington right now. It raises enormous questions about what the international security system is going to look like in just a handful of years. And it casts a deepening cloud over both the U.S. dollar and the giant Treasury market.
According to the IMF forecast, which was quietly posted on the Fund's website just two weeks ago, whoever is elected U.S. president next year — Obama? Mitt Romney? Donald Trump? — will be the last to preside over the world's largest economy.
No More Phase-Outs for Itemized Deductions and Exemptions
For years, high-income folks have seen their write-offs for the most popular itemized deduction items (including mortgage interest, state and local income and property taxes, and charitable donations) reduced by a nasty phase-out rule. Another nasty phase-out rule reduced or eliminated personal and dependent exemption deductions. Thankfully, both phase-outs were completely repealed for 2010 as part of the Bush-era tax cuts. So you can write off the full amount of your itemized deductions and exemptions on your 2010 Form 1040 without any worries and without having to fill out phase-out worksheets to penalize yourself. More good news: the recent tax cut extension legislation repealed the phase-outs for 2011 and 2012 as well.
Liberalized Adoption Credit
For 2010, the maximum adoption credit was increased to $13,170 (up from $12,150 in 2009). In addition, the credit was made 100% refundable for the 2010 tax year (previously, it was nonrefundable). That means you'll receive a check for any leftover adoption credit after your federal income tax bill has been reduced to zero. To claim the credit, fill out Form 8839 (Qualified Adoption Expenses), and enter the credit on line 71 of Form 1040.
One-Time Break for Self-Employed Individuals
Self-employed folks can generally deduct their health insurance premiums on page 1 of Form 1040 (use line 29 for 2010). The deduction reduces their federal income tax bills, which is nice. However, the self-employed have never been allowed to deduct those premiums when calculating their self-employment tax bills on Schedule SE. Good news: for 2010 only, you can deduct health insurance premiums on line 3 of Schedule SE. So those premiums will reduce both your income tax bill and your SE tax bill. Unfortunately, this break will not be available for 2011 and beyond unless Congress extends it.
Homebuyer Credit Repayment Rules Kick In
As I explained in an earlier column, you may have to repay part or all of the credit claimed for a 2008 or 2009 home purchase with your 2010 Form 1040. In most cases, however, only those who purchased homes in 2008 will be affected. They will generally have to repay 1/15 of the credit with the 2010 Form 1040. If this rule impacts you, fill out Form 5405 (First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit), and enter the repayment amount as an addition to your tax bill on line 59 of Form 1040.
Real Estate Tax Deduction for Non-Itemizers is Gone
For 2008 and 2009, unmarried individuals who did not itemize could write off up to $500 of state and local real property taxes by claiming an increased standard deduction. Married joint-filing couples could write off up to $1,000. This add-on standard deduction deal for real estate taxes expired at the end of 2009, and it was not reinstated for 2010.
Deductions for Sales Taxes on New Vehicle Purchases Are Gone
The 2009 Stimulus Act created a temporary write-off for non-itemizers who paid state and local sales taxes on new vehicles purchased between 2/17/09 and 12/31/09. The write-off came in the form of an additional standard deduction allowance. Similarly, itemizers were allowed to claim an extra itemized deduction for such taxes. Both breaks lapsed at the end of 2009, and they were not reinstated for 2010.
Break for Unemployment Benefits Is Gone
In 2009, the first $2,400 of unemployment benefits was federal-income-tax-free. This break was not continued for 2010. Therefore, 100% of 2010 unemployment benefits generally must be reported as income on Form 1040 (use line 19).
Your Tax Preparer Might E-File Your Return This Time
Over the last few years, Congress has made tax-law changes that place increasing pressure on professional return preparers to electronically file more and more returns. As a result, your preparer might be forced to e-file your 2010 Form 1040 even if your returns for earlier years have always been done on paper. Get used to it. SmartMoney
Making your first million. Many people should be able to save $1 million for retirement if they start saving early enough. A worker who saves $5,500 per year beginning at age 30, gets a $1,500 401(k) match each year, and earns 7 percent annual returns will have $1,014,640 by age 65. However, someone who waits until age 40 to start saving will have to tuck away closer to $14,000 a year to reach $1 million by age 65, assuming the same 401(k) match and investment returns.
Those who do not get an employer 401(k) match or don't consistently save in a 401(k) plan will need to save even more on their own. "You may have to adjust for time frames when you were not contributing to your 401(k), such as when you are saving for a house or you change jobs," says Mark Fuller, president of Fuller Wealth Management in Broomfield, Colo. "Life happens, and you have got to be able to make some mid-course corrections along the way." Excessive fees and investment costs, 401(k) waiting periods and vesting schedules, and taking early 401(k) withdrawals or loans can also make it more difficult to become a millionaire. "It sounds easy and it sounds good on paper, but in actuality it is tough for people to do," says Doug Kinsey, a certified financial planner for Artifex Financial Group in Oakwood, Ohio. "People need to really keep their transaction costs to a minimum. If you shave off a couple of points a year in expenses, that goes a long way toward saving a million for retirement."
Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter. The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the people say. Some charges could be brought before year-end, they say.
One focus of the criminal investigation is examining whether nonpublic information was passed along by independent analysts and consultants who work for companies that provide "expert network" services to hedge funds and mutual funds. These companies set up meetings and calls with current and former managers from hundreds of companies for traders seeking an investing edge.
Among the expert networks whose consultants are being examined, the people say, is Primary Global Research LLC, a Mountain View, Calif., firm that connects experts with investors seeking information in the technology, health-care and other industries. In another aspect of the probes, prosecutors and regulators are examining whether Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers leaked information about transactions, including health-care mergers, in ways that benefited certain investors, the people say. Goldman declined to comment. WallStreet Journal
Do you remember the days when getting elected to Congress or choosing to work for the government was referred to as “public service”? The idea was that you would be making a sacrifice for the greater good of the country. Well, those days are long gone. Today, getting elected to Congress or working for the federal government is a good way to get rich. Most Americans have no idea just how obscenely wealthy many members of Congress are, and most Americans are totally clueless about how cushy some of these U.S. government jobs are. If there is one place in America where the good times are still rolling (other than Wall Street), it would have to be Washington D.C.
#1 According to an article in the Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s net worth soared from $13.7 million in 2008 to $21.7 million in 2009.
#2 In 2005, 7420 federal workers were making $150,000 or more per year. In 2010, a whopping 82,034 federal workers are making $150,000 or more per year. That is more than a tenfold increase in just five years.
#3 More than half of the members of the U.S. Congress are millionaires.
#4 The total compensation that the U.S. government workforce is going to take in this year is approximately 447 billion dollars.
#5 Today, all members of Congress earn at least $175,000. This is far, far more than the average American makes.
#6 60 percent of the federal government workforce is represented by labor unions.
#7 The median wealth of a U.S. Senator in 2009 was 2.38 million dollars.
#8 In 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense had just nine civilians earning $170,000 or more. When Barack Obama took office, the U.S. Department of Defense had 214 civilians earning $170,000 or more. In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense had 994 civilians earning $170,000 or more.
#9 Insider trading is perfectly legal for members of the U.S. Congress – and they refuse to pass a law that would change that.
#10 According to a recent study conducted by the Heritage Foundation, federal workers earn 30 to 40 percent more money on average than their counterparts in the private sector.
#11 When you factor in such things as retirement and health care benefits, the compensation gap between federal workers and private sector employees gets even larger.
#12 The personal wealth of members of the U.S. Congress collectively increased by more than 16 percentfrom 2008 to 2009.
America needs a fundamental shift in attitude. Instead of expecting a “nanny state” to take care of us, we should desperately try to reshape the federal government into a much smaller entity that will finally get off our backs. We have been living beyond our means for decades, and we cannot afford to pay for this bloated behemoth of a government for much longer. Learn more about the government, laws, federal reserve, and legislation. Power your mind! MadOne.
In an op-ed in Wednesday's New York Times, Warren Buffett offers a belated thank-you to the U.S. government for averting a financial collapse back in 2008. "In this extraordinary emergency, you came through," writes the Oracle of Omaha. "And the world would look far different now if you had not." Buffett praises Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, current and former Treasury Secretaries Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner, and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Bair for acting with "courage and dispatch."
The Berkshire Hathaway founder doesn't go into detail about the costs and benefits of the government's various rescue efforts. But his piece takes another high-profile step toward bolstering the emerging consensus among experts that the bailout, despite its extreme unpopularity, was in fact remarkably successful -- saving the economy for what turned out to be a bargain price.
Right now, we simply don't have all the necessary information to do a comprehensive accounting of the final tab for the bailout -- by which we mean not just the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program for banks, but also the efforts to prop up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the flailing automakers at GM and Chrysler, together with additional spending programs by the Federal Reserve. But here's what we can say: To date, the government has spent, invested or loaned $546 billion, according to figures compiled by the nonprofit investigative project ProPublica. Of that amount, $251 billion has been returned. That leaves $296 billion still outstanding -- already far less than the $700 billion price tag that was bandied about for the TARP alone. And it's likely that figure will go down as more banks make repayments.
Back in May, Geithner predicted that just TARP -- including help for GM, Chrysler and homeowners facing foreclosure -- would cost $117 billion, once all repayments were in. Help for Fannie and Freddie would cost $85 billion more, he said. But the government actually stands to make money -- an estimated $115 billion -- on the Federal Reserve's creative finance programs for banks. That gave Geithner a final cost figure for all the government's rescue efforts of $87 billion.
Big Banker is watching you—more closely than ever.
With lenders still skittish about making new loans, credit bureaus and others are hawking services that help banks probe deeply into your financial closet. The new offerings include ways to look at your rent and utility payments, figure out your income, gauge your home's value and even rate your banking habits based on details like whether your direct deposits have stopped. All of this could influence your financial freedom—not to mention the number of junk-mail solicitations you receive.Wall Street Journal
