Hard Money Loans

The S&P 500 market index has suffered its longest losing steak since February 2009 as investors fret about the economy.

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Mark Zuckerberg shouldn’t lose too much sleep about China’s Facebook beating him to Wall Street.

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It’s easy to understand why Raj Rajaratnam may have trouble finding 12 unbiased jurors for his insider trading trial, says Ann Woolner

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Wall Street analysts offer buy, sell, or hold opinions on stocks in the news on Nov. 1

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Wall Street analysts offer buy, sell, or hold opinions on stocks in the news on Oct. 27

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Rising jobless claims and worsening euro debts pulled down Wall Street on Thursday erasing early gains triggered by a 7.6 percent increase in the resale of single-family homes in August.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 77 points or 0.7 percent at 10,662 with 26 of 30 firms losing.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index shed 9 points or 0.8 percent to close at 1,125 with financial firms as worst decliners.

The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 7 points or 0.3 percent ending at 2,327.

Gold for December delivery was up $4.20 to settle at $1,296, a record high.

Oil futures for November delivery was up 47 cents to $75 a barrel.

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Bruce Madoff, President and founder of a New York firm that invested money for hedge funds and wealthy individuals and institutions, has been charged with operating a long-running Ponzi scheme that could cost investors billions of dollars. If this turns out to be true, it could be almost as large as the Enron scandal and will jeopardize the financial well-being of many individuals and institutions.

Ponzi schemes such as the one Madoff perpetrated are named after a 1920′s fraudster named Charles Ponzi. It is a “rob Peter to pay Paul” scheme whereby unsuspecting investors are sucked in by a fraudster making promises of unbelievable interest rate returns. Meanwhile he is just using that new money to payoff earlier investors. Once no new recruits can be found, the house of cards collapses, much like Madoff’s did when he could not meet $7 Billion of payouts to his investors.
In reading about this fraud, several very important lessons stand out: read more…