To borrow a tag line from one of Warren Buffett's most well-known companies, buying Berkshire Hathaway is now so easy, even a caveman can do it.
Could Europe kill the chances of a global economic recovery? There are growing concerns about the health of several European nations, most particularly Greece. Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings all downgraded their credit ratings for Greece last month.
The U.S. dollar jumped to a two-month high against the euro Friday after surprisingly strong consumer data boosted expectations the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates sooner rather than later.
What to do with Wall Street's gluttonous gatekeepers?
Over-regulating credit ratings might just have a happy ending.
The most ridiculed players in the financial markets have found a new tormentor.
Credit rating agencies have long relied on the right of free speech as protection against litigation, especially in the U.S. A hole has just been poked in this shield.
The Obama administration sent Congress its latest plan to spruce up the much maligned credit rating business. But the proposal sidesteps a key issue, and legislators don't seem to be in any rush to act on it.
Credit rating firms may finally be forced to eat their own cooking.
Known for his early warnings on Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, analyst Martin Weiss of Weiss Research is now sounding the alarm about state of California municipal bonds.
Is the government going to make life even tougher for Standard & Poor's, Moody's and other credit rating firms?
Despite near universal criticism of their many missteps during the credit bubble, the ratings agencies aren't irrelevant just yet.
It looks like after two months of ignoring the risks that remain for the economy and markets, Wall Street has finally found something else to worry about: the possibility that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating.
The dollar fell to a five-month low against the euro Friday as inflationary fears heated up and the market continued to fret over a downgrade of the U.K.'s outlook.
The pace of store bankruptcies will pick up -- even if consumer spending rebounds -- in the next 12 months, industry experts say.
Just when their missteps in the ongoing financial crisis appeared to have faded, credit rating agencies are finding themselves back in the spotlight once again.
When the Federal Reserve announced last week it was buying $300 billion in long-term Treasury notes, the move was viewed as one of the safer bets the central bank has made recently.
To pay for the massive stimulus plan, bank bailout and other spending, the government is taking on a record amount of debt, issued in the form of government bonds. If no one buys this debt, it could push up interest rates and increase how much you pay for loans on homes, cars and credit cards.
Conglomerate General Electric Co. lost its perfect credit rating Thursday when rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the company.
Credit-rating giant Moody's Investors Service published a list of companies Tuesday that it believes are most likely to default on their debt.
General Electric may have slashed its dividend to shore up its balance sheet, but a looming ratings downgrade could push it into a cash shortage and funding problems.
General Electric said Friday that it plans to cut its dividend by 68%, to 10 cents from 31 cents a quarter, a move the conglomerate says should save it $9 billion a year.
An appetite for risk has returned to the fixed income market, where investors are beginning to spurn safe, low-yielding treasuries to buy corporate bonds instead. Corporations sold $70 billion worth of debt in the first half of January, according to Bloomberg data, hitting a pace not seen since May.
Shares of General Electric finished higher Thursday as investors awaited the conglomerate's fourth-quarter earnings report - and analysts wondered how the company will maintain both its century-old dividend and perfect credit rating in the wake of problems at its financial services unit.
The nation's economic woes are weighing heavily on credit card giant American Express, prompting analysts to take a dark view of the company.
Washington Mutual's stock plunged Thursday despite reports that the company was actively looking for a buyer.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. said Monday its board approved a plan to buy back up to another $40 billion of its shares
The pressure on American International Group reached fevered pitch on Monday night as the troubled insurer was hit by a series of credit rating downgrades.
In an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve Board is lending as much as $85 billion to rescue crumbling insurer American International Group, officials announced Tuesday evening.
Washington Mutual's stock rose on Tuesday, recovering from a rough start after Standard & Poor's lowered the savings-and-loan's credit rating to junk amid continuing weakness in the housing market.
Washington Mutual is seeking to reassure investors by saying it has enough liquidity and capital to see it through these tough times.
Mortgage-related problems continued to hammer regional banks, according to a report released Wednesday.
Merrill Lynch booked its fourth-straight quarterly loss Thursday, this time losing nearly $5 billion, as the nation's largest brokerage was forced to once again take massive writedowns.
Sylvain Raynes, Joshua Rosner, and Christopher Whalen are the power trio that has come to personify today's collapsing capital markets.
Government officials said Tuesday that the country's three largest credit raters failed in their reviews of subprime mortgage-backed securities.
The stock price of General Motors Corp. neared its lowest level in 33 years Monday after a credit-rating agency's report cast a further shadow on the embattled U.S. auto industry.
Stocks slumped Friday, ending a tough week on a low note as renewed worries about the credit market crisis and inflation sent the Dow to a three-month low.
Investors returned to Treasurys Friday after the ratings downgrade of two of the largest bond insurers.
Stocks appeared poised for losses at the start of Friday's session as investors kept an eye on oil prices and worries about financial firms persisted.
Bill Ackman, the activist investor best known for his scorched-earth campaign against MBIA and Ambac, has trained his sights on yet another municipal bond insurer: Financial Security Assurance.
In a move to protect investors from shady security-selling practices, major credit-rating firms Moody's, S&P, and Fitch reached a cooperation agreement with New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday.
Stocks closed Wednesday's session mixed, at the end of a choppy session, after reports that Moody's may lower the credit ratings of two key bond insurers overshadowed some upbeat economic data and lower oil prices.
Government officials urged credit rating agencies Wednesday to rethink the way they rate municipal bonds, arguing that the current system saddles local governments and taxpayers with unnecessary costs.
After years of being dogged by questions about the strength of its balance sheet, MBIA is turning the tables.
It's not all bad news for the bond insurance industry nowadays.
Shares of bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. plummeted in Wednesday trade after the company said it would raise $1.5 billion in capital and reorganize its business.
Stocks closed higher Tuesday, for the third session in a row, as upbeat news from IBM and bond insurer MBIA helped offset a number of discouraging economic reports released earlier in the session.
Stocks closed higher Tuesday, for the third session in a row, as upbeat news from IBM and bond insurer MBIA helped offset a number of discouraging economic reports released earlier in the session.
What the municipal bond market needs most is not an injection of capital into the bond insurance companies. What it needs is an injection of common sense into its credit rating system.
If the bond insurance crisis worsens, banks and securities firms may have to sock away billions of dollars more in reserves, Moody's Investor Services said in a report published Tuesday.
MBIA on Tuesday became the second bond insurer to replace its chief executive this year, bringing former chief Jay Brown back to replace Gary Dunton. Ambac, the second-largest financial guarantor after MBIA, last month named Michael Callen to take over for the retiring Robert Genader.
Bond insurer MBIA Inc. said Tuesday that Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Dunton has resigned and that former CEO Joseph "Jay" Brown was returning to assume the helm of the embattled company.
Troubled bond insurer Financial Guaranty Insurance Co. asked New York state insurance regulators to split its troubled structured finance arm from its healthy municipal bond insurance business, New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo said Friday.
Congress waded into the bond insurer saga Thursday as lawmakers tried to assign blame and prescribe a remedy for the evolving crisis.
The bond insurance crisis will come under congressional scrutiny Thursday as a number of high-profile players including Ambac and MBIA executives and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer are scheduled to testify before lawmakers.
Berkshire Hathaway's latest foray into bond insurance is classic Warren Buffett. The Omaha billionaire has floated a proposal that is highly favorable to him and his shareholders - and excruciatingly tough on the companies he is targeting. But while the proposal has been widely described as a rescue, there are signs that Buffett's prey - including publicly traded Ambac and MBIA - aren't yet desperate enough to take the deal.
After enduring months of scrutiny and attacks, the big three credit rating agencies were criticized once again Thursday, with critics charging that their recent efforts to shore up their shaken rating systems are too little and too late.
Moody's Investors Services said Monday it is considering changes in its rating system, including how it appraises mortgage-related securities, which plummeted in value as a result of the ongoing credit crisis.
Bond insurance giant MBIA Inc.'s reported results Thursday that transcend the cliched "Going from bad to worse." Perhaps the ungrammatical "Going from worse to worser" is called for.
MBIA Inc. reports write-downs of $3.5 billion on souring credit derivatives in the fourth quarter, raising the possibility that the world's largest bond insurer could lose its top credit rating
It's not easy being a bond insurer nowadays.
Forget what you may have read in the newspaper about state budget problems or bond insurer meltdowns. This is a perfect time to be buying municipal bonds. The economy is slowing, the Federal Reserve is poised for more interest rate cuts (boosting bond prices), and a Democratic win in November would probably lead to higher taxes on the rich, thereby enhancing munis' tax advantages. Throw in munis' microscopic default rates, and you've got an ideal landing spot for investors weary of the stock market roller coaster.
"What on earth is Wilbur Ross thinking?"
A significant number of the bankers, regulators, credit agencies and other key players whose errors, omissions and greed contributed to the current financial crisis are at the World Economic Forum in Davos - and they all seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet.
After the subprime snafu, Wall Street is focusing on a new word, and a new potential disaster: monolines
Stocks slipped Friday, ending a tough week on a down note as investors mulled upbeat earnings from GE and IBM and President Bush's proposed fiscal stimulus plan, but remained wary about the outlook for the economy.
Stocks tumbled late Friday afternoon, capping off a dismal week on a down note as investors mulled upbeat earnings from GE and IBM and President Bush's proposed fiscal stimulus plan, but remained wary about the outlook for the economy.
Stocks slipped Friday afternoon, as investors mulled upbeat earnings from GE and IBM and President Bush's proposed fiscal stimulus plan, but remained wary after Thursday's big selloff.
updated: Fri Jan 11 2008 17:50:00
A growing chorus of economists are saying that the U.S. is heading for a recession. CNN's Ali Velshi reports.
Despite the subprime mortgage crisis and the rising risk of a recession, a recession isn't likely under current conditions, credit ratings agency Moody's said in a report Friday.
Vultures began swooping in Friday to pick over the carnage of the worst housing bust in U.S. history. What's remarkable, though, is how happy the spectacle is making some people on Wall Street.
MBIA Inc. slashed its dividend by more than half Wednesday as part of a larger plan by the troubled bond insurer to raise capital and maintain its lofty credit rating.
Stocks inched higher Thursday as strength in the technology sector added some stability to an otherwise rocky session plagued by troubling news from Bear Stearns and bond insurer MBIA.
Just hours after dodging a potentially devastating downgrade from ratings agency S&P, bond insurance giant MBIA disclosed late Wednesday a massive $8.1 billion exposure to the same risky investments that have been wreaking havoc on Wall Street in recent months.
Wall Street banks may inject cash into ACA Financial Guaranty Corporation, which was dramatically downgraded to junk while nearly the entire bond insurance industry was put on negative credit watch by S&P yesterday.
MBIA, the world's largest bond insurer, announced Monday that it will receive a $1 billion investment from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
Like holiday shoppers maxing out their credit cards, the nation's retailers have been racking up debt buying back their own stock. Now their bills are coming due.
updated: Mon Nov 12 2007 21:06:00
CNN's Gerri Willis has the risks on renting and how some landlord financial concerns can affect you.
It's one of the hottest debates in the market right now: Is Citigroup short of capital?
It's getting hard to wrap your brain around subprime mortgages, Wall Street's fancy name for junk home loans. There's so much subprime stuff floating around - more than $1.5 trillion of loans, maybe $200 billion of losses, thousands of families facing foreclosure, umpteen politicians yapping - that it's like the federal budget: It's just too big to be understandable.
The country's leading ratings agencies - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch - are under attack these days for fueling the subprime mortgage meltdown with excessively high ratings on mortgage-backed bonds that turned out to be bad bets.
Lawmakers grilled credit rating agency executives Wednesday about their role in the subprime mortgage meltdown, particularly their cozy relationship with issuers of some of the securities that soured during this summer's crisis.
updated: Thu Sep 20 2007 01:27:00
CNN's Gerri Willis offers tips on refinancing, good news for those with a HELOC and more.
The government is casting a wide net in its scrutiny of Wall Street banks, investors, credit-rating agencies and others in the role they played in the subprime mortgage crisis.
updated: Fri Sep 14 2007 08:35:00
Rate decision
The European Union and the United States should join forces to investigate the role of credit ratings agencies in the current debt market turmoil, the EU's head of financial services said Friday.
Could the housing market's woes spread to bonds held in mutual funds by millions of ordinary investors?
There are certain companies everyone expects to top lists of environmentally friendly firms: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Starbucks.
Federal regulators said Friday they are reviewing the role credit-rating agencies played in the mortgage market debacle for borrowers with weak credit.
McGraw-Hill Cos. said Thursday that Standard & Poor's President Kathleen Corbet has been replaced by an executive vice president at S&P, McGraw-Hill's financial services division.
updated: Tue Aug 28 2007 07:12:00
Evaluating bankruptcy
American consumers are defaulting on their credit cards at a sharply higher rate compared to last year, in what could be another consequence of the recent subprime mortgage market crisis, according to a report published Tuesday.
Moody's on Thursday said it may still downgrade Countrywide Financial's debt ratings because its liquidity remains strained despite a $2 billion capital infusion.
On a recent conference call with ratings agency Standard & Poor's, Steven Eisman, a managing director at hedge fund Frontpoint Partners, had a question. Referring to the agency's move to downgrade billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities, he said, "I'd like to understand why you're making this move today and why you didn't do this many, many months ago."
U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd on Friday called for an examination of the credit rating agencies' role in valuing the subprime mortgage securities market.
Analysis: The plunging stock market is the result of new hedge fund strategies. It's happened before, and until regulators step in it will happen again
Moody's Investors Service has questioned whether claims by private equity firms that they invest on a longer-term basis than public companies and are able to attract stronger management teams are justified.
Most of Business 2.0's 100 Fastest growing tech companies saw their shares surge, along with sales and earnings. iMergent led the way, posting an impressive 334% stock return in 2006. See who else saw their shares spike, and their outlook for 2007.
Our annual rankings show another banner year for the businesses leading the tech revival.
Amid the chaos of the escalating subprime mortgage crisis, the three major credit-rating agencies - Fitch, Moody's and Standard & Poor's - have been voices of calm. They've downgraded only a sliver...
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