Vivendi And Universal Music Group to Purchase EMI Music

Vivendi and its subsidiary, Universal Music Group (UMG), have announced that they have signed with Citigroup Inc. (“Citi”) a definitive agreement to purchase EMI’s recorded music division for a total consideration of £1.2 billion representing 7...

Getting Out of the Hole, Or Digging It Deeper?

Yesterday I focused on the proposition that “irrationality knows no bounds.” Today’s news brings evidence that the same can be said about greed. (Resolving the question of whether or not greed is irrational is left as an exercise...

U.S. Tax Payer Helps Feed the Corporate Greed – Political Opinion

During 2008, “the brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion.” According to a report by the New York state comptroller, these companies simultaneously doled out the equivalent to half that amount, an estimated...

U.S. Treasury Department Sets Out Standards for Financial Rescues

The U.S. Treasury Department has outlined five factors it says it will use as guidelines to follow to save important financial institutions from bankruptcy on a case-by-case basis.  

Citigroup Breaks Pledge Not to Increase Credit Card Rates And Receives Bailout By U.S. Government

In a move that has become all-too familiar, the federal government announced its plan Sunday night to spend billions of dollars to stave off failure at Citigroup only a week after raising credit card interest rates by as much as 100% on millions of customers....

U.S. Credit Card Companies Seek to Recoup Losses By Raising Rates – Political Opinion

Citigroup Inc. announced on November 14 that it would raise its credit card interest rates on 20% of its customers, just weeks after accepting $25 billion from the federal government to help the U.S. economy weather the worst economic downturn since the...

Wachovia Posts $24 Billion Losses

The embattled Charlotte, NC based bank posted write downs of nearly $24 billion in the third quarter alone as it continues to struggle in the reeling mortgage and financial crisis, according to The Guardian. This newest deterioration is yet another difficulty...

A Year of Bank Failures – Political Opinion

Last week the fourteenth and fifteenth U.S. bank failures this year occurred, and the list is likely to grow even longer by the end of the year. The 15 failed banks this year represent more failures than the previous five years combined.

Governments Across Europe Struggle to Address Financial Crisis

Governments across Europe are scrambling to save failing banks Sunday, a day after European leaders called for a more coordinated response to the global financial crisis. In Germany today, government and business leaders met to discuss efforts to save...