The Delta-Northwest merger was approved this week. Some of you may remember that the Edward Bastian the president and CFO of the combined airline is an SBU graduate who was the keynote speaker at this spring's graduation . (now if he would only give BonaResponds some discounts!) From Busine ... Read more

From the NY Times Article A Question for A.I.G. - Where Did the Cash Go? - NYTimes.com : "The American International Group is rapidly running through $123 billion in emergency lending provided by the Federal Reserve, raising questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September ... Read more

Continuing the accounting issue from last article, so much for German conservatism. Again from the NY Times: Accounting Changes Help Deutsche Bank Avoid Loss - NYTimes.com : "Deutsche made a pretax profit of 93 million euros ($118.5 million) in the third quarter, a result only possible becau ... Read more

Previously we had the text of the Melamed speech , but here is the actual video of the speech from Vanderbilt ... Read more at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Financeprofessorcom/~3/436356724/video-of-leo-melamed.html ... Read more

Congrats to R0y Wiggins and his class. What a great idea and learning experience that will help many. Please keep us posted onto the success. I would love to do the same here. Any donors? Bentley University Class Creates Local Microfinance Fund - MarketWatch : "An honors finance class at Bent ... Read more

Bloomberg.com: "Evil Wall Street Exports Boomed With `Fools' Born to Buy Debt" "The bundling of consumer loans and home mortgages into packages of securities -- a process known as securitization -- was the biggest U.S. export business of the 21st century. More than $27 trillion ... Read more

Bloomberg.com: Exclusive FBI Proble of JPMorgan Fees focuses on Swaps... : "Nowhere have JPMorgan's derivative deals wreaked more havoc than in Jefferson County, Alabama, home of Birmingham, the state's largest city. A combination of soaring rates on its bonds and interest-rate swaps is threateni ... Read more

UPDATE 2-GM/Chrysler seek $10 bln govt aid for merger - sources | Deals | Private Capital | Reuters : "General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for around $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to su ... Read more

In the Journal of Behavorial Finance 2004 Allan Kimmel wrote the following about financial rumors: "In the contemporary financial marketplace, the consequences of speculation and decision making based on unfounded assertions and false rumors can be especially potent and undeniably dangerous.&qu ... Read more

Really? I find this very hard to believe. Yes they will get bonuses, but if the bonus is tied at all to performance, you have to expect they will be well down from last year. Moreover, even for political reasons, if I were on the board of any of these firms I would be arguing for lower pay since ... Read more