Tech Rivals Set to Report Earnings

Being that the stock market is back in business, investors shift focus to the fundamentals: earnings season. Will Apple and Microsoft echo the strong third-quarter results reported last week by Google and IBM? BloggingStocks contributor Trey Thoelcke offers his preview of this week's earnings.

Banco Santander to Acquire Sovereign

Echoing a wave of earlier consolidation in the banking industry, Banco Santander of Spain, which already owns 25 percent of Sovereign Bancorp, agrees to buy the remaining stake in the large Philadelphia thrift.

GM Announces 2 Plant Closures

General Motors announced that it would stop operations at a Wisconsin plant that makes the GMC Yukon and the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban SUVs in December. The company also disclosed that it will close a Michigan metal stamping plant. These closures will affect more than 2,500 employees.

Has the Market Finally Turned a Corner?

Stats show that our once crippled market may be making a slight turn-around. Today the market has closed with 900 points...a record-breaker.

How the Economy Affects You: Job Market

Some economists predict that by 2009, 1 million jobs will be lost. How frightening is that? A lot of the job losses are due to the failing economy, and part of the failing economy is due to outsourcing and illegal immigrants working for low pay. Go figure. If we weren't outsourcing, there would be more jobs available to U.S. citizens. If we really cracked down on illegal immigration, cheap labor wouldn't be an option to employers and more Americans would have jobs. If more jobs were available to Americans, the economy would be so much better because more people would have money to put into the economy. But people can't put money into the economy if they can barely afford to take care of their own families, right? What a tangled web!

Wall Street's Fault, Not Mine

Where did this economic mess begin? It pretty much came from several years of carelessly granting morgage loans and negotiations made through Wall Street. In 2001, professionals and officials knew the idea of a recession was not farfetched, so the Federal Reserve come up with this "genius" idea to slash morgage loan rates to 1% to bring back the economy, which, in turn, allowed people to basically buy homes they couldn't afford, causing them to default on their loans, which killed the economy within a matter of years. Simultaneously, Wall Street decided to split the riskiest morgages amongst several different investors to trade and sell. Unfortunately, people defaulted on their loans causing the housing market to crash.

In order to fix our little predicament, we need some money, right? Of course we do! And where will a lot of it come from? Oh, you guessed it; TAXPAYERS LIKE YOU AND ME! I don't own a house, never tried to buy one either. I can barely keep up with the stock market. I had nothing to do with this, so my question is, why am I paying for it?

Crunch Time

Because of the state of the economy, a lot of consumers are spending cautiously, sticking to necessities at bargain prices. During a time when no one knows what the future holds or where the economy will go from here, it's hard to splurge because people are preparing for the worst. Debts are high and the job market is terrible. This is a crucial time to really save money and hold on to it until things get better. Looks like Black Friday and holiday shopping are going to be at an all time low this year.

Financial Bailout Passed by Senate

The Senate passed the financial bailout Wednesday night, 74 to 25. I'm not sure that was a good idea. I think it was irresponsible on the Senate's part and shows poor judgement in regards to the economic crisis. The decision seems like the "easy way out" that could potentially make things more difficult in the long run. I feel there are many different options besides the bailout, the government just hasn't taken the time to think of them. This bailout could be really good for us, or really bad. In this case, I hope I'm wrong about this and I really hope the bailout will significantly help the economy.

Cash crunch: small businesses get creative

Banks have all but stopped lending, so entrepreneurs are turning to other means amd sources of funding to keep their businesses running.

Minimum Wage

Minimum wage is being raised in 26 states to at least $6.55/hour. I think this will affect our economy because more people will be less anxious to leave their job in search of more pay. And this also may affect the nation's employment rate

30 Under 30: Entrepreneurs to Watch

Entrepreneurs keep getting younger and younger, while their companies only get bigger. From solar energy to lobster trapping, the members of Inc.com's annual 30 Under 30 list are shaking up a variety of industries -- and doing it on their own terms!

Companies Headed for Painful Times

As consumers' discretionary income gets low and some companies struggle amid tightening credit conditions, 24/7 Wall St. rounds up a list of big company names that are likely to suffer in the coming months due to an ongoing credit crisis. I think our economy is about to see a depression like no other.

Wells Fargo, Citi Battle Over Wachovia

Wachovia says that it has agreed to be acquired by Wells Fargo in an all-stock deal worth $15.1 billion. But reports of a possible lawsuit begin swirling, since the deal would end an agreement that Citigroup announced earlier this week to buy Wachovia's banking operations with help from the FDIC.

Our financial industry is in a decifit.

Three Weeks Work for $19 Million

CEO joined Washington Mutual right before it went down. Alan Fishman was paid $19 million for three weeks work. The bank was seized by the FDIC and was also reported to be the largest bank failure in US history. Some parts of it were bought by JPMorgan Chase.

Illegal Immigrants

Where do I start? Illegal immigration is unfair on so many levels.
I don't have a problem with people because they are from other countries trying to live a better life in my country- no, not at all. I have a problem with people from other countries sneaking over the border to work for cheap wages and send the money back to their homelands. I have a problem with the immigrants who don't take the initiative to learn the English language and get on that waiting list for a visa. What's happening is people are sneaking across the border, working for cheap wages (below minimum wage even!) resulting in a tremendous unemployment rate for Americans who have lived in this country their whole life! How is that fair? An immigrant who hasn't made their contribution to American society can just come in, get a job that pays $5/hour that an American could have had for $12/hour, and send all that money back to their hometown- contributing to our economy's demise. And apparently, this is OK! Well, I for one don't agree. Because that money is lost, the government is going to find a way to replace that money- A.K.A. my taxes!
I'm curious. We live in America. Our primary language is English. Now, a lot of jobs are requiring that employees speak Spanish. Can we make it any easier for these illegal immigrants?
When illegal immigrants have children in America, their kids are considered Americans. Now my taxes are going towards healthcare and education for that child when their parent(s) were very wrong for illegally coming into the country in the first places. It's just not fair. That money could be going towards a legal resident who really needs that aid!
This is yet another reason why our economy is at an all time low!