Bank of American to finance Fontainebleau

Bank of America will reportedly be funding Fontainebleau in their new multibillion dollar resort project which recently came odd speculation when MGM Grand and their Saudi partners were having a falling out over money issues.

Read the Wall Stree Journal article summary here. Search Google for the blog title for the full article.

Collateralized Debt Oligation (a.k.a. CDO)

Collaterilzed Debt Obligation's are in essence asset backed securities that are made up of a portfolio of underlying assets, mainly fixed income assets.They are assigned risk classes then packaged to sell to financial institutions. The major downside to CDOs is that rather than spreading risk through diverisification, they pass along risk through the financial system so the risk is technically supposed to be minimized through sharing. Many major investors and financial giants like Warren Buffet and Alan Greenspan claim to not understand CDOs mainly because of the way the risk is spread and the way they are setup.

Read more about CDOs, Tranches (the asset classification system), Asset-Backed Securities, and
Structured Finance here:

Collateralized Debt Obligation
Tranche
Asset-Backed Securities
Structured Finance

Unemployement

Once again, unemployment has risen from the previous week and more than analyst estimates. Unemployment rose to 640,000 from 613,000 and 5000 more than estimates for this week. Another closely related figure is the amount of unemployment claims as people try and find ways to make ends meet to ride out the current financial and economic crisis.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30364714/

Bank Stress Test

Critics are now criticizing the government's stress tests for major banks to check their durability during recession like conditions. The critics are saying now that the wrong areas are being tested and are questioning if they actualy reflect what will happen in the real world.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30368110/

David Kellerman

David Kellerman, the acting financial office of Freddie Mac, was found dead today of an apparant suicide. An autopsy will still be conducted but he was found in the morning by his wife and the police were called.

http://mobile.latimes.com/inf/infomo?view=page2&feed:a=latimes_1min&feed:c=businessnews&feed:i=46438485

http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/22/news/Freddie_Mac_CFO/index.htm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30344303/

Bank Stress Test

Results of the Bank Stress Tests are expected to be released next week showing how good or bad the banks are doing right now. In essence, the tests are expected to determine exactly how they are doing and their standing in the grand scheme of things.



More Information:
CNBC
Yahoo! Finance

Rule of 72 (of 70, of 69)

This is an appromate means to find out the number of years it will take to double one's investment. Either of these three numbers give a close approximation but they are still estimates. More accurate dollar amounts and periods are reserved for software programs such as spreadsheets and proprietary software.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_72

Business vs Personal Expenses

The saying that goes keep your life and work separate is most important when it comes to running a business. This is important at any level of business regardless as to sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations. Although as you go from left to right, it can become easier so to speak as to keeping things separate, many small to medium size business owners still make the mistake of thinking that since it is their company, they can do whatever they want. This is after all the purpose of accounting. You want to track your business related income and expenses. By mixing in personal expenses, the line is blurred as to what was business related and what was personal. Though not recommended, if one account is used for personal and business expenses, there are ways to keep the expenses separate. This is important to show that a draw was made for personal expenses while other draws were made for business related expenses. This can be difficult when a business is run out of the home, mainly for tax purporses as an entire home is difficult to prove is used to operate a business unless there is tangible proof of it. Otherwise, an office must be defined in order to show that is all that will be claimed on the return. Otherwise, this cannot be claimed or should not be claimed as a defined space cannot be used for business related operations.

Tax Return Tips

1. The IRS now allows payments and refunds to more than one account to accomodate where the money is coming from or going to. It is very important to check your account number and routing number as it can get difficult to fix a mistake if you had your money sent or paid from an incorrect account.

2. Never send cash when filing your return as this is NOT an acceptable form of payment.

3. Remember to attach a payment voucher when sending in your payment as it makes it easier for the IRS to process the payment.

4. It is always better to send as much paperwork as you can as backup for your tax return when mailing it in as it allows the IRS to see where you got your numbers from. Also, be sure to keep the exact same copies of whatever you are sending in to ensure that your return matches what the IRS will be keeping on file.

Cramer: Depression is Over

Watch this video as Jim Cramer explains on his show Mad Money why he thinks the depression is over.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1081118742

House Passes Budget

The House has passed a budget to last through 2010. It effectively covers job creation for health care, energy, and education, tax cuts for the middle class, and reduce the deficit.

Read the article here: http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/legislation?id=0291

Watch Speaker Nancy Pelosi's speech here:

G20 Pledge

The G20 Summit met to decide on how to best use $1 Trillion in funds for developing nations as well as fix/change loopholes for tax breaks and tax havens. An agreement hasn't been reached for a stimulus package though. This news brought a surge to the stock markets bringing them up over 8000 points. A side note is that changes may be made to the mark-to-market rule so it becomes harder for accountants to fudge the numbers to make the financial statments look good or favorable towards the company.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/30002420
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30004815/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wall-Street-jumps-on-G20-hope-rb-14829282.html?sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=TBD&ccode=TBD