G-20 Summit

President Obama is heading to Europe to represent the US in the G-20 Summit. He is going to mixed reviews as several European nations feel that the current economic crisis is due to the US and the US is providing solutions to a problem we started. He may still receive his "rock star" status though but the next few days will tell what may prove to help or hurt Obama's presidency as well as supporting the world wide economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29972593/

GM, Chrysler Restructuring

President Obama announced today that the government would not be providing GM & Chrysler with a government bailout or loan, at the moment. GM would receive 60 days while Chrysler would receive 30 days to provide the government with a plan to show some significant restructuring and plan to keep the companies in float before they could receive some sort of federal assistance.

Bear Stearns and the Financial Crisis

An interesting article on the (secret) history of Bear Stearns and how it relates to the current financial crisis.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/02/magazines/fortune/cohan_houseofcards.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009030410

Roller Coaster Ride

This week was a roller coaster ride in the markets as they improved after the announcement by the government that they would buy back abou $500b in bad loans to improve balance sheets. Then the market dropped after everyone's excitement died down. Another jump came when the treasury secretary announced more details in the finance package to help stimulate the economy. The market cooled a bit after the excitement died down (again). There was also a slight jump after the President's press conference and town hall meetings where he explained his stance on how to fix the current economic crisis.

Ex-Dividend Rate

The Ex-Dividend Date is the final date to purchase a stock in order to receive dividends on that particular stock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex-dividend_date

Presidential Press Conference 3/24/09

Positive Day

The markets closed up today as the Fed announced that they would be buying about half of the bad mortgages sitting on the balance sheets of many banks. Many saw this as a way to hopefully allow banks to start lending again and to improve the numbers on financial statements.