Warren Buffett is giving arbitrage traders the chance to capture annualized earnings of 22 percent on his bid for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. offered $100 a share for the largest U.S. railroad on Nov. 3 in a deal the Omaha, Nebraska- based insurance and investment company said would probably close during the first quarter. Based on that schedule and Burlington’s closing price of $96.98 yesterday, the acquisition offers an annualized return of 8 percent to 22 percent.  Comment

Consumers are still in full-on saving mode according to the latest Fed data on consumer credit: Reuters: Total U.S. consumer credit dropped by a bigger-than-expected $14.80 billion in September, Federal Reserve data showed on Friday, indicating households prefer to reduce debt and are still reluctant to spend.  Comment

Shares of Magna International Inc were up more than 12% Friday, a day after it posted a surprise quarterly profit and said it would focus on its core auto-parts business after the collapse of its deal to buy a stake in General Motors Co's Opel unit.  Comment

Gold hits new record above $1,100 Gold futures barrel to a new record high above $1,100 an ounce, as news that the U.S. unemployment rate topped 10.2% in October boost expectations the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero well into next year, pressuring the dollar.  Comment

While most of us don’t believe we’re out of the recession, no matter what the statistics say, we can all agree that we made a few sacrifices over the last year and a half. Some have made a lot of sacrifices. One of the things my wife and ...  Comment

Of course we all like to look good. For some of us, professional attire is a job requirement. We spend a lot of money to look good but we are also doing a lot more homework about...  Comment

A recent post in Sharon Astyk's lovely sustainability blog mentions the idea that Americans are suffering from "frugality fatigue." After a year of tightened belts and tighter...  Comment

In this blog, on this site, I usually explore ways to think about spending rather than ways to actually spend. That’s not my blogcallojob (blog calling or job) to tell you...  Comment

Shell Oil Company will pay California more than 19 million dollars because of environmental violations at service stations throughout the state, officials said Friday.  Comment

In what has been urged as a must-have by real estate professionals and builders, the $8000 tax credit for first-time home buyers (previously due to expire Nov. 30), has been extended through April 30, 2010, according to the Associated Press. Not only...  Comment

il prices tumbled Friday after the government said the U.S. unemployment rate topped 10 percent for the first time since 1983.  Comment

Fannie Mae announced about a deal to sell $2.6 billion in unused low-income-housing tax credits. The names of the buyers are not disclosed but the deal has been already approved by its federal regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Comment

Disney is once again moving East, reports the LA Times. There’s a Disney park already in Hong Kong, and soon there will be one in Shanghai as well! After a decade of negotiations, the Beijing government has approved plans for a Disney park of i...  6 Comments

According to a recent Merril Lynch (Bank of America) survey, Europe has officially returned to favor among investors. “A net 30% of global portfolio managers see euro-zone equities as undervalued relative to other regions, the highest reading since April 2001. A net 11% are overweight Europe, the first overweight allocation in nearly two years, said Baker”...  Comment

The dollar's value against major currencies has fallen in recent months as the U.S. fiscal outlook worsened and amid expectations that interest rates will remain close to zero for some time to fight the economic downturn. This week, the euro broke above the psychologically important level of $1.50 driving gold prices to record levels, prompting many global central banks intervening on currency markets to slow the...  Comment

According to an op-ed by Paul Krugman in the NY Times today, China is not only a currency manipulator, but also a cause of the world financial crisis. I usually have some respect for Mr. Krugman, so I’ll try to take his op-ed seriously. Krug...  1 Comment

As I traverse across the country talking about social media, whether it's with clients one-on-one or with conference attendees from a stage -- the "I don't have time" mantra is a common response...  Comment

A while back this clever decal, posted by one of the creative folks over on the craft exchange site Etsy, was making the rounds on the web courting oohs and ahhs from techie blogs (who also got...  Comment

These days it seems as if every corporation has tried its hand at blogging. The more corporate blogs that exist in the blogosphere, the more difficult it becomes to gain blog subscribers by...  1 Comment

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with “Viral Marketing Scientist” Dan Zarrella on special projects related to Twitter. His focus on social science and...  1 Comment

Every business, they say, needs a catchy name – but some people evidently can’t tell the differance between ‘catchy’ and ‘ridiculous’. Would you have your haircut at Assman the barber or get a...  10 Comments

Ideas are the currency of the future and can come from anywhere, and Google probably knows this more than anyone right now! To help celebrate their 10th birthday, Google invited...  Comment

Back in September, we asked our readers to contribute their best green business tips. We wanted you to share your ideas for going green in your small business. As usual, the Small Business...  Comment

GDP growth progress but jobs need to grow, Obama said: The economy is growing again, thanks to the stimulus. To see what that growth looks like, check this out. The U.S. economy, propelled by stimulus-driven gains in consumer spending and home build...  Comment