Americans, it seems, are addicted to cable TV. Like every other addiction, we need our hit so bad that we’ll ignore the realities of our financial situation—we’re all going broke, fast—in order to watch Entourage and Down and Dirty with Jim Norton.

Tags: Credit Crunch, Economy, financial meltdown, HDTV, TV

Someday, banks may try to assess the credit risk of borrowers via “responsibility” scores based on unconventional metrics like school grades or eBay reputations
As bankers claw their way out of the credit crunch, they’re likely to get a lot more curious about our ability to repay loans. To do that, they’ll no doubt search [...]

Shares have plunged in Asia on growing fears of a global recession.
Japan’s Nikkei tumbled more than 7% at one point, hitting levels last seen in May 2003.
It recovered some of the losses to end down 2.46% amid hopes of a bounce on Wall Street later in the day.

Tags: Credit Crunch, Financial Crisis, global recession, recession, [...]

The coming blitz of quarterly results may leave investors more confused than ever about the outlook for corporate profits and the economy
For stock investors, this earnings season is turning into the lost quarter.
This month, companies began unveiling their results from the 2008 third quarter, which included July, August, and September. And the next couple [...]

After central bankers and policy-makers took unprecedented steps to shore up global financial markets, the economic support for the world’s banks — estimated at roughly $3.3 trillion — is starting to pay off. On Oct. 20, the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), the rate banks charge each other to borrow money, fell the most in [...]

With the IPO market bleak and venture capital scarce, innovative new companies are running low on cash
Gajus Worthington has seen the effect of the financial meltdown on U.S. startups, and it’s not a pretty picture.
The chief executive of Silicon Valley’s Fluidigm set out to take his chipmaker public about a month ago. On Sept. [...]

During the nearly three-week ban on shorting financial shares, the market sank 21.5%. Are regulators after the wrong parties?
As the panicked selling in equities markets around the world has accelerated over the past two weeks, there have been several attempts to slow the process, including the temporary suspension of trading on stock exchanges from Moscow [...]

After the bold step by Bernanke & Co. to cut rates, what moves should you make? Here are five questions to ask your financial adviser—now
Financial advisers are usually an unflappable bunch. When the markets are wild, investors turn to their financial planners for calm, consistent advice: Stick to the plan, think long term, don’t do [...]

Think stocks are volatile? The dislocations in the credit markets are even more serious, and they pose a greater threat to the economy
With the financial system bailout plan derailed by the House of Representatives on Sept. 29, the resulting plunge in equities made headlines around the world.

Tags: american international group, Bailout, Bankruptcy, Credit Crunch, debt, [...]