Portfolio

Moody’s has downgraded Legg Mason’s senior debt from A2 to A3, on concerns over poor mutual fund performance and the $2 billion that Legg Mason has pledged to backstop money market funds, the Baltimore Business Journal reports.

For many investors, buying into and saving for the retirement American dream is no longer a reality, according to a new survey from AARP of 1,628 workers over age 45, conducted last month.

John Bogle, the indefatigable founder of Vanguard and shareholder activist, likened the current financial crisis to a “speculative orgy like nothing we have ever seen before in the history of the United States,” speaking over the weekend on National Public Radio.

The credit crisis fueled a substantial 33% increase in asset management mergers and acquisitions in the third quarter, compared to 3Q07, Jefferies Putnam Lovell announced Tuesday. There were 69 M&A deals across the globe, up from 52 a year earlier.

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday it will buy up to $1.3 trillion of the top-rated asset-backed and unsecured commercial paper in the markets—virtually a business loan bailout due to frozen money markets, the closest the government has come to making loans to businesses directly.

NEW YORK—In the wake of the ongoing credit crisis and illiquid money market, much of it due to the failure of a single money market mutual fund, the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to overhaul Rule 2a-7. Separately, the Department of the Treasury is looking into creating a market stability regulator with omniscient powers across the "entire financial system."

Lord Abbett Promotes 17 Executives to Partner

Treasury Opens Money Fund Guarantee Program

CHICAGO - When it comes to choosing derivative instruments, some portfolio managers still think the more complicated they are, the better.

Investors in the now-defunct Primary Fund got their first indication of when they can expect redemptions last Monday, when Reserve Management announced it would return 32% of the fund's assets as of Sept. 15, or $20 billion, on Oct. 13.