Portfolio

Citigroup’s head of hedge fund services, Steve Bowman, has decided to leave the firm, according to a memo from Citi’s James Forese, co-CEO of markets & banking. There is no indication yet of Bowman’s future endeavors.

Statistics gathered in September 2007 by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) show that state and local government spends more on employee benefit programs than the private-sector.

On Wednesday morning, hedge fund fugitive Samuel Israel III surrendered himself to law enforcement officials in Southwick, Mass. Israel has been on the run since June 9, when he was set to report to prison in Ayres, Mass. His car was found that day on a Westchester County, N.Y., bridge with the words “suicide is painless” written on the hood.

This week, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission decided that effective Aug. 1, mutual fund advertisements will no longer need to be pre-approved.

Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred, Institutional Investor reports.

A study conducted in 2007 by Merrill Lynch and consulting firm Capgemini Group found that the rich are getting richer worldwide, The Hamilton Spectator reports. Last year, people worth more than $1 million increased 6% to around 10.1 million.

Bowne & Co. recently acquired Capital Systems for $13 million.

As high school and college seniors graduate, many are faced with the financial predicament to spend versus save. Despite some college programs, like St. Johns University, which offers computers to its incoming freshmen, high school graduates have many expensive needs for college, leading many to spend their graduation money, the Poughkeepsie Journal reports.

Last week’s Morningstar Investor Conference in Chicago may have echoed with many of the same old solutions of the past, but for those who listened carefully to Mohamed El-Erian’s message, “This time it’s different.”

Economists throughout the U.S. continue to weigh in on their predictions, rationalizations, and remedies for the current market crisis. As many forecasts indicate, hard times are still ahead for the American economy, The Christian Science Monitor reports.