Portfolio

New Hampshire regulators have fined a now-defunct mortgage company, First Call Mortage, in which Peter Lynch of Fidelity fame had a 13% stake, The Wall Street Journal reports. As such, Lynch faces an $85,000 fine, and First Call, $767,500.

Equity mutual funds have lost $43.3 billion in outflows already through Oct. 8, while money market mutual funds have reaped $60 billion, according to TrimTabs Investment Research.

With just $6 billion in assets left, of what once totaled $83 billion, Reserve Management is liquidating its 18 remaining funds.

The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed several large firms and agencies as part of an investigation to determine whether Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. misled investors before its Sept. 15 bankruptcy filing, according to the Stamford Advocate.

Investors are continuing to add money to money market funds, adding $49.39 billion during the week ending Oct. 7, according to the Money Fund Report, published by iMoneyNet Inc. Total assets are now at $3.388 trillion.

Putnam Investments has named Jeffrey R. Carney as the new senior managing director and head of global marketing and products, effective Oct. 27.

Despite a stable economic outlook for the foreseeable future, many Canadians are concerned that their government isn’t doing enough to prepare itself for the kind of downturn the rest of the world is experiencing, writes the National Post.

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.