Special Program Root Tag

The Department of Labor’s proposed rules on 401(k) disclosure are inadequate, claim critics who say the disclosure isn’t to the right people, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Federal regulators aren’t just looking into whether Bear Stearns hedge fund managers hedged their holdings in subprime paper by pricing their own holdings at a more attractive rate than those of the public, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating more than three dozen firms over whether they should have warned the public earlier over their subprime holdings, they disclosed their risks and how they priced the paper, as well as whether they gave themselves higher values for these securities than their customers.

Of the 80 things that will dominate the nation’s consciousness in 2008, foreign investments and development in Africa top the list, according to predictions by JWT advertising. And if that’s the case, then interest in frontier emerging markets funds could continue to build, in spite of recent analysis that emerging markets funds might soon run their course.

Japan is hoping to strengthen its financial services industry by fundamentally changing industry regulations that have stymied growth, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Although Bill Gross, managing director at Pimco and one of the most famous and successful fund managers in the industry, recently said that the U.S. will experience a mild recession in 2008, he now believes the downturn began this month. The good news is that he only expects it will last four to five months, the Financial Times reports.

As nanotechnology companies continue to develop tiny, microscopic products to support scientific, medical and communications needs, their financial support could explode to enormous levels if they decide to go public.

Time is the best stabilizer during fluctuating market periods, and financial advisory firms can help investors the most by encouraging them to ride through the rough spots.

The hedge fund industry had net inflows of $41.1 billion in the third quarter, approaching $1.73 trillion in assets under management, according to research from Lipper.

Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $4.49 billion to $3.116 trillion in the week ending Dec. 19, according to the Investment Company Institute.

The possibility that Bank of America could sell its prime brokerage unit to hedge fund giant Citadel Investment Group has stirred a flurry of speculation and conflicting news reports.

A recent drop in several Chinese-focused hedge funds could indicate poor fund management, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

A Georgia man was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week and ordered to pay back nearly $22 million for a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors, including many of his friends, according to The Atlanta Journal - Constitution.

Few American investors know about the benefits of donating appreciated securities to charity, according to a study by Fidelity Investments.

The U.S. defense and homeland security sectors continue to see strong gains despite the slowing economy, according to a release.

Moody's Investors Service predicts that the number of U.S. corporate defaults will more than quadruple next year from 1% to 4.7%, due to the slowing economy, according to Bloomberg News.

Asset managers and investment banks will significantly reduce their exposure to structured investment vehicles in money-market funds by year's end, according to a report from Banc of America Securities.

More than one-third of asset managers, undeterred by the credit crisis, believe that U.S. stocks are undervalued and, therefore, present a buying opportunity, according to a survey of 291 managers conducted by Russell Investments, The Wall Street Journal reports. That’s up slightly from 28% who thought so in the third-quarter “Investment Management Outlook Survey.”

Investors are more focused on immediate financial needs than they are on preparing for retirement, according to the fifth annual Mercer Workplace Survey, this year conducted among 2,000 participants in 401(k) and health savings accounts.

The job market at large financial advisory firms is expected to remain strong in 2008, despite worries about the recent credit crisis, according to a recent survey by Claymore Partners LLC.

Legg Mason’s famous manager Bill Miller beat the Standard & Poor’s 500 index for 15 consecutive years until the past two years, when he hit a rough patch, but an editorial in Kiplinger’s predicts a rebound in fortune.