“Merrill Lynch, with Wal-Mart’s blessing, was choosing mutual funds based on payments that the funds would make to Merrill Lynch,” says Braden attorney Derek Loeser of Keller Rohrback in Seattle, Wash. “This explains the anomaly of a $10 billion plan ending up with off-the-shelf retail funds that just so happen to share revenue.”
Forbes magazine reports [...]

Businesses and individuals making 2009 contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect in recent years. Some of these changes include the following…
IR-2009-114, Dec. 8, 2009
WASHINGTON — Individuals and businesses making contributions to charity should keep in mind several important tax law provisions that have taken effect [...]

by Ashlea Ebeling, 12.22.09, 03:00 PM EST
The research tax credit, AMT protection and others are likely to be revived, but it’s a pain for taxpayers.
When members of the U.S. Senate finally head home this week, they will be leaving the future of 50 individual and business tax breaks in limbo. All expire at the end [...]

The Conference Board, a private research group, has released its statistics for November. The index of Leading Economic Inidicaters rose 0.9% last month, up from 0.3% in October making this the eighth consecutive month for positive results in the index.
November’s numbers actually outperformed the 0.7% expected by many economists.
The positive performance came from improvements in [...]

It is often said that California leads the nation into various “new” things. Pray that California style legislators don’t come to your State or to the Federal Government. As a Californian and a conservative thinker, I apologize to the rest of the nation on behalf of Californians who have thrust the likes of Nancy Pelosi [...]

By Dan Jamieson – Investment News
The United States will avoid a “double dip” recession, with real gross-domestic-product growth topping 2% next year, according to Standard & Poor’s Corp.The research firm is estimating a 1.7% annualized growth rate in the fourth quarter, and a rate of 2.4% by the end of next year, Sam Stovall, S&P’s [...]

NABE Outlook: Recession Is Over, but a Muted Recovery to Follow
SUMMARY: “The Great Recession is over,” according to NABE’s latest survey. “The survey found that the vast majority of business economists believe that the recession has ended but that the economic recovery is likely to be more moderate than those typically experienced following steep declines. [...]

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER,
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – Tax dodgers who hid assets overseas will get a few extra weeks to apply for an amnesty program that has been flooded with applications ahead of the Wednesday deadline.
The Internal Revenue Service said Monday the deadline will be extended until Oct. 15.
More than 3,000 Americans have applied for the [...]

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke came close to declaring the recession over Tuesday, but warned that economic growth will remain too sluggish to quickly restore the nearly 7 million jobs lost since 2007.
He made the remarks as a string of positive economic news helped lift stock indexes to new highs for the year. Retail [...]

The Treasury Department’s bank investments are paying dividends. But saying they have earned $6 billion for taxpayers, as Tim Geithner did, is a stretch. Tim Geithner may have jumped the gun by saying taxpayers have earned money on TARP.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — The markets are on a roll, but it’s still a tad early for [...]