Video and Music Downloader Free search and download video - music online

NEW YORK -- In an unusual twist, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has hired the former chief risk officer of the bank it was forced to save last spring, Bear Stearns & Co.

The New York Fed said in a release dated Friday Michael Alix has been hired as a senior vice president in the Bank Supervision Group, under William Rutledge, executive vice president in that group.

By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2008; 5:23 PM

Activity in the nation's manufacturing sector, beleaguered by tightfisted consumers and the global credit crisis, declined last month to the lowest level in more than two decades, offering economists more evidence that the country is entering a deep recession.

The Institute for Supply Management's index of conditions in the manufacturing sector is at its lowest level since the nation was in a recession in September 1982. Export orders have collapsed and customers appear to be struggling to sell inventories of items ranging from appliances to tobacco products, the report said.

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 3, 2008; A18

A number of financial experts now fear that the federal government's $143 billion attempt to rescue troubled insurance giant American International Group may not work, and some argue that company shareholders and taxpayers would have been better served by a bankruptcy filing.

The Treasury Department leapt to keep AIG from going bankrupt on Sept. 16, and in the past seven weeks, AIG has drawn down $90 billion in federal bailout loans. But some key AIG players argue that bankruptcy would have offered more structure and greater protections during a time of intense market volatility.

Sunday, November 2, 2008; LZ02

Idea for That Extra Hour: Check Smoke Alarms

Loudoun County fire officials are recommending that residents use the extra hour they'll gain this weekend to change the batteries in their smoke alarms. Clocks are to be set back today to mark the end of daylight saving time.

Batteries in smoke alarms should be changed once a year, and alarms more than 10 years old should be replaced, according to the county Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management.

You may be doing just the right thing during the stock-market meltdown and not even know it.

Whether by design or happenstance, many of America's individual investors are continuing to buy into the gyrating stock market by dollar-cost averaging -- investing a set number of dollars into a 401(k) plan with every paycheck.

The Federal Reserve brought the commercial-paper market back to life in recent days. Now comes the next test for this key market for short-term corporate borrowing: doing without that backstop.

That will require a pick-up in longer-term loans from institutional money-market investors -- specifically, the $3.4 trillion money-market fund industry.

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 1, 2008; D06

VeraSun Energy, one of the nation's biggest ethanol producers, filed for bankruptcy protection last night, after the credit crisis made it impossible for the company to recover from a bad bet it made on corn prices.

The filing marked an abrupt reversal for a company that had acquired a competitor last year and expanded, with the help of federal ethanol mandates and subsidies, to 16 production facilities in eight states. Experts on the industry said that its facilities were well-run.

Wall Street closed a poor October on Friday but the 16.9% drop in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index looked pretty good compared with the hit taken by Asia and some other nations.

October brought a mauling to markets from Brazil, down 24%, to China, down nearly 25%. The culprit was a word unfamiliar to many: "deleveraging," or Wall Street jargon for the practice of unloading stocks and bonds bought with borrowed money, usually under pressure.

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 31, 2008; D01

Exxon Mobil smashed its own U.S. record for quarterly profits yesterday, ringing up $14.83 billion in net income thanks to soaring summertime crude oil prices. But with crude oil prices now less than half their July peak and the economic outlook bleak, the record may stand for a while.

Exxon's third-quarter earnings rose 58 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2007, and its per-share earnings of $2.86 were higher than what analysts expected, capping a week of strong profit numbers from the world's premier oil companies, all of which benefited from the spike in oil prices in July.

LOS ANGELES -- Boeing Co. and its satellite operations were hit with $236.1 million in punitive damages, ending a protracted lawsuit in state court in Los Angeles that featured allegations of fraud and breach of contract by ICO Global Communications Holdings Ltd., a former Boeing customer.

The jury agreed on the damages less than two weeks after awarding ICO at least $370 million in compensatory damages. In all, Boeing faces potentially more than $700 million in total damages, depending on interest and other issues.