We're Headed in the Wrong Direction

Missed Monday's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

We come in peace to serve man.

...on a plate.

Which left stocks just on the floor.

Here's the deal:

Let's make a deal. And that's an order.

The government showing its heavy hand by giving the back hand to one of corporate America’s heaviest hitters.

Rick Wagoner out, because you botched it.

And Chrysler and Fiat. Do it. Or you might regret it.

You see where this is going?

Something's going. In a word, us.

I'm not saying capitalism didn't let us down.

I am saying the government not letting capitalism do its thing is going to let us down more.

Because a government big enough to fire executives, is a government big enough to eventually fire us.

Setting our pay. Setting our benefits. Setting our very lives.

Because it is not a stretch to assume a president using the excuse of taxpayer dollars at stake, takes that same excuse to argue intervention in companies for whom taxpayer dollars "could" be at stake.

What if drug prices get too high? That's hitting taxpayers. Fix 'em "for" taxpayers?

Gas prices get too high? That's hitting taxpayers. Forcibly lower them "for" taxpayers?

It's a slippery slope justifying Chavezian intervention for necessary intervention.

Because a government big enough to give you everything you want, truly is big enough to take away everything you have.

Arguing throughout that it's about looking after your interests.

And saying not a word that it "owns" your interests.

And owns something else.

You.


Win Over Main Street, Win Over Wall Street
Taxpayers aren’t likely to get AIG money back
Appeals court: Madoff will remain in prison

Final Score: Regulators Need to See Their Impact on Business First-Hand

A few years back I was editing a business column for The Wall Street Journal , and I received an article written by George McGovern -- yes, the same former senator who ran for president under one of the most liberal platforms of all time.

Only, this George McGovern had changed -- a lot.

It seems that after he got out of politics, he invested some money in a small hotel in Connecticut, and as a small business owner he was getting killed by too many rules and regulations. Eventually, his business went bankrupt, partly because of the very regulations and laws that he helped design. It was only then that he began to repent for what he had done.

Here’s what he wrote:

“I wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day.”

Mr. McGovern came to realize that too many regulators and lawmakers have no idea how their rules and regulations will affect real business people in the real world. In fact, he suggested that each new regulation be given the following stress test:

"Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape? It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators."

As I watch a guy like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- someone who’s never run a business of his own -- propose all kinds of new rules and regulations to elected officials who’ve never run businesses of their own, I wonder if they’ve even considered applying Mr. McGovern’s stress test to their regs.

As George McGovern discovered, when you have to survive on slim margins in the real world, it has a way of radically changing your perception.


People in Business
Delay on credit card rules draws fire
We Don’t Need ‘More’…We Need ‘Smarter’
Two Large Corporate Credit Unions Seized by Regulators

Obama, Execs Let Bygones Be Bygones...for Now

Missed Friday's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

12 angry men --- give or take -- who damn well better keep it to themselves.

Here's the deal:

Skip the lecture, take the cannolis.

You know...You just "know" the dozen or so bank execs who descended on the White House today for what had all the trappings of a last supper...Only this was lunch...Didn't want to be there.

But the President called. And so they came. They all came...no doubt, to be lectured on spending money wisely from a guy whose budget spends money like crazy.

But the point of this pow-wow wasn't to be mean...But be clear.

The President needs them. They need the President.

Let press-bashing bygones be bygones.

Sure, he's called them reckless, foolish, and selfish.

But now he needs them lending, buying, and soaring.

And lately all their stocks have been soaring.

I'm sure more than a few of this gathering at the White House reminded the President that they've been soaring since he's stopped bashing.

Maybe not. But definitely this:

He needs them. All of them. To buy up or work with those who will buy up toxic financial assets so that they're no longer a pain in the nation's assets.

The President better hope they're still not ticked.

Because this time, his guests hold the aces.

And man, what a pain in the ace it'll be if they ever decide to return the nastiness.

Get ready. This just got very interesting.


Grassley: AIG execs should quit or commit suicide
Is Government Preying Upon Our Insecurities?
Obama, Execs Let Bygones Be Bygones…for Now

Obama, Execs Let Bygones Be Bygones...for Now

Missed Friday's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

12 angry men --- give or take -- who damn well better keep it to themselves.

Here's the deal:

Skip the lecture, take the cannolis.

You know...You just "know" the dozen or so bank execs who descended on the White House today for what had all the trappings of a last supper...Only this was lunch...Didn't want to be there.

But the President called. And so they came. They all came...no doubt, to be lectured on spending money wisely from a guy whose budget spends money like crazy.

But the point of this pow-wow wasn't to be mean...But be clear.

The President needs them. They need the President.

Let press-bashing bygones be bygones.

Sure, he's called them reckless, foolish, and selfish.

But now he needs them lending, buying, and soaring.

And lately all their stocks have been soaring.

I'm sure more than a few of this gathering at the White House reminded the President that they've been soaring since he's stopped bashing.

Maybe not. But definitely this:

He needs them. All of them. To buy up or work with those who will buy up toxic financial assets so that they're no longer a pain in the nation's assets.

The President better hope they're still not ticked.

Because this time, his guests hold the aces.

And man, what a pain in the ace it'll be if they ever decide to return the nastiness.

Get ready. This just got very interesting.


Obama, Execs Let Bygones Be Bygones…for Now
Grassley: AIG execs should quit or commit suicide

Market Winners & Losers: SLM Corp., AIG

The market fought off the bad economic numbers again to close the session up 2.8% on average. While all three of the indices finishing in the green for three of the last four days, commodities have been a mixed bag. Oil prices rose above $54 a barrel and gold fell to $937.

Here are today’s winners and losers:

Winners

SLM Corp. (SLM)
The stock bounced off its yearly lows as it finished the S&P 500’s big winner on Thursday. Shares gained 15.7%, or 56 cents, to close at $4.13 a piece.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. (DPS)
A better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings report sent the stock up 15.2%, or $2.36, to end the day at $17.87.

General Motors Corp. (GM)
With nearly 7,500 of GM’s employees accepting buyout offers, the company’s stock ended the day 14.1% higher. Shares last traded at $3.41, a gain of 42 cents on the day.

Micron Technology Inc. (MU)
The biggest winner among the semiconductor sector, Micron shares gained 13.8% Thursday. The stock closed at $4.22, a gain of 51 cents on the day.

Leucuadia National Corp. (LUK)
Following sector trends, shares of the conglomerate rose 13.4%, or $1.90, to end the trading day at $16.04.

Losers

American International Group Inc. (AIG)
Facing continued outrage over its use of TARP funds and another possible subpoena by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the company saw its stock revert on last week’s gains, leaving shares to fall 8.3%, or 10 cents, to $1.10 a piece.

Citigroup Inc. (C)
Citigroup followed the banking sector lower, with shares losing 4.75%, or 14 cents, on the day. The stock settled at $2.81 a share.

Health Care REIT Inc. (HCN)
HCN fell 3.7% on Thursday, ending the session at $30.98 – a loss of $1.19.

Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS)
Northern Trust shares, which have seen lots of volatility in recent weeks, fell 3.2% to close Thursday’s trading session. NTRS last traded at $62.49, a loss of $2.08 on the day.

Regions Financial Corp. (RF)
A Fitch downgrade pushed the stock lower from the get-go, with shares falling 3%, or 14 cents, to close the day at $4.55 a piece.


Walgreen profits decline 7%
Market Winners & Losers: Eastman Kodak, American Capital

Market Winners & Losers: Waters, Host Hotels Resorts

In what was a relatively good week for markets, Wall Street ended on a sour note with the Dow sliding triple digits on Friday.

The bulls were sidelined as the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost close to 150 points, or nearly 2%, while both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq tumbled more than 2%.

Despite the loss, all three indexes gained for the week. Here’s a look at Friday’s biggest gainers and losers

WINNERS

Waters Corp. (WAT) The chemical analysis equipment company soared a little more than 9% on rumors it may be a takeover target. The stock closed up close to $37.

Dynegy Inc. (DYN) The Houston-based power company climbed 8.5% to close at $1.52. Earlier in the week the stock took a beating, dropping more than 14% after Macquarie Capital USA downgraded the company to “underperform.”

Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) The life insurance company climbed 8.3% to close around $10.37 after it filed its 8-K with the SEC.

SLM Corp. (SLM) The student loan provider, commonly known as Sallie Mae, jumped 8.2% to hit $4.47. The stock took a hit on Wednesday after a disappointing Treasury auction.

Compuware Corp. (CPWR) An upgrade from an analyst atCowen & Co helped boost the IT services and software provider 6.89% to close at $6.83.

LOSERS

CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBG) A day after the Los Angeles-based company renegotiated its debt to cope with the weak market and was upgraded from “overweight” to “neutral the stock dipped 15.17% to close around $4.25.

Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (DDR) After being downgraded in several factors by Fitch Ratings the shopping center developer closed down close to 13% at $2.16.

Host Hotels Resorts Inc.(HST) The real estate investment trust, fell more than 11.6% to close at $4.25.

Tesoro Corp. (TSO) The independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products fell 10.33% to close at $14.67 as the price of oil starts to climb and it was downgraded by Caris & Co.

Meredith Corp. (MDP) The media and marketing company fell 8.53% to close at $17.04 as advertising revenue continues to slip in the media sector.


Business briefs: Mortgage rates are lowest on record
Market Winners & Losers: Dynegy, AIG

Omni National Fails; SunTrust Steps In as Paying Agent

Omni National Bank of Atlanta, Ga., failed on Friday, and SunTrust Bank (STI) of Atlanta agreed to act as paying agent for Omni’s insured deposits.

SunTrust will operate the six former Omni branches until April 27, at which time all of those branches will be closed. The six branches are in Atlanta; Dalton, Ga.; Tampa, Fla.; Chicago; Dallas; and Houston.

Former Omni customers will be able to perform banking activities, such as check-writing, during the transition period.

Omni customers in Georgia or Florida can choose either to open a SunTrust account, or close their accounts and receive checks.

Omni customers in Illinois and Texas who do not close their accounts by April 27 will be mailed checks by SunTrust to the address of record.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into the agreement with SunTrust “to avoid the inconvenience and disruption of customers receiving checks for their insured deposits,” the FDIC said in a press release, adding that the arrangement allows time for customers to change their direct-deposit arrangements.

As of March 9, Omni had $956 million in assets and deposits of $796.8 million. The FDIC said that at the time of closing, it estimated that there was $2 million in uninsured deposits that exceeded the insurance limit.

Brokered deposits were not part of the transaction, the FDIC said. The FDIC intends to pay the $320.1 million in brokered deposits to the brokers for the amount of their insured funds.

Customers with accounts in excess of $250,000 should contact the FDIC at 800-830-3250 to set up an appointment to discuss their deposits, the FDIC said. Customers can also visit a Web site the FDIC has created with information on the failure of Omni National Bank.

The FDIC estimates the cost to its deposit-insurance fund will be $290 million. Omni is the 21st bank to fail this year in the U.S.


Recession boosts Roth’s tax-free appeal
Two Large Corporate Credit Unions Seized by Regulators

Al Lewis: Negative Indicator -- Deflation Hits 'Yuk' Index

The economic indicator that Malcolm Kushner has kept since 1987 has just done something it never did before: It went down.

The Cost of Laughing Index -- a compilation of 16 leading humor indicators -- posted an annual decrease of 1.3%.

A big contributor to the decline was a decrease in the price of the pink gorilla singing telegram, to $150 from $250. Also down were dancing chicken telegrams and admissions to several comedy clubs nationwide.

Wholesale prices of rubber chickens, Groucho glasses and whoopee cushions remained unchanged. The price for an issue of Mad Magazine, and the fee for writing a half-hour TV sitcom -- $15,482 -- also remained unchanged.

Kushner, 56, notes the U.S. market has been saturated with an unprecedented surplus of cheap yucks -- a product of the economy's dizzying downward spiral.

"The worse the economic situation gets, the more the government tries to solve it, the more we laugh at what the government is doing," he said. "Want free laughs? Turn on C-Span."

Kushner said he created the Cost of Laughing Index as a joke, but it has been reported annually in newspapers and Web sites across the nation for decades.

In 1990, Johnny Carson used it in a long comedy sketch, with celebrities calling for a boycott of rubber chicken manufacturers until their prices came down enough for poor comedians in Eastern Europe to afford.

"It has become an official economic index," Kushner claims.

In 1997, the index was first included in a popular college textbook, Economics Today, by Irvin B. Tucker, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Tucker told me Kushner's methodology is similar to the Bureau of Labor Statistics" collection of data for the Consumer Price Index.

"The bureau uses "price collectors" to contact retail stores and record average prices for a "market basket" of different items," he explained. "Malcolm Kushner's Cost of Laughing Index illustrates this procedure with a "market basket" restricted to comedy items. It therefore provides an innovative teaching tool for my texts."

Kushner is a self-described humor consultant based in Santa Cruz, Calif. He gives speeches, helps executives inject laughter into their presentations, and writes books including "Public Speaking for Dummies," and "The Light Touch: How to Use Humor for Business Success." He also is the curator of his own online museum at www.museumofhumor.com.

In 1976, he was among the first contestants on "The Gong Show." Instead of an animal trick, he did a plant trick, promising to make a fern jump through a hoop. He dressed it up in a cape and then just tossed it through. Somehow, he was not gonged.

Before pioneering the field of humor consultancy, Kushner toiled at a San Francisco law firm that represented airlines. One case involved a shipment of parrots -- some of which died during the flight.

Now, bear in mind, parrots are among the few members of the animal kingdom that can actually talk when they are not dead.

"The senior associate on the case .. had an idea: We could take a deposition of one of the surviving parrots," Kushner said. "To this day, I don't know if she was kidding because I never heard her joke about anything else."

Kushner quit to begin the less zany career that led to the Cost of Laughter Index.

Until recently, this index rose so steadily that Kushner pondered whether toilet paper printed to resemble $100 bills would one day be made more cheaply with real $100 bills.

He has yet to offer a complete explanation for its unprecedented downturn.

"Most Americans are conspiracy theory buffs," he said. "My theory is that [Bernie] Madoff is behind the decrease in the Cost of Laughing Index, but I haven't figured out how yet.

"I'm also proud to say that he's from my hometown, Laurelton, Queens, N.Y.," Kushner said. "Finally, there's somebody famous from my hometown."

Like most people, Kushner had never heard of the world's biggest confessed Ponzi schemer before Madoff's December arrest.

"Well, who heard of [Charles] Ponzi, before Ponzi got busted?" Kushner said. "I always thought Ponzi was great. I wished I was good at math so I could do that. But now I'm saying, "Gosh, the guy who beat Ponzi is from my hometown. The bar is getting set way too high for me to ever beat it."

Thankfully, the price of rubber chickens remains steady at $51 a dozen.

--Al's Emporium, written by Dow Jones Newswires columnist Al Lewis, offers commentary and analysis on a wide range of business subjects through an unconventional perspective. The column is published each Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m. ET. He can be reached at tellittoal.com, 201-938-5266, or al.lewis@dowjones.com.


Will stock market’s rally stick or vanish?
Back to 1996: GE, Citi Lead Stocks Sharply Lower

Bulls Take a Timeout; Dow Tumbles 148

The Dow took a triple-digit dive on Friday amid a broad selloff but the sea of red did little to put a damper on Wall Street's strongest three-week rally since 1982.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 148.38 points, or 1.87%, to 7776.18, the S&P 500 lost 16.92 points, or 2.03%, to 815.94 and the Nasdaq Composite sank 41.80 points, or 2.63%, to 1545.20. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 fell 10.47 points, or 1.68%, to 612.41.

The selloff came as Wall Street is in the midst of one of its hottest streaks ever thanks to newfound optimism and severely depressed stock prices. Friday's tumble ended a 13-day streak that saw the Dow surge 21% -- its fastest 20% plus rise since July 1938.

“It’s been a lot of fun. We came out of an extremely oversold position. But anyone who thinks we are out of the woods is getting way ahead of the curve,” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business.

Even with Friday's losses, the Dow still gained 498 points this week and posted its first three-week win streak since lastMay. Over that span, the benchmark index surged 17.34% -- its strongest three-week gain since Sept. 1982. Meanwhile, the S&P is up 11% in March, putting the broad index on pace for one of its top 10 best months on record.

“Obviously it makes sense for a little bit of profit-taking,” said Ryan Detrick, equity analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “All in all, it was a pretty constructive day when you look at the whole scheme of things. A few weeks ago it was all gloom and doom.”

IBM (IBM), Citigroup (C) and American Express (AXP) led the way down on the Dow on Friday. There were only a handful of positive blue-chip stocks, including General Motors (GM) and Coca-Cola (KO).

The Nasdaq Composite, which returned to the red on the year, tumbled even further than the Dow as tech giants like Amazon.com (AMZN)and Microsoft(MSFT) fell.

Miller Tabak's Peter Boockvar noted Friday's selloff came on the weakest volume of the month. The slow volume could indicate a lack of conviction (or just a lot of three-day weekends).

While analysts blamed profit-taking for Friday's action, it's clear dark clouds remain on the horizon as Wall Street awaits the results of stress tests on troubled banks, another dreadful monthly jobs report and an avalanche of earnings reports that aren't likely to impress.

"I think it's a mistake to get too excited, too soon," said Weisberg.

The energy sector was one of the biggest drags on the market Friday, diving nearly 3%. Stocks like Schlumberger (SLB) and Hess (HES) plunged even further as crude sank $1.96 per barrel to settle at $52.38 amid profit-taking and a stronger dollar. Gold’s two-day win streak ended as the metal slumped $16.80 per ounce to $924.10.

D.C. Stays at the Forefront

Financial stocks also tumbled 3%, receiving no momentum from the conclusion a meeting in Washington between President Barack Obama and the CEOs of 14 of the nation’s largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Wells Fargo (WFC).

Bankers described the meeting as a positive exchange of ideas and an effort to work together.The meeting came as the White House sought to balance populist outrage swarming Washington with the need for the private sector to join its bank bailout plan.

Meanwhile, the fate ofGeneral Motors (GM) and Chrysler LLCcould soon be decided as the White House said it will announce its plan to help the troubled auto makers on Monday. The announcement will come even as GM appears unlikely to meet a March 31 restructuring deadline for gaining concessions from its union and bondholders, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Corporate Movers

MGM Mirage (MGM) provided $200 million in funding needed to keep its $8.6 billion City Center development afloat, including $100 million owed by its partner in the LasVegas development. The Journal reported earlier in the day that the partners could balk at the payments, forcing a bankruptcy filing.

Charter Communications (CHTR), the cable company led by Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen, filed for bankruptcy protection to cut its debt by $8 billion. Charter, which is the fourth-largest U.S. cable operator, plans to fund the restructuring with cash on hand and operating activities.

KB Home (KBH) posted a narrower-than-expected loss of 75 cents per share in the first quarter thanks to fewer write-downs. While the home builder said net orders rose 26%, it said it sees “no meaningful improvement in market conditions” for the rest of the year.

Amazon.com (AMZN) plans to shut distribution centers in three states and lay off or transfer about 210 workers to balance out its operations, the Journal reported.

Data Dump

The government said personal spending increased 0.2% in February, the second-straight monthly increase. The rise in spending, which was mostly expected, comes even as personal incomes tumbled 0.2% in February due to mass layoffs.

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index improved to a 57.3 reading in March from 56.3 in February.

Global Markets

European indexes joined the slump in the U.S. as London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.67% to 3898.85, Germany's DAXtumbled 1.31%to to 4203.55 and France's CAC 40 sank 1.78% to 2840.62.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.11% to 8626.97 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.07% to 14119.50. China's Shanghai Composite rallied 0.54% to 2374.44.


Ugly End to Week of Gains on Wall Street
Bernard Madoff says he is ashamed

Seizing the Day With Diane von Furstenberg

Truly, I could write this entire column about the shoes Diane von Furstenberg was wearing at Florence Gould Hall Monday night. She was the third fashion designer in a three-part series presented by the French Institute Alliance Francaise [FIAF] and as she sat on the stage with interviewer Pamela Golbin, I was admittedly transfixed.

From the third row in the auditorium, dead center, I could see her well-defined cheekbones, a black-and-white butterfly print dress of her own making, her long perfectly crossed legs made even longer in smooth black tights, and those delicious shoes. Let’s at least give them their own sentence. Picture sleek, black suede slingbacks with a red platform and a dizzyingly high red octagonal-shaped heel.

But this is not Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar , so enough about the aesthetics. DVF, as she and her brand are now internationally known, has more than plenty to offer on how to live life. In the course of my research on her, mostly for my own edification, I found we have a lot in common -- we’re both Capricorns, we treasure our independence, need solitude, were receptionists in a former life, have exceeded everyone’s expectations of us, and now make a point of living well and using our gifts to help others do the same.

So it was with heightened anticipation that I took a seat and drank in the atmosphere. I’m not going to lie. In the days leading up to the event, deciding what to wear expended much of my energy. I came to the conclusion that the spirit of DVF is to wear anything you feel fabulous in, so cashmere ruled, not to mention my finest everything down to fragrant body lotion and statement jewelry.

“Seduction doesn’t come from the clothes,” von Furstenberg said during the event. “It comes from enjoying being you.”

Ah, yes. It had hit me before DVF even graced the stage: If I feel this good because I went to all this trouble today, why am I not pulling out all the stops more often? Why not feel fabulous most of the time instead of some of the time? It’s kind of like saving the china for special occasions. Why? What are we waiting for?

Diane von Furstenberg is not waiting. She never has.

Back in 1972 she arrived on the fashion scene and her iconic wrap dress flew off the racks. She affectionately calls that her first career. In her 1998 memoir, she chronicles that time, complete with business challenges, personal relationships including marriage to a prince, being young in the period “between the Pill and AIDS,” raising children, jet setting, meeting current husband Barry Diller and dealing with throat cancer.

The book provides a sort of separator between her first and second careers; the former, she said, was ruled by instinct while the latter is all about experience. And, oh, what that experience hath wrought. Ask almost any female -- a 16-year-old, a 26-year-old, a 36-year-old, a 46-year-old and right on up the line -- what they think of DVF and they almost swoon. It’s hard to tell whether it’s about her or the clothes, but doesn’t that say it all?

The wrap dress -- along with plenty more clothes and accessories -- is back in force. There’s a surreal studio in Manhattan’s meatpacking district that shines neon pink from three floors of windows at night. There’s her presence on MTV’s The City , in which she tells a young woman (and very young viewers) in one episode that “the most important relationship you have is with yourself.” There’s the presidency of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. There’s the involvement with Vital Voices, a women’s leadership organization that empowers emerging women leaders around the world.

“My mission in life is to empower women,” the 62-year-old von Furstenberg said. “Through my clothes, my job, my business, my words and my philanthropy. Every minute of every day, that’s my mission. It all makes sense now.”

For some who think that’s all well and good for the wealthy woman, but that kind of reinvention isn’t possible for them, know this: von Furstenberg became the woman she wanted to be because she first identified an attitude and the paraphernalia that she wanted to accompany it. She just didn’t know how she was going to get it.

Back in the 1970s, when she walked into legendary fashion editor Diana Vreeland’s office with her clothing samples, she got through the door on who she knew. But once in, it was up to her to convey her gift. The aspiring designer had to step up her game.

Now, in a place of commanding confidence, DVF is beguiling. At the FIAF event, after saying she is not interested in designing clothes for men or for children, von Furstenberg added of the latter, “Let them grow up and want to be women.”

What can I say? This life coach got schooled. Really, it’s not so much about the shoes, but what the shoes communicate.

Stop waiting. Kick up your heels.

Diane von Furstenberg has it down.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.


Reveling in ‘A-Ha’ Moments
Bellevue Center developer asks for year delay for overhaul
In This Economy, Ask Yourself the Right Questions

We Don't Need 'More'...We Need 'Smarter'

Missed Thursday's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

Hedge funds, quit hedging.

Your free-wheeling, free market days are over.

Here's the deal:

Last week he seemed to be hanging by a thread.

Today, scores of hedge fund managers are.

Tim Geithner, the man who found his mojo fast…fast taking advantage of it.

Vowing to crack down on the folks he says cracked up the economy.

No more secrets. Lots more regulations.

We've seen it for banks.

Today, an earful for the non-banks.

The hedge guys, the derivatives guys, even the money-market mutual fund guys.

Lots more oversight, guys.

Deal with it.

And today they were.

Oddly trading up on news the government's cracking down on everything they do, every trade they make, every third-party transfer they conduct.

Perhaps because Wall Street expected this, they're not surprised by this… some might welcome the inevitable closure from this....

A government intent on preventing another meltdown like we had last fall.

But are more regulations the answer, or just better ones?

And another federal acronym to do what quite a few of them already have not...

FDIC, SEC, SIPC, you see my point?

They all dropped the ball…who's to say a new uber-authority won't drop one, too?

Especially one under the watchful eye of the Treasury, itself asleep at the switch when all this went down…and headed by a political appointee last time I checked.

No doubt, regulations are coming. This always happens after crises.

We get more cops.

When all we needed were smarter ones.


Will stock market’s rally stick or vanish?
Del Biaggio broker is charged
Win Over Main Street, Win Over Wall Street

Is Government Preying Upon Our Insecurities?

Missed Wednesday's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

If things are improving, what are we doing??

Here's the deal:

We're coming out of this.

Not quickly. Not loudly. In some cases, just barely.

But mark my words, we are coming out of our funk.

So...What the funk are we doing pushing vastly more spending to get us out of our funk?

When durable goods orders soared a shocking 3.4% last month.

When new home sales rebounded 4.7% the same month?

When existing home sales rebounded a like amount that month?

When applications for new mortgages and refinancing the mortgages folks already have are soaring this month?

Now I’ve heard many smart economists say these are anomalies.

But those are a hell of a lot of anomalies.

Look, I’m not saying we're going off to the races...

I am saying, why are we racing with more spending programs as if we're going off the cliff?

We've got a President and Congress eagerly considering tripling our debt and bashing our dollar on the hunch a large hunk of the funk remains.

But what if they're funked up?

And what if they end up funking us up?

Then what?

I want you to think about how odd things are right now. Those in power dismissing economic numbers that are good...So they can shove down our throats a bigger government that can't help but be bad?

Perhaps I’m overreacting.

Or perhaps they are.

Seizing on our insecurities to securely put in place a much bigger government.

...capable of pouncing on banks it deems sick and shut 'em down.

...and strong-arming executives of all types to get 'em to go along or they're just going to pound 'em down.

The government calling the shots.

Those challenging it all but shot...But certainly humiliated.

That's why I’m in a funk.

I can't figure why the funk we're going along with it.


Post-Fed Blues: Banks Lead Selloff
Dollar General to add 450 stores
Week Ahead: All Eyes on Washington

Soros: Credit Default Swaps Spurred AIG's Failure

In all of the American Insurance Group (AIG) upheaval, the greatest lesson has been ignored, according to prominent Wall Street financier George Soros, who attributes the failure of the insurance giant to what he labels toxic credit default swaps.

Soros, the chairman of Soros Fund Management, wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal that these financial instruments must be highly regulated in order to alleviate some of the destruction they have caused in the credit crisis.

“What we must take away from this is that CDS are toxic instruments whose use ought to be strictly regulated: Only those who own the underlying bonds ought to be allowed to buy them,” advised Soros in the piece.

Soros, author of The Crash of 2008, attributed AIG’s failure to an over-buying of CDS without the implementation of proper precautionary measures.

“AIG failed because it sold large amounts of credit default swaps [CDS] without properly offsetting or covering their positions.”

Credit default swaps are contracts intended to provide a type of insurance against complex debt securities in case of default -- which occurs when the debtor is unable to make required payments on the bond.

While alleviating risk and ensuring financial security to buyers, the financial instrument simultaneously guarantees the creditworthiness of debtors, so ideally, the seller is obligated to compensate the buyer for losses incurred under default.

Many market observers say that a problem with CDS, which were invented on Wall Street in the 1990s and swelled the market in the early 2000s, is that they have been completely unregulated.

Before the global credit crisis unfolded, swap issuers were required to post collateral as a hedge against default -- but due to the lack of regulation, collateral deposits were often too small to cover losses as the financial markets sank into recession.

The Federal government originally bailed AIG out in September because it had defaulted on its CDS and could not afford the subsequent loss payments. The company continues to suffer losses, and taxpayers are on the hook for $180 billion or more in bailouts to the company.

Soros’ Plan

The traditional view of market behavior asserts that market prices reflect all current and known information -- but Soros asserted that markets actually reflect future anticipation rather than current knowledge.

In order to tackle this new market view, he came up with a “new paradigm” that recognizes the “poisonous nature of CDS” in a “three-step argument” that helps to prove, according to Soros, that the leading downtrodden banks such as AIG and Lehman Brothers were “destroyed by bear raids in which the shorting of stocks and buying CDS mutually amplified and reinforced each other.”

AIG failed, according to Soros, because it did not understand the above argument.

In order to fix the damages that CDS have incurred, Soros said that they should be completely removed from trading on regulated exchanges and should only be handled by the bond owners themselves.

Soros asserts that his paradigm would end up saving the U.S. Treasury a lot of money.

“Under this rule the buying pressure on CDS would greatly diminish and all outstanding CDS would drop in price. As a collateral benefit, the U.S. Treasury would save a great deal of money on its exposure to AIG.”


Bernard Madoff says he is ashamed
Two Large Corporate Credit Unions Seized by Regulators
Delay on credit card rules draws fire

Williams-Sonoma Beats the Street, Offers Weak '09 Outlook

High-end home products retailer Williams-Sonoma (WSM)announced a lower-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday and said it expects losses for the first three quarters of fiscal 2009.

For the three months ended Feb. 1, the San Francisco-based company said it earned $12.2 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $124.6 million, or $1.15 a share, in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue came in at $1.01 billion -- a 27% decline from $1.37 billion the year prior.

Excluding one-time charges tied to store closures and severance, the company earned 31 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting a profit of 16 cents a share on revenue of $976 million, excluding one-time charges.

The specialty retailer, which operates Pottery Barn and West Elm along with its namesake stores, said its cost-cutting measures and increased promotional activity helped it cope with the gloomy retail environment.

“We believe the successful execution of all of these initiatives once again demonstrates the operational flexibility and marketing strength of our multi-channel business model -- particularly in these difficult economic times,” said Howard Lester, Williams-Sonoma chairman and chief executive, in a statement.

All of the company’s brands saw declines in net revenue during the quarter, with Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn Kids leading the way, the company said.

The company said it expects a loss of 20 cents to 23 cents a share during the fiscal first quarter, a loss of eight cents to 14 cents a share for the second quarter, and a loss of two cents to eight cents a share for the third quarter. Banking on a stronger holiday season, the company said it expects to swing to a profit of 27 cents to 36 cents a share during the fourth quarter.

"We are not intending to signal any type of insight into which direction the economy is headed -- but only that if our trends continue as they are today; this is how we would expect the year to unfold," Lester said.

For the full year, the company said its earnings could range from a loss of 15 cents a share to a profit of five cents. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting a full-year profit of six cents a share.

Williams-Sonoma also said it plans to maintain its quarterly cash dividend of 12 cents a share through fiscal 2009, so long as “there are no significant changes” to the company’s business plan, and operating results fall within the ranges forecasted, said Lester.


Market Winners & Losers: Eastman Kodak, American Capital
FedEx to cut 1,000 jobs, $1 billion in expenses
Triple-Digit Pullback for Stocks
Walgreen profits decline 7%

Funds Continue to Trickle Out to Madoff Victims

Funds continued Monday to trickle out to victims of Bernard Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme, according to officials charged with overseeing the process.

Bankruptcy court trustee Irving Picard’s office told FOX Business Network that three more claims have been paid from Securities Investor Protection Corp. funds.

That brings the total of claims paid to date to 15 out of the 6,700 claims that have been filed so far.

The trustee’s office did not release a dollar figure for the three new claims, but the previous 12 each came to $500,000, the maximum allowed under legislation that created SIPC.

The deadline for filing a claim with SIPC is July 2.

Meanwhile, a Massachusetts-based broker-dealer firm partly owned by Madoff is expected to argue in court on Tuesday against having its licensed revoked.

The firm, Cohmad, will argue before a hearing officer in Boston against a motion by the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth for a default judgment to revoke Cohmad’s license.

Cohmad is 20% owned by Madoff, and also is the firm where Madoff’s wife Ruth has an account holding $45 million in bonds.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, during his investigation into Cohmad, revealed that Ruth Madoff had withdrawn from Cohmad accounts some $15 million in the weeks just prior to her husband’s arrest on Dec. 11.

Galvin has stated publicly that Ruth Madoff should be forced to return the $45 million in bonds, as well as $17 million she holds in cash at Wachovia Bank WFC), to the victims of her husband’s scheme.

A decision could be issued Tuesday, but sources in Massachusetts expect the hearing officer to take the arguments under advisement and issue a decision at a future date.

Finally, Madoff’s long-time accountant David Friehling, who on Thursday became the first person other than Madoff to be charged in the fraud, has until Tuesday morning to meet his bail deadlines if he wants to stay out of jail.

Those deadlines include the signatures of relatives who are putting their homes up as collateral for Friehling’s bail.

The properties include his home in New City, N.Y., just north of New York City; his father’s home in Delray, Fla., and his sister-in-law’s home in North Palm Beach.

Friehling, 49, was released on $2.5 million bail following his arraignment on six felony counts stemming from allegations that he helped Madoff operate his fraud by “rubber stamping” audits that purported to show Madoff was complying with generally accepted accounting principles.

The bankruptcy trustee has said records show Madoff did not conduct a single trade for his clients for at least 13 years prior to his arrest.


Madoff victims worry plea could deny justice
Ruth Madoff’s Funds Subject to Recovery for Victims

Triple-Digit Pullback for Stocks

Thanks to a late-day slide in financial stocks, the Dow suffered a triple-digit selloff on Tuesday but managed to preserve the vast majority of Monday's gigantic gains.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 115.49 points, or 1.49%, to 7660.37, the S&P 500 fell 16.58 points, or 2.01%, to 806.34 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 37.37 points, or 2.40%, to 1518.40. The consumer-friendly FOX50 tumbled 10.95 points, or 1.78%, to 604.26.

"Yesterday was an exciting day up 500 points.I'll take 100 points down today.That's okay," Greg Ghodsi, senior vice president at Raymond James, told FOXBusiness. "The tendency is to try to run back in very quickly. We've been counseling clients to take a deep breath and relax. We're in a bear market so you need to stick with your plan."

There weren’t any major economic or earnings reports to move the markets on Tuesday so the focus was squarely on new testimony from regulators in Washington and how the markets responded to Monday's surge, which was the Dow's fifth largest point gain ever and 20th strongest rally in percentage terms in history.

While traders largely reacted positively to the fact that Wall Street held onto roughly 75% of Monday's rally, the Dow is still down 13% year-to-date and off 46% from its record close set in October 2007. Monday's big gains were sparked by the release of new details about the government's plan to rid bank of up to $1 trillion of the assets at the center of the credit crisis.

“I think it would be a moral victory in light of the big move we had yesterday,” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business.

General Motors (GM), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) were the biggest percentage losers on the Dow on Tuesday. Just a three of the index's 30 components ended in the green, including Boeing (BA) and DuPont (DD).

The Nasdaq Composite tumbled twice as much as the Dow as tech stocks like Amazon.com (AMZN) and Yahoo! (YHOO) fell sharply.

“I’m not saying we are at the end of the bear market, although I do believe that the most forceful declines are behind us,” Dan Greenhaus, equity analyst at Miller Tabak, wrote in a note. He added that he believes that the rally off of 12-year lows on the Dow and S&P has “run its course for now.”

Slammed by a late-day slide, the financial sector tumbled 5% on Tuesday amid conflicting story lines. While Deutsche Bank (DB) and Credit Suisse (CS) joined a chorus of banks by saying they expect to be profitable in 2009, an analyst at Bank of America reportedly recommended selling the volatile sector due to a lack of confidence in the bailout plan.

Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner fielded questions from angry lawmakers Tuesday about the controversial bailout and compensation practices of American International Group (AIG).

Geithner also outlined the administration’s request for special powers to monitor and, if necessary, restructure too-big-too-fail non-bank firms like AIG. Tuesday evening many on Wall Street will tune in to watch President Barack Obama’s second prime-time news conference in which he is expected to sell the latest bailout and his $3.6 trillion budget.

In the commodity markets, crude managed to erase a day-long slide to end 18 cents higher at $53.98 per barrel. However, gold sank $29.10 per ounce to $924.70.

Corporate Movers

Goldman Sachs (GS) plans to shorten its timetable to give back TARP funds due to the uproar over AIG bonuses and its ties to the bailed-out insurer, The New York Times reported. While the newspaper reported Goldman plans to return the cash within the next month, a Goldman exec said Tuesday the bank hasn't decided when to return the funds.

Credit Suisse (CS) said it had a strong start to 2009 and it will ask shareholders next month to give it the option to raise $3.3 billion of capital for acquisitions.

Deutsche Bank (DB) said it expects to turn a profit in 2009 if the financial markets improve and sees no need to raise capital at this time.

Citigroup’s (C) reverse stock split may reduce calls for eliminating the bailed-out bank from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes told Reuters. Like FOXBusiness, Dow Jones, which selects the components of the index, is owned by News Corp. (NWS).

Williams Sonoma (WSM), the home décor company that owns Pottery Barn, beat the Street with a fourth-quarter adjusted-profit of 31 cents a share.

Carnival (CCL) exceeded expectations with a first-quarter profit of 33 cents per share and issued an in-line 2009 earnings forecast.

Walt Disney (DIS) saw its shares sink after the entertainment giant was downgraded to “neutral” from “buy” by Goldman Sachs, which cited valuation and mediocre performance from its studio entertainment division.

Hospira (HSP) plans to slash 1,400 jobs, or 10%, of its workforce in a move the medical products maker says will save up to $140 million per year.

Data Dump

The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index rebounded to a -20 reading in March, representing contraction but a big improvement from a -51 reading the month before.

Global Markets

European markets ended mixed as London's FTSE100 tumbled 1.05% to 3911.46 but Germany's DAX rose 0.26% to 4187.36.

In Asia, the Japanese benchmark Nikkei 225 jumped 3.32% to 8488.30 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 3.44% to 13910.34. China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.56% to 2338.42.


World Stocks Fall on US Economic Slump, Bank Woes
World Markets Slide Again Amid Financial Fears
Even in slump, firms find way for bonuses

Report: Barclays Offers to Finance iShares Purchase

NEW YORK--British bank Barclays PLC (BCS)is offering to bridging finance the purchase of its iShares fund unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources.

The bank, which is looking to boost its capital position and avoid government ownership, is offering to lend up to 80 percent of the unit's price, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The auction for the exchange-traded fund entity has narrowed to two or three bidding groups, among which a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Hellman & Friedman may have an edge, the newspaper reported.

Bain Capital and private equity firm TPG are also involved in the auction, according to the WSJ.

Barclays said earlier this month that it was considering a sale of iShares, part of its fund management arm, worth about $3 billion pounds ($4.3 billion), according to analysts' estimates.

Barclays could not immediately be reached for comment.


Tennessee Livestock Auctions
Back to 1996: GE, Citi Lead Stocks Sharply Lower
FedEx to cut 1,000 jobs, $1 billion in expenses

Two Large Corporate Credit Unions Seized by Regulators

Federal regulators seized two of the nation’s largest corporate credit unions late Friday after discovering the institutions' losses on mortgage-related securities were greater than previously believed, the Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. Central Corporate Federal Credit Union and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union were taken into conservatorship by federal regulators. The two institutions, which provide services not to the general public, but to retail credit unions, have a total of $57 billion in assets, the paper reported.

Michael E. Fryzel, chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, said that the government’s swift action was necessary to ensure the stability of both the credit union system and the insurance fund responsible for backing up retail-credit union deposits, according to the Journal .

The two institutions, Fryzel said, weren’t accurately estimating their losses and put the system at risk. Fryzel said top management at both institutions would be replaced, the Journal reported.


Even in slump, firms find way for bonuses
Citi Lights Up Wall Street; Best Day of ‘09
Fed’s Beige Book Shows More Economic Deterioration

Ugly End to Week of Gains on Wall Street

Wall Street suffered another pullback on Friday from its recent hot streak but the Dow still eked out its first back-to-back weekly rally since May.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 122.42 points, or 1.65%, to 7278.38, the S&P 500 fell 15.50 points, or 1.98%, to 768.54 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 26.21points, or 1.77%, to 1457.27. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 10.20 points, or 1.74%, to 575.48.

Friday’s losses came as little surprise to market participants who have seen the Dow soar almost 1,000 points since plummeting to 12-year lows earlier this month. Taking advantage of the gains from this recent hot streak, some traders took profits while other said it was time to for the markets to take a breather.

“We’ve had a very good week and a very good run. So I think everybody expected a pullback,” NYSE trader Doreen Mogavero told FOX Business.

While banks likeJPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) led Friday's dive, the losses didn't appear to be sparked by any new negative economic or financial developments.

“It’s just been a protracted selloff. There is nothing really new,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. “It’s not bad that it’s pulling back like this. It had to make a stop sooner or later. As long as the pullback is not too deep, then I think you are positioned to continue the rally."

Bank of America and General Electric (GE) helped lead the way down on the Dow on Friday, offsetting gains for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and General Motors (GM).

“The big question is: Does this rally have any legs, technical or otherwise?” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities told FOX Business. “I’m not sure I’m a believer because I think politics continues to trump the economics. If we can get beyond the politics, perhaps the market has a shot.”

Friday's volatility may have been caused by the fact the day was considered a "quadruple witching" session, which is a phenomenon where stock options contracts, single stock futures, stock index options and stock index futures all expire on the same day. Options expirations often allow for “moves that are inconsistent with rational thoughts,” said Saluzzi.

There weren't any major economic or earnings reports for the markets to analyze but the stocks were clearly weighed down by a second-straight selloff in the financial sector, which sank almost 5%.

General Electric (GE)saw its shares tumble as a trio of analysts slashed their price targets and 2009 earnings forecasts for the conglomerate despite GE saying Thursday its embattled financing unit will turn a profit.

The commodity markets were once again in focus as gold held onto its $70-rally from Thursday by falling just $2.50 per ounce to settle at $955.80. Crude tumbled 55 cents, or 1.07%, to settle at $51.06 but still ended with its fifth straight weekly gain. Considered inflation hedges, the commodities have received a boost from those worried about the side effects of the Federal Reserve's decision to pump an additional $1.1 trillion into the money supply.

While the dollar rebounded Friday from its two-day plunge that was sparked by the Fed move, the greenback was still poised to take its biggest one-week plunge against a basket of rival currencies since 1985.

Corporate Movers

IBM’s (IBM) potential buyout of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) has been held up by extensive due-diligence but the process isn’t expected to prevent a takeover worth $6.5 billion to $8 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Citigroup (C) said Gary Crittenden, previously the bank's chief financial officer, will take over the newly-created role of chairman of Citi Holdings. Citi said Edward "Ned" Kelly, previously head of global banking, will replace Crittenden as CFO.

Bank of America(BAC) was influential in determining writedowns for CDOs and leveraged loans at Merrill Lynch before BofA acquired the brokerage firm, the Financial Times reported.

Xerox (XRX) lost almost one-fifth of its market value after the company slashed its first-quarter earnings guidance below the Street's view and said it plans to cut an additional $300 million in spending.

Ford (F) ended sharply higher after UBS started coverage of the auto maker with a “buy” rating and a price target of $5. UBS predicted Ford will avoid seeking a bailout, making the risk/reward tradeoff compelling.

American Express (AXP) could post losses in 2009 and 2010 and is likely to cut its dividend to 5 cents from 18 cents in the second quarter, analysts at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey predicted in a research note.

Apollo Management is considering taking a large stake in Paul Allen-controlled Charter Communications (CHTR) in exchange for its control of the cable company’s debt, the Journal reported. Allen will hold onto voting control of Charter, which said last month it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Stiefel Laboratories, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, is considering selling itself for $3 billion to $4 billion and has already drawn interest from a number of big-name drug makers, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), the Journal reported.

Lennar (LEN) is nearing a deal to create a new company that would acquire at a discount much of the land from LandSource Communities Development LLC, which it sold its interest in for $707 million in cash in 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Global Markets

European stocks capped off their second straight week of gains with a solid rally Friday. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.68% to end at 3842.85 and Germany's DAX rallied 0.63% to 4068.74.

Asian markets ended in the red overnight as Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged 2.26% to 12833.51 but Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 0.33% to 7945.96.


Four in a Row for Stocks
Will stock market’s rally stick or vanish?

Madoff to Stay in Jail Until Sentencing

NEW YORK--A U.S. appeals court on Friday denied Bernard Madoff's bid to be released from jail white he awaits sentencing for the biggest ever Wall Street investment fraud.

A three-judge panel said Madoff, who faces the possibility of life in prison for his crimes, could be considered a flight risk and should remain in custody pending his June 16 sentencing.

The court upheld the decision of a lower court judge, who last week ordered Madoff to jail immediately after the disgraced money manager pleaded guilty to a massive investment fraud that prosecutors say defrauded clients of as much as $65 billion over 20 years.

"In sum, the district court did not clearly err in its assessment that the defendant has failed to show by clear and convincing evidence that he is not likely to flee," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in a written ruling. "The order of the district court is affirmed."


Madoff victims worry plea could deny justice
Madoff Goes to Jail: FOX Business Network’s Complete Coverage
Appeals court: Madoff will remain in prison
FBN Wins Victory Regarding NYU/Merkin/Madoff Case

Reveling in 'A-Ha' Moments

Two days after Kristin Slye had emerged from a house fire that consumed most of her possessions, the reality of it backed up on her while driving in her car.

“It hit me like a ton of bricks,” Slye said in our recent interview. “It finally sunk in. I remember screaming in my car, ‘I’m here. I came out of this burning house. I’m alive.’”

Slye’s epiphany took place in June of 2000 and it is now part of a beautifully executed advertising campaign for Mutual of Omaha called ‘aha moments.’ If you haven’t caught the commercials, you are missing something special. They are snippets of aha moments as told by the people who experienced them, bright spots on an ever darkening media landscape.

“When you have nothing, you have everything,” Slye says in her spot.

What happened to Slye in her car can be explained by a 2004 study at Northwestern University cited on ahamoment.com. Researchers discovered that “a split second before having an aha moment, we experience a burst of electrical brain activity ... kind of like a big light bulb going off in your brain.”

You might say it was a bit of a light bulb moment on the creative front when Todd Lieman and Jon Wank of Skadaddle Media -- working late one night after several months of kicking around ideas for their client -- stared at a crammed white board and decided to erase everything and write just this: Mutual of Omaha.

“And then I said, ‘what about aha, Omaha?’” Lieman said, emphasizing the rhyme.

The campaign grew from there, a natural for an advertising company that prides itself on its authenticity and transparency.

“It’s about life changes,” Lieman said. “What better way to convey an insurance company’s message?”

He loves that the spots are real people who responded to an ad on craigslist.org to talk about their personal epiphanies. Skadaddle pitched the idea to Mutual of Omaha on Valentine’s Day of 2008, notable because our economic downturn had only just begun, so the campaign seems almost prescient at its launch a year later.

By now many television viewers have seen the story of Ed, who lost his job but was spurred on to do what he’d really wanted to do -- become a personal trainer. In one compelling clip, a woman named Paige talks about following her gut and sending an appetizer of lemongrass beef to a guy at a restaurant bar; he’s now her husband.

And then, of course, there’s Kristin Slye and the fire in 2000. She describes two aha moments in her video. The first was the aforementioned incident. The second deserves a proper setup.

Slye, a hospitality marketing consultant (http://slyemarketing.com/), had grabbed an opportunity to live in what was the former house from MTV’s Real World (1994 season). She had six roommates, pretty much the norm in the ‘dotcom’ era when apartments were expensive and hard to come by. Six months into it, she was awakened at 3:20 a.m. by a fire. Slye wasn’t even wearing shoes, just pajama bottoms and a tank top. That was all she had left. With the help of good people in her life and her epiphany that she hadn’t lost what was important, she started rebuilding.

Then came a visit to Burning Man, the largest outdoor art festival in the world with a name that felt like a metaphor to Slye. When she got there, she found out they actually burn a wooden man as part of the festivities. At that point she didn’t even want to be around a lit candle, so she steered clear. But each year when she returned to the event, she inched closer and by 2004 Slye, a lifelong dancer, was close enough to see dancers with hula hoops of fire and flaming balls of fire attached to chains.

“I thought, don’t these people know that fire can destroy things?” Slye said. “I was both horrified and bewitched.”

Interestingly, the same Northwestern research team that had done the 2004 study about aha moments did another study in 2006 -- also cited on ahamoment.com -- and in it they found that “if we're open to change and maybe even looking for some kind of change -- an aha moment is more likely to happen.”

Tired of being afraid of fire, Slye was primed for change. So she trained to be a fire dancer and learned poi, the actual name of the dancing with chains she had seen. Her second aha moment came later while performing at a Burning Man ceremony.

“It was seeing people’s faces and their cheering,” Slye said. “Something that gave me so much pain, I realized people could get so much joy out of it.”

Slye, now married and the mother of a two-year-old, teaches and performs fire dancing. She and her family live simply – “Stuff makes me anxious” -- and, well, she lets her husband worry about the economy.

“We’re going to be fine,” Slye said. “All that really matters is we have each other. Fire has given me that gift. I’m really grateful that it happened.”

Skadaddle Media and Mutual of Omaha, it seems, have given us all a gift – stories that manage to resonate deeply in tiny sound bites while we’re watching Medium .

“It’s about a better life,” Lieman said. “That’s what we’re trying to inspire.”

Works for me.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.


An Economic Silver Lining — in the Auto Industry
Bellevue Center developer asks for year delay for overhaul

The President 'Gets It'... Why Doesn't Congress?

Missed tonight's Cavuto ? Catch "The Deal" right here on FOXBusiness.com

Clearly, the President of the United States doesn't have to demand FOX Business Network.

Methinks he already gets it.

Here's the deal:

He breaks news on Jay Leno.

Apparently, first watching us on FOX Business.

Now I can't prove the Fox Business thing.

But no denying what I heard on the Jay Leno interview thing.

The President saying, almost exactly, what we've been saying about this whole bonus rage.

It's understandable. But it's misplaced.

They're slapping the sin. But failing to prevent the sin.

What I’ve been saying. What the big guy just said.

Have a look:

Mister President, you're right.

And you owe me no royalty fees.

After all, you're the President.

And what the heck, who'd believe me if I said...you, the most powerful man on the planet...just ran with a line from the angriest Italian anchor on the planet?

But enough about me.

Back to me.

And my point:

Treat the disease. Not the symptoms.

The President gets it.

Congress does not.

The President gets the rage.

Congress can't get over the rage.

The President wants to go after the abuses that lead to the rage.

Congress wants to just pile on the penalties and create more rage.

The President's Treasury Secretary missed this. Might have even endorsed this.

Congress missed this. At best, stupidly ignored this.

But listen to the President when he says quit debating this.

What's done is done. Stop fixing messes after they're done.

Start preventing messes before they're done.

It's sort of like, no doubt, the President's position on FOXBusiness Network, which he clearly watches.

If you don't get the cure.

Demand the cure.


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Cavuto: Go Ahead, Hate AIG

Market Winners & Losers: Dynegy, AIG

The markets ended the week on a down note on Friday, with the major indices landing solidly in the red.

Here are the day’s winners and losers:

Winners

Dynegy Inc. (DYN)
The utilities provider continued to inch away from its yearly lows, gaining 14.5% on Friday. The stock ended the week at $1.74 a share, a gain of 22 cents on the day.

American Capital Ltd. (ACAS)
American Capital bucked the sector trend, gaining 13.9%, or 14 cents, on Friday to close at $1.15.

General Motors Corp. (GM)
GM fought off some unkind words from UBS to end the week on a high note. Shares gained 10.8%, or 31 cents, to close at $3.18.

Ford Motor Co. (F)
Shares moved up 9.6% on Friday as UBS encouraged investors to stray from GM and buy Ford. The stock closed at $2.75, a gain of 24 cents on the day.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (CAG)
Shares of ConAgra moved up 3.4% on Friday ahead of the company’s earnings release next week. The stock ended the week at $15.07, a gain of 49 cents on the day.

Losers

American International Group Inc. (AIG)
The joyride has finally come to an end for AIG, which saw its stock drop 22.2% on Friday after a string of positive days. Shares finished Friday at $1.26, a loss of 36 cents on the day.

Xerox Corp. (XRX)
A dismal earnings report and outlook cuts by two ratings agencies led the stock 18.7% lower on Friday. Shares closed at $4.34, a loss of $1.00 on the day.

ProLogis (PLD)
PLD followed sector trends as the stock closed down 16.3% to end the week. ProLogis last traded at $5.39, a loss of $1.05 on the day.

XL Capital Ltd. (XL)
Analysts had hyped the stock early in the week, but the wind beneath XL’s wings could not last until Friday. Shares closed at $4.24, a loss of 73 cents, or 14.7%.

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc (HST)
The stock started out the week in the positive, but ended in negative territory on Friday. Shares closed down 13.5% at $3.78, a loss of 59 cents on the day.


Market Winners & Losers: MBIA, Aflac
FedEx to cut 1,000 jobs, $1 billion in expenses
Market Winners & Losers: Eastman Kodak, American Capital
Tax Tips: Loss on home sale can’t be deducted

Mass Layoffs Stack Up as Employers Respond to Downturn

The Labor Department reported a rise in mass-layoff activity in February as employers struggle to cope with the nation’s worst recession since the Great Depression.

The number of mass layoffs – or layoffs of 50 people or more by a single employer – rose by 542 to a seasonally adjusted 2,769 last month. As a result, 295,477 workers lost their jobs, according to the government report.

Mass layoff activity, on an industry basis, surged to all-time highs across the board. Job cuts in the manufacturing sector accounted for 42% of all mass-layoff events and 47% of initial claims filed for the month. In February 2008, the manufacturing sector accounted for only 28% of events and 36% of initial claims, the department said.

California weighed in with the highest number of initial claims for the month, with 45,557. Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin followed behind, according to the data.

For the first two months of 2009, 48 states and the District of Columbia reported year-over-year increases in average weekly initial claims tied to mass layoffs. The only two states to see year-over-year decreases were Louisiana and Mississippi, the report said.

Mass layoff events have totaled 28,481 since the official start of the recession in December 2007, the department said.


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How Not to Use the Tax Code

Suppose employees in an industry benefiting from federal tax subsidies received regular extra payments amounting to a significant share of their annual income. Would you want to tax them, perhaps requiring them to pay as much as 90% of those extra payments in taxes?

If the answer is “yes,” tell that to your waiter next time you eat at a restaurant.

Food is one of the most heavily federally subsidized commodities, with the Department of Agriculture spending about $55 billion for various food programs including food stamps and aid to farmers.

Tips -- whether a standard 15% to 18% of a restaurant check or more -- are a major source of income for waiters and waitresses. We would not think of taxing those tips at a higher rate than ordinary salaries. To do so, would be an abuse, perhaps misuse, of the nation’s tax code.

Yet, we think nothing of applying the higher tax to the bonuses paid to American International Group (AIG) executives because they are in an industry, indeed a specific company, receiving government assistance.

The effort to apply a special tax on the AIG bonuses is one of two attempts this week to target the tax system for a narrow purpose. Even as Congress was considering the special AIG tax (adopted by the House of Representative Thursday), the Internal Revenue Service announced special rules to apply to victims of admitted schemer Bernard Madoff and other Ponzi investors.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress Tuesday the guidelines would apply to all such victims and allow them to recover taxes paid on “fictitious income.” Investors -- in fact, all taxpayers -- already have recourse on their tax returns through the ability to deduct theft losses. Those losses though are subject to a cap. Under the plan announced by the IRS, Madoff investors will be able to claim a theft loss equal to 95% of their investment less any withdrawals or re-invested gains.

Current IRS regulations allow tax filers to claim losses going back three years and forward 20 years. The new IRS regulations will allow Madoff investors to go back five years and claim the loss as having occurred in 2008.

Typically too, filers claiming losses are not allowed to include taxes they paid on what turned out to be phony income. Under the new plan, they will be.

And, not all scammed investors are being treated equally. In a briefing on the plan, an IRS official would not say whether victims of an alleged scam involving the Stanford Financial Group would be able to claim the same losses, explaining “to have a theft loss, there needs to be some evidence of criminal theft.” Stanford Financial, for example, has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of engineering an $8 billion fraud.

The fuzziness of the IRS treatment of Madoff and Stanford victims -- as well as the hurried tax penalty to be assessed on AIG bonus recipients, is of concern because of the precedent it sets -- and we don’t know where it might lead.

To be sure, the tax system -- as all government spending programs -- is highly political, taking money from one segment of the population and re-allocating it. Yet, targeting specific groups -- for higher payments or special tax breaks -- appears to violate any semblance of fairness in the tax system, or efforts to provide incentives for specific behavior.

For example, we encourage homeownership by providing special tax deductions for mortgages and, until 1986 tax changes, had provided an incentive for purchasing a car by allowing a deduction for interest paid on auto loans. When the auto-loan interest deduction disappeared, savvy homeowner car buyers began to use home-equity loans to finance car purchases, putting their homes at risk to buy a car, a consequence not considered when the tax change was enacted. That they were violating a fundamental finance principle, financing a relatively short-term asset with a long-term loan, was a topic left for almost esoteric economic discussion.

It brings to mind another attempt to use the tax code to address a narrow tax loophole. In the Tax Reform Act of 1969, Congress tried to limit the use of tax benefits by high income households who, because of their ability to use the tax code, owed little or no taxes income tax.

Congress was able to identify 155 tax filers and wrote a complex provision to ensure they paid taxes. The households affected by the law now number in the tens of millions -- all subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Mark Lieberman is the senior economist for the Fox Business Network. Prior to joining FOX, he served as first vice president and manager of economic analysis and research at Washington Mutual in New York. Before that, he served as senior vice president at Dime Savings Bank of New York (which was later acquired by Washington Mutual), where he specialized in credit and risk management. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York Association for Business Economics. He has a degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.


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Post-Fed Blues: Banks Lead Selloff

Dragged down by a bad day for the tumultuous financial sector, stocks took a dive on Thursday, ending Wall Street's recent hot streak and wiping out all of Fed Day's gains.

Today's Markets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 85.78 points, or 1.15%, to 7400.80, the S&P 500 fell 10.31 points, or 1.30%, to 784.04 and the Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 7.74 points, or 0.52%, to 1483.48. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 sank 8.46 points, or 1.42%, to 585.68.

Aside from sinking shares of banks like Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS), the markets were also under pressure from a flurry of bleak economic reports, a $70 spike in gold prices, three-month highs for oil and disappointing results from bellwether FedEx (FDX).

Few were surprised to see the markets suffer a pullback as the Dow had rallied in six of its last seven days, adding 1,000 points since hitting 12-year lows. Thursday's losses, which were Wall Street's worst since March 5, came after the Dow jumped almost 100 points on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve unveiled plans to pump another $1 trillion into the shrinking economy.

“We’ve had five or six really good days. It’s okay to give a little back,” NYSE trader Ted Weisberg told FOX Business. “Nothing fundamentally has changed. We know the rally is technical.”

More than half of the Dow's 30 components ended in the red, led by Bank of America (BAC),JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). On the other hand, Alcoa (AA)rebounded from its two-day plunge and General Motors (GM) rose sharply on news of a bailout for the auto-parts suppliers.

Even with Thursday's losses, the Dow is still on track for its first back-to-back weekly gains since May 2008.

The Nasdaq Composite fared better than the broader market, thanks in part to business software giant Oracle (ORCL), which late Wednesday reported better-than-expected quarterly results and surprised Wall Street by announcing plans to pay a dividend.

Wall Street is clearly still digesting the Fed's newly-announced plans to buy up to $300 billion in long-term U.S. Treasurys and another $750 billion of mortgage-backed securities. The moves, aimed at making credit more accessible and ending the 14-month recession, had an immediate impact as the 10-year Treasury note on Wednesday took its largest one-day drop since the aftermath of the 1987 stock market crash.

While the equity markets initially cheered the unprecedented action, some are concerned about the threat of strong or hyperinflation, underscored by huge gains in the commodity markets Thursday.

Banks Reverse Course

Financial stocks like Morgan Stanley (MS) ended deeply in the red, giving up earlier gains despite General Electric (GE) saying Thursday it expects its troubled GECapital unit to be profitable in the first quarter and 2009.

Also, shares of Citigroup (C) initially surged but then plunged after the bailed-out bank said it will ask for permission to perform a reverse stock split, a move that will boost the company's stock price but increase the number of shares outstanding.

Gold, Oil Soar on Dollar's Plunge, Fed

Commodities surged on Thursday in response to the sharply weaker dollar, which continued its selloff on fears the Fed's latest moves will result in a jump in inflation.

Just a day after the energy market was rattled by a bearish inventory report, the price of a barrel of crude soared $3.47 to $51.61, its highest price since Nov. 28.

Building on a late-day move from Wednesday, gold, which is seen as an inflation hedge, settled at $958.30 per ounce after surging $69.50, its strongest rally since Sept. 17.

Data Dump

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims declined by a better-than-expected 12,000 to 646,000 last week. On the other hand, the government said claims filed by people out of work for more than a week soared by 185,000 to 5.47 million.

The Philadelphia Fed said its manufacturing index improved to -35 in March, topping estimates but showing continued contraction. Separately, the Conference Board said its leading economic indicators index declined 0.4% last month, beating expectations.

Corporate Movers

American Axle (AXL), Lear (LEA) and auto-parts suppliers surged after the Treasury Department promised the industry $5 billion in aid to prevent a collapse that could threaten Chrysler, Ford (F) and General Motors (GM).

FedEx (FDX) saw its shares jump even after the bellwether missed expectations with a 75% plunge in profit. FedEx said sales slumped 14% and announced plans to cut costs by another $1 billion. However, the shipping giant said it is gaining market share despite the recession.

Cisco (CSCO) unveiled plans to buy privately held digital camcorder-maker Pure Digital Technologies for $590 million in stock.

Microsoft (MSFT) CEOSteve Ballmer said he is "sure" the software giant will restart talks with Yahoo!(YHOO) about doing a search deal, according to Reuters.

Discover Financial (DFS)suffered a 50% drop in earnings from continuing operations in the latest quarter. The fourth-largest U.S. credit card network also said it will slash its dividend by 67%.

Barnes& Noble (BKS) posted a 30% drop in fourth-quarter net income as same-store sales slumped 7.3%. The largest U.S. book retailer sees a first-quarter loss.

Corning (GLW) said it expects to post an adjusted-profit in the first quarter and sees price declines moderating in the second quarter.

Global Markets

European markets jumped for the second-straight session. Germany's DAX rose 1.18% to 4043.46 and London's FTSE 100 gained 0.31% to 3816.93.

Asian markets ended narrowly mixed overnight as Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 0.33% to 7945.96 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.1% to 13130.92.


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An Economic Silver Lining -- in the Auto Industry

There are many silver linings to be found in this economic crisis cloud and here I bring you one of them involving -- really, I swear -- someone in the auto industry.

Howard Sackaroff started a new job in December and he loves it. After 30 successful years working at auto dealerships, the writing was on the wall in October: the dealership he was working for in Danbury, Conn., was being sold and there was a mutual parting imminent in a less-than-desirable economic climate.

Undaunted by those circumstances or the fact that he is in his mid-50s, Sackaroff prepped his resume -- which included positions over the years as auto mechanic, service manager, sales manager, fleet manager, general sales manager and general manager, and his penchant for taking over troubled dealerships and righting their course -- and posted it on some automotive job Web sites. That’s when a company called Ride Away came persistently knocking, looking for a new general manager.

“I kept making assumptions it was a tiny little company,” Sackaroff said. “But I was home doing nothing, so I agreed to the interview at a Norwalk, Conn., industrial park. I walked in kind of jaded. I had been pushing metal and plastic for 30 years and fixing dealerships, but I figured there’s got to be more to life than that.”

After the first interview, Sackaroff did some research on Ride Away and what he found “completely floored” him: 11 locations, a solid business plan, a mix of government and private funding, and they were philanthropic.

“I was ready for a change,” Sackaroff said. “I said to myself, what’s the worst that can happen? If I hate it, I can go back to the auto business.”

As it turned out, he doesn’t hate it. According to its Web site, Ride Away is America's “largest provider of accessible vehicles and vehicle modifications including hand controls, wheelchair and scooter lifts, ramps, raised doors, lowered floors and specialized gas, brake and steering controls.” In other words, it holds the key to an independent life for the disabled. Hence, its company slogan -- We Deliver Freedom.

The customers "get so excited,” Sackaroff said. “Life is easier for them. A person who’s confined to a wheelchair can become completely mobile. They’re not stuck in their houses anymore. And for the spouse who was loading them into a regular car, folding up the wheelchair and putting it in the trunk, imagine what these vehicles do.

“Our job is to ask, ‘What do these people need to buy?’ It’s not always what they think they need. This is not a five-minute process. It’s very intricate. It gets you close to them. It’s always an hour and a half conversation. A lot of them are angry. They feel life has been unfair. In other moments they accept it. They like to talk and I like to listen.”

That is one of the biggest challenges of the job. The listening. Sackaroff diplomatically asks about their prognosis and then bases his recommendation on that. For example, he needs to ascertain if they have a disease that's degenerative.

“If the doctor says the person is probably going to be stable for the next two years, what they need will be different from someone who is getting worse by the month,” Sackaroff said. “Then I have to ask, ‘Why do you want to spend money on this if you can’t drive it in four months?’”

It’s kind of an ironic twist for Sackaroff, whose family pressured him into applying to medical school as a young man. He did and was accepted, but opted instead to get a job as an auto mechanic at a car dealership.

“From when I was a little kid, I loved cars,” he said. “I was taking engines apart at an early age.”

That first job led him to 10 years in service and 20 years in management, so he got to know every facet of the business and even bought and sold dealerships a few times. He worked at Chevrolet through 1991 and then Honda, Dodge and Hyundai right up to last year.

“Those years were financially satisfying, but by no stretch was it emotionally satisfying,” Sackaroff said. “I was trapped in the kind of income and lifestyle I wanted. I didn’t hate it but it became repetitive.”

And so now he is happily sharing his gifts at Ride Away. He took a small cut in salary, but negotiated for a “bigger piece of the pie” and he is maintaining the suburban lifestyle he was living. In all, Sackaroff was job-free for less than a month, but his advice to those who have been laid off is valuable nonetheless.

“I went out of my comfort circle,” he said. “I was willing to do something different with the intention of some kind of emotional reward.”

When asked if this job is a culmination of everything he’s done, he didn’t hesitate with his answer: “Yes.”

Silver, silver everywhere.

Nancy Colasurdo is a practicing life coach and freelance writer. Her Web site is www.nancola.com. Please direct all questions/comments to FOXGamePlan@gmail.com.


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