| Knocking on doors to land deals
Daryl White, 44, took Alexis McGee's class nearly three years ago. He'd been to other real estate seminars and gotten little out of them. "I didn't think you could do as many deals as McGee promised," says White, who lives in Valencia, Calif. Nonetheless, using McGee's guidelines, he set a profit goal of $200,000 his first year. Instead, White says, he made $300,000. Now one of the four coaches in McGee's mentoring program (a $7,500 service that lets you talk to a coach for an hour a week for three months), White claims he's set to make around $500,000 from investing this year. Because he is a star student, his success is featured on McGee's Web site, and he gives a testimonial on her DVD. As McGee suggests, White starts his search on the phone.
Global stocks fall on credit fear
Global stocks have slumped amid fears over the fallout of the credit crisis, after Goldman Sachs downgraded Citibank and forecast US$15bn (?7.3bn) in losses. US markets were particularly hard-hit. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 217.86 points, or 1.65 per cent, to end at 12,958.93 - its lowest level in three months. The Nasdaq shed 1.33 per cent. London's FTSE lost 170.4 points at 6,120.8 - its biggest drop since the credit crisis peaked in August. European stocks also fell more than 1 per cent in both France and Germany. The benchmark Frankfurt Dax shed 1.3 per cent and the Paris Cac ended 1.7 per cent lower. In Japan, the Nikkei average tumbled to a 16-month low today and the TOPIX to a two-year low, battered by the Wall Street slide.
Battling for Payday Loans
When my Foolish colleague Selena Maranjian extolled the virtues of a virtual ban on payday loans for members of the military, I knew it was because she wants consumers to run their financial lives Foolishly. After all, living from paycheck to paycheck and having to make regular use of short-term loans is not a particularly wise use of one's financial resources. .
Fed says it will be more open with public
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke moved Wednesday to break down even further the aura of secrecy that historically has enshrouded the institution that sets interest rates and improve communications with investors and the public. In the job since February 2006, Bernanke said in his announcement that the time has come for the Fed to tell America four times a year — not twice — what its projections are for the health of the U.S. economy. And when it gives that forecast, it will say what it thinks the business environment will be for the following three years — not two. These forecasts — a kind of Fed report card to consumers and businesses — will state the expected pace of economic growth, the anticipated unemployment rate and whatever policymakers can divine about inflation.
American Express sticks Visa with the tab
American Express Co. will receive up to $2.25 billion under an agreement with Visa Inc. to settle litigation that has been pending since 2004, according to statements released by both credit card issuers today. Under the terms of the agreement, American Express will drop Visa as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that MasterCard Inc., Visa and their member banks illegally blocked the company from the U.S. bank-issued card business. Visa said it does not concede any liability through the settlement, which remains subject to the approval of Visa's member banks. American Express will also drop banks named from the lawsuit, including JP Morgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp., U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo & Co. and Providian. American Express expects to recognize an initial payment of $1.13 billion during the fourth quarter, which includes a $945 million payment by Visa and an additional payment by the bank defendants.
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