Outrage about the $165 million in bonuses paid to executives at AIG may just be the tip of the iceberg. There are many more important concerns in the minds of public that have real ramifications for national policy and for those at the highest levels of politics and finance - reports Forbes.

U.S. taxpayers are being “forced” to accept that those people who brought AIG down should now be rewarded with (exponential) bonuses, just because only they can dis-entangle the mess they have …

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Financial services firm UBS feels that India is, still, one of the most attractive places in Asia at present, reports the Economic Times of India. In fact, UBS has upgraded India from moderate underweight to overweight as it feels that valuations have improved substantially and that the Indian economy is less affected by the global financial crisis than most other markets. The foreign financial major, however, does expect further weakness in the coming quarters. Among Asia’s leading economies, China remains UBS’ largest …

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HURRAY! INDIA has proved herself once again. After a sweeping win of Indian artists at the Oscars (I am referring to Slumdog Millionaire winning 8 Oscar awards), an Indian bank has now surpassed the till-now global banking major - Citibank - in terms of market capitalization.

According to a report published in The Times of India, Citigroup, with assets worth $1.95 trillion (Rs 9,72,075 crore), now values less than our own the State Bank of India (SBI). On Tuesday morning (at …

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Zimbabwe’s central bank has today released the new note into circulation in their attempt to battle hyperinflation…

Zimbabwe’s central bank has today launched a $50billion note into circulation, despite the currency being virtually worthless, as per Money.co.uk reports. According to today’s estimates the $50billion note will trade at $1.25 US dollars on the black market and have enough purchase power to buy just two loaves of bread or three newspapers.

Three weeks previous, when the government introduced a $10billion note, the equivalent …

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There are funds which, while having the potential to give higher returns in the long term, also carry the baggage of high volatility. These particular schemes tend to remain in losses in the short- and even medium-term – that’s longer than some of the other funds – because of aggressive investment strategies. As a result, such schemes are good only if you have the ability to see off the negative returns in your portfolio for a fairly long time. In …

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United States of America

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November declined by 1.7% mom, the decline was higher compared with the drop of 1.0% in the previous month. The steep m-o-m decline in the consumer prices indicates the possibility of deflationary situation in the USA.
The initial jobless claims for the week ended December 2007 increased to 573,000 compared with 515,000 in the previous week. The factory orders for October declined by 5.1% yoy as compared with a decline of 3.1% …

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Instead of waiting until March to make taxsaving investments, take advantage of the fire sale on in the stock market right now… invest in equity-linked savings schemes (ELSS)…

They say, there are only two things are certain: death & taxes. We may not discuss these issues openinly in our society (especially in India). You hate it or love it - you can’t ignore it. Most of us usually think about taxes and tax investments only in the month of March. …

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