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With regulators having seized 123 banks so far this year, one might think the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. would be looking everywhere to find potential buyers for failed financial institutions' deposits and assets. But there's one place to which they're apparently not quite ready to turn: China.

When San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank failed on Nov. 9, the Fed was weighing an application by Chinese bank Minsheng to step in and take it over. But while it considered whether Chinese regulators were prepared to oversee a bank with operations on both sides of the Pacific, time ran out and UCB was shut down.

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Majority of states see unemployment rates move higher in October

By David Schepp | Nov 20th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy, People

Given that the nation's overall unemployment rate rose to its highest level in decades in October, it's perhaps not surprising that a majority of states reported higher numbers of joblessness last month compared to September, according to fresh data released Friday from the U.S. Department of Labor. In 13 states the rate topped the national average of 10.2%, leaving many to wonder when the economic recovery that is reportedly underway will finally result in more jobs.

Overall joblessness rose in 29 states and the District of Columbia last month, while the rate fell in 13 states, according to the survey. In September, 23 states and Washington D.C. reported that their unemployment rates increased, and 14 states had jobless rates above the national average.

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Green Turismo: To save the Earth and save gas, turn cars into video games

By Alex Salkever | Nov 20th 2009, 3:40PM EST Filed Under: Energy, Technology, Economy, Green

My friend has a Tesla Roadster. For those who are unfamiliar with Tesla Motors, the Roadster is the Ferrari of the electric-vehicle world, a high-performance two-seater with more sex appeal than Mae West. How ironic, then, that my friend pines for her old Honda Insight, a dinky little hybrid that has been a commercial failure but remains a cult favorite among the green car set. Why would any sane, hedonistic California resident wish their Ferrari were a Chevy Chevette?

Because the Insight had a wonderful feature that told her how efficiently she was driving. That feature was a light on her dash that glowed green when she was driving smoothly, braking gradually, and accelerating at a moderate piece. It glowed red when she drove like a bat out of hell, braked hard, and turned sharply. While driving her clunky little Insight, her focus was on how to make that light stay green.

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D-Day for Harry Reid: Can he wrangle 60 votes for Senate health reform bill?

By Joseph Lazzaro | Nov 20th 2009, 7:05PM EST Filed Under: Economy

Perhaps Ringo Starr should attend Saturday night's start to the debate over the health care reform bill in the Senate. After all, it was Starr who first uttered the malapropism that later became a hit song (and movie) by The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night. Saturday evening may shape up to be just that in the upper house of Congress.

For clues regarding the bill's destiny, look for key, early maneuvering. Bill author Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, has to retain all 60 members of the Democratic Conference (58 Democrats, two Independents) to pass a procedural vote. If even one conference member strays -- and can't be persuaded to change the vote -- the health care reform bill won't even make it to the Senate floor for debate.

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With a name like Smucker, the stock's got to be good

By Dan Burrows | Nov 20th 2009, 4:20PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Investing, Earnings, Stock Picks

Cash-strapped consumers are eating more meals at home and that's slathering J.M. Smucker's (SJM) bottom line in sweet, sticky profits.

The packaged-food maker said Friday that fiscal second-quarter earnings boomed more than 170%, blowing past Wall Street's estimates by 18 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Even more impressive, revenue leaped by 52%.

Smucker may be best known for its eponymous jams and jellies -- other brands include Jif, Hungry Jack, Crisco and Pillsbury -- but it's the Folgers coffee business the company acquired from Procter & Gamble (PG) last year that's jolting growth.

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Massucci's Take: Twitter CEO says Murdoch's Google plan is doomed

By Anthony Massucci | Nov 20th 2009, 4:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, People, Media, Google , Apple, News Corp.

Twitter co-founder and CEO Biz Stone said Thursday that Rupert Murdoch's potential plan to block Google from searching New Corp.'s (NWS) websites is doomed to fail. Murdoch has accused Google (GOOG) of stealing content from his publications, which include The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the U.S., and The Times and The Sun in the United Kingdom. The cantankerous tycoon said last week that blocking Google could be part of his strategy to get more people to pay for content online.

Here's a young man, all of 35, who runs a company that makes no money, telling an old man, 78, who runs companies that have made billions, that he is wrong. But while it's easy to dismiss Stone's comments as youthful bravado, I think he's giving Murdoch some valuable advice.

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Philip Morris gets snuffed on a $300 million verdict for a former smoker

By Melly Alazraki | Nov 20th 2009, 3:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Altria Group

A Florida woman on Thursday won a $300 million judgment against Altria Group's (MO) unit Philip Morris USA -- the largest award yet among 8,000 lawsuits filed in the state against tobacco companies. Jurors took three hours to return the award to Cindy Naugle, 61, of Ft. Lauderdale, a former smoker who was given $56.6 million in compensatory damages and $244 million in punitive damages. Philip Morris is responsible for all of the punitive damages and for 90% of the compensatory ones. The jury found Naugle 10% at fault.

Naugle says she started smoking at 20 in 1968 and made repeated attempts to quit, finally succeeding in 1993. Today, she has emphysema, requires a 24-hour oxygen and must travel in a wheelchair.

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High fund costs can devour your returns

By Daniel Solin | Nov 20th 2009, 2:30PM EST Filed Under:

A reader asks this question: "I stumbled across some information on Vanguard's Web site about what they call the 'Investing Truths.' One of them is about costs and shows that a 1.2% expense ratio would eat up 46% of an 8% return over 50 years. Can that be true?"

The short answer is "yes". Based on a hypothetical investment of $10,000, a fund with an expense ratio of 1.2% would yield $244,322 to the investor and a whopping $210,693 to the fund.

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Is construction headed for a rebound? Autodesk numbers give a good clue

By Alex Salkever | Nov 20th 2009, 12:40PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Economy, Investing

Several years ago, when I was doing research for hedge funds, I spent a month talking to Autodesk (ADSK) resellers. Autodesk's AutoCAD software suite is the standard tool used by designers and architects in the construction trade, and it dominates its market much like Adobe's Creative Suite dominates the print, graphic and interactive design fields. Its resellers are the hundreds of consulting organizations and systems integrators that sell Autodesk licenses to customers in the construction business. Like many big software companies, Autodesk relies on a huge reseller channel for the majority of its sales volume.

What my favorite resellers all told me was that they like to play construction-related stocks based on what they see happening at Autodesk, which serves all segments of the construction trade including building, civil engineering, office building design, and factory design.

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TARP saved the banking system, but failed at everything else

By Lita Epstein | Nov 20th 2009, 10:40AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

tarp-saved-banking-system-but-failed-at-everything-else-expert

On the same day the Obama Administration floated a trial balloon to test the waters for extending TARP, the Congressional Oversight Panel heard from experts about TARP's effectiveness. While some of the experts did find aspects of TARP effective, they all testified to significant problems with TARP and the way it was implemented.

Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren set the tone for the hearing, saying that while the Troubled Assets Relief Program had succeeded in preventing a "catastrophic collapse of the financial sector," it was not "designed really to rescue large banks. The broader long-term goals were aimed at strengthening the overall economy and dealing with the alarming number of mortgage foreclosures." How successful was TARP in meeting these larger goals? Not very.

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Sarah Palin: Yahoo email hack was 'devastating' to campaign

By Sam Gustin | Nov 20th 2009, 10:21AM EST Filed Under: People

Of all the slings and arrows Sarah Palin suffered on the campaign trail, perhaps the "most disruptive and discouraging" was having her email account hacked into, the one-time vice presidential candidate writes in her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life. She echoed that sentiment in an interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity broadcast Wednesday night. At the height of the presidential campaign, a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student hacked into Palin's Yahoo email account and posted it online.

"That was quite devastating because I knew of some of the personal conversations I had that were in some inbox and I didn't know what was going to be out there," Palin told Hannity. "That caused a lot of disruption and even distrust within the campaign that was unfortunate."

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