Money - AOL Money & Finance

Thursday is one of those days when I wish I could be reincarnated as Jon Stewart. I am certainly hoping that when he returns to live broadcasts, he can find the funny in the media's obsessive coverage of the State Dinner crashers. And if he does this, he should note that while the media salivated over the Salahis, it ignored a far more important story -- Middle Eastern petro-state, Dubai, was defaulting on its debt.

Problems with Dubai's finances are not a big surprise. As I posted in February, I first got wind of the potential for a huge collapse there back in 2005 when I read an article in the New Yorker which discussed Dubai's world record breaking pace of commercial real estate development as its government sought to diversify away from oil.

And Dubai is perhaps just one extreme example of a bigger problem. As I've posted, the $6.7 trillion commercial real estate lending industry has been dangling out there as the potential cause of a double dip economic contraction. But I did not anticipate that Dubai's inability to repay its debts would be the straw that would break the back of commercial real estate.

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Sterling results from Tiffany and J. Crew could signal high-end holiday boom

By Vishesh Kumar | Nov 25th 2009, 7:00PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Earnings, Tiffany & Co., J. Crew

For the luxury retailers lucky enough to make it through the steep recession, business is looking good again. And investors should consider taking a look at their stocks ahead of what might turn out to be an unexpectedly strong holiday season for high-priced goods.

On Wednesday, jeweler Tiffany & Co. (TIF) breezed by third quarter earnings expectations and issued a bullish outlook for the year ahead. Shares of the company rallied about 5% in trading, and lifted other jewelry sellers like Zales (ZLC) and online merchant Blue Nile (NILE) along with them. Tiffany's results follow strong quarterly results from upscale retailer J. Crew (JCG) -- shares soared almost 8% -- where analysts at Credit Suisse note that "business is gaining momentum without the need for significant promotions" and that November also looks like a strong month.

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Cash or charge? Salvation Army's iconic red buckets now take plastic

By Bruce Watson | Nov 25th 2009, 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Economy, American Express

You know the drill: you're walking out of the store, shopping bags in tow, when a bell-ringing Salvation Army guy in earmuffs gives you the look. Maybe you feel around in your pockets for a sec, or maybe you just skip right to the dramatic shrug; either way, chances are that you don't drop the proverbial nickel in the drum.

Aside from stinginess, there is a very good reason that many customers hold off on giving money to the Salvation Army: they often don't have any cash on hand. After all, between credit cards, debit cards and gift cards, there is hardly any reason to carry money for shopping, and the added bulk and insecurity of bills and change only increase the difficulty of holiday shopping. Of course, no cash translates into no cash donations, which tends to leave the bell ringers high and dry.

But now, in many parts of the country, there's no excuse if you don't have any dollar bills or coins in your pocket.

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A flurry of scams accompany Black Friday shopping

By Tracy Coenen | Nov 25th 2009, 3:20PM EST Filed Under: Economy, McAfee

You can be very careful when shopping but you will still be at risk. Each time you hand your credit card to someone or transmit your credit card number over the Internet, you're putting yourself at risk. The Privacy Rights Clearing House tracks data breaches, reporting publicly on incidents of merchants and vendors exposing your private data to identity thieves. Millions of consumers are put at risk because of data breaches each year.

And during the holiday season, you're at even greater risk. No longer are consumers forced to wait in gargantuan lines to get deals on Black Friday. The Internet has become a safe-haven of those who don't like crowds, but still want to get in on the deals.

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Two stocks to be thankful for: Tenet Healthcare and AES Corp.

By Peter Cohan | Nov 26th 2009, 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Ford Motor Co., Goldman Sachs , Whole Foods, Tenet Healthcare

With millions unemployed as Thanksgiving approaches, I can't think of many people who are counting their blessings these days, except maybe Goldman Sachs Group (GS) employees who are getting a chunk of the investment bank's $23 billion bonus pie. But that's only 31,700 people out of 305 million Americans.

Yet it's possible that some Americans could have bought shares in 10 stocks that have had a great 2009 so far. And two of those 10 could give you reason to be thankful when Thanksgiving rolls around again in 2010. Thanks to SeekingAlpha, we have the top 10 stocks in the 10 sectors of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, which was up 20% from the beginning of 2009 to Nov. 17. Before getting into the best performing stocks in each sector, let's look at the 10 top performing sectors (with the average percentage stock price increases of each sector's top 10 companies through Nov. 17):

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A long business soap opera ends: AIG and Greenberg settle

By Douglas McIntyre | Nov 26th 2009, 7:45AM EST Filed Under: Company News, People, American International Group, INC.

Maurice R. "Hank" Greenberg did not start AIG (AIG), but he might as well have. Greenberg took over as head of the insurance company in 1968, the only CEO other than its founder C.V. Starr. Greenberg turned AIG into the largest insurance firm in the world. In 2005 he left during an accounting scandal, then shortly after his departure, problems with toxic assets on the firm's balance sheet nearly took the company under. A series of government investments totaling $180 billion kept AIG in business. Washington was worried that a collapse of AIG would bankrupt a number of other large companies that had relationships with the firm.

On Nov. 25, AIG and Greenberg agreed to settle all of the outstanding legal issues between them. According to an 8-K filed with the SEC, Greenberg and AIG's former CFO will receive reimbursement of their legal fees of up to $150 million. AIG also dropped a $1 billion claim against Greenberg. Some of Greenberg's property, much of it from his old office, was returned to him. He will also have access to some AIG files "to write his memoirs."

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Chinese banking stocks continue to slip and Japanese carmakers slide

By Lauren Cooper | Nov 26th 2009, 7:05AM EST Filed Under: Economy, Investing

Shares in Asia tumbled Thursday. In China the Shanghai Composite index plunged 3.6%, ending the day at 3,171, and in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 1.8% to 22,210. In Japan the Nikkei Index lost 0.6% to close at 9,383.

Chinese banks sank lower again Thursday as investors and the Chinese authorities await plans as to how banks will raise capital to support the massive loans they have made this year. In addition, Yin Zhongqing, deputy head of the finance and economic committee announced that the amount banks are predicted to lend in 2010 will fall to $730 billion to $1.2 trillion. That's far lower than the estimated $1.4 trillion loaned in 2009. "A level higher than 8 trillion yuan will pose serious inflationary pressure," he told Reuters. "I think five to eight trillion yuan in new loans next year would reflect the appropriately loose monetary policy."

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Google hits a snag in China as world's largest carrier hijacks Android

By Alex Salkever | Nov 25th 2009, 6:30PM EST Filed Under: Google , China Unicom, China Mobile

Google is famous for touting its adherence to open standards and for developing on top of Open Source software platforms such as Linux. Launching Android, Google (GOOG) stated its new operating system would be open sourced -- that is, the software code would be free to download, modify and change. Such a laissez faire approach does make it possible for others to develop versions of Android that are not completely compatible. Thus far, this has not been a problem, with one enormous exception: China Mobile (CHL).

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone company with over 300 million subscribers, took Google at its word and decided to adopt the core software of Android for its own OMS operating system. China Mobile is now well on its way to building a code base that is different from the versions of Android being built by Google itself. And more than any other carrier on Earth, China Mobile can cause a code fork problem that could short circuit Android growth in the Middle Kingdom -- by far the largest mobile market on Earth.

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Is Dollar Tree's stock as cheap as its prices?

By Dan Burrows | Nov 25th 2009, 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Investing, Earnings, Stock Picks

It's no secret that cash-strapped consumers have been flocking to discounters and dollar stores for more than a year. A bit more surprising is that even after a 50% rally off their 52-week low, shares in Dollar Tree Stores (DLTR) still look as cheap as the retailer's wares.

The company posted yet another impressive quarter of profit, sales and operating margin growth Tuesday. Dollar Tree's third-quarter earnings rose 58%, beating Street estimates by an almost embarrassing (for the analysts) 10 cents a share. Sales rose 12%, exceeding expectations by more than $4 million and same-store sales -- a key retailer metric -- grew 6.5%. The company has a nice habit of exceeding analysts' average expectations, by the way, having done so for more than eight consecutive quarters, according to Thomson Reuters.

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Senators blast Obama's secret trade talks as Fox head calls for '3 strikes'

By Sam Gustin | Nov 25th 2009, 4:40PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Economy, Media

The CEO of News Corp.'s (NWS) Fox Filmed Entertainment this week called for a U.S. "three strikes" law, similar to one just passed in France that would cut off suspected Internet pirates' Web connections and could land them in jail. Speaking at a press conference in Athens, Fox's Jim Gianopulos called internet piracy the single greatest threat facing Hollywood and said it was internet providers' responsibility to police their users for illicit activity. "If we can do that, it would be a big victory against piracy," Gianopulos said.

The Hollywood executive's comments came as Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sherrod Brown of Ohio wrote to the Obama administration, expressing their concern over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which the world's top nations are negotiating, largely in secret talks.

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Coke thinks globally, acts socially and blogs totally with Expedition 206

By Latif Lewis | Nov 25th 2009, 3:40PM EST Filed Under: Company News, Technology, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Coca-Cola Company

There's an old saying: "Fish where the fish are." That's exactly the approach big brands are taking as the era of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube transforms how companies engage with consumers, especially the youth market.

Case in point: Coca Cola (KO). The beverage giant is taking a deep dive into experimental marketing, in line with one of the key elements outlined in the company's 2020 vision: to develop and deploy the world's most innovative and effective marketing. One key component in the charge is Expedition 206, which is being touted as the largest social media program ever.

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