OZ Minerals stunned the market with the revelation that the deadline for refinancing of $560 million of debt facilities was Sunday and it hadn't been able to secure an extension.

Investors are expected to applaud news that the government has approved the resignation of Financial Commission Supervisory Chairman Gordon Chen.

Under fire for his role in the near-collapse of Citigroup, Robert Rubin said its problems were due to the buckling financial system, not its own mistakes, and that his role was peripheral to the bank's main operations even though he was one of its highest-paid officials.

It looks like Citi isn’t the only credit card issuer revising their cardholders terms… American Express enclosed a letter in our latest bill detailing a bunch of changes to their Cardmember Agreement. While I’ve reproduced the entire letter below, here’s a quick summary: Cash advance APR is increasing to Prime + 17.99% Late payment APR is increasing to Prime + 14.99% Default APR is increasing to Prime + 23.99% Foreign transaction fee is increasing to 2.7% Here’s the full text of the letter:

improve credit scores Nothing is worse for your credit score than a foreclosure or a bankruptcy credit report. Not only will these red flags remain on your credit record for seven years, but your score could drop as much as 300 points overnight, impacting your ability to borrow money for years. Your credit report will show every time you’re 30 days late on a mortgage payment and then the “Notice of Default” will show up. If you are able to stop the house from foreclosing, then you’ll hav

This afternoon we received a “Notice of Change in Terms and Right to Opt Out from Citibank” in the mail. We’ve known that Citi would be increasing rates for a couple of weeks now, but we now have details straight from the horse’s mouth. All I can say is that… I sure am glad that we don’t carry a balance on our cards! I’ve transcribed the entire letter below, but here’s an executive summary: Purchase APR is going up to a minimum of 16.99% Cash advance APR is going up to a minimum of 21.99% Def

OPEC's president said he expects oil demand to be much lower than a month ago, and added that the group will take any additional action Dec. 17 at its formal meeting in Algeria.

Back in June, I had a brief chat with an investment banker who specialized in commercial real estate financing. He focused on securitizations, where mortgages on hotels, office buildings, malls and other income-producing properties were sliced, diced and repackaged into instruments that were then sold to institutional investors such as insurance companies. In his view, the commercial market was somewhat immune to the problems afflicting the residential property sector. Among other things, he

A good working definition of financial risk can be found on http://www.investopedia.com: ??the chance that an investment?s actual return will be different than expected. This includes the possibility of losing some or all of the original investment. It is usually measured using the historical returns or average returns for a specific investment.? With that definition as a starting point, let?s look at the key components of financial risk. It?s important to take all of them into account when de

Another lovely investment strategy for tough times. From Friday's Financial Times: Speculators are being armed by banks to hurt Main St By Mark Sunshine Published: November 28 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 28 2008 02:00 Warren Buffett called credit default swaps "financial weapons of mass destruction" and they are about to annihilate Main Street. In a disturbing new trend, international banks are creating syndicated credit facilities that "weaponise" credit default swaps (CDS) by using

Friendly greetings from the Mac side of computerdom! It's been quite an adventure lately. As much as I've enjoyed the company of my Q6600-based system, Windows was being a real jerk to me! I kept running into glitches that added up to massive frustration and time wasted, and it sort of climaxed before Thanksgiving. For example, I tried to upgrade from XP SP3 to Vista — not just once, but several times. Using the built-in upgrade tool, I found out the hard way when it failed and I was left hang

Here are some interesting articles that I came across during the week. 1. Grocery Shopping in New Delhi: This is a hilarious account of grocery shopping in New Delhi; narrated by an American lady, which, appeared in the Get Rich Slowly blog. 2. Credit Default Swaps, Herald of Doom (for beginners): An interesting and fairly simple explanation of Credit Default Swaps by The Baseline Scenario. 3. When Black Friday Deals Are Not Worth the Risk: The Digerati Life talks about Black Friday Deals an