Today in Money & Finance - 4/16 - Top 25 stocks of past 25 years, 7 hottest stocks in 2007 & five Sneaky bank fees

Top 25 Stocks Over Past 25 Years
"If I had only bought..." -- A $100 investment in each of these in their infancy would have turned $2,500 into $650,000. The top company over the past quarter of the century isn't one of those hot tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco or Oracle, but financial company Franklin Resources which is up 64,224%. Other giants who made the list include Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Best Buy, Countrywide, Home Depot, Dell, Adobe, Berkshire Hathaway and Time Warner which is up 18,158%.
'If only I had bought.. .' - USATODAY.com


Hottest Stocks of 2007 (So Far)
With the first quarter of 2007 in the history books Morningstar takes a look at which stocks had the best performance. They include Alcoa, First American, Fairfax Financial Holdings, Getty Images, MSC Industrial Direct, Pioneer Natural Resources and Vulcan Resources.
Seven Hottest Stocks This Year - Morningstar


IRS Audits Middle Class More Often, More Quickly
The I.R.S. has nearly tripled audits of tax returns filed by people making $25,000 to $100,000 since 2000. Those caught cheating can expect to pay about $4,100 more on average in income taxes.
I.R.S. Audits Middle Class More Often, More Quickly - New York Times


Five Sneaky Bank Fees
Your checking may be free, but that doesn't mean you aren't paying elsewhere. Ten years ago, fees accounted for just 3% of bank income, today they account for 56% with banks earning an estimated $80 billion on fees last year. Here are five sneaky fees to watch out for.
Five Sneaky Bank Fees - SmartMoney.com


How Uncle Sam Spends Your Tax Money
Tax season for Americans is a time of refunds and remittances, but do you ever consider the final destination for all those dollars? The biggest chunks of cash fund the military, Social Security, and health care-as well as hefty interest payments on the ballooning national debt. Of the $2.7 trillion federal tax coffers, about 20% goes to military spending, 20% to Social Security payments, and 15% to Medicare for the elderly and disabled. An additional 35% funds education, government agencies, and a range of social programs. And the remaining 10%? That's for interest payments to service the debt from all that spending.
How Uncle Sam Spends Your Tax Money - BusinessWeek
In Pictures: How Every Dollar of Your Taxes Is Spent


Corporate America's Top Earners
Under new disclosure rules approved by the SEC last year, public companies must furnish many more details about compensation packages than they've ever had to divulge. So for the first time ever we can get an indepth look at what CEOs and other top executives make. The numbers are out of this world. 11 CEOs made over $25 million last year with Ray Irani of Occidental Petroleum leading the list. He received total compensation of $52.1 million. He also exercised $270 million in options and received $93 million by opting out of the company's deferred compensation program.
A peek at the perks of the corner office - USATODAY.com
List: Top Earning CEOs