Housing Meltdown
Why home prices could drop 25% more on average before the market finally hits bottom.
Housing Meltdown Analyzing the Housing Crisis In Pictures: In Many Metro Areas Home Prices Shed Gains, See Who Has Been Hit Worst


Most People Facing Mortgage Trouble Don't Know There Is Help Available
With a record number of new foreclosures hitting neighborhoods across the country, a surprising 58% of delinquent homeowners don't know their lenders may offer ways to help them keep their homes, and 56% don't know that free counseling exists to help them.
Homeowners late on loans often don't seek help - USATODAY.com


Billion-Dollar Losers
After a bleak month for the stock market even the richest and savviest of top U.S. executives have been wounded by the market's gyrations. Capital IQ estimates that since October, five CEOs have lost more than $1 billion through holdings of their companies' stock. They include Larry Ellison, Michael Dell, Micky Arlson, Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch. And that is just the start.
The Billion-Dollar Losers


5 Old Tax Laws, New Amounts
These five adjustments to existing tax laws also could affect your tax bill. Make sure you know the changes.
Old tax laws, new amounts - Bankrate.com


Some Retailers Tighten Return Policies
40% of retailers say they have tightened the rules covering what merchandise they'll take back, and under which conditions. Keep that in mind if you're still dithering about whether to keep that hot pink sweater or iPod you got as a gift. Time might be running out to get an exchange, much less a refund.
Not So Happy Returns - USA Today


Auto Makers Offering Deals Based on Brand Loyalty
Faced with increasing competition in a shrinking market, auto makers are now offering so-called loyalty and conquest discounts. These deals are designed to reward car owners for either sticking with a particular brand or defecting from a competitor's (hence the word "conquest").
Auto Makers Offering Deals Based on Brand Loyalty | SmartMoney.com


Is Now the Time to Buy HDTV?
With the federally mandated switch from analog to digital TV only a year away, now may be the time to buy.
Is now the time to buy HDTV?

How Could One Man Cost a Company Over $7 Billion?
How could this possibly have happened? One of the biggest frauds in financial-services history apparently was carried out by a 31-year-old trader in Société Générale's Paris headquarters, whom multiple news sources have identified as Jerome Kerviel. Many are left to wonder about the lucrative but risky equity-derivatives business.
Société Générale's Fraud: What Now?


America's Fastest Growing Tech Companies
Even in a rough market, these companies are poised to soar. Topping the list is Google, followed by Salesforce.com, Ceradyne, Euronet Worldwide and Falconstor Software.
America's 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies - Forbes.com


Richest People You've Never Heard Of
Have you ever heard of Suzanne Klatten who is worth almost $10 billion or John Sall who is worth $4.4 billion? You might think enormous wealth guarantees instant notoriety. It doesn't. Mad money does not equal fame. These folks manage to skirt the public eye despite their billions.
The Richest People You've Never Heard Of - Forbes.com In Pictures: The Richest People You've Never Heard Of - Forbes.com

After saying publicly that he planned to make The Wall Street Journal's website free and rely on advertising revenue to make up for lost subscriptions, Rupert Murdoch has changed his mind.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Murdoch said that the articles and sections "giving the greatest insights, that will still be a subscription service."

I guess we can assume that the paper's editorial page will be free now. Perhaps we will even be paid to read it.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) appears to have gone back and forth on this matter, and I doubt we've heard the last of it. Long-term, I still think that the WSJ website will end up being free. The increasing quality of online business coverage will make a WSJ subscription less of a necessity for many readers. But a free WSJ-website would instantly become the top business news site in America.

Believe it or not, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch does sometimes deliver for shareholders.

Shares of the parent company of 20th Century Fox are down about 2% this year, which while lousy, actually is significantly better than other media conglomerates including Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), and Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), which each are down much more. The attraction here isn't shareholder value. It's Murdoch.

Quite simply, the Australian media tycoon is the most dynamic CEO in the industry. He's one of the few who does stuff stuff just because he feels like doing it. Just because the market really doesn't need another cable news business channel, that doesn't mean that Murdoch won't start one. Fox Business Network isn't going to make a nickel for years and won't do much for shareholders. The same goes for Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ). Spending $5 billion for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal may be a slight help to the bottom line, though its potential may not be realized for years either.

What makes Murdoch tick is lust for power and influence. He started Fox Business Network because he thought that CNBC wasn't pro business enough, a sentiment that probably shocked the likes of Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer. Advertisers are no doubt getting commercial time on Fox Business for a fraction of what they would pay on CNBC or Bloomberg TV. The question is whether they'll be interested in the network once its novelty begins to wear off.

As for the Journal, worries about Murdoch interfering with the newspaper are overblown. He doesn't have to ring up an editor to tell him about a story he hates. A high-level Murdoch employee knows very well what the mogul likes and doesn't like and will comport himself accordingly.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.

High-Yield Stocks for Retirement
Market swings have created a buying opportunity for retirement investors. Money Magazine's Michael Sivy says act now before it's too late.
Coming out ahead when high-yield stocks plunge - MONEY


Who Will Get Relief From the Subprime Mortgage Mess?
If you're in mortgage trouble, here's what you need to know to take advantage of the subprime relief plan.
Who will get relief from the subprime mortgage mess -Bankrate.com Q&A on the Mortgage-Rate Freeze Plan


10 Myths About Saving Money on Gas
With gasoline prices nearing record levels, many drivers are trying to adopt ways to reduce the amount of gas their car uses. That's a noble goal, but don't fall for some common myths that, in some cases, will end up costing you money.
10 Myths About Saving Money on Gasoline - TheStreet.com

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal's "Deal Journal" reported that Sam Zell's planned buyout of Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) is contingent on the receipt of a solvency opinion, and that this is the first time they have ever seen a deal dependant on this.
• The WSJ's "Heard on the Street" reported that Countrywide Financial Corporation (NYSE: CFC) may not be out of the woods yet. Despite executives promising a return to profitability, there is still a risk the company may eventually seek bankruptcy protection or "resort to huge sales" of new stock.
• U.S. private equity group JC Flowers "is understood" to have walked away from the auction for troubled bank Northern Rock, the Financial Times reported.
• Rupert Murdoch is shaking up the management of News Corp (NYSE: NWS.A), the Financial Times reported, giving his son, James Murdoch, control over the company's European and Asian operations, and appointing two trusted executives to lead Dow Jones & Company Inc (NYSE: DJ) and the Wall Street Journal.

WEB SITES:

• Barron's Online's "Weekly Trader" said AutoNation Inc (NYSE: AN) looks attractive now, despite hovering near a multi-year low. The company has also been on a slow but steady quest to diversify away from unpopular domestic brands by snapping up luxury and import dealerships.

Newsweek is running an article that Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (NYSE: DJ) current CEO, Richard Zannino, is set to relinquish his CEO position of the Wall Street Journal. This comes one week before Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) is set to assume control over Dow Jones.

This move comes after a contentious battle waged by Murdoch to lobby the Bancroft family to vote their controlling shares in favor of a merger.

The Newsweek article provides some color on this whole process saying, "Fearful that Murdoch might use the Journal as a platform to forward his own business and political views, numerous Dow Jones employees and executives tried to lobby the Bancrofts not to sell. But after Murdoch promised to preserve the Journal's editorial independence, the family decided to take the money and run."

As for Zannino, the ex-fashion industry and retailing executive, Murdoch doesn't seem to have found a place for him in the "new" Dow Jones. But that's OK, don't shed a tear for Zannino. His parting package weighs in at about $19 million, according to the Newsweek

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. He does not own any stocks mentioned.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) reportedly is in talks to buy social networking site LinkedIn.

"A well-placed source has confirmed with us that these talks are serious," writes VentureBeat's Eric Eldon. "News Corp.'s strategy, from what we understand: Somehow integrate LinkedIn's network with the Wall Street Journal as well as its other newspapers around the world, hopefully figuring out how to recoup News Corp.'s newspapers' declining classified ad revenue in the process."

The strategy makes sense. Plus, Murdoch is eager to bolster the company's social networking business in the face of the rising popularity of MySpace. LinkedIn claims that 14 million professionals use it, representing every member of the Fortune 500. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Greylock, the European Founders Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners.

As Murdoch has shown with the $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ), Murdoch is willing to pay up for something he wants and if shareholders benefit so much the better. Investors continue to be sour on the media sector and will be for a while considering the uncertainty surrounding advertising spending and the overall economy. Shares of News Corp., which recently said earnings were rising ahead of its forecasts, are down 3% this year.

Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE:DJ ), publisher of the Wall Street Journal, is looking to unload some or all of its Ottaway community newspaper chain ahead of its $5 billion acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS).

This isn't surprising since Rupert Murdoch in August said that he would sell the chain to focus on the Journal and other financial information business. Ottaway, whose publications includes Pennsylvania's Pocono Record, The Cape Cod Times of Massachusetts, and New York-based Middletown Record, isn't a good fit with the flashy tabloids of the Murdoch empire such as The New York Post. Moreover, James Ottaway, the family's representative on the Dow Jones board, was a vociferous critic of Murdoch takeover of Dow Jones.

The businesses, like all newspaper chains, is struggling. Revenue in Dow Jones' Local Media business fell 5.8% in the third quarter as advertising revenue plunged 8.8%. Operating income fell a whopping 13.4%. Even so, buyers will be interested in the chain since local papers still generated considerable cash flow since they are less vulnerable to competition from the Internet than major metro dailies.

Perhaps Ottaway will take some of Murdoch's money and try to buy his family business back.

In what could could be a sign of things to come, Rupert Murdoch and executives at the Dow Jones Company's (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal are trading arguments in the press about the future of the newspaper's online edition.

A few days ago, Murdoch said that he planned to make the Wall Street Journal Online free, and make up for the lost subscription revenue by selling advertising on the site. Given the Journal's status as the premier financial news source, he estimated that he could increase traffic 10- to 15-fold from its current base of about 1 million subscribers.

Well some executives at the paper responded that the "The exclusivity of Journal content provides value beyond the Web site" and that making the Journal free would reduce print subscriptions and cannibalize traffic to other Dow Jones-owned sites.

My hunch is that Murdoch is right -- online advertising is exploding and the idea of a property as valuable as this newspaper getting so little traffic makes me think there's a better way. But regardless of who is right, this is a fight Murdoch will probably win. It's been said before and it's worth saying again: Rupert gets what Rupert wants.

Mysterious is the mind of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. Now comes word that the News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) CEO considered making a bid for The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT). Exactly how long the mogul entertained such a notion isn't clear. Of course, he eventually went after Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ).

Can you imagine a New York Times owned by Murdoch? Frank Rich, Thomas Friedman, Paul Krugman, and Maureen Dowd probably couldn't either. I am sure the four of them would have screamed bloody murder at the thought of working for Murdoch. New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger, whose family has a iron-clad grip on the publisher, would never sell. But Murdoch, who sees The Times as a symbol of all that's bad and liberal about the media, knows all of these and many other reasons why he will never own the Grey Lady. So, why would he waste his time with such a ludicrous idea? I have no idea but DealBook, The Times' business blog, has a novel theory.

"it's possible that the crafty media baron is playing games with the paper he wishes to destroy." the site says.

You think?

In a sign that a Rupert Murdoch-controlled Wall Street Journal could be more reader-friendly, the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) CEO says he will make the paper's website free to access. He hopes to make up for the drop in subscription revenue by selling advertising.

According to The New York Times, Mr. Murdoch says, "We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million, having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth."

Exactly. The Wall Street Journal is, by far, the most respected name in financial journalism, and by making it free online, it instantly becomes the number one most-respected business site in the country. There's also a socially responsible side to this move: High school students and other less-affluent followers of business news will have access to the best coverage.

There was a lot of talk about Murdoch's grubby paws ruining The Journal. But if this first move is any indication, he'll be a much better steward than the Bancrofts were.

Natalie Bancroft, a 27-year-old opera singer who lives in Europe and has little exposure to the worlds of journalism and commerce, is the hand-picked family representative for the Bancrofts on the board of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), according to the Wall Street Journal.

How did this happen? The family couldn't agree on someone who would take it and be acceptable to Rupert Murdoch. They missed the deadline, and Murdoch picked someone he knew didn't have a strong background to defend Dow Jones' (NYSE: DJ) interest when he gobbles it up.

I thought it was a dark day when the Bancroft family decided to sell Dow Jones to Murdoch, but this makes the situation even darker. It will be sad to watch the remaking of what is one of the world's greatest financial news empires in Murdoch's image. Murdoch's reputation for driving his newspapers toward yellow journalism so that he can sell more papers certainly will not be good for the solid reputation of the Wall Street Journal or any of Dow Jones' well-respected publications.

I was hoping the family would at least have some say about the Journal's future on the News Corp board, but this choice does not offer a strong voice for financial journalism. I still have my subscription, but I wonder how long I'll continue that once Murdoch does his thing. Will you keep your subscription?

Lita Epstein has written more than 20 books including "Trading for Dummies" and "Reading Financial Reports for Dummies."

Shares of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) haven't done well this year. Have they been in Wall Street's dog house long enough?

Time Warner, down 18% this year, trades, at a multiple of 18. Disney, whose shares are little changed, is trading a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17. News Corp., also little changed, is the most richly valued of the bunch with a forward p/e of 20. All three of them report earnings this week. To put it diplomatically, expectations are low. Disney is probably the most compelling value there because of strong brands and top-flight management.

Revenue at Time Warner is expected to be $1.41 billion, up 14.8% according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Earnings are expected to be 11 cents compared with 19 cents a year earlier. The stock rose today after the company announced that Jeff Bewkes would replace Richard Parsons as CEO starting next year. Don't expect any big changes at AOL, though. The strategy to turn around the Internet unit was developed by Bewkes. The company will come under pressure to divest AOL and other businesses including publishing. Earnings are due Wednesday.

Disney reports Thursday. Analysts aren't expecting much out of the Mouse House. Revenue is expected to inch up 2.2% to $8.98 billion. Earnings are expected at 41 cents versus 36 cents a year earlier. With the record-low dollar, the company's Theme Parks are dirt-cheap for foreign tourists. Earnings also should be helped by the "High School Musical" franchise and a solid performance by the ABC Television network.

There will be plenty of talk about the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) on Thursday's News Corp. earnings conference call. There will also be discussion about the surging popularity of Facebook. Though so far the Fox Business Network has underwhelmed critics, Murdoch will no doubt put a positive spin on the channel's debut. Revenue for the quarter is expected to increase 9.6% to $6.48 billion. Earnings are pegged at 23 cents versus 19 cents a year earlier.

Credit crunch? Not so for the venture capital space. According to various surveys, there is still lots of strength.

For example, the MoneyTree Report (from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association) shows $7.1 billion in VC investments for the third quarter. A report from Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) VentureOne shows about $8.1 billion in fundings.

It certainly helps that there has been a pick-up in the IPO market. Oh, and the tech sector has had a nice rally. The most popular categories for VCs include software and biotech.

As for software, there has been a megatrend for on-demand offerings. As seen with the growth of companies like Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO), the enthusiasm is certainly understandable.

However, I'm not so sure about biotech. The sector has been fairly weak in terms of public offerings. But, then again, it seems biotech companies always need to raise gobs of money, right?

Something else: There's been a pick-up in cleantech deals. After all, with high energy prices, there appears to be lots of opportunity.

Visit DealProfiles.com if you want to see other recent VC fundings.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.