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| Dow Jones rally that gave the Dow Jones industrial average its best four weeks since 1933.
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| The change in "mark-to-market" accounting rules, which should help banks reduce losses, sends another lifeline to the troubled financial industry. Many investors believe financial stocks, which have largely carried the market's four-week rally, are a gauge of when the economy is turning.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Mark-to-Market Rule Gives More Clarity, Not Less
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Mark-to-market accounting rules are being brought a little closer to economic reality -- accompanied by misplaced howls of outrage.
True, the ostensibly independent Financial Accounting Standards Board yesterday agreed to alter a portion of the rules only under extreme pressure from Congress, and that’s unfortunate. Still, the standards have forced many financial institutions to overstate losses on trillions of dollars worth of assets, intensifying the global financial crisis.
Editor's Comment: This is a must read.
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| @ Bloomberg News
| Posted: /04/03/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Walgreen sales up 1.5% in March
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| The Deerfield drugstore chain's overall sales rose by 6.8 percent to $5.46 billion from $5.11 billion in the year-ago month. Total sales reflect the contribution of stores opened or acquired under Walgreen's expansion plan: as of March 31, Walgreen was operating 6,736 drugstores, 576 (or 9.4 percent) more than the 6,160 it had open one year ago.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Government may reward car buyers
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| The idea of stimulating new car sales by coaxing old cars into the salvage yard is gaining bipartisan momentum in Washington amid federal efforts to reshape an industry that on Wednesday released dismal sales figures for March. would offer $3,000 to $5,000 to motorists who scrap an old car and buy a new one. Either plan would cost $1 billion to $2 billion a year, or more, depending on who would be eligible and how many people participated.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Chicago jobless rate at 9.2%: beats L.A., not N.Y.
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| All 372 U.S. metropolitan areas reported higher February unemployment rates than a year earlier, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics said Wednesday. The Chicago metropolitan area ranked the 139th worst, lower than Los Angeles (10.2 percent) but higher than New York (8.2 percent).
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| @ Chicago Sun Times | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Crist: No tax hike for Everglades deal - at least at first
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| Gov. Charlie Crist said today that the initial 72,500-acre Everglades purchase announced this week could be paid for without raising property taxes, but he could not make that promise if the state were to buy all of U.S. Sugar Corp.'s land holdings. Crist said he hopes to buy all 180,000 acres from U.S. Sugar "sooner rather than later" and that he would not increase property taxes to do so.
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| @ Palm Beach Post | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Orange Co., Florida hotel taxes plunged 29 percent in February
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| Tax collections fell 29 percent for the month, dropping to $11.8 million from $16.6 million the same month last year.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Manatee County (Bradenton) looks at suspending impact fees
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| The Manatee County administrator recommended Thursday cutting road impact fees by 25 percent, while commissioners leaned more toward eliminating all impact fees for a year.
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| @ Bradenton Herald | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0419 EDST
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| The incredible shrinking economy. Japan is in danger of suffering not one but two lost decades.
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| TO LOSE one decade may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. Japan’s economy stagnated in the 1990s after its stockmarket and property bubbles burst, but its more recent economic performance looks even more troubling. Industrial production plunged by 38% in the year to February, to its lowest level since 1983. Real GDP fell at an annualised rate of 12% in the fourth quarter of 2008, and may have declined even faster in the first three months of this year. The OECD forecasts that Japan’s GDP will shrink by 6.6% in 2009 as a whole, wiping out all the gains from the previous five years of recovery.
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| @ The Economist | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0646 EDST
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| Bahamian Central Bank: Recovery next year
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| An anemic Bahamian economy won't likely regain its vigor this year, according to the latest Central Bank report, pointing to the continuing global downturn as well as a 4.8 percent inflation rate. "The outlook for the Bahamian economy remains weak throughout 2009 with developments expected to be heavily influenced by the responsiveness of the global economy — particularly the United States. "Consequently, tourism and foreign-investment activity are likely to remain subdued in the near-term, with implications for a further elevation in the unemployment rate above the 12.0 percent estimated at end-2008."
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| @ Nassau Guardian | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0652 EDST
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| South African building costs ease as industry suffers.
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| Building costs rose by 10.1% in 2006, 15.3% in 2007 and about 12.4% last year. The forecast for the current year, however, is for a rise of 6.5%. The forecast has been undertaken in association with the Bureau for Economic Research of the University of Stellenbosch.
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| @ The Times of South Africa | Posted: /04/03/09 at 0655 EDST
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