| Ramones ex-manager, stars' realtor murdered, police say
Police have declared Stein's death a homicide. They declined to discuss possible suspects in the investigation. "She had a tough exterior but she had a heart of gold," said Dottie Herman, a colleague and close friend. Stein had been struggling with breast cancer and "was a little wobbly on her feet some days," Herman said. "I just assumed Linda fell and hit her head when I first heard about this, because I can't imagine anyone that would want to kill Linda," said Herman, CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman, where Stein worked. Stein was formerly married to Seymour Stein, ex-president of Sire Records, according to The Associated Press. It was the Sire label that released records that vaulted the Ramones, Talking Heads and Madonna to fame in the 1970s and '80s.
Share market plunges
Wall Street itself was closed for a holiday, but a big fall on a key futures contract signalled a slump on the opening tonight. Tags: business-economics-and-finance, finance-markets, stockmarket, futures-markets, currency-markets, australia .
What Would You Do If You Witnessed a Break-In?
A couple of women who engaged in brief conversation with the boys later said they were actually far more concerned about their well-being than they let on during the exchange. "They [the boys] started getting increasingly strident and jumping on [the car] and pounding on it," said Laurette. "Then we said, 'Let's get away from this and call the police.'" .
Buffett Puts Bump Into Stocks, Credit Markets
Warren Buffett's offer to back the municipal bond portfolios of three monoline insurers has put some bounce into stocks today, and it's also waking up the credit markets. Buffett's proposal to have his Berkshire Hathaway guarantee the $800 billion municipal bonds covered by three troubled insurers is giving a big boost of confidence to a market made anxious by the possibility those insurers could be downgraded. One of the insurers has already turned down Buffett's offer, but still the market is upbeat on the idea that the billionaire investor is willing to step up. Buffett announced his offer in a phone call to "Squawk Box" this morning. The financial markets have worried that possible ratings downgrades of the insurers--Ambac .
Stocks Post Steep Losses, Capping Painful Week
Stocks declined sharply today after another large bank said that it would write down the value of some of its assets, reigniting fears of a credit squeeze, and technology stocks extended their losses. The Dow Jones industrial average plummeted more than 200 points, or 1.7 percent. Technology stocks, which suffered one of their first significant sell-offs in months yesterday, dropped more than 2 percent today. Qualcomm, the wireless company, said last night that it expected business to drop over the coming months, underscoring fears that technology companies will be hurt by an expected slowdown in the economy over the next few months. Cisco Systems, the networking giant, ignited yesterdays sell-off with a similar report. The Nasdaq composite index, heavy with technology shares, closed down 68.06 points, or 2.5 percent, to 2,627.94.
Financial Taxidermy - Lessons in Being Stuffed
This article was originally published on December 5th for the benefit of subscribers. Taxidermy refers to the job of taking the skins of dead animals and mounting them onto a plate of some form that depicts them in a naturally occurring state. With the era of photography and cartoons, this is not required for today's article. Instead, pictures are strategically placed onto the S&P 500 Index chart to "capture" what the general populous was thinking at a particular point in time. One of the main reasons for this article taking a long time to publish was finding the appropriate pictures. A picture is said to be worth 1000 words, so each picture is supposed to be representative of the thoughts of each individual at a certain point in the stock market cycle. The stock market is a barometer of how the economy is doing and the footprint left by the "tape" directly captures the summation of all participants.
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