allstate

Most U.S. drivers think they're better drivers than most of their friends -- even if they speed, call or text when they're behind the wheel. Could you be mistaken about your driving skills?

In order to avoid new federal rules and heightened scrutiny from regulators, MetLife has decided to sell its banking unit. That's a smart move for the nation's largest life insurer, and keeps it on a level playing field with its competitors.

Home and auto insurer Allstate is buying Esurance and Answer Financial from White Mountains Insurance for about $1 billion. Allstate Corp. says the deal will help it tap consumers who prefer certain brands along with consumers who want choices among insurance carriers.

If you're driving less in this time of high gas prices, you might be eligible to pay less for auto insurance with a new crop of pay-as-you-go plans. But these per-mile policies come with some drawbacks as well, and certain habits -- like driving late at night -- could disqualify you.

Oracle, Discover and Tiffany are all expected to report year-over-year growth for their most recent quarters this week. Meanwhile, many will be looking for an updated snapshot of the housing market, with three sets of real-estate data coming out.

Allstate is suing Bank of America and its Countrywide Financial division over Countrywide's sale of $700 million in mortgage-backed securities to the insurance giant, alleging that Countrywide knew in advance that the assets would drop in value because of a high percentage of defaults.

Nearly half of Americans in a recent poll believe China has surpassed America as having the strongest economy in the world, and more than half blame outsourcing and the loss of manufacturing jobs for the shift.

Both Allstate and Prudential, the two largest publicly traded insurers, have announced plans to return cash to shareholders.

The head of Allstate's (ALL) auto insurance unit thinks he made Warren Buffett blink. Bloomberg News reports that Allstate is bragging because Buffett's GEICO -- the third largest auto insurer (behind Allstate) which sells over the Internet and telephone -- has decided it needs to open storefronts...

Does anyone who can't send a baseball into orbit, create the next hit YouTube video or cure cancer "deserve" to be paid $7 million ? I am not sure. But what I can say is that paying that level of salary to American International Group Inc. (AIG) Chief Executive Robert Benmosche seems reasonable....