Two institutional investors with William Ackman's $12 billion hedge fund plan to reach out to the manager to get more information about the firm's big bet on ailing retailer JC Penney, whose stock has dropped 21 percent this year.
If you thought the sordid tales of bankers at bailed-out Wall Street firms getting big bonuses were bad, consider this: At Hawker Beechcraft, executives may get paid millions in bonuses for driving the company into bankruptcy and looting its pension fund.
A new law will let companies contribute billions of dollars less to their workers' pension funds, raising concerns about weakening the plans that millions of Americans count on for retirement.
The Treasury has to find buyers for trillions of dollars in new bonds needed to fund the federal deficit. It hopes average citizens will pony up and invest in some $337 billion worth. But for a host of reasons, "safe" T-bonds might not be a winning investment for you.
Interest rates are the price of money, and though that price is near zero right now, the cost of low interest rates to our nation may be too high. Low rates are squeezing savers, seniors, banks and pension funds, and the benefits we're supposed to see from them don't appear to have arrived.
Thirty out of 49 major developed countries could see their credit ratings plummet to junk status if they don't make changes soon, says a Standard & Poor's study. The biggest problem is health care spending on the elderly, particularly for long-term care.
Ford earnings are expected to be weaker next year due to higher costs for pensions and materials, according to a research note released Wednesday by Credit Suisse Securities. Forecasts call for pretax income from Ford's North America operations to fall to $4.2 billion in 2011 from $4.8 billion this year.
Some hedge-fund managers are having a tough year. After suffering unusual losses, two well-known managers, Stanley Druckenmiller of Duquesne Capital and Paolo Pellegrini of PSQR, are leaving the business.
The drop in BP's share price has erased more than $1.4 billion in fund value at 42 state retirement accounts. This comes at a time when pension funds are still struggling to recover.
Federal prosecutors have started a criminal investigation into the investment activities of the California Public Employees Retirement System, reports The Wall Street Journal. The report says Justice Dept. officials are examining potential influence-peddling within CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund.
