Many investors want to get rid of mark-to-market accounting rules. Sure it will create a one-time trading opportunity. But in the end, it will only make things worse and could cost us all a lot of money.

Last weekend, Global Finance published its list of the World’s 50 Safest Banks – a list that the publication has run for 17 years.

Oil rose above $44 a barrel on Friday, after sinking 4 percent in the previous session, gaining support from a weaker dollar and a meeting of OPEC later this month.

The banking-sector crisis is getting better by the minute. What was a financial disaster has turned into some first-rate political entertainment. Our nation’s leaders are putting in an award-winning performance.

Most investors want to abandon everything and run for cover thanks to all the bad news, stock collapses and recession. Can it get any worse? Sandy Franks of the Taipan Publishing Group says, “no.” So what do you do with your money now?

European shares gain for third consecutive session… Euro up against dollar, yen as risk aversion ebbs …  SPDR Gold Trust ETF, iShares silver ETF at record

With the U.S. credit markets in lockdown mode, a whipsaw stock market that keeps anyone from getting too comfortable, a banking sector in chaos and a recession that clearly won’t be ending any time soon, U.S. dealmakers are looking at a market for mergers and acquisitions that’s in a virtual deep freeze.

MSCI world equity index down 0.2 percent at 224.77…  China cuts rates but gloomy Japan, euro zone data weighs… Dollar weakens; bonds rise

It takes more than a globally competitive economy to have a sound banking system. For the third straight year, the United States finds itself at the top of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as part of its annual Global Competitiveness Report.

I’m reading a strange little book this week. It is called The Fall of Northern Rock and is written by an ex-employee of the now nationalised bank called Brian Walters. I’m not quite sure why Walters was the one commissioned to write the book, for the simple reason that he doesn’t seem to have any more inside knowledge into the affair than the rest of us.