The US subprime and credit crisis has cost the world over $7.7 trillion, according to a report released in February by Bank of America.

The worst could yet be to come. Shah Gilani in Money Morning says the $62 trillion market for credit default swaps (CDS) is a ticking bomb.

The derivative instruments - which offer insurance against default - are neither transparent nor regulated. But they are all at risk. And they are already causing huge writedowns in the banking sector…

After two weeks of nail-biting speculation, InBev NV pulled the trigger on its takeover offer to Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (BUD), putting up a $46.3 billion, or $65 per share, cash bid for the U.S. market leader.

Typically, when investors hear “pink sheet stocks,” they think of tiny companies, more often bad than good, and for the analysts out there, it means a ton of work lies ahead of them.

All last week I expected the bullion banks to pull the pin on both gold and silver because of options expiry yesterday.

Those Nasty Index Speculators. Is Correlation Causation? Where Are All the Tankers? Where Will Oil Prices Go? Is it 1980 All Over Again? The Middle East, California, and Help for Myanmar.

Message boards on financial websites are interesting reads. People will say anything. But, there is one consistent theme that fascinates me…