When I pressed the mental rewind button on the year 2008, many words came to mind. ”Change” tops my list since it has saturated every form of media for what seems like an eternity!  
I decided to check Merriam-Webster’s Top Ten List for “Word of the Year” and four of those terms were in heavy Palin rotation: maverick, bipartisan, socialism and rogue.

Each word brings back memories, but financially speaking how will you choose to remember 2008?  
Place your vote for Talk Stock Trading’s “Term of the Year”
Term #1: BAILOUT – Too big to fail?  Ask the government to pay your bail!  A bailout is loosely defined as a financial rescue …read more

Another late night weekend deal was struck between the Fed and a credit crunch casualty: Citigroup. 
In my previous post I just wrote about how shocked I was to see Citigroup make it through the weekend.  No sooner than I hit “Publish,” news broke that the U.S. government has agreed to bailout Citigroup!
Madness!!!

The world could not afford to let Citigroup fail.  Citi has a hand in all things money: retail banking, insurance, investments… you name it, they do it.  Citi operates in 140 countries and has $2 trillion in assets on the books.  According to MarketWatch, Citi has another $1.23 trillion in potentially troublesome …read more

Banks and lawmakers are pushing the SEC to relax standards placed on banks for mark-to-market accounting, which the banks say exaggerated the effects of the credit crunch.
As the name suggests, mark-to-market accounting is concerned with market value, meaning that the value of an asset on a firm’s books should be linked to its current market price NOT the price paid for it. 
Makes sense to me.  If I wanted to sell my Honda Civic today, I wouldn’t place an ad in the paper with the 1996 sticker price.  No one would buy it because its value is much less now.  On the other hand, if I wanted to sell …read more

General Electric has a hand in everything, but has still managed to fall victim to the credit crunch.
Now, GE plans to sell $15 billion worth of new stock, $3 billion in preferred and $12 billion in common stock.  The preferred stock has snagged a buyer in one Berkshire Hathaway.  I’m with Warren Buffett on this one, GE has struggled to maintain its footing during the recent crisis but, the company is solid. 
Today, the stock is trading down about 5 percent and it may continue to go down in the short term, but long term GE is probably one of the …read more

Who knew that a Swiss investment bank was the one hit hardest by the credit crunch?   
UBS has written down over $38 billion since news of the crisis broke last summer and shares of the Swiss bank have lost more than half of their value since the start of this year.
Earlier this week, more negative rumors swirled regarding the bank’s need for financing, generating fears that shareholders would be asked to contribute more money.  But, today UBS surprised the world with the announcement of a tax credit that could be large enough to offset possible write-downs for the second quarter. 
The timing of this 3 billion Swiss franc …read more

CNN recently found that 74% of Americans think the economy is in a recession.  But, according to the technical definition of a recession, this is impossible.  How can this be???

One widely accepted definition of a recession includes the observation of two quarters of declining growth (as measured by GDP).   But, when it comes to a word like “recession,” does anyone actually care about the textbook definition?  Apparently not.  It appears that the recession jitters are contagious!  You can catch them at the gas station or in the dairy aisle of your local supermarket. 
Maybe recessions aren’t just about GDP growth.  Perhaps they reflect …read more