General Electric has posted a quarterly decrease in profit of 42 percent, a result that, while disappointing in and of itself, actually marks an improvement from what analysts predicted for the massive company. In fact, GE’s results showed that its important industrial business is showing signs of recovery, hitting a record $174 billion backlog of equipment and services orders.
The company’s quarterly revenue was smaller than analysts expected, but the strong performance of its industrial and media businesses helped to stave off GE’s current main weakness, its GE Capital financial division. GE’s results sent its shares down 5.5 percent, or 92 …read more

A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the financial sector will require much more bailout money than initially estimated. In fact, the report says that the initial estimates were short by more than $165 billion.
The new number for the bailout of the financial sector is at approximately $365 billion. In January, that same estimate was less than $190 billion. The Congressional Budget Office blames the increased cost of the bailout on the securities in question now having larger yields.
Two companies that will be eating a lot of federal bailout money are Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. These …read more