NEW YORK — The developers planning to build a $100 million Islamic center near the World Trade Center site still have financial hurdles to clear: They haven’t finished buying all the property they want for the project and are nearly a quarter-million dollars behind on real estate taxes and late [ Read More → ]

Which is the greater threat to investors: inflation or deflation? If you don’t know the answer to that, welcome to the club, and expect the tug of war between the two portfolio influencers to last a few more years. Left to raw market forces, we should probably be [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved changes that make it easier for shareholders to nominate directors of public companies. The 3-2 vote allows groups that own at least 3 percent of a company’s stock to put their nominees for board seats on the annual proxy ballot sent [ Read More → ]

The New Zealand economy feels a lot like a ‘Zombie Nation’ that wants to keep extending the loans and pretending that eventually everything will eventually go back to normal. Parts of our financial system and many property owners have been in a zombie-like state for much of the last two years, [ Read More → ]

While Ottawa makes noises about boosting financial literacy, it’s curious that this country’s 289,000 financial advisors seldom talk about debt. The industry thinks it’s OK that 40% of Canadians now retire with some debt, with many going deeper into hock once they stop working. Little wonder that a thousand or [ Read More → ]

Back in 2008, a South Florida financial executive found himself firing each of the 70 employees reporting to him. Then, he, too, became a casualty of the crumbling economy. The executive asked for some anonymity in exchange for his honest account of what followed. Sweating through an unfriendly job market, he [ Read More → ]

Under current rules, pension companies must alert retiring workers that they can shop around for an annuity - which is used to convert a pension pot into an annual income. But it can be a time-consuming process, making it easier to use an annuity provided by the same financial group that [ Read More → ]

Anna and Charlie Reynolds of St. George, Utah, were worried about losing their home to foreclosure last year. Then they got a lucky break—from an unlikely savior. Some investment funds are emerging as the best hope for millions of U.S. households, like the Reynolds, above, who were behind on [ Read More → ]

As you help pack up the minifridge, laptop and extra-long twin sheets for your college freshman, you might consider a few other last-minute chores: • Scour your health-insurance coverage for loopholes. • Reread your homeowner’s insurance policy. • Call your lawyer.Sending a child off to college for the first time is wrenching enough, [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Unable to make a sizable dent in unemployment, Democrats are on the political equivalent of a golden oldies tour, pledging support for Social Security, Medicare and other venerable programs while trying to stoke voter fears about Republican intentions. The Voting Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and most recently, [ Read More → ]