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Panasonic to Acquire Sanyo Electric (486 diggs) Panasonic announced Friday it plans to acquire Sanyo Electric in a deal valued at 800 million yen ($8.9 billion), giving the electronics giant a leg up in the rechargeable battery business.

Paulson: Congress Should Release Rest Of TARP (408 diggs) Paulson wants Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, setting up what is expected to be a bruising dialogue with lawmakers from both parties.

Crackdown on credit card practices OK'd (673 diggs) The Federal Reserve Board, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration approved regulations to rein in controversial credit card practices. These regs are expected to take effect by July 2010. The new rules prohibit banks from certain practices like applying interest payments in ways that maximize penalties.

Uncle Sam Screwed to the Tune of $17 billion in Ponzi Scheme (623 diggs) Even Uncle Sam may get burned by Bernard Madoff. Investors who lost their fortunes in Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will end up paying far less in taxes and may even be eligible for refunds, according to accounting experts. By some estimates, the Internal Revenue Service could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue.

The Art of Getting Paid to Wear Shirts (855 diggs) The premise is simple: Companies pay him to wear their T-shirts. Sadler, 26, will don a different shirt every day next year, promoting a variety of companies, from Web start-ups to online clothing stores.

CNN.com: The $54 million pants suit unravels again (709 diggs) A court Thursday rejected an appeal filed by a former administrative law judge who sued a dry cleaners for $54 million over a missing pair of pants. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals "ruled resoundingly in favor of the Chung family and denied Mr. Roy Pearson's appeal of the case completely," said an attorney for the Chung family.

I Just want to keep my house (525 diggs) what happened to Vickie Lewis could happen to anyone: She got sick, lost her job and fell behind on her house payments. So for the past four years, Lewis, 48, has seen her name on dozens of legal documents and spent hours in court as her mortgage holder, Washington Mutual Bank, pursued foreclosure on the only home she has ever owned.

Holidays hit as pound sinks to new an all-time Euro low (388 diggs) Sterling plummeted against the euro to a new low in early trading today as one pound after commission bought less than one euro for the first time. Holidaymakers and business travellers were faced with the dire exchange rate at the Travelex bureau in London City airport.

Putting Your Money Where Your Mouse Is (484 diggs) During graduate school, Audrey Troutt managed her expenses with an Excel spreadsheet. After graduating, she wanted an easier way to handle her bills and to track her finances. "I don't want to calculate an elaborate budget," says Ms. Troutt, a 26-year-old software engineer from Philadelphia. "I don't need that. I just want something simple."

What You Can Get for a Buck: CEOs with $1 Salaries (570 diggs) Think the recession hit you bad? CEOs of major corporations are hurting, conceding to $1 yearly salaries. Or are they? While many executives have made the public gesture to rescind their annual paychecks, these corporate leaders are hardly in the poor house.

SEC Chairman Says Agency Failed To Probe Madoff .. OOPS! (464 diggs) In a stunning rebuke, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman blames his career regulators for a decade-long failure to investigate Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff, now accused of running one of the largest Ponzi schemes ever.

New York To Consider Taxing Internet Downloads (818 diggs) Faced with one of the bleakest financial pictures in memory, New York Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday released a $121 billion proposed budget that would hit the entertainment industry and consumers in the pocketbook.

US Can No Longer Fund its Unofficial Global Empire (1,047 diggs) Sanjay G. Reddy argues that the United States has used the International Monetary Fund to maintain an unofficial global empire. He explains that the US has been unwilling to let other countries control international aid, even when it is not able to do so by itself.

Recession, It Seems, Can Fight City Hall (324 diggs) The recession has led Boston's mayor to reconsider the timing of his plan to move City Hall to a new site.

10 Questions w/ the Bear Who Called the Bubble, 4 Years Ago (544 diggs) As Washington debates another bailout for an economic decline no one saw coming, John H. Richardson talks to a guy who did see it coming, Martin Weiss from Weiss Research.

US rates slashed to nearly zero (1,094 diggs) The US Federal Reserve has slashed its key interest rate from 1% to a range of between zero and 0.25% as it battles the country's recession.

WSJ Keynesian Spending Failed in Japan will fail in US (943 diggs) So for today we thought we'd recount the history of the last major country that tried to spend its way to "stimulus" -- Japan during its "lost decade" of the 1990s. In 1992, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa faced falling property prices and a stock market that had sunk 60% in three years. ." The country embarked on a great Keynesian experime

Ford Family Values: Why the Automaker Wants to Go It Alone (554 diggs) A mix of "good" business and keeping family control has steered Ford in more independent direction during bailout crisis.

$700 Billion Bailout Celebrated (1,788 diggs) 4-tons of Beluga caviar and $250,000 bottles of vintage Dom P érignon were on hand for America's CEOs to celebrate the historic bailout.

U.S. homes lose $2 trillion in value in '08 (896 diggs) American homeowners will collectively lose more than $2 trillion in home value by the end of 2008, according to a report released today. Home values have dropped 8.4% year-over-year during the first three quarters of 2008, compared with the same period of 2007. Some 11.7 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Delta to Roll Out Wi-Fi on Some Flights (458 diggs) The wireless service, which will allow passengers to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi-enabled laptops, PDAs, or smartphones, will cost $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours. The airline is partnering with Aircell, which also supplies in-flight Wi-Fi technology to other carriers, such as American Ai

Laid Off? You Have 62 Days to Get Health Coverage (638 diggs) Make sure you know your health-insurance rights and options, because once you get that pink slip you have no time to lose. Here's what you need to do within...

Is cybersquatting against the law? (676 diggs) The George W. Bush Library Foundation has retrieved its domain name. A small Internet company had bought www.georgewbushlibra ry.com for less than $10 after it expired and then sold it back it to the library for $35,000. Is that legal?

Casinos rolling snake eyes in bad economy (461 diggs) Casinos, lottery agencies and racetracks are losing money as gamblers play it safe, laying to rest once and for all the old nostrum that gambling is a recession-proof industry. The Nevada Gaming Control Board reported last week that revenue at the state ’s casinos fell by 22 percent in October, compared with the same month last year.

New Bubble, Same Old Frauds (462 diggs) Enron and Worldcom, Madoff and Dreier. Is anyone really surprised?