Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers went on strike on Wednesday to protest over pension reform, in a walkout billed by unions as the biggest in a generation but derided by Prime Minister David Cameron as a “damp squib”.

Unions and the government were each quick to claim victory, with union leaders saying up to two million teachers, nurses, border guards and other workers took part. The government disputed the turnout and played down the strike’s impact.

“Our rigorous contingency planning has been working well. Throughout the day it has limited the impact of the strikes significantly and as a result the majority of key public services have remained open,” said Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.

The government said the unions’ turnout claim was “wrong” and the true figure was “significantly less”.

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The Fed imposed a tougher capital test on the 31 largest U.S. banks yesterday, releasing the criteria for measuring their wherewithal if the U.S. economy sours and major trading partners default on their debt. Lenders need to prove they have the capital to withstand a severe U.S. recession with 13 percent unemployment and an 8 percent decline in gross domestic product before they can increase dividends or repurchase shares.

The more pessimistic scenario will damp banks’ ambitions to return more capital to shareholders, whose holdings have been decimated. The KBW Bank Index of 24 U.S. lenders has plunged 31 percent this year through yesterday and is down 70 percent from its all-time high in February 2007.

It’s going to be very difficult for any of these companies to do any major buybacks into next year, said Paul Miller, a former examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and an analyst at FBR Capital Markets Corp.

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For those in the United States, tradition and media influence have established today as a day for spending time with family, over-eating, and watching television. What could be more American than Thanksgiving Day?

Fast becoming a tradition for consumers is Black Friday (and to a lesser extent Cyber Monday). Retailers have discovered a tendency to for consumers to use the day after Thanksgiving as the perfect time to finish shopping for the holidays. With this observation, the stores compete with each other to grab shoppers’ attention with the goal of having customers depart with as much as their own cash as possible.

Tips for saving money on this holiest of holy consumer days are plentiful. Boiling down the most typical advice, consumers should pay attention, prepare with as much information as possible, stay focused, and get out or online early. F

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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet with the heads of all Indian airlines on Saturday in an attempt to chart a way out for the cash-strapped aviation industry. “The PM is concerned…

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The three credit reporting companies offer their services to individuals who want to get their credit score and also the other information about their monetary status. A free credit report is essential when you submit an application for a loan like mortgaging home, and might also be required when you desire to submit an application for a credit card. There are credit reports for the individuals, and there are also a few reports which are made to estimate the status of the companies.

The Credit reporting companies are also called as credit bureaus. There are three credit reporting companies, which are the TransUnion Credit Bureau, the Equifax Credit Bureau and the Experian Credit Bureau. Read all post…

Farms.com Risk Management

Soybean futures prices were pushed down hard on fund and commercial selling, along with spillover from corn and the outside markets. The dollar was weak but the Dow, gold and crude oil were sharply lower due to continued European debt uncertainty. Past that – there was no real buy interest and USDA confirming China’s soybean purchase was old news. Also, the sale of 420,000 tons was less than what was rumored earlier in the week. Soybean meal and oil were lower on that broadly lower grain and oilseed activity. Taiwan’s Breakfast Soybean Procurement Association bought 55,000 tons of soybeans from Brazil. Argentina’s Ag Ministry estimates 2011/12 soybean planted area at 46.950 million acres, a little larger than the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange.

Corn futures were hammered down on commercial and fund selling, in addition to the outside market influence. Weekly corn

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Years ago, I found myself sitting in law school in Moot Court wearing an oversized itchy blue suit. It was a horrible experience. In a desperate attempt to avoid anything like that in the future I enrolled in a tax course. I loved it. I signed up for another. Before I knew it, in addition to my JD, I had a LL.M Taxation. I needed only to don my cape…. taxgirl® was born. Today, I live and work in Philadelphia, PA, one of the best cities in the world . I landed in the City of Brotherly Love by way of Temple University School of Law. While at law school, I interned at the estates attorney division of the IRS. At IRS, I participated in the review and audit of federal estate tax returns. I even took the lead on a successful audit. At

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The crisis in the UK Border Agency has attracted much media commentary and coverage over the past two weeks.  The vast majority of this has focused on the “she said/he said” spat between Theresa May and Brodie Clark.  Sadly, this misses the real story.

The government is cutting the UKBA workforce by a third from 2010 to 2015.  The simple fact is that they do not have enough bodies to do the job.  That is the entire rationale for the Agency’s move towards the “risk-based” security controls at the heart of the spat.  Both May and Clark have an interest in maintaining the lie that the pilot has improved efficiency. In reality, it

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