The Western Union Co. (WU) said on Thursday that it renewed its agreement with the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) to provide Western Union Money Transfer services in China.   The renewal will help Western Union to continue its Money Transfer services through more than 20,000 locations of Postal Savings Bank in China.   Postal Savings Bank is a leading bank in China and since 2001 it has been a Western Union Agent. The Western Union management expects the renewal to drive results for Western Union from Postal Savings Bank’s network across urban and rural China.   Along with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta and Pago Facil branded payment services, Western Union provides consumers with fast, reliable and convenient ways to send and receive money around the world, as well as send payments and purchase money orders.   Western Union’s third-quarter earnings of 33 cents per share were ...

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Mohamed El-Erian and Ramin Toloui (Financial Times): How to fill the gaps left by dollar decline, November 5, 2009. We should expect to see more discussion in the next few years on new types of reserve assets.

• James West (GoldSeek): Gold price is no bubble, November 4, 2009. The price performance of gold recently has all sorts of armchair economists waxing philosophical on the idea that this is the advent of a price “bubble”. While certainly everyone has and is entitled to their opinion, there are other features of humanity that we all possess, and much like many opinions, are best obscured from view. Declaring that gold is in a “bubble” demonstrates complete ignorance of or disregard for

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Dan Holland has just interviewed Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino’s. The first few paragraphs of the interview that appeared on RealClearMarkets are published below.

There’s good reason to believe that Gasparino’s latest book, The Sellout, will become the definitive book on the current financial crisis and the events that led up to “The Great Recession.” Spanning three decades, The Sellout pulls no punches in chronicling the rise and fall of excessive Wall Street leverage and risk taking, as well as the cast of colorful characters that ultimately brought the US financial system to its knees. It will hit bookshelves tomorrow [Tuesday].

RealClearMarkets: You sat down recently with Wall Street legend Teddy Forstmann to discuss your new book and the genesis of the mess we now find ourselves in. Forstmann said it all began as a “cold” back in the 1970s and 1980s, and that since

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Nobody has ever said that investing in the stock market is a sure thing, but there are some things that you can do that will better ensure your success. One of those things is to make sure that you have a diversified portafolio that will spread out your money and protect you. A lot of beginner investors fail to do this and as one company goes, so goes their entire portfolio.

Diversification in the stock market is like a life insurance policy. You can never be totally sure what one sector is going to do, but having your money spread out over various sectors allows you to get gains in one area when another one might be going backwards. Not every risky investment that you make is going to pay off and a diversified portfolio will help to offset those losses when they happen.

In order to be …

A recent Bloomberg article was titled”Pandit “near death” hoard signals lower bank profits“, and stated that Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. were hoarding cash as if another crisis were on the way. Also, a Wall Street Journal article entitled “Jittery Companies Stash Cash“ showed cash on the balance sheets of S&P 500 companies was the highest in 40 years.

The chart below, courtesy of economist David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff & Associates, shows that credit is still contracting as banks go through the painful process of repairing their balance sheets. As indicated, bank lending has now declined for 21 weeks in a row and over this entire period a total of $216 billion (15% at an annual rate) of loans and leases has vanished.

“The contraction

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Regions Financial (RF) will participate in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) Transaction Account Guarantee (TAG) Program. Under this program, through June 30, 2010, all non-interest-bearing transaction accounts will be fully guaranteed by the FDIC for the entire amount in the account. Coverage under the TAG is in addition to and separate from the coverage available under the FDIC’s general deposit insurance rules. The TAG was established in Oct. 2008 as part of the FDIC’s Temporary Liquidity Program. The program offered insured institutions the ability to receive unlimited deposit insurance coverage for funds held in qualifying non-interest-bearing transaction accounts. The TAG was intended to facilitate liquidity and stability in view of the economic crisis of late 2008 and 2009. The TAG was scheduled to expire on Dec 31, 2009, but the FDIC has decided to extend the program for an additional six months. While noting evidence ...

A spectre is haunting Europe, but this time it is not the spectre of revolt by the popular masses, or even one of yet another wave of bank bailouts. No, the spectre which is currently stalking the corridors of Europe's most prestigous institutions is one of a Spanish economy which stays on a flatline while Europe's other economies, one by one, start to struggle back to life. And the main reason that this particular ghostly image is giving everyone so many sleepless nights is because Europe's current institutional structures, and especially the monetary policy tools available at the ECB are scarcely prepared for such a nighmare eventuality.br /br /br /strongFrance Is Recovering, And The Rebound Is Robust/strongbr /br /First it was just a rumour, then it was a possibility, and now it has become a reality - some of Europe’s economies are springing back into life. But only some. It ...

1st Mariner Bancorp reported a net loss of $12.956 million, or $2.01 per share, in the third quarter of 2009. The bank attributed most of the loss to problems with Mariner Finance, a consumer finance subsidiary that is slated for sale.

The net loss included an impairment charge of $10.584 million to recognize a write down in value of the bank’s investment in Mariner Finance. 1st Mariner Bancorp has reached an agreement to sell Mariner Finance, bringing the carrying value of Mariner Finance to approximate the amount that it is being sold for. The sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Edwin F. Hale, Sr., the CEO said, “While the sale of Mariner Finance negatively impacted our third quarter results, the proceeds to be generated from the sale are expected to provide a key step to increasing regulatory capital ratios of First Mariner Bank.”

1st Mariner Bancorp

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Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts!

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Friday October 30, 2009

DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

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Cavitation Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CVAT) announced a 3-for-1 forward stock split effective at the market open Thursday, October 29th. CTI is a world leader in the development of technologies that represent a quantum leap over existing processing methods for a wide variety of applications and industries. Positioned to provide licensing and sales of its technology which can be applied to virtually every industrial fluid that requires complex molecular bonding, including large-scale water purification, removing impurities from agricultural

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Friday October 30, 2009

DrStockPick.com Article

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Too big to fail, is still heavy in the derivative market, and primed for a gigantic collapse.

Congress needs a chimney sweep to clean the soot from the smoke they’ve been blowing. Our do nothing congress; well we can’t really say do nothing, they did bail out the banks, and they have raised more money for themselves this session from Insurance, health care and bank lobbyists than in any other one year period, and the year isn’t even over. Now they are spreading the word, the gospel of Obama, it’s time to

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