Financial reporting

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that negotiators from the House and Senate have reached an agreement on the stimulus package.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has begun requiring 500 of the largest companies to start filing their financial statements in an interactive data format.

“Look at the guy on your left,” they told pilot recruits during World War II on their first day of training. “Look at the guy on your right. One of you won’t be here in three months.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner spelled out plans for how the government will spend trillions of dollars to deal with unfreezing credit and taking troubled assets off the books of financial institutions.

The Senate has approved the economic stimulus bill after three Republican senators agreed to vote for the massive package aimed at reviving the economy.

Retirement doesn’t have to be just about bingo and shuffleboard.

Morningstar has issued a statement that it is considering establishing its own credit-ratings systems in competition with rating agencies such as Moody’s and Fitch, although it has no plans in place.

The Senate plans a crucial procedural vote Monday after a group of moderate senators forged a compromise over the weekend to trim approximately $110 billion from the economic stimulus bill.

Millennials still believe the future is bright. According to a survey of 2,000 people conducted by Pepsi as part of the company's Optimism Project, 94 percent of Gen Yers feel optimistic about the future.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro announced plans to make it easier for SEC staff to bring enforcement actions and indicated that the Financial Accounting Standards Board would further modify fair value accounting standards.

Peoples Income Tax, a local tax prep chain in Virginia, plans to give a break to recently laid-off workers.

Clients are coming to their CPAs with concerns about their shrinking retirement savings as the recession deepens.

Manny Weintraub is the founder, principal, and portfolio manager of Integre Advisors, based in New York City. He was the former managing director of Neuberger Berman. Integre is a money management firm that was established in 2003 and specializes in risk/reward investing. In fact, their mission is to grow and preserve their clients’ worth. And, they’ve been pretty successful at it for the past five years. But, there has been no question that what is going on now has presented problems. Actually, says Weintraub, “It has been one of the most challenging years investors have ever experienced.” As a result, he has put together what he suggests are 10 resolutions for investors to help them navigate the coming year. They are certainly worth detailing here. 1. Never Put All Your Eggs in One Basket. Weintraub very quickly adds that it doesn’t matter how attractive that basket even is. “This relates to the Madoff case but it could apply equally to anything, such as putting all your pension money into the stock of your employer.” 2. Beware of Conventional Wisdom. He has said that when everyone knows something is going to happen, there’s a decent chance it won’t happen. “When oil was $100, everyone knew that we’re running out of oil and that the price can only go one way – up. It’s the same with China – everyone knew this was the Chinese Century – and that investments related to China would go up. There were all these certainties related to emerging markets that turned out not to be so certain.” 3. Know Your Goal. Weintraub’s admitted goal is to preserve wealth from the ravages of inflation. “If your goal is to outperform the S&P 500 every day, then you might chase things that have worked before but are now overvalued. 4. Match Your attention Span to Your Time Horizon. Weintraub believes that if you are investing money for 10 or 20 years, try not to look at those cable news shows constantly. “To watch these things jiggle up or down, when in the end it doesn’t make a difference, is really a huge waste of time – and a way to get worse results.” 5. Know That We Are Living in History. History is not just something that happened a long time ago. And that’s scary because a lot of scary things have happened in the last 70 years. So you have to be prepared for anything to happen now and in the future. You must have some humility to know that you can’t ever know exactly what’s going to happen, which now brings us to... 6. Avoid Leverage. Anything can happen. The problem with leverage is that it cannot only magnify returns up or down, but leverage is the thing that can say: “game over.” A margin call can sell you out at the worst time whereas, if you’re not leveraged, you can come back some other time. 7. Try to Be as Unemotional as Possible Regarding your Investments. Weintraub says that your stocks don’t “love you” when they’re up or “hate you” when they’re down. They haven’t been “good to you.” “They’re just up. Maybe once a year focus on your investments and ask yourself if you would buy the same thing today, and why. If you don’t have a really good reason, sell.” 8. Paper Losses are Actual Losses. Weintraub points out that alot of people say, “It’s not really a loss unless I sell it.” He retorts, “In that case Warren Buffett isn’t actually a billionaire because he’s a billionaire on paper. One can realize a loss and move on.” 9. Don’t Let Taxes Move Your Portfolio. In other words, don’t let the tail wag the dog. Taxes are important, he says, and if one has the opportunity to buy a triple tax-free bond yielding five percent instead of a corporate bond yielding six percent, go for it. “That’s different from not wanting to sell an investment because you have to pay taxes. A lot of people got completely and totally wiped out by borrowing against their stock instead of selling their stock and paying taxes. They got leveraged and forgot they were living in history. It all ties together.” 10. Wealth is Relative. There you go.If you’re down but not out, you’re in pretty good shape. Even if you’re down 20 percent, you can still buy more yield with the remaining corpus--or more gas, more country house, more modern art, or more expensive clothes--than you could before. If you would like to speak with Manny about Integre, the market, or the stocks in his portfolio, contact Davia Temin, Christine Summerson, or Lauren Balog of Temin and Company at 212.588.8788 or e-mail them at news@teminandco.cominfo@integreadvisors.com.. Or e-mail

Many Americans are planning to delay retirement, postpone vacations and reconsider buying or selling their homes as the result of the economy, according to a new survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

The Senate has unanimously approved a $15,000 tax credit for individuals who purchase a home in the next year.

It’s no surprise the TARP has turned out to be such a murky endeavor, since even the name of the controversial bailout program has been in doubt from the beginning.

Private sector employers slashed 522,000 jobs last month, according to the latest report by payroll giant ADP.

Accounting firm Barfield Murphy Shank & Smith has formed a group to help restructure struggling small companies.

A survey of small business owners showed signs that some are less worried about the economy than they were three months ago.

The majority of U.S. companies are making multiple adjustments in their pay and hiring programs for both executives and employees in response to the financial crisis, according to a new survey.