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• Economists: Rising Wages May Force Fed Into Early Rate Hike in 2015
  The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week and compensation accelerated in the third quarter, in the latest signs of tightening labor market conditions.
• Senior Merrill Brokers Leave, BofA Executives Said to Be Concerned
  A number of high-profile brokers have left Bank of America's Merrill Lynch wealth management unit in recent weeks, and top executives at the company have grown concerned enough to ask business head John Thiel to explain the departures.
• US Charges Texas Man With Running Bitcoin Ponzi Scheme
  A Texas man who operated Bitcoin Savings and Trust was charged on Thursday with bilking his investors, in what prosecutors called the first federal criminal securities fraud case arising from a bitcoin-related Ponzi scheme.
  Trendon Shavers, 32, of McKinney, Texas, was...
• Mortgage Rates Top 4%, Rise for Second Straight Week
  Average U.S. long-term mortgage rates rose this week, with the benchmark 30-year loan crawling back over 4 percent.
• Walter Investment Under Regulatory Scrutiny for Mortgage Servicing
  Walter Investment Corp., one of the largest U.S. companies that collect home loan payments, said on Thursday that several state regulatory agencies were investigating its business practices, and its shares fell nearly 19 percent.
• Worker Productivity Increases at Slower Pace as Labor Costs Rise
  U.S. workers' productivity increased in the July-September period at a slower pace than in the previous quarter while labor costs accelerated but still remained at an extremely low level.
• Entrepreneur Ortner: Neither Party on the Ball When it Comes to Small Biz
  Tuesday's election results are unlikely to do much for small business, says Michael Ortner, co-founder of Capterra, an online marketplace for the business software industry.
• Indexing Giant Vanguard Sets a Record as Investor Money Pours In
  Vanguard Group Inc., the largest U.S. mutual-fund firm, attracted more money from investors in the first 10 months of 2014 than it has in any full calendar year in its 39-year history.
• Genworth Posts Big Loss as Long-Term Care Costs Balloon
  Genworth Financial Inc., the largest U.S. provider of long-term care insurance, posted its first loss since 2011 after the company determined that reserves for the coverage were inadequate. The company's shares tumbled on the news.
• Obamacare Facing More Scrutiny From Ascendant Senate Republicans
  
  President Barack Obama’s health-care plan will face a fresh round of investigations and public hearings in the Republican-controlled Senate next year, though the president’s veto power will keep it from being dismantled.
• Fed's Kocherlakota Repeats 2015 Rate Hike Would Be Inappropriate
  Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Narayana Kocherlakota on Wednesday aired his doubts about the course of Fed policy, saying that he found it hard to understand why the U.S. central bank is reducing accommodation in the face of low inflation.
• Fed's Rosengren Wants Better US Wholesale Disclosures From Banks
  Banks with large wholesale funding operations should shine a brighter light on the maturity and collateral of their obligations in such short-term markets, a top Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday.
• Mortgage Applications Fall as Interest Rates Rise
  Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week as interest rates increased, an industry group said on Wednesday.
• Tax-Law Revamp Tough to Accomplish in Republican-Led Senate
  Both parties in Congress agree the U.S. tax code is a mess and needs to be revamped. That doesn't mean it will happen.
• HuffPo: Saving Money Won't Make You Wealthy
  Most Americans will never get rich because they're going about it all wrong. Saving isn't the key.
• Voters Boost Minimum Wages in Five States
  U.S. voters raised the minimum wage in five states, including Illinois and Nebraska, as part of a wave of local efforts to aid the lowest earners at a time when Republicans are blocking nationwide measures in Congress.The states, joined by Alaska, Arkansas and South Dakota,...
• Betterment's Stein: 4% Retirement Spending Rule No Longer Holds
  For years, financial commentators have cited a rule of thumb for retirees: you can withdraw 4 percent of your financial assets each year.
• Pew Research: Internet Experts Expect Cyberattacks Will Explode
  Expect cyberattacks from nations, rogue groups and malicious individuals to proliferate during the next decade, experts say.
• Pimco Total Return Lost $27.5 Billion in Month After Gross Exit
  The Pimco Total Return Fund, managed by Bill Gross until Sept. 26, suffered an estimated $27.5 billion of withdrawals last month, its worst month ever for redemptions.
• IRS Chief Claims Progress in Stopping Tax Refund Identity Theft
  The crime of stealing tax refunds through identity theft is "no longer exploding," U.S. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday.
• Ex-UBS Banker's Acquittal Shows US Tax Prosecution Difficulty
  Raoul Weil, who once ran UBS AG's global wealth-management business, was cleared at trial of tax conspiracy despite the bank's historic admission in 2009 that it helped thousands of U.S. clients abuse Swiss bank secrecy to cheat the Internal Revenue Service.
• Bullard Backs Down on QE, Endorses Fed Decision
  A Federal Reserve official who a few weeks ago proposed further monetary stimulus said on Tuesday the central bank in fact made the right decision last week in shelving a bond-buying program, in part because financial markets have rebounded.
• Vanguard's Bogle: Ignore Stock Market's Noise and Hold on for Long Term
  Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle has some advice for how to deal with the stock market's recent volatility: ignore it.
• Percentage of First-Time Home Buyers Drops to Lowest Since 1987
  The portion of home purchasers who are first time buyers dropped to 33 percent for the 12 months through June, the lowest since 1987, and down from 38 percent a year earlier, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors.
• Pace of Home-Price Growth Continues to Slow
  The U.S. housing market cooled off in September, as home prices rose at an ever slowing pace.

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