For investors, there is no free lunch. Like professional baseball players, investors need to know their clichs. So write this down: There is no free lunch.

Is Cleveland riskier than Iraq? St. Louis customers and employees of National City Bank may be surprised to learn that the bond market considers the bank's parent company to be a worse risk than the government of Iraq.

Swan welcomes Wizard rate cut. Treasurer Wayne Swan would like the banks to bring down their mortgage rates over and above a predicted cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia this week.

Manufacturing activity declines: survey. Manufacturing activity declined for a third consecutive month in August as firms continued to struggle with falling demand and higher costs, a survey has found.

Lehman ready to shed 1,200 more workers. The redundancies, expected to be finalised and announced possibly before the group reports its third-quarter results in two weeks' time, would mark Lehman's fourth round of job cuts in the past 12 months.

Over time, liberal arts grads show they can succeed in business. For a small school with a liberal arts bent, Hamilton College in rural upstate New York does quite well with recruiters, particularly from Wall Street.

Fed's response to crisis hurt its key role: Hoenig. In aggressively responding to the year-long credit crisis in the United States, the Federal Reserve has threatened its key responsibility of combating inflation, one of its leaders said on Monday.

Retail banks pass on RBA's rates cut. Rate cute: The official cash rate now stands at 7 per cent. Within minutes of the Reserve Bank's decision to cut interest rates to 7 per cent, Australia's major banks scrambled to be the first to pass it on to..

Stocks jump as oil tumbles on relief over Gustav. Stocks soared early Tuesday as oil prices fell sharply on reports that the Gulf Coast and its oil facilities have been spared heavy damage from Hurricane Gustav.

Regions Financial assumes deposits; shares jump. Shares of Regions Financial Corporation jumped today after the bank assumed $900 million in deposits from a failed Atlanta area bank.

Ospraie to close flagship commodity hedge fund. NEW YORK : Ospraie Management will close its flagship fund after it plunged 27 percent in August because of losses in energy, mining and natural resources equity holdings, in one of the biggest closings ever of..

Retailers slash prices, but at what cost?. In a bid to pull hesitant shoppers into their stores, retailers are slashing prices on everything from jeans to dinnerware. But those fat discounts will likely come at a big cost for the companies.

KDB sent offer to Lehman, Korean banks deny role. State-controlled Korea Development Bank proposed buying 25 percent of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers for up to $5.3 billion, a newspaper reported, but Korean banks rumored to be joining a bid consortium denied they were involved.

Oil giants gush upwards as the Footsie continues to recover lost ground. STRONG gains for oil and banking stocks saw the FTSE 100 Index make good progress yesterday and close at another two-month high.

Oil up, Asian stocks down. Sep 1 - Asian shares eased as oil rose above 116 dollars a barrel Monday, as a quarter of U.S. crude production was shuttered because of Hurricane Gustav.

Weaker Gustav gives Wall St. only slight relief. There will likely be some relief on Wall Street after it appeared that Hurricane Gustav hadn't damaged the Gulf Coast as badly as many feared - and in turn sent oil prices falling sharply.

Georgia-based bank failure is nation's 10th this year. Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Ga., on Friday became the 10th U.S. bank to fail so far this year.

Renewable energy firms clamor for tax breaks. Solar and wind power companies say they will reverse planned expansions if $500 million in tax credits expires as scheduled..

A management classic that's so useful it's back again, updated. In this era of soaring food and gas prices, lost homes and the virtual overnight collapse of once-powerful companies, a return..

It's not a good idea to let company stock dominate 401. One thing the past few months have taught us is this: No company is bulletproof. Reversals of fortune for companies such as Bear..