S&P downgrades British and US banks

Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC were among a slew of global banks that had their credit ratings cut by ratings agency Standard & Poor's late last night.

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Banking crisis set to trigger new credit crunch

The global financial system is on the edge of a new credit crunch as the cost of insuring the bonds of banks across the world hits new highs, analysts said.

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Credit Suisse says target of U.S. probe

ZURICH - Swiss bank Credit Suisse is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of a broader inquiry into banks suspected of helping Americans evade taxes.

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Downsides of Debt Consolidation

There are some benefits of consolidating your financial obligations into a single debt consolidation loan. Perhaps even the word 'consolidation' is calming for most people. It invokes the notion of reducing many little plus some not so little difficulties and amalgamating all of them into a single workable challenge. As an alternative to having a great number of lenders to deal with, the debtor can have merely one financial institution to handle and just just one monthly repayment to make as opposed to being required to make different monthly payments to a number of creditors for differing sums. For that reason the consumer expects that controlling financial circumstances gets to be simplified. The other big expectation is that the debtor's credit standing can get better noticeably once all unsecured debts in particular credit card debts are lumped into the consolidation. All of the old credit card balances gets paid off permanently. To crown it all, the monthly monthly payment on the consolidation loan will hopefully be appreciably under the total amount of the monthly payments on all the old debts - credit cards, overdrafts and personal borrowings.

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Debt Assist An Alternate To Bankruptcy

Debt assist is an alternative to bankruptcy. This process allows you to pay back your debt, but usually at a lower amount than the original debt. This can make several payments turn into one. This can also free up money to help boost your financial situation. This can also help eliminate the ten years that bankruptcy stays on your credit report. Knowing that you will always have to answer yes to that question of have you ever filed for bankruptcy.

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UPDATE 1-Lactalis wins Parmalat control battle

* Lactalis names nine members on Parmalat's 11-strong board

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Personal Finance Daily: Are your kids cheating on their taxes?

Children don’t cheat on their taxes, right? Of course not

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Morgan Pehme: Pulling the Trigger: U.S. Supreme Court Threatens Campaign Finance Reform in NYC

New York City's campaign finance system, often lauded as the best in the nation, is under attack. The United States Supreme Court may be about to severely curtail the role of public financing in elections.

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Personal Finance Daily: Pain will ease at the gas pump

Jennifer Waters writes today that drivers can look forward to a drop in gasoline prices of as much as 10 to 15 cents per gallon in the coming weeks — even during the July 4th holiday weekend. That’s a trickle-down effect of the International Energy Agency’s decision to unleash some 60 million barrels of oil from reserves on the global markets.

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Self-regulation the way forward for oil futures

LONDON - While governments and regulators dither, IntercontinentalExchange energy hub has moved ahead of the curve, with steps to boost transparency that could increase the lure of its flagship Brent contract over its U.S. rival.

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