Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington – Struggling business owners and millions of unemployed Americans may not believe it, but the government is expected to report today that the U.S. economy turned a corner and resumed growth in the third quarter in what would mark the end to the worst recession since World War II. [...]

New York - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he expects a wave of banks to return government bailout money to taxpayers soon. “It will depend on the institution, but for major banks in the country I think that money will come back relatively quickly,” he said. Link

DUBAI – The Dubai government has unveiled plans to raise 6.5 billion dollars through bonds, Emirates Business 24/7 reported on Monday, citing a prospectus for potential investors. The borrowing programme will be divided into four billion dollars in a euro medium-term note (EMTN) and a 2.5-billion-dollar Islamic bond issue, or sukuk, Emirates Business said. Link

Let us start by stating the obvious; leadership in economic growth in 2010 is not going to come from the US, Japan, the UK or indeed any G7 country. Although Australia was confident enough to raise its interest rates last week – the first G20 nation to do so – and although we have previously [...]

Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration pay master, cut compensation for top executives at companies that received federal bailouts as the Federal Reserve proposed rules to curb risky practices at U.S. banks. Here is reaction from investors, finance professors and analysts to Feinberg’s cutting compensation of top earners at seven large companies and the Fed’s proposed [...]

“Our flaws are often the mirror image of our strengths,” executive coach Gill Corkindale writes. Leaders seldom recognize that by over-exercising their strengths, they often turn those traits into weaknesses. To ensure that you and your subordinates don’t derail, Corkindale recommends knowing stress limits and using 360-degree feedback for coaching. Link

The decline of defined-benefit plans and the growth of 401(k)-style defined-contribution plans has been widely reported. In 1996, both types of plans held roughly the same total assets, give or take a few billion (see chart, below). By 2007, defined-contribution plans held $3.73 trillion—oustripping defined-benefit plans by more than a trillion, according to a recent [...]