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Mortgage Crisis Spirals and Casualties Mount
Just as the technology boom of the late 1990s turned twenty-something programmers into dot-com billionaires, and leveraged buyouts a decade earlier turned Wall Street bankers into Masters of the Universe, the explosive growth in subprime lending turned mortgage bankers and brokers into multimillionaires seemingly overnight. Now an escalating crisis in the market, which seemed to reach a new crescendo late last week, is threatening a wide band of people.
Mortgage Crisis Spirals, and Casualties Mount - New York Times
Also: Subprime Lender New Century Facing Criminal Probe


Homeowners Stuck as Lenders Change Their Tune
Edward Booker is one of nearly 3 million homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages who've had trouble paying their bills. And, like Booker, many of them won't be able to refinance their loans once the interest rates start rising. At that point, they'll have to tighten their belts, sell their homes or lose them through foreclosure.
Homeowners stuck as lenders cinch standards - USATODAY.com
Also: Homeowners On The Verge of Worst Crisis Since the 1980's


Most Admired Companies in America
Which companies have the best reputations? GE tops the list again this year, Starbucks and Toyota move up, and Apple cracks the top 10. Wal-Mart falls further down the list.
America's Most Admired Companies 2007 – FORTUNE


Tax Tips for a Tricky Season
Talk about complications. Even the deadline for filing tax returns this year has been messed up. Adding to the confusion are reinstated deductions with no obvious place on the return to claim them, a rebate on a telephone excise tax that many people are failing to claim, and an attack on tax-dodging parents who were schooling their children in the art of tax avoidance. So nothing is simple this tax year, but there are savings to be had if you know where to look.
Trickier Tax Season Does Include Some Savings: US News


Ways to Enjoy the Luxury Life Cheaper
High-end luxury products are increasingly being offered in fractional-ownership or shared-access deals. The model started out with real estate time-shares in the 1970s, spread to private jets in the last decade, and is now being applied to sports cars, boats, RVs, helicopters, vineyards, even handbags and jewelry. Here are seven ways to enjoy the luxury life.
New startups allow shared ownership of cars, yachts - FORTUNE Photo Gallery: What You Can Buy


Restaurants Tighten Credit Card Security
Restaurant chains are serving up new ways to shield customers from credit card fraud. Ruby Tuesday today will announce that it will be the first national restaurant to offer an ultra-secure credit card processing system that leaves no credit card information with the restaurant. Other chains - including Legal Sea Foods and Hooters - are testing devices that let patrons pay at the table so the credit card never leaves their sight. These kinds of actions could change how people use credit cards at the nation's 935,000 restaurants.
Restaurants tighten credit card security - USATODAY.com


When Is a Freebie Offer Really Free?
Rarely. Internet offers of free iPods, designer handbags and plasma TVs come with many strings attached.
When is a freebie offer really free? - Bankrate


Mission Improbable: Tom Cruise as Mogul
Hollywood is trying to make sense of the deal that put Tom Cruise and his business partner, Paula Wagner, in charge of the dormant United Artists studio. Cruise is the latest in a long line of creative potentates in Hollywood, including Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, Sidney Poitier, Steve McQueen and Steven Spielberg, who have tried to follow the original Chaplin-Fairbanks-Pickford blueprint by overseeing their own mini-studios. All of them experienced mixed results as they ran up against the brutal economics of a hit-and-miss industry in which independents often lack the size needed to overcome the financial vagaries of filmmaking.
Mission Improbable: Tom Cruise as Mogul - New York Times

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