General Finance News

Consumers who switch energy suppliers via pushy salespeople in supermarkets and shopping centres could actually end up paying more for their gas and electricity, according to a study by Which?.

Instead of saving money, researchers from the consumer group found they would have been worse off by up to £311 if they had taken the duff advice of badgering fuel peddlers in and around shops and grocery stores.

Only two out of the 13 energy salespeople approached admitted there might be better deals from other energy companies available when questioned. All of them assumed the researchers were on a standard tariff and advised that switching could save them between £20 and £142. Any

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Today’s electronics deals, courtesy of The Consumerist:

• TigerDirect: Vizio VSB200 High Definition Sound Bar (REFURB) $59.99 Free Shipping]
• Newegg: Asus RT-N53 SOHO Simlutaneous 802.11n Wireless Router $39.99AR Free Shipping
• Tanga.com: MediaGate Mini FM Transmitter for iPod for $7.99

Entertainment

• NewEgg: Street Fighter X Tekken $47.99, free ship
• NewEgg: Ninja Gaiden 3 $47.99, free ship

For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides.

Senate Democrats on Monday rallied on Capitol Hill in support of the STOCK Act, a bill to prohibit insider trading by members of Congress. The Senate is set to vote on the bill, S. 2038, Monday evening.

President Barack Obama said during his State of the Union address last Tuesday that he’d be ready to sign a bill banning insider trading by members of Congress “tomorrow.”

On a Monday conference call with reporters, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; and Jon Tester, D-Mont., echoed the same sentiment: that insider trading by members of Congress should be banned and that lawmakers should “not be above the law.”

Gillibrand told reporters that she “was shocked” to learn, as were millions of Americans, that current laws do not ban such activities by lawmakers. The Securitie

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The much-anticipated – and much-criticized – foreclosure settlement worth $25 billion between five major lenders and the states was finally signed this week, but even though over 40 states put their names on the dotted line, there are still a handful of states that refuse to sign.

A review of these holdout states does not reveal anything surprising. New York, California, Florida, Nevada, and Massachusetts all balked at ratifying the agreement, and all five have repeatedly criticized the process and the settlement for being far too lenient and offering too much immunity and leeway for the major lenders accused of widespread foreclosure fraud.

Coincidentally, these five states also have some of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

The highest rate of the bunch – as well as the highest foreclosure rate in the nation – belongs to Nevada, which has over 6% of its homes in some stage of the foreclosure process in 2011. Califor

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(Reuters) – A California judge has dismissed a fraud claim brought by Oracle Corp against Hewlett-Packard Co in the bitter legal battle between the two companies over the Itanium platform.

Last year, Oracle decided to discontinue its support for Itanium, a heavy-duty computing microprocessor, saying that Intel Corp made it clear that the chip was nearing the end of its life and that Intel was shifting its focus to its x86 microprocessor.

HP called Oracles decision “anti-customer” and sued Oracle in California state court in June.

Oracle then brought several claims against HP, including one for fraud. Oracle accused HP of concealing facts during settlement talks to resolve litigation over former HP chief executive Mark Hurds move to Oracle.

Specifically, Oracle said HP did not disclose that it was about to hire Leo Apotheker and chairman Ray Lane, who both have longstanding animosity with Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison. H

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Markets were slightly down today, as the Greek debt negotiations dragged on without an end in sight. The Commerce Department also released a batch of economic data; including the fact that consumer spending were basically unchanged in December from November. Income, however, increased 0.5 percent, meaning that the savings rate of the nation went up. In corporate news, Wendy’s saw a 29.5 percent decline in net income last quarter, despite the fact that revenue rose 5.6 percent. Pep Boys announced that it had agreed to be acquired by Gores Group for $15 a share, almost 25 percent higher than the price the stock opened at this morning.

Word on the Street

• Rumor that the Greek debt deal will be delayed has investors nervous.
• Consumer spending stalled in December while income grew.
• Wendy’s revenue is up, but profits fell by almost one third.
• Pep Boys will be purchased by Gores Group.

Interesting Tidbits

• Blogging Declines Across the Inc. 500

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ANZ have also advised that this is the first of a series of announcements regarding job losses that will occur in the first half of this year which will result in hundreds of jobs disappearing from its Australian workforce.

Whilst the FSU acknowledges that the market is slowing and the business environment is unpredictable, we do not agree with the banks decision to cut jobs as a way of reducing costs. In the tough environment of 2011, ANZ recorded a record profit of $5.3 billion and it seems ANZ will slash jobs to protect another record profit in 2012.

FSU calls on ANZ to find other ways to trim their budget and minimise the impact on their dedicated staff. 

If you are directly affected by these restructures, your ANZ Enterprise Agreement sets out your entitlements to Redeployment, Retrenchment and Redundancy provisions.

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Barack Obama will deliver his third State of the Union address tonight, with the Republican presidential primaries steadily gaining speed in the background.

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