Feds raise key interest rate to highest level in 5 years

New Fed Chairman Bernanke's first meeting results in rate hike. The target for the federal funds rate is now 4.75 percent, the highest in five years. This overnight bank lending rate affects rates consumers pay on auto and home-equity loans, as well as other types of debt.

More to come in 2006? Read the full story from CNN HERE or from Bloomberg.com HERE

Read the front page, March 29th article from the Wall Street Journal HERE

Cook County Ranks #2 as Number of Millionaire Families Rises

From today's NYT: The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding their principal residence, grew to a record 8.9 million last year, the British market research firm TNS Financial Services said in a report to be released today.

13 of the nation's 3,140 counties account for one-seventh of all millionaire households. Cook County ranks number 2 on that list with 167,873--maybe your household? : ) Los Angeles country ranks number 1 with 262,800 millionaire households.

Read the whole story HERE or ask the library for a copy.

Relationship between dean turnover and MBA rankings?

Check out THIS ARTICLE from Financial Management, as linked from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) website on b-school rankings.

Article abstract: We examine the relation between business school dean turnover and MBA program rankings from 1990-2002. We find little evidence that dean departures are related to changes in a school’s overall rank in the US News & World Report rankings. However, dean turnover increases following drops in the Business Week rankings and deterioration in the student placement score as measured by US News & World Report. These results are significant in both a statistical and economic sense. Our findings suggest that schools react either directly to the rankings or to information that is reflected in the rankings.

Interested in more articles and resources about b-school rankings? Just ask the library for help!

Break-up on the horizon for Dutch retailer Ahold?

From Reuters: A break-up of Dutch retail group Ahold is just a matter of time due to a lack of cohesion among the units in its portfolio, a former executive board member told daily Het Financieele Dagblad on Saturday. Read the whole story HERE and stay tuned for further developments...Ahold is due to report its financials on Wednesday.

'All Cap' Mutual Funds Are Pulling Ahead

From today's Wall Street Journal: "Go-anywhere" or "multicap" or "all-cap" mutual funds (so named because they will buy companies of any market capitalization), returned 17% in the past year compared with 14% for large-cap funds. Read the whole article HERE

Google added to S&P 500

From today's Wall Street Journal: Google will join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Burlington Resources which is being acquired by ConocoPhilips. Read the whole article HERE

S&P Will Launch Indexes to Track Housing Prices

From today's Wall Street Journal: Standard & Poor's, a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos., is rolling out 10 indexes that will track housing prices in various regions of the U.S., as well as a composite index. The indexes, which plan to launch in April, will serve as the basis for futures and options contracts that will trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Read the entire article HERE

Special report on Chicago in the Economist

The March 18th, 2006 issue of the Economist features a special report on Chicago. Read the first section for free HERE from the Economist web site. Once this issue is available through our databases (it's not out yet), stable links to the whole report will be posted on the Finance News site. Can't wait? Come to the Loop Library and we'll help you track down a copy of the print version. Stay tuned...

UPDATE: The 3/18/2006 issue of the Economist is now available through Business Source Elite. Click HERE to get to Business Source Elite. Click on the green "Publications" button and browse for Economist to get to the full issue. Need help? Just ask the library!

News feeds from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

News feeds from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago have been added to this Finance News site. Headlines, recent speeches and news releases from the Fed in Chicago will be updated here every time you visit the Finance News site. Just take a look at the righthand sidebar --->
for updated news right now!

Google Offers Search Service On Finance

Google is introducing a financial news, stock quote and chat service intended to compete directly with offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo and other sources.

Still in Beta version, Google Finance can be found at http://finance.google.com . Links to it appear in a featured area at the top of general Google search results pages when users search for stock or corporate information that appear to be finance related.

Google Finance is worth a look! Read the NYTimes article on it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/technology/21google.html (free registration may be required, or you can find it in Lexis Nexis--just ask the library for help if you don't know how!).

Ex-Fed chair, Treasury Secretary Miller dies

G. William Miller, who served as both chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve and secretary of the U.S. Treasury during the Carter administration, has died.

For a brief overview, see the Reuter's article HERE.

To read Miller's New York Times obituary through LexisNexis, click on the Journal and Newspaper articles page and type New York Times in the search box. Select LexisNexis Academic and search on G. William Miller.

Headlines from recent issues of the Journal of Finance

Here are just a few of the articles featured in recent issues of the Journal of Finance. Want to see them full text? Just click on them and log in with your Campus Connect information. Want to search for other articles in the Journal of Finance? Just click on the J. of Finance link on the right of this page and log in through the Electronic Collections Online database. Want to link an article from Blackboard for your class? Just ask the library for help!

Corporate Governance:

Are Busy Boards Effective Monitors? By SHIVDASANI, ANIL
Does Weak Governance Cause Weak Stock Returns? By RUSTICUS, TJOMME O.

Market Analysis:

A Consumption-Based Explanation of Expected Stock Returns By YOGO, MOTOHIRO
The Limits of Investor Behavior By WILLARD, GREGORY A.
Information Uncertainty and Stock Returns By ZHANG, X. FRANK
What Explains the Stock Market's Reaction to Federal Reserve Policy? By KUTTNER, KENNETH N.

Online e-book collection! Books 24x7 FinancePro

Looking for some good books on Risk Management, Real Estate, Mergers or Investing? You can find all that and more in the DePaul Library's Books 24x7 FinancePro e-book collection. Click HERE to start using FinancePro now!

Here are just *a few* of the many excellent titles you can enjoy online right now!

How to Manage Profit and Cash Flow: Mining the Numbers for Gold, John Wiley & Sons © 2004 (240 pages)

Paying with Plastic: The Digital Revolution in Buying and Borrowing, The MIT Press © 2005 (384 pages)

Investing in REITs: Real Estate Investment Trusts, Bloomberg © 2006 (384 pages)

Derivatives Demystified: A Step-by-Step Guide to Forwards, Futures, Swaps and Options, John Wiley & Sons (UK) © 2004 (233 pages)

Traders: Risks, Decisions, and Management in Financial Markets, Oxford University Press © 2005 (254 pages)

Select recent additions to DePaul's Finance collection

Check these out...literally!

Satyanath, Shanker. 2006. Globalization, politics, and financial turmoil : Asia's banking crisis. New York : Cambridge University Press.
Loop Stacks: 332.10959 S254g2006

Sagasti, Francisco R. 2005. The future of development financing : challenges and strategic choices. New York : Palgrave Macmillan.
Loop Stacks: 332.091724 S129f2005

Liaw, K. Thomas. 2006. The business of investment banking : a comprehensive overview. Hoboken, N.J. : John Wiley.
Loop Stacks: 332.66 L693b2006

Homer, Sidney. 2005. A history of interest rates. Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley.
Loop Stacks: 332.809 H766h2005

NYTimes will stop printing daily stock prices in April

Beginning April 4, The New York Times will stop publishing daily stock listings in their printed paper and instead offer expanded content via their web site. Click HERE to read the article on the NYT site(free registration may be required).

Want to read the text of New York Times articles with out the online ads and other clutter? The library provides the full text of the NYT going back to 1980 through LexisNexis. Just go to the Journal and Newspaper articles page and type New York Times in the search box on the left and select LexisNexis to search.

New Database! Global Financial Data

Global Financial Data, the "leading provider for historical financial data," is now available to the DePaul community! Quickly access historical stock market, financial, and economic data, including currency histories, index data and a whole lot more. CLICK HERE to start using GFD right now! Questions? Comments? Post them right here and Celia or another librarian will respond shortly.

Welcome to the new Finance Blog!

Stay tuned to this site for news of new Finance databases, finance headlines, and other news you can use as a DePaul Finance faculty member. Got something you'd like to post? Send the info to Celia Ross, DePaul's Finance bibliographer.