Back-to-basics investing

By KELLY CANDAELE

As a trustee of the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System, every week I receive materials in the mail from money managers imploring me to consider investing in their strategy for generating high returns for our $10-billion pension fund. One of the most fascinating -- and revealing -- set of marketing materials comes from a company that lists the following options for investing our fund's money: credit default swaps, merger arbitrage strategies, collateralized debt obligations, interest rate...

Canada's view on U.S. presidential race

By BRENDA BILON

Canadians take a genuine interest in the United States of America, whether it be a devastating hurricane, the effects of a downturn in the economy or the current presidential campaign. The United States is our neighbor, our trading partner and our political ally. We are concerned about what happens in our neighboring country because it affects us as well.

O.J. Simpson: Been there and one that

By PATT MORRISON

If O.J. Simpson whined in the Mojave Desert (Nevada side), and no one was around to hear him, would he still make a noise? Do we care?

How to spend that $700 billion

By SEBASTIAN MALLABY

Even if congressional leaders can close a deal on the bank rescue, the real debate is just beginning. The key questions about the plan are not the ones that Congress debated: how much it would cost and whether it would impose symbolic pay caps for bosses whose wealth has already been hammered. Rather, the key question lies in the execution of the bailout.

On Wall Street, the view from the scut workers

By DOUG STUMPF

The title character of my 2007 novel, Confessions of a Wall Street Shoeshine Boy, was inspired by a real-life shoeshiner who plied his trade among the Guccis and Ferragamos of the financial district. What a view he had! From the very bottom rung of the economic ladder, he watched Wall Street insanity of outlandish proportions: the shady world of unbelievable hedge-fund profits, the supermodel girlfriends, $5,000 bottles of wine, cocaine-fueled trading and partying, the jaw-dropping castles of the...

Assessing blame for the financial crisis

By ERIC D. HOVDE

Looking for someone to blame for the shambles in U.S. financial markets? As someone who owns both an investment bank and commercial banks, and also runs a hedge fund, I have sat front and center and watched as this mess unfolded. And in my view, there's no need to look beyond Wall Street -- and the halls of power in Washington. The former has created the nightmare by chasing obscene profits, and the latter have allowed it to spread by not practicing the oversight that is the federal government's...

I think I see Russia . . . No, wait . . .

By STEVE LOPEZ

NOME, Alaska -- Yes, Nome. Why not? I wanted to see the real Alaska, and I was told that would require me to get beyond Anchorage, which is sometimes derided as Los Anchorage because of its enormous population (280,000) and sprawling suburbs.

Five keys to recovery

By ROBERT H. DUGGER

This week, Congress is expected to commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds to a revitalization program to halt our financial hemorrhaging. Twenty years ago, in the midst of another financial crisis, I was part of a banking industry effort to solve the savings and loan problem. The result of that effort was the Resolution Trust Corporation, which, under Bill Seidman's masterful leadership, cleaned up the S&L mess in 48 months.

Trade can help Haiti to its feet

By MIKE DEWINE

Tropical Storm Hanna has wreaked havoc on Haiti, a nation already ravaged by disease, food shortages, near-constant violence and extreme poverty. Already, reports suggest that the damage and death toll will exceed that of 2004's Hurricane Jeanne, which killed at least 3,000.

U.S. workforce: Demographics, not destiny

By GRANT FREELAND, ANDERS FAHLANDER and CHUCK SCULLION

With as many as 15,000 air traffic controllers expected to retire by 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration is ramping up recruitment, hiring and training, even advertising on MySpace and Craigslist.

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