While the rest of America was struggling to make a buck, executives at Merrill Lynch made over $3 billion while it was hemorrhaging money. However, Bank of America has refused to turn over the bonus information to the NY AG after receiving a subpoena.

New York officials told ABC News that the session to get information from CEO Ken Lewis was ugly and combative. They accused him and the bank of stonewalling, saying they refused to provide a list of which executives got what of the billions in bonuses.

Meanwhile, the CEO arrived in style, traveling from the bank’s headquarters on a $50 million G-5 corporate jet, and then a premium SUV to the Manhattan office. This further angered regulators who gave the bank $45 billion in federal bailout money for the “troubled” bank.

As for Lewis, he says the immediate issue is whether or not he has told the “whole story” about the huge bonuses paid shortly before Merrill Lynch merged with Bank of America. He also told Congress that he had “no authority” over the bonuses paid during that time.

Those with children know that it can be expensive to leave the house without the children. Baby sitters these days no longer accept $1 an hour – many are looking for more than minimum wage! So, one way to save money may be to share a sitter with friends and neighbors that also have kids. Assuming you go out at least once a week for a few hours and cut your bill in half, you could save $300 a week or more!

A related way to save on baby sitter costs is to take turns babysitting each other’s children. This is a free alternative to hiring a baby sitter and can help save a substantial amount of money every month. After all, a recession can be a lot easier if everyone works together…

Many stores like Best Buy offer extended warranties to help consumers alleviate fears that their new electronics are going to break. These warranties are a huge source of profit for the retailers and often times a big waste of money for consumers. According to Consumer Reports:

When you take out an extended warranty, you're essentially making a sucker's bet. You're gambling on a series of events happening at precisely the right time under precisely the right circumstances. These include:

• That a product will break exactly after the manufacturer's warranty has expired and precisely when the extended warranty is in effect. Sure, it's possible, but unlikely.
• That the cost of the repair will exceed the cost of the warranty. Surveys of Consumer Reports subscribers reveal that the costs are fairly close most of the time.
• That the product is likely to break in the first place. According to our data, most products are quite reliable and have not broken during the first three or four years of ownership.
• That you're going to want to have the product fixed. Perhaps surprisingly, many readers surveyed said they didn't bother seeking repairs because they desired a replacement product that had either new features, more power, greater flexibility, more advanced technology, or improved energy efficiency.

There are many ways to get a free extended warranty:

• Most products come with their own warranties, so it doesn’t make sense to purchase more protection. With the exception of big ticket items like laptops, plasma TV’s or video game protections, which may break beyond the common warranty time period. However, it still rarely makes sense to pay another 20% of the purchase price for a warranty!
• Credit cards can give you the extra warranty protection for free for those products that may need the support. Some major credit cards automatically tack on an additional year to the product’s existing warranty period, which effective doubles the extended warranty at no additional cost. These companies including Amex, Visa Signature and MasterCard Platinum.

Overall, consumers may be best off avoiding extended warranties provided by retailers and instead opt for those free ones offered by credit card companies!

The economic decline has forced many consumers to cut their budgets, but the cuts are not even across the board by any means. Consumers were quick to cut certain expenses, like cellphone upgrades, high-end cosmetics and GPS subscriptions. However, other expenses like cable subscriptions, dining out and haircuts continue to see dollars coming in at a healthy rate.

One way to save money on luxuries without cutting them may be to negotiate with your service providers. Most cable and internet providers are willing to match competitor pricing to keep you from going elsewhere, especially if you threaten to move over the whole package. Cell phone services are the same way and may be willing to tack on additional benefits to save you.

Consumers may also want to check out online services like Hulu.com to replace their cable subscriptions. These web sites allow visitors to view many of their favorite television programs online for free anytime. Another way to lower cable costs is to bundle services – consumers that add on cable and phone to their internet can save as much as $10 per month by bundling the services.

Those maintaining their clothing spending may want to check out online coupon sites to find deals, like RetailMeNot.com.

The credit crisis can be very difficult for the average person to understand given the enormous number of parties involved and convoluted transactions that took place. However, Jonathan Jarvis produced a very clever video that clearly outlines the basics of the credit crisis and how it is affecting America today. Understanding this crisis is the first step to finding a solution and dealing with the problem, so this is a great video for any homeowner or person concerned with the economy.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Government officials went head-to-head with banking executives in recent weeks demanding to know why huge loans to banks have failed to increase lending to consumers. However, banks countered by saying that they loaned as much or more than they did during the same time last year. So, who is lying and when will consumers be able to get loans?

The truth is that a lot of lending doesn’t come from banks, but rather so-called “shadow lenders” such as hedge funds and insurance companies. Often times, real estate developers, small business owners and others that need larger loans turn to these shadow lenders to cover their needs. Now, they are turning to banks to fill the void and taking up the credit traditionally used for consumers.

Unfortunately, the shadow banking system hasn’t recovered enough to pick up the slack and isn’t big enough to fill in the lack of supply in the lending markets. Meanwhile, banks are continuing to pull back on all types of lending in order to hold capital to help safeguard against future loan losses. They have also worked to increase fees to many of its clients, which has drawn consumer criticism.

The year 2008 will go down in infamy for many retirement portfolios as substantial losses have many wondering if they can afford to retire on time. However, many are wondering just how bad their situation is compared to those of their peers. Well, we found the data and here it is:

• $200,000+ portfolios lost more than a quarter of their value.
• $100,000 - $200,000 portfolios lost about 21% of their value.
• $50,000 - $100,000 portfolios lost about 15% of their value.
• $10,000 - $50,000 portfolios broke even for the year.
  

The trend is clearly that larger portfolios lost a larger portion of their value while smaller portfolios tended to outperform. In fact, investors who had less than $10,000 in their accounts in January 2008 saw their balances increase by an average of 43% between then and January 2009!

Why does this trend exist? Well, the average diversified stock fund fell about 38% in 2008. Even bond funds – which are considered safer than stocks – dropped nearly 8% during the year. Large 401(k)’s tend to invest in these types of stock funds and bonds. Meanwhile, smaller investors tend to invest in individual stocks, which can be riskier but can also pay off handsomely in a market like that of 2008.

So, how does this affect retirement? Well, a recent study showed that baby boomers with 20 to 29 years on the job may have to work an extra year and nine months to boost their portfolio balance to where it was a year ago. Moreover, if these people move into more conservative investments, it may take even longer to recoup the losses…

The landscape for business has greatly changed since the global financial crisis hit. Many of the big employers that hired from these schools, including Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers, are no longer in existence – and that’s causing concern among business school students. However, a good education may be key in what promises to be a fiercely competitive job market over the next couple of years.

Career services personnel are also eagerly awaiting response from Lehman, Merrill and AIG as to whether or not they plan on honoring the job offers that they extended to second-year students before the economic downturn. In fact, nobody really knows the impact yet on recruiting for these students, and that could affect the opinions of future students enrolling in the university.

In the meantime, career services personnel are encouraging students to touch as many potential employers as they can this fall, especially if they intend to go into troubled fields like investment banking. Some students may also want to consider jobs in other areas of financial services, such as corporate finance or internal auditing, and consider jobs and smaller boutique investment firms.