| Centro CEO falls on his sword
The head of the embattled property group, Centro, has resigned. Chief executive officer Andrew Scott will be immediately replaced by Glenn Rufrano. Centro has been struggling to refinance its debts as a result of the global credit market problems and had halted share trading last week. The company lost more than 80 per cent of its market value in December when it revealed it was having problems financing its debt because of the credit crunch. Australian fund manager MFS has offered to take over supervision of about 35 unlisted retail property funds owned by Centro. Centro says it has attracted extensive interest from both local and offshore investors as it struggles to refinance its debts. It expects to open its books to a number of parties shortly and also says there is interest in the potential sale of its holdings in two investment funds.
Dollar scores biggest 1-day gain in 36 years
Canadian stock markets rallied for a third straight session and the Canadian dollar made its biggest one-day gain in at least 36 years after U.S. policy makers agreed to kick-start the economy by sending big cheques to every man, woman and child in America. Commodity prices jumped, signaling inflation jitters, after U.S. president George W. Bush and house speaker Nancy Pelosi jointly announced a plan to mail $600 US to individuals, $1,200 US to married couples, and $300 US per child, in the form of an income tax rebate. The money could arrive in the mail as soon as May. Those with incomes over $75,000 would see the size of their cheque reduced. The proposal would also temporarily raise the cap on federally-insured mortgage lending to $729,750 per home, from $417,000, and allow businesses to more quickly write off investments in capital equipment.
How to Trim FAFSA’s Fat
The complexity of the federal financial aid process is among the more obvious, and ostensibly, fixable reasons cited to explain why low-income students are far less likely to attend college than their peers. So far, despite efforts on multiple fronts, the system has proven to be somewhat intractable. .
Related Tickers
Every day the market opens, we get a new chance to make a million dollars. We search. We scour. We consult the charts and the stars, trying to find stocks that will give us that million-dollar payoff. Unfortunately, we're looking in all the wrong places. How else can we explain the people willing to buy Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) at nearly 3,700 times trailing earnings? Or that Pep Boys (NYSE: PBY) remains on anyone's radar screen, even with a P/E greater than 650? By looking at stocks with sky-high valuations, we've cut out the legs from our margin of safety. If anything unexpected goes awry, those shares stand a good chance of falling sharply from their lofty valuations. Profits in the marginsAh, margin of safety. We've all heard about it, but what does it really mean to us? Simply put, it means buying stocks at a discount -- a hefty discount -- to what we think they're really worth.
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