President Barack Obama expressed confidence today that lawmakers would approve his proposed tax on banks to recover bailout money, despite opposition from Republicans and the financial industry.
“Like clockwork, the banks and politicians who curry their favor are already trying to stop this fee from going into effect,” he said, using his weekly radio and Internet addresses to promote the plan he announced this past week.
“The very same firms reaping billions of dollars in profits, and reportedly handing out more money in bonuses and compensation than ever before in history, are …

PGGM Private Real Estate Fund (PGGM), an investment vehicle for Dutch pension funds, agreed to increase its investment in Behringer Harvard’s growing portfolio of multifamily communities to $300 million. this most recent commitment represents the third tranche under the co-investment agreement between PGGM and Behringer Harvard. an initial commitment in May 2007 earmarked $100 million that PGGM co-invested in individual assets through a joint venture with Behringer Harvard or one of its investment programs. In January 2008, PGGM provided an additional $100 million for similar co-investments. The most recent tranche …

Help employees plan for their future
If your firm administers its own 401(k) retirement fund, there is important news to share with staff regarding 2010 contributions.
Employees who are 50 or older who were hoping to ‘catch up’ by taking advantage of higher limits for 401(k) and IRA retirement funds in 2010 may be disappointed that 401(k) and IRA pre-tax limits will remain at 2009 levels.
The limits for 2010 are:401(k)–$16,500, with the maximum catch-up contribution of $5,500 for employees 50 and olderIRA–$5,000, with the maximum catch-up contribution of $1,000 for employees …

BOSTON — It’s voters like Deborah Donahue that keep Democratic candidates and consultants up at night.
She’s from the suburbs, belongs to a union and is not registered with either political party.
“Next Tuesday we get to make a statement about where we want our state to go and our country to go,” Donahue said here last week as she stood outside a Martha Coakley event — holding a sign for Scott Brown’s campaign.
As they did in the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial contests last fall, sour swing voters …

The main reason we did the exercise to figure out how much money to save each month was that we wanted to benchmark ourselves against other people like us who work hard, spend money wisely, and want to save for emergencies and retirement.
Since we spend money so carefully (my wife likes planning and budgeting, but my mother taught me to watch each dollar you spend at the moment you are doing it), we both felt that we might be watching too carefully and now that we are in our mid-40s …