The nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank called yesterday for creating an optional federal charter for life insurance companies.
Fidelity Investments filed yesterday with the SEC to launch a series of target date funds that will be available to certain 401(k) plan customers at below retail cost.
Aviva PLC, Europe’s biggest provider of life insurance products, posted a loss of $995 million for 2008, down from a profit of $2.98 billion in 2007.
Corporate giving is on the chopping block this year, according to a survey of 158 companies conducted by The Conference Board.
Fidelity Investments said its intermediary businesses — those that serve broker-dealers, banks, insurers, registered investment advisers and other institutional clients — set records last year.
Confidence in the White House rose this year but dropped for Wall Street and corporations, according to an annual poll conducted by Harris Interactive Inc.
General Motors Corp.'s auditors have raised "substantial doubt" about the troubled automaker's ability to continue operations, and the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if it can't execute a huge restructuring plan.
