It is a bit of a historic moment of our times as Facebook goes public! The Wall Street Journal reports, Facebook priced its shares at apiece, for an IPO, that would make it the most valuable US company, at the time of its stock market debut. Facebook is valued at 4 billion, the biggest-ever valuation by an American company, at the time of its offering. Facebook’s IPO is set to raise .4 billion, becoming the second-largest US IPO of all time behind Visa Inc.’s 2008 offering, that brought in .65 billion. The company’s shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market around 11 am Eastern Time, today with the symbol FB. Reuters reports, Leaders of major industrial economies meet this weekend to try to tackle a full-blown crisis in Europe where fears are growing that Greece could leave the euro zone bloc, threatening the future of the common currency. President Barack Obama, the G8 host, has urged European leaders repeatedly to do more to stimulate growth, fearing contagion from the euro crisis that could hurt the US economy and his chances of re-election in November. Bloomberg reports, Osiris Therapeutics, surged 15 percent in early trading, after the company said it won the world’s first approval, for a stem-cell drug, gaining clearance in Canada, to sell Prochymal, for a disease that can attack patients, who received bone-marrow transplants. Prochymal was approved for the treatment of acute graft versus host disease in children for whom steroids haven’t …

What Greece could have done if it had it’s own currency

May 17 (Bloomberg Law) — Last week JP Morgan Chase acknowledged a trading loss of at least billion, fueling calls by some observers for more regulation of financial institutions. Chris Whalen, a Senior Managing Director at Tangent Capital Partner, tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia that it was actually too much regulation that led to the loss. Jeff Madrick, a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, maintains instead that regulators need to clamp down on financial institutions if the dangers of such losses are to be minimized.

Professor James Barth was an appointee of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush as chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision and previously the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He is now the Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University and a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute. In this interview, Cenk and Dr. Barth discuss how shortcomings of financial regulators contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, and what to expect in the future given the current state of affairs. Dr. Barth also offers a unique prescription rooted in the ideas of James Madison. Find out more about James Barth here: www.business.auburn.edu and about the Milken Institute at their home page: www.milkeninstitute.org

Financial Accounting video (#1) In this video tutorial we go over the idea of what Financial accounting is and why we need financial accounting information. I talk about decisions that external users might make with accounting information. I also provide a 3 step definition of what financial accounting actually is about. Coming Soon: www.ninjanotes.ca Facebook tinyurl.com Twitter: tinyurl.com

www.peoplestandup.ca by Terrence MdKenna’s voice that this is from “DocZone,” a CBC.ca The global financial crisis enters a new phase The collapse of Lehman Brothers on September 14, 2008 marked the beginning of a new phase in the global financial crisis. Governments around the world struggled to rescue giant financial institutions as the fallout from the housing and stock market collapse worsened. Many financial institutions continued to face serious liquidity issues. The Australian government announced the first of it’s stimulus packages aimed to jump-start the slowing economy. The US government proposed a 0 billion rescue plan, which subsequently failed to pass because some members of US Congress objected to the use of such a massive amount of taxpayer money being spent to bail out Wall Street investment bankers who some people may have believed could be one of the causes of the global financial crisis. By September and October of 2008, people began investing heavily in gold, bonds and US dollar or Euro currency as it was seen as a safer alternative to the ailing housing or stock market. In January of 2009 US President Obama proposed federal spending of around trillion in an attempt to improve the state of the financial crisis. The Australian government also proposed another stimulus package, pledging to give cash handouts to tax payers, and spend more money on longer-term infrastructure projects.

Over the next five years, market watchers predict home prices could go up 4% each year. Mark W. Boyer, the chief executive officer of Foundation Financial Group, notes that Jacksonville is not coming back as fast as south Florida, but the housing market did not fall as far. We’re looking at a fairly stable environment right now. There is not a huge increase, but what we are seeing is purchase increase and inventory shrink which is first stage in price increase. According to Boyer, a lot of buyers are opting for the 15- year-mortgages instead of the 30-year-mortgage because they are feeling more confidence in the market.

New housing numbers out this week show another drop. The average rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgages fell to 3.83% and 3.05%, which is the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s. Homeowners who refinance will continue to strengthen their pocketbook. Foundation Financial Group’s CEO, Mark W. Boyer, discusses the benefits of refinancing during this time as well as what to if you are underwater with your home.

www.FT.com What happens if Greece exits the euro? As the possibility increases following the country’s recent election and a vote against austerity, FT leader writer Peggy Hollinger and capital markets editor Richard Milne discuss the implications with FT analysis editor Frederick Studemann. For more video content from the FT, visit the Financial Times video section at: www.ft.com

This morning, all of the major stock indexes around the world are trading lower. The catalyst for the decline comes as JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) reports a $ 2 billion trading loss caused by the a trader known as the “London Whale.” Traders are now wondering if other firms have similar trading losses out there. Just last week, Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) plummeted after reporting earnings. The company sited a large derivative trading loss as the reason for the poor earnings results. This news from JPM is now the second report by a major firm that has admittedly taken a large loss from derivative trading. JPM has been one of the most outspoken firms against the controversial Volker Rule which would eliminate banks from proprietary trading. Other leading financial equities such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), ProShares UltraShort Financials (ETF) (NYSEARCA:SKF) and BlackRock, Inc (NYSE:BLK) are all likely to be very volatile today.