The public perception is that foreclosures mainly affect hardworking families who are hit with a payment reset or a trigger event such as a job loss.

Foreclosure rates have increased dramatically in the last year. Yet bankruptcy filings are much lower than they were before the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) went into effect.

As the stock market continues to shake following the crash of the subprime market, all eyes are on the Federal Reserve. Now more than ever it's important to understand how the Fed works. For example, what is the federal funds rate and how does it differ from the discount rate?

IRS officials estimate some $290 billion dollars that should have come into federal coffers in 2001 never made it into Uncle Sam's pockets. But, take heart. The IRS has a seven-component strategy for bringing in the bucks.

The meltdown of the subprime mortgage industry, often associated with the lower end of the U.S. housing market, continues to spread upward, bringing uncertainty into the jumbo mortgage loan market (loans above $417,000).

According to IRS estimates, there is a $345 billion gross "tax gap" for 2001. The tax gap is the difference between taxes the IRS thinks should have been paid and taxes that actually were paid.

Reaction to Rupert Murdoch's $5.6 billion takeover of the Dow Jones Co. and The Wall Street Journal is a reminder of how highly businesspeople value the venerable news organization.

There are plenty of judgment calls associated with accrual accounting, giving managers some wiggle room in recognizing expenses and income. But can investors spot the wiggle? Do they identify and price that discretionary portion of earnings correctly?

The auditing and reporting requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act — effective since 2004 for larger and midsize corporations and yet to take hold for the smallest companies — have triggered complaints about the costs and questions about the effectiveness of the law.