BEING POOR--AND MAINTAINING YOUR POVERTY--IS A VERY EXPENSIVE ...

Another subprime-mortgage-meltdown-sized risk could be looming for investors: global warming.

That alarm was sounded at an investor summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York, at which 480 investors, pension fund leaders and corporate executives from around the globe were warned that the vast majority of companies are ill-prepared for the Earth's changing climate.

Many oil producers, utilities and manufacturing plants have yet to factor in the added expense if the United States -- as is expected in the next few years -- imposes caps on carbon-dioxide emissions. Similarly, many companies with big real-estate holdings in U.S. coastal regions haven't calculated their exposure to increased tropical storms and rising seas.

read more

Personal bankruptcies jump 96% in Metro Orlando

BALTIMORE, Jan. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) , the global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, has identified several key drivers that it expects will affect corporate borrowers and restructurings in 2008. The key drivers identified by FTI Corporate Finance, which was recently rated number one on The Deal's League Table for Crisis Management firms, are as follows:

The credit markets will remain tight. Credit markets are likely to remain highly restrictive through at least the first half of the year. FTI Corporate Finance sees financing conditions worsening across most sectors as companies experiencing covenant and similar problems will be unable to easily refinance themselves out of existing facilities without incurring substantial costs and certainly more restrictive covenants. read more