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New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have been awarded a joint $22 million grant to help unemployed financial sector workers, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced Monday.

A good sign that no ones in the mood to invest right now is probably the cartoon of the new recession game thats doing the rounds on the internet. The board game, like monopoly, has the usual places you land on depending upon the throw of the die. Its what each place says that makes the game unique Sales Go Down Move One Space, and Layoff More Workers Move One Space are some examples. The Chance/Community Chest cards of this game are also different from those in your standard monopoly. Samplers: Receive Tarp Funds Try To Buy Corporate Jet Lose Turn.

Some junk-fund managers are dabbling in the market, seeing opportunity after average yields hit 18% late last year.

From the stock market to the political world, this past year has demonstrated the folly of plenty of old maxims. Still, credit crisis or not, there's nothing more reliable than death.So it was a little surprising to see today Service Corporation International (SCI) warn of falling profits. SCI is the biggest funeral and cemetery company in the world. It owns 1,300 funeral homes and 350 cemeteries.Death may be inevitable, but the death business apparently hasn't matched the reliability of other consumer staples like cereal (Kellogg) and shampoo (Procter & Gamble).SCI lowered fourth quarter earnings guidance, blaming the decline on weaker pre-need cemetery sales and lower income from trust funds. The stock plunged 13% on Feb. 9 to a share price of 4.25, and all told shares are off 63% in the past 12 months.A heavy debt load seems to be a problem for SCI. And, Raymond James (RJF) analyst John Ransom sees the firm's recurring free cash flow plunging, from $252 million in 2007 to an

Can a hedge-fund island lose its shirt and gain its soul?

Searching for support is harder than dollar-cost averaging your way into an index fund.

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 Wragge & Co Jason Coates UK pension funds which received dividends from Dutch companies on or before 31 December 2006 can now reclaim tax that was withheld on those dividends by the Netherlands tax authorities. It is expected that claims will be possible for tax withheld as far back as 2003. Jurisdiction United Kingdom, Netherlands Practice Area Pensions and Employee Benefits, Tax

No new money, but £42.5m fund includes savings and contributions from other government departments.

Past performance has shown that these small value funds can outperform the S&P 500 during good times and bad.

Shares of Amazon, eBay and Yahoo! jumped last week, pulling along tech-focused mutual funds.