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The U.S. Open is in full swing, and ticket resellers are serving great deals—at least if you’re interested in catching players in early rounds before the competition really heats up.

Prices for the first rounds of the tournament, which began Monday and wraps up Sept. 12, are lower than last year’s. First-round tickets are currently going for $109, a 13% decrease, according to ticket-search site FanSnap.com. Even quarterfinals prices, at an average $247 per ticket, are 12% cheaper than in 2009.

Like other major sporting events, the U.S. Open is still recovering from consumers’ cutbacks during the recession. “Dema

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Homeowners who face foreclosure problems are given financial help through the scheme of foreclosure loans. This loan helps the homeowner to keep his home, by bringing in certain terms and conditions and revising the loan amount previously held. Though this may sound quite nice, it’s too good to be true for everyone, because there are only certain people who are able to qualify for this loan. It actually depends on the lender as to what criteria does he set out for providing foreclosure loans. Here are some critical points you must consider if you want to be eligible for a foreclosure loan.

• Remember that your credit rating reflects your financial stability, hence, here too, you can only get a foreclosure loan, if and only if your credit rating has a minimal desirable value. <

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According to several newspapers including The Independent and The Times of London, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) has expressed an interest in bidding for Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) Direct Line insurance business. RBS is facing an EU deadline to sell the Direct Line business by the end of 2012. The business has been facing losses recently due to soaring injury claims. The possibility of a bargain purchase may have attracted Warren Buffett’s interest. Other potential buyers include Allstate (ALL).

According to Direct Line’s website, the company “started from scratch” in the UK in April 1985 selling auto insurance over the telephone. Today, th

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The most important element of your business plan is undoubtedly the financial analysis. This will tell you whether your business idea is financially viable and whether it will be profitable in a suitable time frame. You also need to understand how much startup capital (money) you’ll need to get the business up and to keep it running until such time as you think it will become profitable. Here are some items to keep in mind as you try to add up the startup costs. You might also want to use this startup calculator

1. Legal Fees
2. Licenses and Permits
3. Prepaid Rent
4. Deposits (Public Utilities, etc.)
5. Remodeling Work (Build Out)
6. F

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It’s barely credible, but it seems to be true:

On August 12,13, and 16, 2010, Defendant Juan Jose Fernandez Garcia (”Garcia”), a Madrid, Spain resident and the Head of European Equity Derivatives at Banco Santander, S.A., an advisor to BHP in connection with its tender offer, purchased a total of 282 call options for approximately $13,669, all of which he sold on August 17, 2010 for a profit of approximately $576,000.

That’s a 4,000% profit in the space of three business days. What on earth did he think he was doing? It’s all pretty obvious stuff: on August 12, for instance, Garcia bought 32 call options on POT with a strike of $130 and which were going to expire on August 21. On that d

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It’s perhaps no surprise that Robert Eckert’s office looks more like a toy store than an executive suite. There’s a trove of Barbies on the floor near the door, a giant Winnie the Pooh nearby and a huge display of Hot Wheels and Masters of the Universe action figures. Behind his desk, there are even a few dolls in his likeness, including a “Bob Barbie” with gray hair, dress shirt and mini employee badge.

Yet even after a decade at the helm of the world’s largest toy company, Eckert, 56, says he still doesn’t know what children really want. Every winter, he tries to predict a best-selling “toy of the year”-and his record is hit or miss.

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