InvestorMind

The eurozone crisis took a fresh turn for the worse Tuesday after ratings agency Moody's threatened to cut Germany's coveted top credit rating amid fears the bloc's difficulties could pull it apart. The shock decision to slash the outlook of Germany, Europe's top economy and paymaster, from "stable" to "negative" came as auditors arrived in debt-wracked Greece and Spain's top finance official headed to Berlin for talks. The news pushed Spain's borrowing costs above 7.5 percent -- well above the seven-percent mark that forced others into bailouts -- but European stocks rebounded slightly as positive Chinese data offset the Moody's bombshell. Moody's said its decision was based on "rising uncertainty regarding the outcome of the euro area debt crisis (and the) ... increased likelihood of Greece's exit from the euro area." Even if Greece manages to stay in the 17-member bloc, Moody's said there was "an inc...

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.) If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could mak...

Welcome to Capital Account. More than $200 million in customer money is allegedly missing from the accounts of one of the largest, non-clearing, US futures commission merchants, PFG Best. That's according to regulators. The money was supposed to be in segregated customer accounts. Customers have been told their money is frozen. Does this sound oddly familiar? We will hear from two PFG Best customers, Christopher Olson and Mohamed Hawary. And there is evidence PFG Best may have been committing fraud with falsified statements for years, according to regulators. The FBI is investigating, the CFTC is alleging fraud, but why did regulators miss this? We'll talk about what this shortfall means for investor confidence when a regulated broker can get away with this undetected for years. And this is not the first time sacrosanct segregated customer funds have gone missing. MF Global went bankrupt less than a year ago taking $1.6 billion in customer money with it. We talk to a man f...