“The main U.S. national bank regulator failed to issue a public cease-and-desist order against Wells Fargo Bank NA (WFC.N) for weak money laundering controls, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Inspector General said. In a report issued on Friday, the Inspector General said examiners from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found numerous and recurring deficiencies with Wells Fargo’s anti-money-laundering practices from 1999 through 2004.”

From Reuters

This is nothing new. Each time eBay raises its fees, established users threaten to leave and a few do pack up their bags and close shop. Will this have a negative long term impact on eBay?

eBay has already had to concede by waiving fees with eBay China in order to compete with established online Chinese aution sites. Its possible that Google’s Google Base program will actually compete with eBay after it emerges from beta along with Google’s shopping cart program in competition with Paypal. This could spell disaster and possibly even the end of eBay’s online auction reign.

“Hundreds of eBay Inc. merchandisers say they have closed their online storefronts, and some took their listings elsewhere, in the wake of a controversial fee increase eBay began charging earlier in the week. The exodus was expected after eBay raised the amount it charges to run an online store. By raising store fees an average of 6%, eBay was hoping many stores would close up shop, thus engineering a return to a mix of lots of auction listings — its most profitable product — and a tiny sliver of items listed for sale in stores, which generate much less revenue for the firm.”

From MarketWatch

African state Zimbabwe has been facing economic and currency hyperinflation following the disasterous rule of Robert Mugabe. Now 82 years old, Mugabe first became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980.

“Business analysts say the Great Trek to greener pastures is wrecking any chance of future economic recovery. The mass departure, mostly to the West and to South Africa and Botswana, has rendered ineffective efforts by both the government and the private sector to prop up the sick economy. Both have sunk billions of Zimbabwe dollars into new skills training - but most who complete the course or re-training quickly depart for a better life elsewhere.”

From SperoNews

Increasingly restrictive laws such as SOX have spurred growth in private equity funds. Business week reports that banks have been turning to private equity funds for diversification, but this is not true for all:

“..some banks are distancing themselves from the business, in part to avoid conflicts of interest with hedge-fund clients, Hebeka explains. J.P. Morgan Partners, a private-equity unit of JP Morgan Chase (JPM; ranked 4 STARS), will become independent when it completes the investment in its current $6.5 billion Global Fund, which is expected to happen this year. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley (MS; ranked 3 STARS, hold) established an independent private-equity firm, called Metalmark Capital, which will manage the more than $3 billion-strong Morgan Stanley Capital Partners funds through a long-term sub-advisory role.”

From BusinessWeek

While Florida and other hot condo real estate markets have been crashing, not everyone may be in for a rough ride.

“Although the median price of a condo rose nearly 14 percent last year, double-digit increases are a thing of the past. The NAR expects prices to rise 3 to 4 percent in 2006 (compared with 6 percent for single-family homes). And the outlook varies by region. Condo owners in the Midwest, concentrated in the Twin Cities and Chicago, probably have the least to worry about. The South and West have taken the biggest hits. Sales there have fallen 14 percent in the past year, and prices are lower, too.”

From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Morningstar has posted an article and homebuilder stocks, including specific recommendations like Toll Brothers. Sometimes when everyone else is running for cover thats the time to buy.

“Second, we run through the land inventory account. Because the land approval process is becoming more difficult–thanks to stricter zoning laws and NIMBY (not in my back yard) movements–homebuilders have prudently invested in land for future development. Many own or option enough land to meet two to six years of future demand. We prefer builders with a higher proportion of optioned to owned land; options are cheaper and easier to walk away from or renegotiate. By contrast, creditors may force a fire sale on owned land.”

From Yahoo

“According to a report from researcher IDC, Sun Microsystems (SUNW) was the only one (of the top four global server vendors) to experience year-over-year revenue growth during the second quarter ended in June. Frankly, the numbers for the entire server market are startling: I mean, wow. What happened? Opteron, that’s what. Sun adopted Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) speedy server chip more than two years ago, and it appears to be paying dividends at Dell’s expense in the high-growth x86 — or Intel-compatible — segment of the market.”

From Motley Fool

“Shares of Jean Coutu Group Inc. PJCa.TO leaped 15 percent on Thursday morning after the Canadian drugstore operator said it will sell its U.S. Brooks and Eckerd chains to Rite Aid Corp. (RAD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for about $2.6 billion in cash and shares. Jean Coutu’s stock was up C$1.64 at C$12.59 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.”

From Reuters

Today Apple issued a recall of 1.8 million laptop batteries. The recall effects the iBook G4 and the PowerBook G4. Dell issued a similar recall a few days ago.

When talking with engineers we are told that the lithium ion battery itself is not the problem nor defective. Rather, the laptop is engineered in such a way to draw that goes beyond the batteries intended capabilities resulting in a firey explosion.

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced it was going to turn over some of their uncollected tax debts to private debt collectors. News of this instantly resulted in, you guessed it, phony tax collectors.

“The IRS warned taxpayers Wednesday not to be duped by scammers posing as private debt collectors the agency has hired to chase unpaid tax debts. The Internal Revenue Service designed the debt collection program to minimize that risk “because we know what it’s like out there with regard to identity theft nowadays,” said Brady Bennett, IRS director of collection.”

From the AP