1. By: Joanna Alexander Kathy Ratajczak Will Prout Courtney Potter

2. What practices do money market funds currently employ? Provide investors with a relatively safe alternative to savings accounts by investing in only low risk commodities Provide investors with a relatively safe alternative to savings accounts by investing in only low risk commodities Funds encourage investors to believe they can never lose money Funds encourage investors to believe they can never lose money What does the SEC propose to regulate? Require money market funds to hold capital on the off chance that there are losses Require money market funds to hold capital on the off chance that there are losses Require money market funds to use a floating measure of their net asset value, making it more difficult for investors to withdraw cash Require money market funds to use a floating measure of their net asset value, making it more difficult for investors to withdraw cash Is what the SEC proposing beneficial?

3. Federal gov't runs $98.5B deficit in October October starts the fiscal year for 2012 In October last year the gov’t had a deficit of 140.4B New accounting practices took 31B off of this years books Federal benefits are usually paid on the 1 st of each month but Oct. 1 st was a Saturday and the benefits were put on last years deficit The gov’t had a deficit of 1.41T in 2009, 1.29T in 2010, and 1.3T in 2011 The deficit for 2012 is predicted to be 973B

5. Unemployment Aid Hits 7-Month Low The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week dropped to 390,000 DOL said this is the lowest it has been since April The data suggest layoffs are easing and the economy grew slightly better over the summer than the government had estimated a month ago The downward trend in applications suggests businesses are laying off fewer workers Still, applications need to consistently drop below 375,000 to signal sustained job gains The have not been at the level since February

6. France lashes out at S&P's “shocking” error France reacted with outrage after the Standard & Poor's ratings agency accidentally sent out a message saying it was downgrading France's prized "AAA" credit rating The interest rate France pays to borrow money closed up 3.37% on Friday That is the highest rate since early July France and Germany's "AAA" credit ratings are the bedrock of Europe's bailout fund The accident came just as Greece and Italy seemed to be getting on the right track by establishing new interim governments

7. SEC disciplines employees over Madoff The SEC said they The SEC said they had disciplined eight employees for their failure to detect the infamous Madoff Ponzi scheme punishments ranged from pay reductions and suspensions to simple "counseling memos" A 2009 report from the SEC inspector general called into question the performance of 21 agency staffers in their handling of the Madoff case 10 are no longer with the agency and not subject to discipline Of the remaining employees, 9 were ultimately singled out for punishment, though 1 elected to resign Among the rest, one received a 6% pay reduction Others received suspensions w/o pay for between 3 and 30 days Two received counseling memos

8. Do you think the punishments were appropriate?

9. Dow: up 1.42% for the week S&P 500: up.85% NASDAQ: down.28%

10. http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/4defa60c4bd7c8ba241a0000-400-300/mary- schapiro.jpg http://www.ehow.com/about_4700550_characteristics-money-market-funds.html http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bee8b3f4-0973-11e1-a2bb- 00144feabdc0.html#axzz1dQwEWnli http://finance.yahoo.com/news/federal-govt-runs-98-5b-190255977.html http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/unemployment-aid-hits-month-low-trade-gap-falls- 1492324 5#.TsAAgfQUqsq http://finance.yahoo.com/news/france-lashes-ps-shocking-error-114913274.html http://finance.yahoo.com/news/sec-disciplines-employees-over-madoff-230100954.html http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EDJI&t=5d&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=