Here at the Fool, we've searched high and low across the Web this Monday morning to find the biggest news and best stories around. Here are your top five morning reads.
1. Monday morning earnings
A couple of notable earnings from this morning:
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Verizon
(NYSE:VZ) continued to see a steady decline in its landline business, but it was able to increase revenue through healthy wireless services growth. Thanks to a couple of writedowns, earnings were off 30% from last year. (Read more at Yahoo! Finance.) -
Corning
(NYSE:GLW) beat expectations thanks to stronger demand for flat screen televisions and other glass products. (Read more at Reuters.)
2. Washington Mutual's failure, revisited
If you're someone who learns best by studying failures, then this two-part series on Washington Mutual's demise is must-read material. The bank, which was eventually seized by the FDIC and had its assets sold to JPMorgan Chase
3. George Soros on financial reform
George Soros, the author of several finance books and chairman of Soros Fund Management, has an editorial in The Financial Times reminding governments not to ignore the need for financial reform. As Soros puts it: "Instead of a tendency toward equilibrium, financial markets have a tendency to develop bubbles. Bubbles are not irrational: it pays to join the crowd, at least for a while. So regulators cannot count on the market to correct its excesses." (Read more at The Financial Times.)
4. Private equity beings floating IPOs, a good sign?
Private Equity firm Blackstone
5. Russian banks look for pigs, lingerie
Reeling from heavy losses, Russian lenders have started accepting a series of strange assets as collateral. Loans secured with pig farms and stakes in failing lingerie chains? No problem! (Read more at Bloomberg.)
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