Lest you focus only on stocks that investing legends would buy, or finding the greatest stocks of the next generation, here's a brief recap of some of the past few weeks' more unusual financial news:
Giving "liar loan" a whole new meaning
Be vigilant, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), and other mortgage lenders! Fraudulent would-be homebuyers are getting more sophisticated. In Georgia, a man tried to buy a home with a $225,000 promissory note supposedly signed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Investigators eventually found that he had produced more than $1 billion in fraudulent notes. Surely, Geithner has better things to do with his time?
Turning, uh, something into gold
Energy companies such as National Grid and even ExxonMobil may be shaking in their boots at a new alternative-energy rival: cow manure! A farmer in California is turning his Holsteins' cow patties into enough energy to run his farm, his cheese factory, and 200 additional homes.
But their fight song isn't nearly as good
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) can be choosier than Harvard. Whereas Harvard's undergraduate program accepted about 2,000 people out of some 30,000 applicants last year, an Illinois Wal-Mart once received 25,000 applications for 325 jobs. Columnist Mark Perry concluded that Wal-Mart is therefore paying its workers too much, if so many people are lining up to work there. However, the numbers probably just reflect a steep unemployment rate.
Now, if she'd thrown in a few donuts…
Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) gift cards just aren't as enticing as the company's fans might think. In California, a woman failed to bribe an IRS agent with $2,000 in cash and a $100 Starbucks gift card. She would have been better off applying the $2,000 toward her $13,000 bill, and comforting herself with $100 worth of Frappuchinos.
Put me down for two livers and a pancreas
Motley Fool Rule Breakers
recommendation Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS) makes three-dimensional "printers" that can build manufacturing and design prototypes. But privately held Organovo has an even more sci-fi spin on the technology. Its 3-D "bioprinter" may be able to produce organs on demand. Talk about health-care reform!
Now that we've amused you, surf on over to the rest of our site for a little education -- and maybe even some enrichment.
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