After a year in which many investors lost substantial chunks of their wealth, mass affluent individuals are ditching their full-service brokers in favor of independent financial planners at a significant clip, according to a report released today. According to the Spectrem Group, only 22% of mass affluent investors — those with a net worth of $100,000 to $1 million — now rely on a broker as their primary financial adviser, down from 30% just one year ago.

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POLITICO : Growing by leaps and bounds, the Pentagon’s secretive Information Operations budget keeps tripping over some basic information — like how much it costs. Just months ago, the Defense Department said it needed $988 million to help win hearts and minds in the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The Associated Press reports a coal group and two lobbying contractors knew that letters sent to lawmakers were fraudulent before the vote on climate change legislation. The letters were traced to lobbying firm Bonner & Associates, who were contracted by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. But in a letter to Massachusetts Rep

MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan and filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss the latest round of massive bonuses that Wall St. is doling out to their executives just a year after the financial industry paralyzed the economy. With unemployment continuing to climb, and soon likely to break the 10 percent barrier nationally, Ratigan argued that Wall St.


 
 Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s third-quarter earnings rose 73 percent from the depths of the financial crisis as income from the company’s trading operations offset a drop in its investment banking business. Goldman’s stock fell 3 percent early Thursday as investors reacted to the slide in investment banking revenue, the result of a general slowness in takeover activity.