It is the best of times. It is also the worst of times and everything in between.


 
 Bank of New York Mellon Corp. said Tuesday that it took a hefty charge during the third quarter to restructure its investment portfolio, resulting in a loss of almost $2.5 billion for the period. The New York-based trust bank said by selling and writing down the value of its most risky securities during the quarter, it has significantly reduced the risk of future losses in the portfolio

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans worried about losing their current health care coverage keeps rising, even as President Barack Obama and a Democrat-led Congress strive to extend society’s safety net to cover the uninsured, a new poll has found. The growing levels of insurance insecurity are reflected in the latest monthly snapshot from the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.


 
 Construction of new homes edged up slightly in September, helped by a rebound in single-family construction. However, in a worrisome sign for future housing work, applications for building permits fell by the largest amount in five months. The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments rose 0.5 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 590,000 units

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. has unveiled a more expensive and bigger hybrid-only model than its hit Prius, underlining the Japanese automaker’s ambitions to make green technology more widespread. The “Sai” sedan is Toyota’s second hybrid-only model after the Prius

Question; Can Harley-Davidson survive the world economic disaster? The company itself paints a bleak picture of its present and future. To quote from an October 15th H-D corporate press release: “Worldwide retail sales of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles declined 21.3 percent in the third quarter compared to last year’s third quarter, an improvement from the 30.1 percent decline in this year’s second quarter

Washington Post : Even as the nation’s biggest financial firms were struggling and the federal government was spending hundreds of billions of dollars to save many of them, the companies as a group were boosting the perks and benefits they pay their chief executives. The firms, accounting for more $350 billion in federal bailout funds, increased these perks and benefits 4 percent on average last year, according to an analysis of corporate disclosures filed in recent months. Read the whole story: Washington Post