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The expiration of a tax cut on dividend income wouldn’t likely spur firms to significantly cut their dividend payouts, say some scholars who study the relationship between tax rates and corporate behavior. View the entire post here: Higher Taxes May Not Push Firms to Cut Dividends

Kori Stanton’s online cookie business seemed to be off to a promising start last spring when its goodies were featured on the “Rachael Ray Show.” Be Specific In selecting a business name, entrepreneurs also should keep in mind how it might be applied to a website address, says ...Read More

Sweden’s top central banker Saturday said the country’s economy looked in good shape despite the slowdown in the global recovery, indicating Swedish interest rates will continue to increase. View the entire post here: Sweden’s Ingves: Economy in Good Shape

By AMY HOAK A growing number of homeowners are choosing to pay down their mortgages at a faster rate–even if it means a substantial jump in their monthly payments.Between January and June, 26% of homeowners who refinanced chose a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage, according to data from CoreLogic, a ...Read More

Asset purchases by central banks work. That was the conclusion of Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, in a paper he presented at the Federal Reserve’s annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., setting off a lively debate among academics and central bankers from around the ...Read More

By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN Amid growing worries about deflation, or a sustained period of falling prices, some analysts recommend that investors buy bonds, which can do better in that kind of dangerous environment.But interest rates on all kinds of bonds are at such skimpy levels that fixed income may ...Read More

The Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Sinan Al-Shabibi, tells The Wall Street Journal’s Jon Hilsenrath, how Iraq managed to control inflation and what lies ahead for the rebuilding country’s economy. View the entire post here: Video: Controlling Inflation in Iraq

By JONATHAN CHENG It is the ultimate bunker portfolio.Amid the market tumult, a handful of stocks have seen their share prices ratchet up to record highs in recent weeks. And many of them are connected by a curious, if disconcerting, thread: Between them, they provide an investor with ...Read More

If you’re going to charge me $23 a bottle for vodka instead of $9, shouldn’t the more expensive stuff taste at least twice as good?One would like to think so.But I recently held a blind taste test comparing super-luxury Grey Goose (I paid $22.99 for a bottle), a ...Read More

Ahead of an important speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday, the buzz at this year’s annual Fed retreat in Jackson Hole, Wyo., is who’s not here and who is. In an effort to make room for more foreign dignitaries, the Kansas City Fed, which organizes the ...Read More