IBT Staff Reporter

Ben Bernanke and his friends on the Federal Reserve have a PR machine to help sell their lies. Let's assess whether Ben and his Federal Reserve have helped or hurt the average American.

Members of the U.S. Congress are convening on Monday in rare secret meeting closed to the public and media to deliberate on the START nuclear treaty presented to them by President Barack Obama.

The results of the 2010 U.S. Census will be made public tomorrow.

Venezuela's parliament approved tighter regulation of the Internet on Monday in the latest of a package of laws to entrench President Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution before a new Assembly is sworn-in next month.

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to adopt Internet traffic rules on Tuesday that would ban the blocking of lawful content, but allow high-speed Internet providers to manage their networks, senior agency officials said.

Toshiba Corp <6502.T> may log 1 trillion yen ($11.94 billion) in sales from its nuclear power business by fiscal 2013, instead of fiscal 2015, due to a growing demand in emerging markets and the United States, its President Norio Sasaki told The Nikkei in an interview.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating claims that former Hewlett Packard CEO Mark Hurd shared inside information about the company's then-pending acquisition of EDS Corp, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

An Obama administration task force examining allegations of fraud in the mortgage foreclosure process will deliver its findings next month, two top officials said on Monday.

Genzyme Corp held its second investor meeting in two months to argue that its most promising experimental drug will capture five times the sales that Sanofi-Aventis has assumed in a hostile $18.5 billion takeover bid.

It's tough times for crooks as well, according to the FBI, which released its Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report today, showing declines in all the major violent crime and property crime categories for the first six months of 2010 compared to the first six months of 2009.

A judge said on Monday she needs more time to rule on Washington Mutual's $10 billion deal aimed at bringing the company out of bankruptcy, and asked the parties to extend a key deadline, according to court documents.

Web commerce company eBay Inc said it would buy brands4friends, Germany's largest online shopping club, for about $200 million in cash to strengthen its European business.

With time running out on the 111th Congress, two New York Senators are pulling out all the stops for passage of the James Zadroga bill.

The Federal Reserve does not believe any one hedge fund can topple the financial system and therefore the private pools of capital may escape direct supervision by the central bank, an industry source familiar with the Fed's position said.

Dell Inc founder and chief executive Michael Dell is spending $100 million to snap up more of his company's stock.

U.S. stocks tacked on further gains to push the S&P 500 to a two-year high on Monday, continuing a steady upward march investors believe will continue in 2011.

President Obama vowed that his administration will not give up on the DREAM Act, after the measure was blocked in the Senate Saturday.

Texas has long been home to Big Oil companies that specialize in extracting petroleum from hard-to-reach places. Now the hip college town of Austin is vying to become the epicenter of a potentially giant market for carbon-free electricity generated by the hot Texas sun.

The world's largest exchange traded gold fund - the New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore-listed SPDR Gold Trust - added 15 tonnes to its holdings on Friday, the largest one-day addition since the height of the Greek deficit crisis in May.

U.S. Senate debate on the START nuclear treaty with Russia will restart Monday afternoon in a secret meeting behind closed doors after opening statements on the chamber's floor this morning.

Medtronic Inc Chief Executive Officer William Hawkins plans to retire in April after a tenure of more than three years in which the medical device maker's stock performance disappointed investors.

Their names invoke bubbling brooks and tropical islands, but now a host of obscure hedge funds may be bringing Wellington Management Co some unwanted attention.

Bankrupt video rental chain Blockbuster Inc plans to close 182 stores by the end of the first quarter of next year as it tries to find a way back on its feet.

Stocks rose on Monday, lifted by energy and financial shares as investors repositioned in anticipation of the new year.

S&P 500 Index gained 3.00 points, or 0.24 percent, to trade at 1,246.91 at 09:50 a.m. EST. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 7.11 points, or 0.06 percent, to trade at 11,499.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.20 percent to trade at 2,648.31.

As U.S. regulators race to write rules that will put Wall Street reform legislation into action, some industry groups are trying to apply the brakes, latching onto linguistic loopholes in the law to bolster their case.

LOS ANGELES - When it comes to the convergence of video games and Hollywood, Tron was the first example of Hollywood getting it right. And in many ways, Hollywood hasn't learned from this perfect marriage of game and film. At least, most of Hollywood.

A Russian billionaire set the terms on Monday for a merger of Russia's top two producers of potash, Uralkali and Silvinit to create the world's No. 2 player.

Vimpelcom's $6.6 billion bid for telecoms assets owned by Weather Investments was hanging by a thread after Norwegian shareholder Telenor said on Monday it would not back the deal.