The Senate Finance Committee began searching for a compromise on how to deal with the estate tax's uncertain future. The tax, which is applied to inherited assets, is scheduled to disappear in 2010 only to come back in 2011 at the higher exemptions and rates that were in effect prior to 2001, when Congress cut the estate tax. Groups representing family owned businesses have urged Congress to make estate tax repeal permanent, but even their supporters concede that's not going to happen. "We can't get that done," said Sen. Jim Bunning, R Ky. "I support repeal, but we need certainty in this area," said Sen. Max Baucus, D Mont., who chairs the Senate Finance Committee. At a Nov. 14 hearing, the committee heard from billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Nevada rancher Dean Rhoads and Iowa manufacturer Eugene Sukup. Buffett, chairman and CEO of Omaha, Neb. based Berkshire Hathaway, recommended keeping the...<br><a href='http://blog-about-finance.com/news/39832'>http://blog-about-finance.com/</a>

The latest look ahead from the National Association for Business Economics said the gross domestic product was on track to expand at just a 1.5 percent pace from October through December. That would mark a sizable decline from the July to September rate of 3.9 percent. The group's new fourth quarter projection compared with September's prediction of a 2.5 percent growth rate for the fourth quarter. The GDP the value of all goods and services produced in the United States is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness. For all of this year, the forecasters expect the economy to grow 2.1 percent, which would be the weakest showing since 2002. The economy was then emerging from a recession and grew just 1.6 percent. The association also...<br><a href='http://site-with-content.com/news/22486'>http://site-with-content.com/</a>

US automaker Ford Motor Co has narrowed the auction of its Jaguar and Land Rover marques to three bids, two of them involving Indian companies, people familiar with the matter said overnight. Indian carmaker Tata Motors as well as rival Mahindra & Mahindra, which has teamed up with buyout firm Apollo, are both set to make third round offers for the British luxury brands. One Equity Partners, a buyout firm funded by US investment bank JP Morgan, is also on the list, the sources said. Ford is struggling with declining sales and a falling US market share and announced last week it was nearing a deal to shed Jaguar and Land Rover. At the time it posted a third quarter net loss of $US380 billion, compared with losses of $US5.2 billion a year earlier. Ford has been exploring...<br><a href='http://blogger4u.info/news/10870'>http://blogger4u.info/</a>