Merrill Lynch

WASHINGTON -- Big-name investment banks are taking a financial beating this year, leaving many Americans to ask: Just how did all these Wall Street bankers in their $5,000 John Lobb shoes manage to step in you-know-what? The answer is simple: They made the same mistakes as the rest of us, just with more zeros attached to them and bigger consequences for the U.S. economy, if not for their own $625 John Lobb wallets. Those mistakes are why the heads of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup Inc. have been ousted in recent weeks, why household names such as Bank of America Corp.

IF YOU BUY stocks on a hot tip, spend more than you earn or have yet to take full advantage of your employer's retirement savings plan, you're not alone.Unfortunately.Experts say these are some of the most common money mistakes people make that can help derail their financial futures. But the good thing about mistakes -- either your own or others' -- is you can learn from them. And better yet, it might not be too late to correct them.With that in mind, we asked financial pros to name some of the most frequent financial errors:Living beyond your means.

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- U.S. investors should pay brokers an annual fee of no more than 1 percent of the equity assets they hold for full-service accounts, Merrill Lynch & Co.'s brokerage chief contends.That's what Merrill is charging for an account it started in July that combines a broker's advice with unlimited trading over the Internet, and it's less than half the 2.25 percent that rival Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. is charging clients who have less than $250,000 in similar accounts."I think 2 percent is too high," said John Steffens in an interview after a speech to 700 members of the Securities Industry Association at their annual conference here.

Below are insider transactions of 1,000 shares or more for publicly held companies based in Maryland or having substantial operations here. Insiders are officers, directors or owners of 10 percent or more of a corporation's stock.General Motors Corp.John F. Smith,vice president, disposed of, by gift, 1,393 shares of common at an unreported price March 15 and now directly and/or indirectly holds 47,050 Class H common and 214,885 common.Cynthia M. Trudell,vice president, exercised an option for 1,095 shares of common at between $53.76 and $56 each March 12. To cover transaction expenses, she turned in 665 of them for $89.94 each March 12 and now directly and indirectly holds 1,673 common.

Shares in MedImmune Inc. fell $5.0625, or 4 percent, to $115 yesterday after a top Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst lowered his ratings for the stock, saying the recent run-up in its price had made it overvalued. Earlier in the day, the shares were down as much as $14.125.Since mid-May, shares in the Gaithersburg-based biotechnology company, which split 2-for-1 Jan. 1, have more than doubled. MedImmune shares closed at a 52-week high of $120.625 Tuesday.Merrill Lynch biotechnology analyst Eric Hecht, whose industry ratings are closely watched, also lowered his ratings on Amgen Inc., Biogen Inc., Genzyme Corp.

NEW YORK -- U.S. stocks resumed their slide yesterday after new reports showed that the economy's surging growth has not slowed in recent months. The data renewed concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week.The Dow Jones industrial average fell 63.95 to close at 10,273.00, after having been down nearly 153 points earlier in the session. Broader stock indicators also were mostly lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 edged up 0.10 to 1,282.81, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 9.31 to 2,736.

Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. has paid a $50,000 fine and $175,253 in restitution to settle charges that a former broker in Baltimore inappropriately invested clients' money in a company that the New York brokerage helped to take public, the Maryland Securities Division said yesterday.The agency said the brokerage firm had agreed in a consent order to also improve the supervision and training of its employees in the Baltimore office.The division had alleged that Merrill Lynch failed to file disclosure reports about some customer complaints between 1991 and 1996.

NEW YORK -- Stocks, bonds, insurance and mutual funds are muscling in on beer and cars between innings of this year's World Series.Broker Merrill Lynch & Co., mutual fund provider Fidelity Investment, life insurer SunAmerica Inc. and other financial companies have boosted television ad spending by half this year, much of it on sporting events such as this year's New York vs. Atlanta series."

Internet and technology stocks stole the show once again on Wall Street, lifting the Nasdaq composite index yesterday to its seventh consecutive record high yesterday.The Nasdaq index jumped 40.18, or 1.7 percent, to 2,384.59.Intel Corp. led the Nasdaq upward, climbing $10.0625 to a record $139.75. After a surge in holiday computer buying, analysts expect the world's biggest computer-chip maker to report a profit of $1.07 a share, up from 96 cents a year earlier. That would beat Intel's own optimistic forecasts.

Does anyone need a full-service stockbroker?The case for such services seemed to weaken substantially recently when the largest practitioner of that approach, Merrill Lynch & Co., announced that it would get into the discount brokerage business by offering $29.95 commissions in December. Full-service brokers charge considerably more, mainly because they provide investment advice, which discounters don't.For many, it might be wiser to hire a fee-only financial adviser to build a comprehensive plan that matches investment goals to short- and long-term needs, estate and tax planning, prospects for future income gains or declines and other factors.

WASHINGTON - -A federal judge in New York Monday rejected a $33 million settlement between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bank of America, throwing into doubt the future of one of the government's chief cases against a firm charged with wrongdoing in the financial crisis. Using biting language, Judge Jed Rakoff accused the SEC, Wall Street's top regulator, of trying to nab a quick victory against a big bank while concealing the facts of the wrongdoing the agency alleges. He attacked Bank of America's top executives for allegedly trying to protect themselves at the expense of the company's shareholders.

Layoffs likely after GM fails to find enough early retirees DETROIT - About 6,000 General Motors Co. blue-collar workers have taken the latest round of early retirement and buyout offers, but it fell short of the company's goal, meaning more layoffs are likely. GM has about 54,000 factory workers and wants to end the year with 40,500, a cut of about 13,500. Monday's report means that about 7,500 too few workers took the offers, setting the stage for more layoffs. It was not immediately known how many workers from the GM transmission plant in White Marsh took the buyout.

Joseph F. Welsh Jr., a retired official of the Baltimore office of investment bankers Merrill Lynch and a World War II veteran, died of pneumonia Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 84 and had lived in the Pinehurst/Cedarcroft neighborhood for many years. The Northeast Baltimore native attended Shrine of the Little Flower Parochial School and won a scholarship to Mount St. Joseph High School. At 16, he left school to support his three younger brothers after the death of their mother.

The choice that regulators gave Bank of America chief Kenneth Lewis could not have been clearer: Harm your shareholders or lose your job. Lewis chose to keep his job. Rarely does the divide between corporate managers and the owners they're supposed to represent become so obvious. Lewis' sworn testimony, made available this week, shows he reversed his decision to scrap a disastrous merger with Merrill Lynch after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson threatened to fire him if the bank refused the deal.

Economy heightens retirement worry DES MOINES, Iowa : Rising costs and uncertainty about the economy have workers less confident in their ability to save enough money to retire comfortably, say the authors of a study released Tuesday. Even though workers are saving more and expecting to work longer to improve their chances of a happy retirement, there's still a disconnect. The survey shows many are failing to plan appropriately and making incorrect assumptions about retirement income. The new survey by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute reveals only 13 percent of U.S. workers say they're very confident they'll have enough money to retire comfortably.

Glen Burnie Bancorp buys back 9% of stock Glen Burnie Bancorp announced yesterday that it spent nearly $2.55 million to buy back more than 9 percent of its stock from a single shareholder. The parent of the Bank of Glen Burnie agreed to pay $9.30 for each of the 274,179 shares of common stock owned by former director Eugene P. Nepa. The company is authorized by its board to spend up to another $953,493 to buy back stock, as part of a repurchase program that earlier acquired 55,300 shares.

Judge orders release of Guantanamo detainee WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered the military yesterday to release one of its first Guantanamo Bay detainees, a 21-year-old man who has been detained and accused of being a terrorist since he was 14. Mohammed el Gharani, who is of Chadian nationality but had lived in Saudi Arabia, should be released from the U.S. prison in Cuba "forthwith," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said in a ruling from the bench....

Bank of America said yesterday that it planned to cut 30,000 to 35,000 positions - among the largest layoffs ever - over the next three years as it digests its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. That could amount to more than 11 percent of the combined firms' global work force of 308,000. Combining two firms as large as Bank of America and Merrill often involves eliminating duplicate jobs. Both have significant overlap in areas like research and investment banking. But Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., acknowledged that this round also reflects the dismal economy.

CHICAGO - Baltimore Sun parent Tribune Co. is working with bankruptcy advisers at the investment bank Lazard and the law firm Sidley Austin to weigh financial options, including a possible restructuring for the heavily leveraged media company, sources said yesterday. Tribune Co. has been struggling under a $13 billion debt load since real estate magnate Sam Zell took the company private last December in an $8.2 billion leveraged buyout. The company, which also owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Cubs faces a deadline today on $70 million of unsecured debt it took on before Zell's deal.

Sun Life Building purchase is completed CSG Partners LLC completed the purchase of the Sun Life Building office tower in downtown Baltimore yesterday for $9.2 million from seller SLM Properties LLC, an investment entity of Asset Capital Corp. The 12-story, 170,000-square-foot building at 20 S. Charles St., built in 1966, was a key component of Charles Center, built in the 1960s to create an office district downtown. The Sun Life Insurance Co. owned and occupied the tower until the late 1980s.