Foreclosed homes accounted for 37 percent of the total activity in the Phoenix metro real estate market in July — down from February when foreclosures represented 51 percent of the sales.

Many companies have been shifting away from a sole focus on products and have added services in order to drive continued growth and differentiate themselves in an increasingly saturated marketplace. In fact, services account for 80 percent of the U.S.

Roger Myerson, a Nobel Laureate in Economics from the University of Chicago, told an audience of Chinese business executives and government officials recently that their country might do better if it liquidated some of its American investments.

Although prices in metro Phoenix dropped 33 percent in May compared to May 2008, the rate of decline once again slowed, adding another month to an improving trend in the market, according to the ASU-Repeat Sales Index (ASU-RSI).

For decades, insurance companies have been pricing policies based on the belief that adverse selection comes into play among their customers.

Warren Buffet said: "When the economic tide goes out, you find out who is swimming naked." The financial upheaval of the last two years has revealed a number of inadequately clad investors.

In his classic book on economic history, Charles Kindleberger argued that asset bubbles follow a predictable pattern. A new opportunity or technology sparks investor euphoria. Asset prices quickly rise to an unsustainable level. Then suddenly, people stop buying, and panic ensues.

What does the trough of a real estate slump look like? Phoenix metro area property owners will have time to take a close look at this unpleasant and hazardous landscape as the real estate market slides to the bottom over the next several months — and settles in for a slow, volatile recovery.

In September 2008, the financial storms that had battered global markets since spring began to threaten the legendary investment bank Goldman Sachs. The 139-year-old financial titan had seen its stock plummet nearly 50 percent in a matter of weeks.

Bernie Madoff. AIG. Allen Stanford. When Marianne Jennings talks to her undergraduate students about business ethics these days, those are the subjects they want to talk about.