GOOD DAY FOR: Financial voyeurs, as UBS, under pressure from U.S. regulators, is considering divulging the names of up to 20,000 of its super affluent U.S. clients. Such a move, amid an offshore tax-evasion investigation, would go against Swiss banks’ centuries-old tradition of secrecy. Details of this rarefied investment world are expected to come to light when an ex-UBS banker testifies in U.S. court next week. (The New York Times, free registration)
BAD DAY FOR: Balancing your checkbook, as the net worth of Americans fell by $1.7 trillion—or 3 percent—in the first quarter, amid declining home values and stock prices, according to Federal Reserve figures. That’s the sharpest fall since 2002. With rising gas prices, though, Americans “are spending everything in their wallet and borrowing more,” said economist Michael Englund at Action Economics. (CNNMoney.com)
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