DailyFinance

Here are a few things that will shape the week ahead on Wall Street: Microsoft will show off Windows 8 tablets; Tesla's hot Model S will reach buyers; Cricket gets the iPhone; Barnes & Noble opens its books; and Bed Bath & Beyond turns back the covers on earnings.

It's official. Money-wise, you're right back where you were 20 years ago. But if that news makes you want to cry -- or yawn -- hold on a moment: There are some interesting details behind the headline numbers.

In a China awash with fake iPhones, pirated DVDs and knockoff Louis Vuitton bags, rice trader Lin Chunping took fakery to a whole new level: He invented a U.S. bank and claimed he bought it.

Becoming a parent is one of the biggest -- and most expensive -- life changes you'll ever go through. Fortunately, when it comes to taxes, the news for parents is generally good. Here's a brief look at some of the ways that having children can help you save on your tax return.

Dewey & LeBoeuf was one of the world's great law firms, with 1,300 attorneys on five continents and revenues in excess of $900 million a year. This makes its bankruptcy quite simply the largest law-firm failure ever. So how did it manage to go broke?

On the verge of bankruptcy last fall, the American Mug and Stein Company got a new lease on life, courtesy of Starbucks. In part, it's Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz trying to support U.S. employers. But he's getting a lift from the simple economics of labor.

At Target's annual meeting this week, executives laid out their plans for an ambitious sales growth spurt; they also addressed head-on complaints that the retailer had chosen sides in the "culture wars" by selling gay pride T-shirts.

Former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford, whose financial empire once spanned the Americas, was sentenced Thursday to 110 years in prison for bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.

Barnes & Noble is finally getting a thorny issue off its books: A shareholder-initiated lawsuit has been settled as Chairman Leonard Riggio agreed to give up $29 million from the sale of his college bookstore business to the company.

Designed as an easy way for investors to make money over the long term, exchange-traded funds are quickly becoming an even easier way for investors to lose money in the short term.

Oops! You open your credit card statement and discover you forgot to make last month's payment. Or a collections agency calls about a bill you didn't even know you had. How bad is it? How much does a single late payment affect your credit score?

Would you trust a stranger to keep your financial secrets? That's exactly what customers do every time they call a bank and talk with a customer service rep. But how much oversight can a bank really have when those reps are in another country?