FROM its inception, the stock market was meant to be a place where businessmen could raise capital by selling shares in their enterprises, and where investors could turn a profit when those enterprises prospered. The market still serves both purposes, but today it is judged less by what it does for businessmen seeking capital than by what it accomplishes for investors seeking gain. In a time of high and rising taxes, investment in stocks is one of the few ways ...

Is Maurice Greenberg a liar? That seems to be the multibillion-dollar question in an ongoing court battle that pits Greenberg and his firm Starr International against his former employer AIG. The deeply troubled insurance giant claims Greenberg, through Starr International, improperly gained control of hundreds of millions of shares of AIG stock when he was booted from the company in 2005. In a trial that started on June 15 in U.S. District Court in New York, AIG contends that the shares ...

GM stock has been delisted, dumped from the Dow, and is pretty much worthless. But with government backing, as they say, even pigs can fly. Indeed, just days after filing for bankruptcy, General Motors Corp. is already plotting a path beyond Chapter 11, including the sale of stranded assets and even an offering of new stock. The principle shareholders of any new GM—the U.S. Treasury, Canada's federal government and the United Auto Workers—are keenly interested in getting GM stock back into circulation. "There ...