Louise Story, Wall Street and finance reporter for The New York Times, discusses her  breaking story on a new investigation by the Securities and Exchange Comission against the California Public Employees' Retirement System, known as Calpers. During the financial crisis, the fund lost a significant portion of its portfolio, leaving the California on shaky financial ground.

Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor have invested $500 million in Facebook, raising the company's total value to some $50 billion. According to The New York Times, the deal involves special allowances for Goldman's premier players to invest in the company. The latest deal has spurred more interest from the S.E.C., and may trigger increased pressure on companies like Facebook and Twitter to go public. We're joined by Denis Howlett, writer for the site ZDnet, for more on the story. 

President Obama’s "Build America" bonds were supposed to help cash strapped municipalities pay for roads, schools or construction projects, but they may be benefiting Wall Street banks as well.

If you had told me, 13 years ago, that Apple would one day be deemed more valuable than Microsoft, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. I wanted it to happen, mind you, but knew it would only come about in some science fiction world where the better product was actually rewarded by consumers and the markets worked as perfect dowsing rods for business acumen. I would have chuckled ruefully, and gone home through a Microsoft-dominated world to talk to my aging Mac Powerbook 520.

Today, at 4 p.m., the unthinkable happened: Apple Inc. finished the day worth more (in the eyes of those buying its stock) than its once-chief rival, Microsoft Corporation. As the markets closed, Apple's stock price put the company at $222 billion, just over Microsoft's $219 billion.

This ex-geek says: Booyah.

Hard to believe, but it's been one year since Ponzi scheme 'mastermind' Bernie Madoff was arrested for scamming over $50 billion from investors. We thought it'd be the perfect time to check in and see how Madoff's victims and associates are doing, one year after his arrest. Aaron Lucchetti is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal whose latest article says the Madoff sons are having an incredibly hard time finding themsleves new jobs. Cynthia Crane was one of Madoff's many victims; she decided to adapt her story for the theatre in a show titled, "John Denver, Bernie Madoff, and Me."

Yesterday, Berkshire Hathaway, the investment vehicle of billionaire Warren Buffett, announced it is buying up the remaining shares of railroad company Burlington Northern. It's a big bet on American rail, and a big bet on the American economy. It's also a telling sign of Buffett's belief that Americans aren't quite ready to go green, since almost half of Burlington Northern's cargo last year was coal. We speak to Phillip Longman, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation and author of “The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity.” Also with us is T.J. Stiles, author of “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.”

Warren Buffett invests like a girl. He’s patient and does thorough research. He doesn’t take huge risks. He waits for the right price to buy, and he hold onto stock a long time. All of which, according to a survey of financial analysts and investment advisers, is generally how women investors behave. The study found that women felt it was much more important than men did to avoid incurring large losses, falling below a target rate of return or acting on incomplete information. In short, women are more risk-averse than men. And that can make them better investors than men. The study found that women’s portfolios gained 1.4% more than men’s portfolios did. (Single women did even better than single men, with 2.3% greater gains.) Now that the economy is showing some faint signs of recovery and many of us might be considering jumping back into the market, we turn to Dr. Ellen Peters, a psychologist from the University of Oregon, who was involved in the original study, for some ideas on what investment strategies will work for everyone.

At this point everyone has heard of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, but the name J. Ezra Merkin may still be unknown. That is about to change. In a lawsuit filed Monday by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, it is alleged that Mr. Merkin convinced his clients to invest with him and then funneled all their money into Madoff's scheme. Mr. Merkin's private clients lost over $2 billion in the collapse of Madoff's Ponzi scheme and most did not realize they had ever invested with him. New York Times reporter Diana Henriques is covering the story and she joins us now with the details on these new "feeder fund" lawsuits.

For more, read Diana B. Henriques' article, Cuomo Sues Over Madoff Investments in today's New York Times.