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KBW analyst Diane Merdian now estimates Citigroup will take $15.3 billion in writedowns in the fourth quarter tied to mortgage-backed debt and collateralized debt obligations, instead of the $11 billion previously estimated.

The writedowns stem from continued deterioration in the mortgage market. As mortgages — especially subprime mortgages given to customers with poor credit history — have increasingly defaulted, banks have been forced to cut the value of bonds and debt backed by the troubled loans.

Citigroup took about $6 billion in writedowns during the third quarter. Late last year, Citigroup anticipated it would take between $8 billion and $11 billion in writedowns during the fourth quarter.

To read more, click here.

Jackson Hewitt, a tax service corporation, announced the hiring of a new Chief Financial Officer in Daniel O’Brien.

Daniel O’Brien, most recently CFO of Honolulu-based Hawaiian Telecom Communications Inc., has previously held the CFO title at a number of companies, including Global Crossing, Genuity Corp. and GTE Corp. He succeeds Mark Heimbouch, who became chief operating officer of the Parsippany, N.J.-based firm in October.

O’Brien will replace Mark Heimbouch who was named the companies COO in October.  To read more about this appointment, click here.

This MarketWatch.com article lists the worst jobs; the criteria was the percentage of jobs in an industry that paid less than the median wage in 1979, adjusted for inflation, and had neither employer-sponsored health insurance nor a retirement plan.

1.   Hosts and hostesses, restaurant, lounge, and coffee shop – 87% bad jobs

2.   Counter attendants, cafeteria, food concession and coffee shop – 87 %

3.   Ushers, lobby attendants, and ticket takers – 85.4%

4.  Fabric and apparel patternmakers – 82.2%

5.   Lifeguards and other protective-service workers – 81.6%

To find out the worst jobs that round out the the top ten, click here.

Entertainment events receive plenty of attention throughout the holiday season; everything from fine arts to sports to concerts.  People need a way to ease all the drama associated with extended family gatherings, so they turn to live entertainment events.  Concert tickets for winter events such as the Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol are in high demand year in and year out.  Football tickets are always a permanent fixture in and around the holiday season, with the all the college bowl games and the mother of them all, the Super Bowl.

If the Holiday shopping rush isn’t enough to jump start your online sales, here are five tips to get it going.

1.   Don’t make people register to make a purchase. Shoppers know they have to provide their contact information anyway, so why make them fill out a separate form?

2.   Reassure shoppers about security and privacy. Have a security/privacy policy on your site, ensure checkout pages are secure and make security icons very visible

3.   Make the “Add to Cart” button large and obvious. The same goes for other important buttons such as “Checkout” and “Complete Purchase.”

4.   Have as few checkout steps as possible. The fewer steps, the easier it is for shoppers to complete a purchase.

5.   Give shoppers a reason to buy from you. Make special offers (such as free shipping) very visible, especially on shopping cart and checkout pages.

To read more about these tips, click here.

Hopes that the country’s trade troubles may be easing was spurred by the news that during the third quarter, the deficit was at the lowest level in two years.  On Monday the Commerce Department announced that the current account trade deficit fell by 5 1/2 percent to $178.5 billion.  This was the smallest current account imbalance since 2005′s third quarter amojnt of $173.4 billion.

Click here to read more about the lessening trade deficit. 

It was 13 years ago when Pizza Hut debuted the first web-page order form, yet ecommerce retailers still can’t get all the kinks worked out.  High traffic on Black Friday, and the recently dubbed, Cyber Monday caused a outtage of some major online retailers, who you would think had enough resources to protect against such a mishap.  Sears.com and Yahoo Shopping experienced 8 and 10 hour crashes, respectively.  Other retail behemoths like Wal-Mart and Circuit City also experieced some minor mishaps like extremely long load times and items disappearing randomly from shopping carts.

These hiccups on many online retail sites weren’t actually caused by the insanely high number of purchases made online, but rather the online equivalent of window shoppers – people just browsing e-commerce sites and eating up bandwith.

To read more about these online window shoppers, who are disrupting your online shopping, click here.

Harris Private Bank Managing Director, Mark Johannessen gives 5 finance tips on how to bring in the new year.

1.   One of the best gifts you can give yourself this year is a financial assessment. Working with a financial planner can help you define and commit to your financial goals and determine what amount of time and effort it will take to get there.

2.   One step in recognizing your financial strengths and weaknesses is hand delivered to you each month — your bank statement. Make a resolution to track your bank statements for three months to see exactly where your money is going.

3.    As you are wrapping gifts this year, think about a budget for next year’s gift giving. Many Americans go into debt to foot the bills for their holidays.

4.   And speaking of credit cards, they can both help and hinder your progress to a secure financial future. If you pay off the cards each month, they can provide you with a detailed summary of your purchasing patterns, helping you to budget accordingly. However, if you continue to roll over a balance, then credit cards — no matter how low the interest — are taking money out of your pocket.

5.  Many companies increase employees’ salaries beginning with the first paycheck in January. If you are expecting an increase this year, commit now to immediately siphoning the bump in pay right into your 401k plan or retirement savings vehicle.

To read more about these tips, click here.

The 18th US-China Joint Commission on commerce and trade took place this week in Xianghe.  One of the major outcomes was the Chinese banishment of imported Hollywood movies.  US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said “My understanding is that there is a suspension, which has happened in the past.”  Gutierrez said that the US is lobbying China to end the ban.  The commerce secretary goes on to say “the problem we have with movies, with films, is that there’s a limit…a quota on them, and we’d like to get that lifted.”

Read more here.

In piece of interesting commerce news, the US and China have come to an agreement that would facilitate the acquirement of tourist visas for outbound chinese tourists.  After years of negotiations the US becomes the 134th country on China’s Approved Destination Status (ADS) list.  Currently the US issues only business travel visas.

The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) says that the agreement will provide a strong motivation for bilateral ties in such sectors as the economy, trade, and culture, as well as invigorating the tourism industry.

US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez says “the agreement will open a large and growing market for the US travel and tourism industry.”  The US Department of Commerce estimates that the number of Chines vistors would reach 579,000 annually, by 2011, up from 320,000 last year.

For more information, click here.