Blog Posts by Stacy Curtin

Yahoo! Finance to stream LIVE coverage of the Facebook IPO Friday starting at 10:30 am. WATCH IT LIVE HERE!

When Facebook (FB) goes public later this week, the next generation of ultra-rich 20-something techies will have been created.

"You are looking at the potential of scores, if not hundreds of millionaires," says Matthew Miller, editor for the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the wealthiest 20 people in the world. Miller's estimate is on the conservative end of the spectrum. In February, when the company announced its IPO, many put the number of people to rake in at least seven-figures at a thousand or more.

Of course, along with the newly minted millionaires will be a handful of billionaires, including the just-turned 28-year-old Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to the head-hunter Spencer Stuart, Zuckerberg is half the age of the average S&P 500 CEO and has logged more time at the helm than the typical leader.

The exact amount of each individual's net worth all depends upon where the stock initially prices and eventually trades. Shares of the social media giant are in such hot demand from investors that Facebook increased its target range to $34 to $38 a share from the earlier range of $28 to $35 a share in what has become the most anticipated initial public offering since Google in 2004.

Using a share price of $35, now on the lower end of the spectrum, Miller and his team estimate Zuckerberg will be worth a whopping $17.6 billion, which makes him the 35^th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. That means Zuckerberg will be worth more than the GDP of some countries and will have amassed more wealth than Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, Dell Inc. founder Michel Dell, Virgin founder Richard Branson and even Donald Trump. (Editor's Note: This interview was taped ahead of Facebook's move to raise its target IPO range.)

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President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney may be tied in general election matchup polls, but a new survey shows Obama's popularity is growing among global investors.

According to a new poll of more than 1,000 Bloomberg customers, Obama is viewed in a positive light by 56 percent of global investors compared to only 40 percent who favor Romney. In the U.S. however, where the votes actually count, investors favor Romney over Obama and believe the former Massachusetts governor would be better for the global economy.

When asked who would better handle the global economy, global investors favor Obama 49 percent versus 38 percent for Romney. This sentiment is not surprising if you look across the pond to recent elections in France and Greece, where there is growing voter backlash against austerity measures — programs Republicans often promote here in the U.S. — that have led to slow growth in Europe. (See: Looking Beyond Europe's "Quasi-Disaster," Stocks Snap Losing Streak)

Also on the uptick are poll respondents' perceptions that Obama would be good for domestic markets, which is right in line with market performance. The S&P and Dow are up nearly 40 percent since the president took office at the beginning of 2009. Forty-eight percent of global investors believe an Obama re-election would be a "good thing" for U.S. markets, compared to 36 percent who believe he would bad for markets. At the beginning of the year 44 percent of global investors believed a second term for Obama would be a positive, up from 38 percent at the end of 2011.

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Home prices have hit 10-year lows, falling 25% to 35% from the peak in 2006. But hope is in the air, as is often the case in springtime, and for some 'hope springs eternal' means a bottom in the housing market.

"Many, myself included, think we are at a bottom," said Lew Ranieri Monday. He is often considered the godfather of mortgage-backed securities.

Famed economist Karl Case, co-founder of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index told The Daily Ticker just as much at the end of April. "We're bouncing along a rocky bottom," he said, noting a recovery in housing prices had begun.

Fiserv, a housing forecaster, even expects home prices to increase 4% annually over the next five years. This rebound could start as soon as this summer.

The National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday that median prices for single-family homes rose in 74 of 146 metropolitan areas in the first quarter, compared to the same quarter in 2011. There were 2.37 million existing homes available for sale, a 20% drop from the first quarter of last year and 40% below the peak of 2007.

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Austerity vs. more stimulus is the ongoing debate plaguing policymakers around the globe as countries try to figure out ways to eliminate rising government debt without creating an economic catastrophe.

Europe took to the path of austerity and it did not go well for the eurozone economies, which have tipped back into recession. In fact, things have gotten so bad in Europe that voters in France and Greece this weekend ousted leadership who agreed to the austerity programs proposed by the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. (See: France's Hollande Is "Bluffing" But Greek Vote Raises Real Concern: Kirkegaard)

In the United States, political ideologies have stalled any progress on the federal budget and efforts to reduce the country's $15.7 trillion (and growing) debt load. Washington's dysfunctional politics is what led to the country losing its triple-A debt rating last August —rating agency S&P actually feared political

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The presidential election is well under way but as President Barack Obama tries to position himself as the defender of the middle-class who will protect the 99% against corporate malfeasance and too big to fail banks, he may find himself in a precarious position. His record does not necessarily reflect his rhetoric and at the same time Wall Street donors have padded his campaign coffers.

Wall Street fell in love with the promise of change and Obama's intellectual approach to governing the country during the 2008 presidential election. Obama raised nearly $16 million from Wall Street, nearly double the amount of his Republican rival John McCain, and eventually won the election on a promise to break the" business per usual" mindset in Washington.

Over the course of Obama's three plus years in office, his tone toward Wall Street has shifted dramatically from the days of the campaign trail. He has routinely spoken out against the big banks and their

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There have been a number of high-profile cyberattacks on multinationals in the last few years, including Lockheed Martin (LMT), Northrop-Grumman (NOC), Sony (SNE), Google (GOOG) to Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA), among others. (See: Cyberattacks: A National Security Threat Largely Being Ignored)

A new, first of its kind report by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), estimates cyberattacks jumped 650% from 2006 to 2010.

Sixty percent of U.S. companies reported security breaches, according to the annual report which was commissioned by President Barack Obama last year to assess the country's ability to respond to natural disasters and other natural security threats. Fifty percent of "high-priority facilities" like those that manage the country's electrical grids reported having been attacked.

Cybersecurity was the biggest area of concern for state and local governments with only 42% of officials believing their capabilities adequate enough

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Over the last four years, central banks around the world have flooded the financial system with money using a creative mix of monetary policy tools. Many, like Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, argue central banks have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Others argue the opposite, and believe even more could be done to help stimulate economic recovery and pump up financial markets.

This is an ongoing debate and the topic of one panel at the Milken Institute's 2012 Global Conference. The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task sat down with panelist Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley, to discuss the current state of U.S. and global monetary policy.

"Lots of people here are talking about the global liquidity glut," he says. "There are always risks, but I think the risk of central banks not doing what they have been doing and exiting too soon are the risks to worry about."

Eichengreen

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The Daily Ticker headed to Los Angeles this week to cover the Milken Institute's annual Global Conference where many of the world's most influential investors, economists, CEOs, innovators and policymakers met to discuss some of the most imminent and dire problems facing America and the world.

For a change of pace, we asked our guests to tells us what makes them most optimistic about the America today. We got a wide-range of responses, but many added one caveat to their answer: the hindrance of political dysfunction in Washington and its negative drag on prosperity in America.

Here's what they said:

Niall Ferguson
Professor, Harvard University

"The thing that makes me optimistic about the United States is technology and the ability of the United States still to be at the cutting edge. But of course that is quite geographically localized. That is a Silicon Valley story."

T. Boone Pickens
Founder, BP Capital

"It's energy. I mean, today the United