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isn't all about corporate finance. Maybe you'd like to keep your eye on the numbers so you'll know when it's a good time to finance that new car you've already picked out. Should you refinance your house or keep the mortgage that you've got right now? Learn about new tax laws that help you protect your assets as soon as they come out! Don't wait until the news gets rehashed into a Tax Guide for you to start putting your own personal finances into order.
You don't have to be Donald Trump or Bill Gates to understand or appreciate the news presented in this section. You just gotta love the color of

Motor Trend editor-in-chief

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Chrysler Group's Dodge Ram Heavy Duty won Motor Trend magazine's coveted "Truck of the Year" award in a unanimous vote, the magazine announced Thursday.

"Much of what is so impressive about the Ram Heavy Duty is not only how easily it does all the tasks it's built for, but also how easy it is on the driver," Angus MacKenzie, Motor Trend editor-in-chief, said in a statement. "The Ram is quieter, more comfortable and people-friendly than before without sacrificing its considerable capability."

The award was open to pick-ups and vans that were all-new or substantially redesigned in the past year. Besides the Ram Heavy Duty, the three other contenders for this year's award were the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, which is a high-performance off-road truck, the Ford Transit Connect, a small commercial cargo van, and the Toyota Tundra 4.6-liter truck.

The Ram Heavy Duty, unlike the more familiar Dodge Ram 1500, is built strictly for work and isn't intended as a vehicle someone might drive for personal use. It has a 17,500 towing capacity and is available with a powerful diesel engine.

"No automotive segment has been left untouched by the economic downturn, but the truck market has been especially hard hit," said MacKenzie. "With many casual personal-use truck buyers having deserted the market, the industry has been forced to tightly focus its products on the specific needs of truck users."

Motor Trend editors judged the trucks based on design, engineering, efficiency, safety,and value, as well as on how well the vehicle fills its intended function. As part of the judging process, the trucks are put through a series of driving tests on test tracks and on ordinary roads, both empty and fully loaded.

Motor Trend gives three vehicle awards annually. The Subaru Outback won the magazine's SUV of the Year award in October, the second year in a row that a Subaru product won that award, and the in November.

"The Motor Trend Truck of the Year Award is like a standing ovation for the Chrysler Group designers, engineers and planners who developed this incredible Ram Heavy Duty Truck," said Fred Diaz, president and chief executive officer of Chrysler Group's Ram truck brand, in a statement.

Chrysler Group recently named Diaz to head the Ram truck brand, a newly distinct brand within Chrysler. Car designer Ralph Gilles now heads a separate Dodge car brand.

Since emerging from bankruptcy, Chrysler has been under the leadership of Sergio Marchionne, who also runs Italy's Fiat Group. Fiat now owns 20% of Chrysler.

Chrysler is struggling to turn around its precipitously falling sales and reinvigorate an aging product line-up. Chrysler sales were down more than 25% in November, compared to last year, a much worse showing than domestic rivals General Motors and Ford.

Financial markets

That's well below the $176 billion recorded for October and about $5 billion less than recorded in November of last year.

But the November shortfall, reported Thursday by the Treasury Department, brings the total deficit for the first two months of fiscal year 2010 to $296.7 billion, or about $16 billion more than the deficit accrued in the same period a year ago, when the economy and financial markets were falling apart.

The major reason for the increase in the deficit: Even though spending for the first two months of this fiscal year actually fell roughly $25 billion compared to what it was in the prior year-to-date period, tax revenue fell more -- by $41 billion.

Interest paid on the debt in November was $18 billion - or 7% of federal outlays for the month.

For the full fiscal year 2010, the Treasury is estimating the annual deficit will reach $1.502 trillion, or just slightly more than the up in fiscal year 2009.

Economists and deficit hawks worry less about the near-term deficits accrued since they're the direct result of efforts to combat an economic meltdown. Of greater concern to them is the total debt accumulation, which is building rapidly and could top $20 trillion within 10 years under current policy.

U.S. economy

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The odds aren't on its side, but a bonus tax could happen in the United States too.

The United Kingdom this week slapped a 50% tax on bankers' bonuses above about $40,000. The one-time tax will be paid by all banks with employees in the country. France pledged it would adopt the same policy, while Germany's chancellor called the idea "charming."

Still, the bonus tax seems like a long shot on this side of the Atlantic, where bankers wield immense power. But when Wall Street starts handing out at a time of 10% unemployment, all the campaign donations in the world may not keep legislators facing tough re-election fights from turning on their banker chums.

We "could very well get a political backlash against the banks and bank bonuses during 2010," said Desmond Lachman, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "This would be especially the case were the U.S. economy to stall, as I certainly expect it to once the positive effect of stimulus begins to fade."

The megabanks see this dynamic too. Goldman Sachs (, the bank that stands to hand out the most at year-end, has gone on a belated .

Goldman said Thursday its top 30 executives, led by CEO Lloyd will cash bonuses this year. The move comes on the heels of decisions at the New York-based firm to and donate more to .

Undercutting any good cheer, told a British magazine last month the firm is " even as it rakes in billions of dollars in profits on trading."The bankers are so entitled, it's just astonishing," said Lee A. Sheppard, a tax attorney and contributing editor at the tax journal Tax Notes. "It only took them two years to wake up to the shame over this mess."The main danger to this sense of entitlement comes from the House of Representatives. In March, it passed a bill that would have the bonuses paid at through a 90% tax.

That measure received a frosty reception from the Obama administration and was shelved by the Senate. But if foreclosures and unemployment remain uncomfortably high, ideas like a bonus tax could gain steam, said Benn Steil, director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

The House is "our most radical political institution," Steil said. "Some House legislation is deliberately provocative. It can be a good way for congressmen to grandstand."

Of course, even if the House passes a bonus tax, it would face an uphill battle in the Senate and with the administration. Unlike the United Kingdom, which faces an acute budget crisis, U.S. leaders seem to have some breathing room, despite the mounting deficit.

And if enacted, a bonus tax may or may not be effective in holding down runaway pay. Sheppard said the European bonus tax seems less likely to hold down bonuses than to punish bank shareholders who already foot outrageous bills for their trading and banking "talent."

Because the tax is to be paid by banks rather than by individuals, the end result may be that "the shareholders who stupidly failed to restrain the bankers from taking a huge share of the profits will get penalized again," Sheppard said.

Championship game

HOUSTON (AP) -- Ndamukong Suh picked up another honor Wednesday night, taking home the Rotary Lombardi Award as the nation's top lineman.
But in this week of picking up trophies, he took some time away from the celebration to apologize to fellow Lombardi Award finalist Jerry Hughes of TCU for not knocking off Texas in the Big 12 Championship game on Saturday.
Suh was chasing Colt McCoy with seconds left in the game and he threw the ball away as the clock ticked to zero. But a review ruled there was a second remaining and the Longhorns kicked a field goal for the 13-12 win.
A loss could have given undefeated TCU a spot in the national championship game. Instead Texas is headed to the game against Alabama.
"I wish I didn't get to him," Suh said. "I pushed him down and forced him to throw that ball away. I should've let him run around a little bit longer, then we wouldn't have had to worry about trying to block a field goal."
Suh delivered his regrets to Hughes earlier in the week when the two were up for the Bronko Nagurski Trophy. Suh also won the Nagurski Trophy as the nation's top defensive player, and is a finalist for the Heisman Trophy.
"I told him, 'No apology needed, you did everything you could,"' Hughes said. "We were all rooting for Nebraska, obviously. One second from probably going to the national championship game, that's not too bad, you know? TCU has come a long way and for us to even be mentioned in the conversation with the national championship is a great honor."
Alabama's Terrence Cody and Gerald McCoy of Oklahoma were the other finalists.
Suh finished the regular season with 82 tackles, 23 tackles for losses and 12 sacks. In the Big 12 championship game, he had a career-high 12 tackles, including a school-record seven tackles for losses and 4 1/2 sacks.
Suh wasn't sure how much his performance against the Longhorns contributed to the number of individual honors he's received this week.
"I went out in that game and all I wanted to do was come out with the Big 12 championship ring and unfortunately it ended the way it did and I didn't get a chance to do that," he said. "I don't know exactly how much that weighed into it, maybe a little bit, maybe a lot. I don't know."
The Big 12 defensive player of the year also is up for the Walter Camp Award, the Lott Trophy, the Bednarik Award and the Outland Trophy.
Suh is the first Nebraska player to win the Lombardi Award since Grant Wistrom nabbed the honor in 1997 and the fifth overall.
Suh said Nebraska's history of having great defenses was one of the major reasons he chose the school.
"We were kind of in the dumps when I was getting recruited, a couple of bad years had come before ... I wanted to be part of a unit or a class that started to bring that program back," he said. "My class leaving this year, I think, has helped that process tremendously. I hope we have. We're not quite there, but you're starting to see the 'Blackshirts' again, for sure."
Suh's voice shook as he accepted the award and afterward he said winning it was a "total surprise."
"In my eyes this is a very huge one, especially at my position," he said. "The guys that are the unsung heroes in college football and football all-around, guys that just do the dirty work and get the job done for everybody else are the defensive linemen and offense linemen."
The Rotary Club of Houston has presented the award annually since 1970. Voting totals from the award are not released.

Future of world

Gold for December delivery rose as high as $1,199.30 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex, marking a record.
The front-month contract gained $13, or 1.1%, to $1,194.10 an ounce in recent trading.
Gold futures gained 0.6% on Monday, marking one of the best months in 10 years.
"Equity and broader risk sentiment has been more upbeat this morning, with markets buoyed by solid manufacturing data from China and the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to increase interest rates for a third straight month," said James Moore, an analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London.
Australia's central bank raised its policy cash rate Tuesday, as widely expected, by 0.25 percentage point to 3.75%, marking its third rate increase since September.