NEW YORK - Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP said Friday it continued to lose money during the fourth-quarter as the ongoing credit crisis hurt the value of its investments.

Flagstar Bancorp, Inc. , the holding company of Flagstar Bank FSB, today reported the completion of an investment of $25 million from MP Thrift Investments L.P. , an entity formed by MP Global Partners III LLC, an affiliate of MatlinPatterson Global Advisers.

Not at all government spending can be called an investment. This is especially true if past “investments” have yielded poor results. For example, one would not “invest” in lottery tickets because historic results in this investment have not been great. Even necessary, prudent spending should sometimes be considered an operating cost of the government rather [...]

Luanda’ — Angola’s Oil company (Sonangol) will continue with its planned investments in the petrochemical industry and build up its capacity to store and sell oil derivatives in the country.

CanWest Global Communications , Canada’s leading newspaper publisher and a major television broadcaster, may soon be nearing default on its crushing debt load and possibly facing bankruptcy, The New York Times’s Ian Austen reports.

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — Treasuries headed for the biggest weekly loss in a month on concern debt supply will swell to unprecedented levels as the U.S. borrows money to fuel economic growth and finance a $1.75 trillion budget deficit.

Moody’s Cuts Citi’s Senior Debt Rating, S&P Revises Outlook

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp . plans to back new debt sold by banks that would later convert into common shares in an expansion of its Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

With a dramatic decline in its insurance fund, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board is set to vote to impose an increase in insurance fees collected from U.S. banks.

Federal regulators are raising the fees paid by U.S. banks and thrifts, and levying an emergency premium to rebuild a deposit insurance fund depleted by a cascade of bank failures.