Despite mainstream media predictions about the election hinging on the president's performance, it appears as though the economy was a much greater factor in the two key gubernatorial races yesterday. The economy was the anvil that crushed the chances of Democrats Jon Corzine and Creigh Deeds.

According to exit polls in Virginia and New Jersey, around 90% of voters said that they're concerned about the economy, while only around 18% said that their vote had anything to do with President Obama's performance so far.

Less than two weeks after the official amnesty program ended for taxpayers who had previously failed to disclose income from offshore accounts, the first high profile criminal case involving a taxpayer has been resolved.

Steven Michael Rubinstein, of Boca Raton, an accountant and US client of UBS AG, the Swiss Bank that caused an international uproar when it was implicated in a wide-ranging scheme to assist foreign account holders in hiding income, was successfully prosecuted in the U.S. government's offshore tax-evasion probe. Rubinstein received three years of probation and a year of home-confinement, and was fined $40,000, on charges of filing a false tax return. The sentence was much lighter than expected.

The IRS charged that Rubinstein deposited more than $2 million in gold coins into his UBS accounts and used the funds to buy and sell securities. Rubinstein did not disclose the account on his tax return, as required by U.S. law, nor did he report the income generated by the accounts. You can read the official complaint here (downloads as a pdf). Rubinstein was arrested in April of this year, and has the unhappy distinction of being the first taxpayer associated with the case to be officially charged.

Did you know that women make up 70% of the world's population living in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day? Or that women produce 60% to 80% of the world's food, but hold down only 1% of the world's land and 10% of the world's wealth? Despite these statistics, women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs and professionals in the world.

The role of women in the global economy is the focus of a new, free online exhibit called "Economica: Women and the Global Economy." The multimedia exploration of women's lives around the world is part of the International Museum of Women (IMOW), an online social change museum.

Jay Leno's move to prime time was viewed by some as a savvy show business decision. A popular, well-known comedian, the former host of the Tonight Show would provide NBC with a cheap, talk-show alternative to the network's previous line-up of dramatic programming, which is costly to produce. Or so it was thought.

With ratings numbers continuing to fall, however, NBC affiliates aren't feeling nearly as sanguine as the network itself, the New York Post reports. After a solid start last month, ratings have a slipped to a quarter of what they once were. That has local news programs nervous, as they count on viewers of 10 P.M. shows to stick around for the 11 P.M. news. (Unless you're in the Central or Mountain times zones, where everything is on an hour earlier.)

The Service Employees International Union reports that the American Bankers Association is having a conference this weekend. The ABA is a trade group and powerful lobbying organization representing the banking industry. Because so many of its members received bailout money, it's fair to say that U.S. taxpayers are paying for this party.

Here's what the bankers will have to look forward to:

• a luxurious riverboat cruise
• a historical mansion tour
• a roaring 1920s big band gala
• celebrity appearances by Newt Gingrich & George Will

The first three sound like fun, but to be fair, having to sit through a Newt Gingrich speech is probably an excessive punishment for destroying the economy.

Gingrich is a strange choice to speak at the ABA party because he was, to his credit, a vocal opponent of the bailouts. Back in September of 2008, he was asked about the TARP plan on NPR and provided a surprisingly candid answer: "Well, I think you have a Goldman Sachs chief of staff to the president and the Goldman Sachs secretary of the Treasury. And they convinced the president that the American people ought to send $700 billion to Wall Street, which I think is a very, very bad idea, and I would argue is a very un-Republican idea. I don't understand what they think they're doing."

And yet now he's speaking at a conference for an organization that lobbied for the bailout -- and against regulation to prevent future financial disasters.

Worse? The money that he'll be paid for speaking will come -- in a distant sort of way -- out of the very bailout package that he so vocally-opposed. Everyone has his price, apparently.

Think your kid's college bill is pricey? Think again. For the second year in a row, Sarah Lawrence College has the dubious distinction of being the nation's most expensive place to attend college -- a whopping $54,410 for the current 2009-10 school year, including tuition, plus room and board, according to data compiled by CampusGrotto.com.

Of course, for that price, students get the distinction of attending one of the finest colleges in the country. Most of the colleges in the 100 most expensive colleges ranking are private liberal-arts universities in the Northeast.

CampusGrotto notes that while the current school year saw one of the smallest increases in costs in decades, expenses still rose 4.3%. By contrast, the annual rate of inflation in the United States fell 1.3% in September. Many of the colleges on the list now cost around $50,000 a year to attend.

The recession has exposed America's dirty secret that many Americans are financially illiterate. And it would be difficult to find someone who doesn't agree that Americans could use more financial education at the student and adult levels.

There are a variety of Web sites aimed at improving financial literacy in America, but one new site hopes to go beyond offering the usual tools for learning to budget, paying off debt, boosting savings, etc. GetFinancialFinesse.org hopes to equip people with tools to clean up their own finances and get involved in efforts to improve financial literacy in their communities. The site is operated by Financial Finesse, a financial education company.

Gayla Bentley made quite an impression Tuesday on ABC's Shark Tank. She's a big lady with a big vision: to create the first globally successful luxury fashion line for women of size 12 or larger. In fact, now that she's got the investment she needs, you may be hearing from her again.

WalletPop's Jason Cochran talked to Bentley about her success in obtaining the capital she needs to bring her garments to a wider market, and we got the video interview on tape as part of our popular AfterShark series.

There's a fire sale on naming buildings across the country. Wait, strike that, fire sale might not be the best phrase to describe naming a new library or outpatient wing; perhaps "clearance on immortality at charities nationwide" is a better fit.

Over the last year, thanks to the economy; we've lost close to 100 billionaires, 18.5% of our millionaires and the number of gifts of more than a million dollars have been cut in half. According to Bloomberg, this is the reason that numerous charities are in the process of scaling back the donation amount required to name a building and giving donors more time to pay off pledges.

Bravo's hit show Million Dollar Listing is back for a third season tonight, and more than three-quarters of a million viewers are setting the Tivo's and curling up with the latest issue of House Beautiful.

The show is focused on the sturm und drang surrounding three hot young real estate agents' manic efforts to list and sell homes in the high-end L.A. real estate market during what may well be the greatest housing crash in U.S. history. There's plenty of real estate pornography, and everyone is well-coiffed, drives a sexy car, and drinks plenty of Bling H20.

But how representative of millionaires is Million Dollar Listing, really? Not very representative at all. The show portrays the lifestyles of the big-spending glitterati who, as it turns out, actually comprise a tiny fraction of rich people in America. Consider this data point from Dr. Thomas J. Stanley's fabulous new book Stop Acting Rich.

• "About 90% of millionaires lives in homes valued at under $1 million." Meanwhile only about 27% of homes valued at more than $1 million are owned by millionaires.

According to a story by Reuters Friday, a recent study determined that moustache-wearers earn 4.3 percent more than their clean-shaven compatriots. The survey -- which claimed to have randomly sampled 2,000 moustachioed men, 2,000 bearded men and 2,000 fully-shaved men -- went on to assert that those with hairy lips also tended to spend 11 percent more and saved 3 percent less than their bearded and barefaced brethren.

As the proud owner of a handlebar moustache, I would love it if this story were true. Unfortunately, the study appears to be a joke. It was commissioned by the American Mustache Institute, a tongue-in-cheek advocacy group tasked with "protecting the rights of, and fighting discrimination against, moustached Americans by promoting the growth, care, and culture of the moustache." Even ignoring the study's occasionally bizarre assertions, there doesn't seem to be any evidence to corroborate the existence of principle researcher Hans Menjou-Bärtchen, or his company, "Menjou-Bärtchen Research Consultants."

Just like the Great Depression shaped the financial mindset of our grandparents and great grand-parents, so the Great Recession right now is doing a similar thing to teens and twentysomethings.

They don't trust banks, don't plan to invest in the stock market, they don't even want to get insurance. Microsoft funded a study done by KRC Research that surveyed 500 "Milennials" ages 18 to 29 about their take on personal finance.

Their trust in the U.S. government and the financial markets are shot but unlike their parents, who usually have some experience with investing in stocks, mutual funds and retirement plans, this younger generation doesn't want to touch those with a 10-foot pole.

The philosophy behind the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book has always been simple: if you can (or can't) dream it, they'll find it, price it, and honest-to-God offer to sell it to you, whether it's an exotic safari or a priceless bauble.

Here's how recession respect gets interpreted in something as fanciful as this catalog -- for the first time, the selections do not include any items or experience that cost north of $1 million. The most expensive thing for sale is a jet and pilot training package for two, which costs a mere $250,000.

If you're looking to shop the catalog a bit more frugally, consider one of the book's lower-end offerings: a $3,225 red velvet coat, a $175 iPhone case or or a $3,300 crystal tree.

And go ahead and table those million-and-up gifts until the next holiday season -- after all, it's the thought that counts.

Just in time to kick off your holiday shopping comes the ultimate gift for the teenage Republican on your list: an Xbox 360 video game console signed by former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. And the cost? Oh, just a paltry $1 million and change.

Seller David Morrill has listed the item on online auction site eBay, hoping to get interested buyers to pony up at least $1.1 million for the item. According to the description on the site, the video game console was signed by Palin on July 24 in Wasilla, Alaska, two days before she resigned as the state's governor.

So what makes this Xbox 360 worth so much more than the average retail price of $399? "You can own this 60GB, perfect-condition, one-of-a-kind item before her expected run for president of the United States of America in 2012," Morrill wrote on the item listing. Morrill didn't immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment from WalletPop.

Hip-hop star turned actor Method Man is looking at four years in prison on charges that he failed to file a return or pay New York state income taxes between 2004 and 2007.

Method Man told The New York Daily News that the reason behind the oversight is simple: "Myself, I'm a pothead. It's no secret. Everyone knows that. I go on the road and forget everything else. Sure, [the tax department] sent letters to my house saying, 'We need this money.' They started sending them in 2002. . . "