This Week
The Securities and Exchange Commission's municipal-bond enforcement unit said it is reviewing the past disclosures of defaulted and distressed municipalities to see if financial conditions were properly disclosed.</br></br>The typical debt load of borrowers leaving school with a master's, medical, law or doctoral degree jumped an inflation-adjusted 43% between 2004 and 2012, the New America Foundation said, helping fuel the surge in student-loan debt.</br></br>Jurors found five former employees of Bernard Madoff guilty of aiding and hiding his $17 billion Ponzi scheme in a trial that painted the money manager's Manhattan offices as a hive of illegal activity.</br></br>U.S. stocks snapped a losing streak on Friday, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rebounded from nearly two-month lows. The S&P 500 fell 0.5% for the week to 1857.62, while the Nasdaq fell 2.8%, to 4155.76.</br></br>The Internal Revenue Service will treat bitcoin like property. The rule generally would impose capital-gains taxes on profits and on bitcoin retail transactions--a potential boost to investors, but one that requires extensive record-keeping.