NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bank of America said Thursday it plans to slash up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years as it absorbs Merrill Lynch and contends with the deepening recession.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, which will be the nation's largest financial services firm when the Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) deal closes in coming weeks, said it will announce a final job reduction plan in early 2009.

The cuts will come from both companies and will affect all lines of business. Bank of America had 247,000 employees, as of Sept. 30, while Merrill Lynch had 60,900 at the end of the third quarter.

While Bank of America had not announced any large-scale job cuts so far this year, Merrill Lynch eliminated about 3,300 employees since the fall of 2007, mainly in its global markets and investment banking division and in support areas.

"The reductions are designed to eliminate redundancies created as a result of the merger with Merrill Lynch and to reflect the current recessionary environment," Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) said in a statement.

Bank of America is likely to keep many of Merrill Lynch's financial advisers, who numbered 16,850 at the end of September, said Scott Rothbort, president of Lakeview Asset Management, which owns Merrill Lynch and plans to hold onto its Bank of America shares after the merger. It's one of the main reasons why the bank bought the nation's largest brokerage firm.

"Most of the brokers are going to stay," Rothbort said.

Those in the companies' capital markets divisions - the traders, analysts and sales representatives - won't be as lucky, he predicted.

The announcement comes just a week after shareholders at both companies approved the deal. The merger ends the independence of Merrill, the storied Wall Street investment bank founded in 1914.

The deal valued Merrill at $50 billion when it was announced on Sept. 14, the day before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. Bank of America shares have fallen 46% since then, putting the value on the merger at just under $20 billion.

Since the merger was announced, both Bank of America and Merrill Lynch have received funds under the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) established as part of the $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry. Bank of America received $15 billion, while Merrill Lynch got $10 billion.

Responding to criticism that banks haven't used the bailout money to lend, Bank of America is running advertisements detailing their commitment. The bank says in the past three months it has funded more than $50 billion in home loans, financing more than 250,000 homes.

"The tightening mortgage market should not squeeze out qualified homebuyers," the ad reads. "That's why we're putting our capital where our mouth is."

Bank of America joins a growing list of financial services companies slashing staff amid the continuing credit crunch and downturn in consumer spending. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) said last month it would cut more than 50,000 jobs, while Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) said it would slash 10% of its institutional securities division and 9% of its money management business. In October, American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) announced it would shed 7,000 jobs and Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) said it would cut 3,260 positions.

The financial sector overall has lost 142,000 jobs over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

World's most valuable resource, a curse for most Nigerians

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (CNN) -- Trash litters its cities. Electricity is sporadic at best. There is no clean water. Medical and educational services are limited. Basic infrastructure is severely lacking.

"Planet in Peril" met in a secret location with members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

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These are not conditions that should plague one of the richest oil states in the world. Hundreds of billions of dollars has been made from the Niger Delta's oil reserves and many people have gotten very rich. Conversely, the average Nigerian has suffered as a result of the country's oil prosperity. The United States Agency for International Development says more than 70 percent of the country lives on less than a dollar a day -- the population is among the 20 poorest in the world.

Oil companies are only part of the equation. The other is the Nigerian government. Transparency International, a global organization intent on stamping out corruption, has consistently rated Nigeria's government one of the most corrupt in the world.

Nigeria's federal government and oil companies split oil profits roughly 60-40. The money is then supposed to make its way down to the local governments to fund various projects. Somehow, little money actually reaches its intended destination. Nigeria's own corruption agency estimates between $300 billion to $400 billion has been stolen or wasted over the last 50 years. Lisa Ling travels to secret location to meet notorious Nigerian militant group »

Gov. Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers state, one of the largest oil producers of Nigeria's 36 states, acknowledges past problems with corruption, but thinks progress is being made.

"There's a lot of improvement," Amaechi said. "The work being done by the corruption agency and the federal government has somehow been able to control the level of corruption in government."

Over the last few years, a culture of militancy and violence has arisen in the absence of jobs and services. Kidnappings for ransom, robberies and even murder happen with regularity.

The biggest and most powerful armed group is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND. They say they are at war against the Nigerian military and the oil companies operating there.

MEND, formed in 2005, said it has more than 30 camps throughout Nigeria. Members are armed with high-tech weaponry they said was obtained from "foreign sources." Hundreds of people have been killed on both sides and countless oil workers have been kidnapped.

Over the years, MEND's attacks on oil pipelines have halted oil production and, therefore, raised the price of oil around the world. They demand oil profits be distributed to average Nigerians of the Niger Delta and said they will not stop their attacks until their objectives have been fulfilled. See environmental battle lines for "Planet in Peril" »

The battle is over oil -- one of the world's most valuable resources. But to most Nigerians -- oil is a curse.

Communities along the Niger Delta have lived off subsistence fishing and agriculture for decades. Collecting food becomes impossible when a spill happens, like one that occurred in August. The waterways and mangroves are blanketed in thick brown oil sludge that goes on for miles. Toxicity overpowers the air and a sense of lifelessness pervades the landscape. Many say it will take 10-15 years for the area to be free of contamination -- if the cleanup effort commences in a timely manner.

The August spill was a result of a leak from an old pipeline that had corroded. It took the oil company three months to clamp the leak, but the company said it wasn't reported for a full month after it began. Once the leak was reported, the company said it was denied access to the site by the community. Leaders of the village deny that, and the finger-pointing between the two sides is nothing new -- there is no love lost here.

Who is telling the truth? Who knows? Either way, the creeks are blackened. This is life in the Niger Delta.

Google Inc. is shifting its Web browser out of test mode just 100 days after its debut, an unusually quick transition for a company known for keeping the "beta" tag on some products for years.

Thursday's removal of the test label from Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people )'s browser, called Chrome, underscores its importance to the Internet search leader.

Google is trying to lure Web surfers away from the leading browsers, Microsoft Corp. (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Internet Explorer and the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox.

In the process, Google hopes Chrome makes it easier to gather insights about users' preferences and extends the popularity of its online applications, which are supposed to run more smoothly and quickly in Chrome.

Since its Sept. 2 introduction, Chrome has attracted more than 10 million active users around the world, according to a Google blog posting that announced the browser's upgrade.

Chrome still has a long way to catch up to Internet Explorer, which has about 70 percent of the market, depending on the differing estimates from various market researchers. Firefox held about 20 percent, while Apple Inc. (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people )'s Safari was third with less than 10 percent. Chrome has less than 1 percent.

Google said it decided to take Chrome out of beta because of improvements to the browser's stability and security. Among other things, Chrome now does a better job of playing video and audio than it was first introduced, loads pages even more quickly and offers more controls over bookmarks and privacy, according to Google.

The country's central bank cuts rates to 0.5% as inflation eases, saying it could do more if necessary.

I recently spent a few days in Moscow meeting with a variety of economic and financial officials and analysts, both in the public and private sector.

Until July of this year, Russia was rosy: It was growing at an annual rate close to 8%; oil prices were peaking at $140 a barrel; the country was running a large fiscal and current account surplus; it had a war chest of $600 billion-plus of foreign reserves; and its stock market, bond markets and currency values were strong. Policy makers were thinking of turning the ruble into a major reserve currency, at least for the CIS bloc.

This economic and financial success led Russia to flex its geopolitical muscle, challenging the U.S. on a number of political and military issues and using its energy power as an instrument of foreign policy in its relations with the Eurozone and its former Soviet neighbors. The peak of this resurgence of the Russian bear came during the August war with Georgia, when Russia flaunted its military power as the U.S. looked impotent in its inability to defend an ally.

But what a difference a short time makes. Six months later, Russia is in deep economic and financial trouble.

The S&P has just announced that it has lowered Russia's foreign-currency credit rating by one notch from BBB+ to BBB. In less than six months, oil prices have fallen to under $50 a barrel (from the $140-plus peak of July). The stock market has fallen by over 60%, and on some days it has been shut down to prevent a free-fall. The current account surplus has turned into a near deficit and a sure deficit by 2009. The country has experienced a capital flight of over $100 billion and has lost about $150 billion of foreign reserves (now down to about a $450 billion level). It is facing massive external debt-financing problems as its banks financed their lending with foreign currency borrowings and its corporate firms financed massive expansion with foreign currency debt. It is now desperately trying to prevent a sharp depreciation of its currency by aggressive foreign exchange intervention. It may face a large fiscal deficit (2% of GDP) next year, and its GDP growth rate is sharply slowing down, leading the World Bank to predict a rate of only 3% in 2009--with leading local analysts predicting an actual recession (negative growth of as much as -2%) in 2009. (See the recent analysis by RGE's Rachel Ziemba for more on the risks of a hard landing in Russia.)

Given this sudden change in Russian fortunes, there are several key policy issues that the authorities need to deal with. Of course, given the external shocks (terms of trade worsening and a sudden stop of capital and credit), it was important to use the buffer of foreign reserves to avoid a bank run by providing liquidity and capital to banks--and by providing a fiscal stimulus to a country that is sharply slowing down.

But the key unresolved policy issue is what to do with the exchange rate. Until recently, Russia was on an effective basket peg (with 55% for the dollar and a 45% weight for the euro). But with oil prices now down over 60% from the peak of the summer, and with incipient current account and fiscal deficits and a likely recession in 2009, the currency is obviously overvalued. A reasonable estimate of the needed exchange-rate depreciation--with oil at about $50 a barrel in 2009--is 25%. But until recently, the authorities resisted the needed depreciation through aggressive foreign exchange intervention.

Financial Career Options

Believe it or not, there are still jobs in finance. Here's a look at some career paths.

For the business graduate, obtaining a degree is just the beginning. What's left is to take a closer look at available career options, measuring which industry sectors have the greatest need for new professionals. The finance industry is multifaceted, offering a variety of positions catering to a number of different skills and interests.

Financial services have multiple sub-industries encompassing niche opportunities. The key to individual success is to research, locate and land the financial job that has the greatest compatibility with your skills and interests. The same is true for professionals seeking a change in scenery and who want to give a new sector a shot.

Here are some common career paths you may pursue in the financial-services industry:

Corporate finance: These jobs involve working for a company in the capacity of finding and managing the capital necessary to run the enterprise. This is done while maximizing corporate value and reducing financial risk.

The functions you may implement while in such a position include: setting up the company's overall financial strategy; forecasting profits and losses; negotiating lines of credit; preparing financial statements and coordinating with outside auditors.
More sophisticated corporate finance jobs might involve mergers and acquisitions activity, such as calculating the value of an acquisition target or determining the value of a division for a spin-off.

Corporate finance positions can be found in companies of all sizes, from large, international entities to small start-ups. Additional corporate finance positions include financial analysts, treasurers and internal auditors. (Learn more about a career as an analyst in "Becoming A Financial Analyst," and as an internal auditor in "An Inside Look At Internal Auditors.")

Commercial banking: Commercial banks, from large entities to local institutions, offer a range of financial services, from checking and savings accounts to IRAs and loans. Career options available in this sector include bank tellers, loan officers, operations, marketing and branch managers. Talented professionals can advance from a local branch job to a position in corporate headquarters. Such a promotion would expose you to a number of other areas, such as international finance. (Learn more about a career in institutional marketing in "The Marketing Director's Pitch.")

The House may have passed a rescue package for the auto industry, but Senate Republicans could stop it cold.

From a pure financial perspective, Chicago would have the most to gain if the International Olympic Committee delays the bidding on American television rights for the 2016 Games until after the site is chosen.

The IOC's top negotiator said Wednesday that delaying the bidding process for the 2016 Olympics until after the location is known makes the most sense in the current financial climate. Normally, the bidding takes place before the site is selected.

Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo are the finalists. One of the four will be chosen Oct. 2.

"In that sense, it removes some of the uncertainty, which may work to our advantage or not," IOC finance commission chairman Richard Carrion said of the possible delay.

It's a delicate subject, one the Chicago 2016 people didn't want to delve into too deeply.

"Our official public stance would be that that decision is separate from the bid race, and we don't believe it has any impact on us trying to win the bid," said Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky.

U.S. Olympic Committee officials and officials from NBC declined comment.

ESPN International will have worldwide television rights to the IndyCar and Firestone Indy Lights series through the 2010 season under a two-year contract extension with the Indy Racing League.

The agreement announced Wednesday does not include coverage in the United States, where races are carried by ABC and VERSUS, or Brazil, where BAND TV has broadcast rights. The IRL and ESPN International will each have an option to extend the agreement another two years after 2010.

ESPN International owns more than 45 television networks outside the United States and is available in 201 countries and territories.

ESPN and ABC are owned by The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS - news - people )

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