Financial news: 10/16/2012

• Bloomberg: Government spends $10.7 million on one conference
• CNBC: Reverse mortgage fine print leads to record default rate
• Dept of Commerce: U.S. retail sales increased 1.1% in September
• AP: Citigroup CFO skeptical about housing recovery
• Money News: Businesses  cut their GDP forecast for 2013 by .4%
• Reuters: Separatist European nations advocate confederalism 
• Business Insider: Bearish critics invest in non-traditional assets
• NYT: Spanish bailout delay risky per CEOs, analysts & economists
• Daily Finance: Vegetarians are protected from high food costs
• BBC: Stable matching algorithm wins U.S. economists Nobel Prize