Reuters - A Bear Stearns mortgage portfolio backed by the U.S. government racked up $2.7 billion of losses in the third quarter, amounting to a 9 percent decline on about $30 billion of assets, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.
Reuters - U.S. officials said on Thursday they were weighing the possibility of government guarantees for troubled mortgage loans to try to induce lenders to modify terms and slow a rising tide of home foreclosures.
AP - When you sit at your kitchen table and write your monthly mortgage check, your signature may be the first stop on a journey that takes your money to the other side of the world.
Reuters - General Motors Corp is suspending matching payments to employee 401K plans as of November 1 and continues to assess its staffing needs as part of efforts to conserve cash amid a deep downturn in sales, the automaker said on Thursday.
BusinessWeek Online - It was the 31% interest rate that forced James and Heather Hills to rethink their approach to startup capital. The couple had tried to get a bank loan to launch their Elgin (Ill.) company, MHN Internet Marketing & Public Relations, in early 2006. But three loan officers told them that without equipment to use as collateral, they wouldn't get a loan. So the Hills team took out a $50,000 home equity line of credit and signed up for two personally guaranteed small business credit cards.
AP - Executives and employees at the major credit ratings agencies were often aware of problems in the AAA grades awarded to thousands of mortgage-related securities whose downgrades helped plunge the nation into a financial meltdown.
Reuters - Demand for applications to buy U.S. homes and refinance mortgages sank to the lowest level in nearly eight years, a trade group said on Wednesday, in the heart of a financial crisis that has sapped consumer confidence.
AFP - The financial crisis has provided a needed culling of weak US financial institutions and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should bow out in turn, a top New York banker said Tuesday.