Mortgage applications fell in latest week (Reuters)
Reuters - Applications for U.S. home mortgages retreated to sluggish levels last week as rising interest rates spoiled a spurt in loan refinancing, according to data published from an industry group on Wednesday. More »
Dire warnings fail to sway senators on big bailout (AP)
AP - Refusing to be pushed, Republicans and Democrats alike rebuffed dire warnings Tuesday from the government's top economic officials of recession, layoffs and foreclosed homes if Congress doesn't quickly approve the administration's emergency $700 billion financial bailout plan. More »
Freddie Mac paid 15K a month to McCain aide's firm (AP)
AP - The lobbying firm of John McCain's campaign manager was paid $15,000 a month for several years until last month by one of two housing companies taken over by the federal government, a person familiar with the financial arrangement said Tuesday night. More »
US-BUSINESS Summary (Reuters)
Reuters - Architects of a $700 billion bailout plan urged U.S. lawmakers to act swiftly or face dire economic consequences amid growing concern the rescue may be delayed, but markets were heartened by news that Warren Buffett was investing $5 billion in Goldman Sachs . In Tokyo, Kyodo news agency reported that Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T), Japan's third-largest bank, plans to invest several billion dollars in Goldman, with which it has a long relationship. More »
FBI probing Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, AIG: report (Reuters)
Reuters - The FBI is investigating Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac , Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and insurer American International Group Inc. and their senior executives for potential mortgage fraud, CNN reported on Tuesday. More »
Head of AT&T To Be Featured at Chamber's Fortune 500 Luncheon Series
Randall L. Stephenson, chairman of the board, CEO and president of AT&T Inc., will be the featured guest at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce's Fortune 500 Luncheon Series on Wednesday, Oct. 1. More »
Business Analysis Breakfast to Focus on Current Economic Crisis
The Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas is partnering with the Northwest Arkansas Chambers of Commerce to host a Quarterly Business Analysis breakfast on Friday, Oct. 24. More »
FBI probes finance giants for fraud: report (AFP)
AFP - The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing allegations of fraud by finance giants Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer AIG, US media reported on Tuesday. More »
Dire warnings fail to sway senators on big bailout (AP)
AP - Refusing to be pushed, Republicans and Democrats alike rebuffed dire warnings Tuesday from the government's top economic officials of recession, layoffs and foreclosed homes if Congress doesn't quickly approve the administration's emergency $700 billion financial bailout plan. More »
Housing Complex (Investor's Business Daily)
Investor's Business Daily - Mortgage Politics: A push for more "ownership" -- in reality, debt -- helped create the subprime mess. Reform is essential, but powerful lobbies and deep-rooted attitudes stand in the way. More »
Good Intentions Paved The Road To Subprime-Stoked Meltdown (Investor's Business Daily)
Investor's Business Daily - For those looking for a real start to today's financial meltdown and government rescue, you need to go back -- way back -- to 1977, and the Jimmy Carter presidency. More »
Lennar 3rd-quarter loss narrows, revenue drops (AP)
AP - Lennar Corp., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, said Tuesday that its sales in the third quarter plunged more than 50 percent and it does not expect the housing market to improve "for some time to come." More »
Dollar recoups some losses amid nerves on US bank bailout (AFP)
AFP - The dollar recovered some ground on Tuesday as players awaited the outcome of a US government plan to bail out a banking system crippled by the subprime home loan crisis. More »
Get Married to Your Mortgage (The Motley Fool)
The Motley Fool - Although "till death do us part" is a solemn vow we take in marriage, expecting we'll live happily ever after with our betrothed, we ought to be adding that to our mortgage contracts too. More »
Dollar recovers some lost ground amid nerves on US bank bailout (AFP)
AFP - The dollar recovered some ground on Tuesday as players awaited more details on a massive US government plan to bail out a banking system crippled by the subprime home loan crisis. More »
Lennar loss narrower than expected (Reuters)
Reuters - Lennar Corp posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss on Tuesday as the home builder reduced construction and administrative costs. More »
GSE oversight powers came too late: regulator (Reuters)
Reuters - The U.S. Congress gave a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stronger oversight powers too late to help steer the companies away from a government takeover, the chief regulator for the mortgage finance companies said on Tuesday. More »
US-BUSINESS Summary (Reuters)
Reuters - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) will invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs Group Inc , in a major boost for the Wall Street bank from perhaps the world's best-known investor. "It's a vote of confidence which is gold plated," said Michael Holland, a money manager at Holland & Co in New York. "You don't get better than this." More »
McCain Transition Head Lobbied for Freddie Mac Before Takeover (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg - Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) -- The lobbying firm of the man Republicans say John McCain has chosen to begin planning a presidential transition earned more than a quarter of a million dollars this year representing Freddie Mac, one of the companies McCain blames for the nation's financial crisis. More »
IBD's Top 10 - Monday (Investor's Business Daily)
Investor's Business Daily - 1 Senate Banking chief Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said that in exchange for buying Wall St. assets, the gov't should get equity stakes in aided firms, offer more foreclosure help for homeowners and limit exec pay. House Fin'l Services chief Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the administration has given ground on key issues. More »
Sen. Clinton: Gov't should help buy back home loans (Reuters)
Reuters - New York Senator Hillary Clinton said the federal government should establish a special entity that would buy mortgages from Americans and later sell them just as it did during the Great Depression. More »
Obama vows deep cuts in spending (AP)
AP - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama moved to claim the mantle of fiscal responsibility in a roiling economy, vowing on Monday to slash federal spending on contractors by 10 percent and saving $40 billion. More »
Real estate market slow to respond to gov't plan (AP)
AP - By late Saturday afternoon, only three prospective homebuyers had visited the open house Valerie Morrill was hosting. The Prudential real estate agent recalled a year ago, she'd see 10 to 15 people during an open house in this midtown Kansas City neighborhood. More »
Frank would cap executive pay in financial rescue (Reuters)
Reuters - Rep. Barney Frank on Sunday proposed including executive pay limits and foreclosure mitigation efforts in the Treasury Department's $700 billion financial bailout plan aimed at absorbing bad mortgage assets that have paralyzed the U.S. financial system. More »
UAE property shares soar
Shares of Emaar Properties and Aldar Properties, the two largest real-estate developers in the UAE, soared on Sunday after the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank agreed to inject cash into the financial system. Emaar jumped 15.00% to 8.05 dirhams, while Aldar rose 9.59% to 7.79 dirhams. Other big gainers were Sorouh, up 9.69%, and Union Properties, which climbed 12.33%. More »