Personal Finance News

Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season.

The two companies said Thursday that they will halt foreclosure sales between Nov. 26 and Jan. 9, while they evaluate whether borrowers qualify for a new loan modification program announced last week.

Fannie Mae said about 10,000 households would be affected, while Freddie Mac said the changes would affect about 6,000 borrowers who are facing foreclosure. The change does not apply to vacant homes.

Chinese officials warned Thursday that the country faces a 'grim' employment outlook with demand for workers falling and job seekers in the cities outnumbering new jobs by two-to-one as the economy slows.

Officials from the national police chief to local leaders have warned job losses could spark protests threatening social stability and one-party communist rule.

'Since October, our country's employment situation has been affected along with changes in international economic conditions,' Human Resources and Social Security Minister Yin Weimin said.

GMAC Financial Services has applied to become a bank holding company, which would allow General Motors' financing arm to be eligible for aid under the government's $700 billion bank rescue plan.

Citigroup Inc faced a crisis of confidence on Wednesday as investors questioned the survival prospects of the U.S. banking giant, and its shares tumbled 23 percent to a 13-year low.

Two government programs designed to help hundreds of thousands of delinquent borrowers avoid foreclosure are having negligible effects, a top Bush administration official acknowledged yesterday.

Therefore making JBX today's stock to watch.

Auto executives appeared on Capitol Hill for a second day on Wednesday to argue their case for a $25 billion aid package as legislators in both houses and in both parties seemed to move closer to a deal.

THE housing market suffered a new blow after it emerged last night that house buyers will have to come up with at least 20pc of the value of properties they plan to buy.

Madison authorities say a 12-year-old boy died after being shot by his financially troubled father who then shot himself.

Educators hired in the future would have to work longer before they can retire without a benefit reduction under a proposal by the state's educational pension program.

Granted an audience of world peers for a final time, President George W. Bush is trying to rally Pacific Rim support for an economic rescue plan that will outlast him.

Home prices fell in four out of every five U.S. cities in the third quarter, a record spurred by distressed foreclosure sales across the country.

11/18/08 Congress puts together a bailout package for the auto industry, but some automakers are in dire financial straits while others may be able to get by.

A controversial vote for Cape Coral Mayor Cape Coral has a new mayor. This election by the council was not without some controversy.

The two top salesmen for a $700 billion financial bailout are in for a grilling by Capitol Hill lawmakers just one week after the administration officially ditched the original strategy behind the rescue.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are expected to provide greater insights into the shift when they testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee.

Paulson, who is overseeing the bailout program for the Bush administration, changed course and announced last week that the government would not use any of the money to buy rotten mortgages and other bad assets from banks. That had been the centerpiece of the plan when Paulson and Bernanke originally pitched it to lawmakers.

Citigroup, widely seen as the sickest Wall Street bank, will make some of the most severe cuts in the history of U.S. business _ 53,000 jobs _ as it tries to slash costs and get back to basics before it's too ...

Published: Monday, November 17, 2008 at 4:54 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, November 17, 2008 at 4:54 p.m. Putnam Investments said Monday it will cut 47 jobs, including 12 portfolio managers, and merge six of its ...

The selling on Wall Street continued Monday as investors digested more signs of economic weakness, including a huge round of layoffs in the financial sector.

After a turbulent week that sent the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 340 points, investors found little solace in the latest news.

In a sign that banks are still struggling in the wake of massive losses tied to bad mortgage debt, Citigroup Inc. is cutting another 53,000 jobs in the coming quarters. The company said that in addition to job cuts, it plans to lower expenses by about 20 percent, and that is has reduced its assets by more than 20 percent since the first quarter of the year.

11/17/08 Anoop Singh of the International Monetary Fund says the fiscal situation in already fragile economies will be hard hit than most during the global economic recession.

Managing employees during a bad economy is difficult, and managing them through the holidays also can be a challenge.