NEW YORK — The drop in a key interest rate to a 66-year low is a sign of one thing — fear. Traders don’t actually think a Treasury note paying 1.62 percent is a good investment. They just trust Uncle Sam to keep their money safe if Europe falls apart.
WASHINGTON — The White House is aggressively pushing the idea that, contrary to widespread belief, President Barack Obama is tightfisted with taxpayer dollars. To back it up, the administration cites a media report that claims federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since the Eisenhower years.
The housing industry is suffering, in part because the structure of our nation’s financial markets does not allow us to escape from past mistakes. To a significant degree, this inability to break with the past can be directly blamed on a federal government that clings to its own ineptness and forces the marketplace to adjust for the mismanagement of the two GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
WASHINGTON — U.S. states have reached a $25 billion deal with the nation’s biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Conceding his earlier housing programs have fallen short, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a vast expansion of government assistance to homeowners, aiming to make lower lending rates a possibility for millions of borrowers who have not been able to get out from under burdensome mortgages.
MIAMI — Cheered by new polls, Mitt Romney is all but predicting victory in Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary. Newt Gingrich is looking past Florida to regroup, vowing he won’t stay buried long.
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s newly released tax returns represent an extraordinary accounting of the household finances and far-reaching corporate investments of one of the richest U.S. presidential candidates in generations, with an annual income that tops $20 million.
TAMPA, Fla. — Under pressure, Newt Gingrich arranged the release of a contract Monday night showing the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. paid his consulting firm a $25,000 monthly retainer fee in 2006, for a total of $300,000.