credit crunch

In response to a recent TWI report, the nation’s leading financial literacy group has launched an investigation into its conflict-of-interest policies.

Lawmakers have a choice: let the foreclosure grind on for perhaps years, at the expense of millions of homeowners, or take the crisis head on.

The latest Quinnipiac University poll results are in for Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) re-election bid — and they’re being cast as a win for the senator, even though he still trails a possible Republican challenger. The survey found that nearly half of Connecticut voters don’t trust Dodd and one in four Democrats say they’d support [...]

Advocates and economists say any support for such a program reflects how some lessons of the housing crisis were not learned.

Credit unions, once considered mom-and-pop operations, made the same risky mistakes as big banks.

In a move that spells nothing but bad news for Detroit’s struggling automakers, Toyota announced yesterday that it’s suspended plans to produce its Prius hybrid in the United States.
Why is that bad news for the Big Three? Because there’s been this line of argument that Ford, General Motors and Chrysler would be performing splendidly right [...]

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit is blaming his company’s considerable troubles on moves by previous management to dive into real estate. In a particularly generous gesture, he also told PBS’ Charlie Rose that he understands how people might be upset by the company’s massive government rescue, Reuters reports.
From Reuters:

Bailout Nation turns to consumers today, as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson prepares to announce a new program to encourage lending for auto loans, student loans and credit cards, the Wall Street Journal says.
The government basically is creating a lending facility, run by the Federal Reserve, to provide loans to investors who want to put their [...]

Confused about the financial crisis? The rise of mortgage-backed securities and credit default swaps? So, it appears, were the credit ratings agencies — the companies that rated these financial instruments.
Since the federal government didn’t have authority to regulate the secondary mortgage market, it was up to the big CRA’s, like Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, [...]

With all the news about partially nationalizing banks, and with the candidates rolling out new economic proposals and facing off in a debate tonight over their prescriptions for the credit crunch, it’s easy to forget that the whole mess still comes down to simple things: A homeowner, and a home.
That’s why you should expect to [...]