Credit Cards? Not for Everybody

Is plastic a thing of the past? After the economic shakeups of the last few years, new financial realities may be changing traditional patterns of managing money and handling debt. And for many Americans, that means rethinking their relationship to credit. A new...

Why Aren’t Banks Lending More?

By many indications, this should be a good time to borrow. Interest rates are still low, banks are even offering previous defaulters a second chance, and new regulations after the housing collapse are in place to protect consumers from lenders’ past fraudulent...

More Bad Faith From Major Mortgage Lenders

As if a multibillion-dollar settlement on fraud charges and bad press about the handling of payouts from that settlement weren’t enough, major US lenders caught in bad behavior after the housing collapse are now facing new accusations of that same bad behavior. Now,...

Lenders Court Delinquent Borrowers With “Streamlined Modification”

Even though indications are that the housing market is looking up after the disastrous crash a few years ago, the mortgage lending industry is still digging itself out of some very deep holes. Among the numerous problems facing major lenders both private and federal...

Employment Outlook Affects the Fed’s Bond Buyup

Over $3 trillion and counting. That’s the total so far of the Federal Reserve’s buyup of mortgage security bonds – a number that, as we discussed in a recent post, is raising alarms among senior representatives of regional Federal Reserve banks. Now, in another twist...