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U.S. payroll tax-cut gets two-month extension

Posted by Molly Newton Featured, Finance Saturday, December 24th, 2011

The U.S. Congress passed a two-month extension of the Social Security payroll tax cut eight days before its scheduled expiration. The approval assures that over 160 million Americans will be spared from an additional two-percentage point payroll tax next year. The tax-cut extension will mean that the average employee will not be paying an additional [...]

Bank of America to pay $335M unfair-lending claims settlement

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Friday, December 23rd, 2011

Bank of America agreed on December 22 to a $335 million settlement to straighten out allegations that its Countrywide Financial unit discriminated against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers by charging them higher mortgage fees and interest rates than the white borrowers. Department of Justice officials said that the fair-lending claims settlement is the largest in history [...]

Saudi prince buys $300 million stake in Twitter

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia has bought a stake worth $300 million in microblogging site Twitter. The prince who is reportedly planning to start his own cable news channel was recently estimated by Forbes to be worth well over $19 billion and is said to own a 7 percent stake in media giant [...]

SEC sues former Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae executives for deception

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Sunday, December 18th, 2011

The Securities and Exchange Commission accused six former top executives of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae of fraud, for misleading investors that the two lenders did not have massive exposure to subprime mortgages. Two lawsuits were filed at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan One of the six former lenders’ executives is Richard F. Syron, [...]

U.S Homes Foreclosures Down to Lowest Level in Almost 3 Years

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Friday, December 16th, 2011

In November, the number of U.S. homes that were under foreclosure or seized by banks dropped to the lowest level in almost three years. The number of initial payment default notices sent to homeowners was also down according to a RealtyTrac report. Banks foreclosed 56,124 homes in November, a 17 percent drop from the 67,624 [...]

Katy Perry raises fund worth $175, 000 for charities

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Katy Perry raised over $175,000 through her US tour, an initiative that will help more than 50 not for profit organizations. Her fans were able to buy the tour tickets via tickets-for-charity.com through which they were happy to secure some of the most comfortable seats not only to enjoy but also support the worthy cause [...]

Jobless Rate Lowest since March 2009

Posted by Gene Murray Featured, Finance Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

In spite of a yet another European debt crisis and signs of a slowing down economy in China, the unemployment rate in the USA has dropped last month to 8.6%. That’s as low as the jobless rate has been in two and a half years, suggesting that the American economy may be getting better. For [...]

Herman Cain Rethinking Candidature After Affair Allegations

Posted by Molly Newton Featured, Finance Thursday, December 1st, 2011

The week was off to a dramatic start for Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, following allegations of an extra-marital affair that lasted over a decade. Herman Cain boasts a colorful resume with a strong hold in legislative, corporate and media-based politics. The Republican candidate simply lamented, “Here we go again,” on being faced with the [...]

US Congress Appoints Committee to review the US National deficit

Posted by Judy Tillman Featured, Finance Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

The committee appointed by the US Congress to review the US National deficit, and hence make cutbacks, hit a stalemate on Monday to the chagrin of many. Dubbed the “Super-Committee”, the House anticipated that the appointees would realize cutbacks amounting to nothing less than $2.2 trillion. The deadlock will presumably spur a series of heated [...]

‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests grow

Posted by Mandy Paige Featured, Finance Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

The largest protest yet under the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ banner is currently on, with over 2,000 people having gathered in Lower Manhattan, New York. The protests of the crowd were aimed at New York’s police headquarters, against aggressive police behavior and arrests. Hundreds of protestors have camped out in Zucotti Park, a privately-owned area of [...]

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