News

2008

March

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• Vuelta a lo natural. Regrese a lo práctico. Limpiar su casa con bicarbonato y vinagre, por ejemplo, podrían parecerle austero, poco práctico y quizá ridículo, pero son funcionales. Sobre todo si con su uso, no

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• The year of budgeting magically. Financial counselors often tell their clients to prepare monthly budgets rather than yearly ones, on the theory that it is easier to predict expenses over a short period. But a paper recently published in The

• No sure bets in personal data security. When a Maryland dental HMO acknowledged this week that it had accidentally posted the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 75,000 members on its Web site, the revelation made news. But the security breach at

• Long fight ahead for Treasury blueprint. Lawmakers and regulators said yesterday that an ambitious plan by the Treasury Department to revamp the nation's decades-old financial regulatory structure could require congressional action stretching over several years and would not help the economy

• Reforma a regulación financiera. El gobierno federal está preparando el terreno para un intenso debate luego de adelantarse que el lunes anunciará un plan para reformar a fondo sus mecanismos de regulación financiera, la mayor reestructuración del

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• Bush readies mortgage aid plan. The Bush administration is finalizing details of a plan to rescue thousands of homeowners at risk of foreclosure by helping them refinance into more affordable mortgages backed by public funds, government officials said. The proposal

• Jumbo loans back with stiffer terms. Your tax rebate check won't arrive until May, but the economic stimulus plan's new super-size loans for buyers in high-cost housing areas have hit the market. Depending on the location of the property you want

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• ''Tours'' de compradores visitan casas en venta. El autobús se interna en un tranquilo barrio suburbano y se detiene frente a una casa deshabitada con un cartel que dice ''Se vende vivienda embargada''. Los vecinos, viejos y jóvenes, se asoman

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• Mortgage memo pushes 'cheats & tricks'. A newly surfaced memo from banking giant JPMorgan Chase provides a rare glimpse into the mentality that fueled the mortgage crisis. The memo's title says it all: "Zippy Cheats & Tricks." It is a primer on

• How not to prevent foreclosures. With foreclosures surging, the last thing the nation needs is another government-hosted meeting where mortgage lenders pledge once again to do their utmost to help distressed borrowers stay in their homes — and then go back

• Equity loans next round in credit crisis. Little by little, millions of Americans surrendered equity in their homes in recent years. Lulled by good times, they borrowed — sometimes heavily — against the roofs over their heads. Now the bill is coming due. As

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• Houses stolen in mortgage fraud. Federal prosecutors Monday charged 19 individuals, mainly from Southern California, with defrauding homeowners in trouble partly by using "foreclosure rescue pitches" and an equity-draining technique called equity stripping. Two indictments made public Monday accused Charles Head, 33,

• Estadounidenses ya empezaron a ahorrar. Durante meses, los estadounidenses han sido bombardeados por todo tipo de malas noticias en el frente económico: aumenta el desempleo, suben los precios de la gasolina, se hunde el mercado inmobiliario, trepa la inflació

• Inesperado aumento en venta de viviendas. Luego de caer durante seis meses consecutivos, la venta de viviendas en Estados Unidos registró un incremento inesperado en febrero, informó ayer una organización que agrupa a corredores de bienes raíces. La Asociació

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• Not to late to refinance home. Earlier this year, when mortgage rates dipped below 6% for the first time since 2005, homeowners rushed to refinance costlier loans. In fact, more than six out of 10 mortgage applications so far this year have been for

• Foreclosure fairs offer support to homeowners. MERCED, Calif. — An overflow crowd piled into the Merced Civic Center, spilling out of the main auditorium, into the halls and down the stairs. Some brought babies, others elderly parents. Everyone brought their paperwork — the

• Free ride for some pay-to-save energy users. Cheaters are pocketing millions of dollars a year from increasingly popular utility programs that pay consumers and businesses to conserve energy, industry officials say. Businesses that don't cut their power usage at all reap windfalls.

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• Why we borrow till it hurts. If the subprime mortgage mess has taught us anything, it is that we are leverage addicts. Nearly all of us are - from Northern Virginia, where we bought big houses with no money down, to

• Consider carefully selling downturned stocks. Are you an investor convinced that stock prices can go no place but down? And did you once believe housing prices could go no place but up? Predictably, many investors who believed in the housing

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• Treasury: $100 minimum securities purchase. The Treasury Department deals in billions and even trillions of dollars, but it can think small, too. Officials announced Friday that starting next month, individuals will be able to buy Treasury securities, including Treasury Inflation-Protected