Archive for July, 2009

NEW YORK: Despite the Obama administration’s promises that any Clunker deals written this weekend would be honored, the National Automobile Dealers Association is advising its members to play it safe and not close any more deals until the program’s fate is clearer.”Regarding auto sales this weekend, one possible alternative is for dealers to take deposits… »

NEW YORK: Regulators shut down four regional banks Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said, bringing the total number of banks to fail in the United States to 68 this year.Friday’s bank closures will cost the FDIC fund 215.7 million, bringing the total cost for failed banks to 14.43 billion this year. That compares with… »

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit Friday against Wells Fargo & Co., accusing the second-largest mortgage lender of steering blacks and Latinos into high-cost subprime loans.”As a result of its discriminatory and illegal mortgage lending practices, Wells Fargo transformed our cities’ predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods into ground zero for subprime… »

NEW YORK: Honda Motor Co. said Friday it widened a previously announced recall to add 440,000 cars that could have a lethal airbag defect.Affected models include the 2001-2002 Honda Accord, 2001 Civic and 2002-2003 Acura TL.The potential defect has caused 6 known injuries and one known death, according to Honda spokesman Chris Naughton.The recall will… »

NEW YORK: A lot was supposed to happen on health reform before Congress went on summer vacation. Turns out, a lot didn’t. End result: The heavy lifting on health reform legislation has been pushed to the fall.A bipartisan group of six senators from the Senate Finance Committee was supposed to unveil its health reform bill… »

NEW YORK: Lawmakers are quickly learning that “too big to fail” may be too complex to legislate away.The issue of determining which financial firms are worthy of a government rescue, which first took hold when the credit crisis intensified last fall, has been a subject of persistent — and divisive — debate.Top regulators at the… »

NEW YORK: While the Cash for Clunkers program is being hailed as a success, having apparently burned much or all its of its billion dollar budget in a matter of days, some analysts doubt the program will amount to much in the long run.Even with more funding, the resulting boost in auto sales will amount… »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Government regulators could prohibit incentive-based pay packages at large U.S. financial institutions that encourage “inappropriate risks” under a bill approved Friday by the U.S. House.Heading next to the Senate, where its outlook is uncertain, the bill would also give shareholders in public corporations the right to cast annual, non-binding votes on executive… »

NEW YORK: The House on Friday passed a bill to allocate another 2 billion to the Cash for Clunkers program.The move came after reports on Thursday had raised concerns that the program was out of money.The bill which diverts 2 billion from a U.S. Department of Energy program loan guarantee program, passed 316-109. The bill… »

(breakingviews.com) — Huge government deficits have many people worried. But why are they harmful? One popular answer to that question is that issuing floods of debt to finance them creates a mortgage on a nation’s future. But it’s not as burdensome — or as simple — as that analogy suggests.If nations worked like individual families,… »