Hot finance topics

The Federal Reserve may need to consider dipping further into its toolbox as Congress tries to revive legislation aimed at rescuing banks.
One of the main remaining options for Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to cushion the economy and shore up confidence in financial markets is cutting the benchmark interest rate, according to economists. […]

Bill Gross says taxpayers could make money on the financial-sector rescue package moving in fits and starts through Congress. He doesn’t have much company, though.
The chief investment officer at giant bond manager Pimco wrote this week in the Washington Post that the $700 billion plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "is anything […]

Oil prices fell below $108 a barrel Tuesday in Asia in a choppy market driven by uncertainty about whether a $700 billion U.S. plan to buy bad mortgage debt will stabilize the financial system.
Oil prices had surged Monday in volatile trading, spiking more than $25 a barrel at one point, as investors fled […]

The Wall Street that shaped the financial world for two decades ended last night, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley concluded there is no future in remaining investment banks now that investors have determined the model is broken.
The Federal Reserve's approval of their bid to become banks ends the ascendancy of […]

The U.S. Treasury today asked Congress for authority to buy as much as $700 billion in soured mortgage-related assets from the nation's financial institutions in the most far-reaching federal intrusion into markets since the Great Depression.
The legislation is aimed at ending a yearlong crisis that toppled four financial giants, forced two into mergers […]

The United States surged into action on Friday to launch an all-out attack against the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, readying a plan to tap hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to buy up toxic mortgage-related debt.
Capping a week that has reshaped Wall Street, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged Congress […]

Amid calls for the government to take stronger measures to stabilize financial markets, some former Federal Reserve officials, lawmakers and Wall Street executives are saying too much has already been done.
“Every time they intervene, they do more harm than good,'' said Peter Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital in Darien, Connecticut, a brokerage […]

Lloyds TSB (LLOY.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sealed a rescue takeover of HBOS Plc (HBOS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Thursday to create a dominant British mortgage and savings bank in a $22 billion deal helped through by the government.
A change in competition law ensured the credit crunch did not claim another […]

Washington Mutual had its credit rating lowered to junk Monday by Standard & Poors amid continuing weakness in the housing market.
The action follows downgrades of the nation’s largest savings-and-loan by Fitch Ratings and Moody’s last week as WaMu tries to reassure nervous investors that it has the ability to survive the credit crunch.
"Increasing market […]

German investor confidence probably rose for a second month after a decline in oil prices and a weaker euro improved the prospects of Europe's largest economy, a survey of economists shows.
The ZEW Center for European Economic Research will say its index of investor and analyst expectations rose to minus 53 from minus 55.5 […]