AFP - The financial crisis has provided a needed culling of weak US financial institutions and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should bow out in turn, a top New York banker said Tuesday.
Reuters - E*Trade Financial Corp , the U.S. discount brokerage hardest hit by the mortgage market meltdown, reported a steep loss from continuing operations in the third quarter as it boosted by nearly $200 million the amount set aside to cover loan losses.
Reuters - Top Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday called for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate "fraud and mismanagement" at troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
AP - National City Corp. on Tuesday reported a third-quarter loss and said it will cut 4,000 jobs, as the regional bank continues to struggle amid the ongoing downturn in the mortgage and credit markets.
Reuters - The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said the federal government is trying to help the two housing finance providers sell debt on better terms, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Reuters - National City Corp, a U.S. Midwest regional bank hard hit by the credit crisis, on Tuesday announced plans to slash 4,000 jobs and said rising reserves for soured mortgage and real estate construction loans led to its fifth straight quarterly loss.
AP - Freddie Mac secretly paid a Republican consulting firm $2 million to kill legislation that would have regulated and trimmed the mortgage finance giant and its sister company, Fannie Mae, three years before the government took control to prevent their collapse.
BusinessWeek Online - It's not something that makes good campaign politics. But given the crumbling economy and the federal government's budgetary needs, some Americans are likely to be hit with a tax increase regardless of who wins the Presidential election.