AP - When you sit at your kitchen table and write your monthly mortgage check, your signature may be the first stop on a journey that takes your money to the other side of the world.

--- AP ...

AP - A senior Treasury official says the department intends to get a program to help struggling homeowners revise mortgages up and running soon.

--- AP ...

Reuters - General Motors Corp is suspending matching payments to employee 401K plans as of November 1 and continues to assess its staffing needs as part of efforts to conserve cash amid a deep downturn in sales, the automaker said on Thursday.

--- Reuters ...

BusinessWeek Online - It was the 31% interest rate that forced James and Heather Hills to rethink their approach to startup capital. The couple had tried to get a bank loan to launch their Elgin (Ill.) company, MHN Internet Marketing & Public Relations, in early 2006. But three loan officers told them that without equipment to use as collateral, they wouldn't get a loan. So the Hills team took out a $50,000 home equity line of credit and signed up for two personally guaranteed small business credit cards.

--- BusinessWeek Online ...

AP - Executives and employees at the major credit ratings agencies were often aware of problems in the AAA grades awarded to thousands of mortgage-related securities whose downgrades helped plunge the nation into a financial meltdown.

--- AP ...

Reuters - Demand for applications to buy U.S. homes and refinance mortgages sank to the lowest level in nearly eight years, a trade group said on Wednesday, in the heart of a financial crisis that has sapped consumer confidence.

--- Reuters ...