Grave business - my financial world

What do investors think about the $700 billion package? Depends whom you ask.
Stock markets gave it the thumbs down in the morning when it looked like it would sail through Congress but they also didn’t like the fact that the bill was rejected in the House Monday either.
The Dow was down more than […]

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. has restructured its agreement with lenders in response to declines in advertising revenue.
McClatchy said Friday the amendment to its $1.175 billion credit facility will give it greater flexibility in two key areas - allowable leverage and interest coverage ratios.
In return, McClatchy says it is offering banks new security in collateral […]

As Congress moves on the financial bailout plan, restructuring of troubled mortgages should be part of the final package, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Tuesday.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said she hoped that changes on home loans "will be a feature of that."
Under the $700 billion proposed bailout plan, the government […]

Somber. Sobering. Warnings of an economic "meltdown."
That’s how participants described an emergency meeting held Thursday night between leaders of Congress and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
The meeting was followed by an announcement from Paulson that he was preparing a far-reaching program - on a scale seen rarely in […]

Regardless of how much the government ponies up to salvage the financial sector, the global economic hangover may linger for years.
The Treasury Department has proposed buying as much as $700 billion in troubled assets from banks. Lawmakers hope to hammer out the details this week, although many sticking points remained, including questions over how […]

WASHINGTON–The Bush administration yesterday formally proposed to Congress what could become the largest financial bailout in U.S. history, requesting virtually unfettered authority for the Treasury to buy up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets from financial institutions based in the United States.
The proposal was stunning in its simplicity: less than three pages, it […]

Ignoring a presidential veto threat, the House on Thursday approved measures aimed at curbing speculation in oil and other commodity markets. It said federal regulators now don’t have the tools or manpower to track trading abuses.
The bill, passed by a vote of 283-133 and sent to the Senate, is aimed at certain hedge-fund and […]

The numbers are big. That much is certain.
The Federal Reserve has backstopped the purchase of Bear Stearns to the tune of $29 billion. It will loan $85 billion to insurer AIG. It’s letting banks borrow up to $150 billion using risky mortgage-backed securities as collateral. And it’s letting investment banks, which it doesn’t […]

As part of the massive housing rescue bill passed by Congress in July, troubled borrowers will be able to refinance their home loans with the backing of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) starting on October 1.
But at a congressional hearing today in Washington, lenders didn’t seem terribly enthusiastic about the program, dubbed Hope […]

Remember that job John McCain and Barack Obama applied for last year? Well, it’s looking a lot different now.
In addition to the usual presidential undertakings, the person elected in November will have to contend with an unprecedented tangle of financial problems.
Let’s review the headlines of the last seven months: economic downturn … highest […]