Grave business - my financial world

It’s almost time to vote. After months of debating the issues, Americans go to the polls on Tuesday to select who they want to serve as the nation’s 44th president.
The election, of course, comes at a critical moment for the U.S. economy — and the next president will play a central role guiding […]

As six state governors ask Treasury and the Federal Reserve to take "immediate action" to help U.S. automakers, GM’s financing arm says it is wants to become a bank holding company.
General Motors Corp. (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler LLC are in talks to combine in order to survive, but financing is one of the […]

DALLAS — Southwest Airlines Co. plans to begin service in March to Minneapolis, its first new city in more than a year, even as the airline faces a "very significant risk of slowing demand" due to an economic slowdown, Chief Executive Gary Kelly said Wednesday.
The Minneapolis service initially will be limited to flights […]

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 […]

Foreclosures hit another record high in August: 304,000 homes were in default and 91,000 families lost their houses.
More than 770,000 homes have been repossessed by lenders since August 2007, when the credit crunch took hold.
The report from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosures properties, is the latest in string of bad news for […]

A strong feeling of deja vu permeates Business First’s 17th annual rankings of Western New York’s public school systems.
The Williamsville Central School District again holds first place, the same position it has occupied ever since 2004. And the three runners-up — Clarence, Amherst and Orchard Park — follow in precisely the same order as they […]

Looks like Wall Street bankers can kiss those fat bonuses goodbye this year.
Some bankers’ bonuses will be slashed by nearly half in 2008, and most can expect a 15% to 25% reduction from last year’s levels, according to a recent projection from compensation consultancy firm Johnson Associates.
Johnson Associates expects the bigwigs to give up […]

Service industries in the U.S. unexpectedly grew for the first time since December, helping the economy weather a credit contraction and manufacturing downturn.
The Institute for Supply Management's index of non- manufacturing businesses, which make up almost 90 percent of the economy, rose to 52 in April from 49.6 the prior month, the Tempe, […]

Federal Reserve officials signaled they will slow the pace of interest-rate cuts even as they concluded “some contraction in economic activity'' is likely.
Some Federal Open Market Committee members saw the danger of a “prolonged and severe downturn,'' according to minutes of its March 18 meeting released yesterday. Still, “monetary policy alone could not […]

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is going ahead with its mid-sized regional jet - the first "made in Japan" passenger aircraft in three decades.
The announcement from the company President Kazuo Tsukuda came Friday, a day after major Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways placed the first orders for the twin-engine aircraft that seats about 70 to 90 […]