Finance Globe

The unemployment situation changed very little with 14.9 million unemployed persons in February, and the unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today. Non-farm payroll employment fell by 36,000 in February and has fallen by 8.4 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.White House advisor Christina Romer said in a statement, "Although the labor market remains severely distressed, today’s report on the employment situation is consistent with...

The Internal Revenue service sent out an announcement on Monday to inform taxpayers that more than $1.3 billion in tax refunds are due to nearly 1.4 million people who did not file a 2006 tax return.The IRS gives taxpayers a three-year window for claiming refunds for prior tax years - after that the refund becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury and the taxpayer misses out permanently. The deadline to claim the 2006 refund is April...

Identity theft remains the number one consumer complaint for the tenth year in a row, according to the Consumer Sentinal Network (CSN) report released on Wednesday by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).The FTC, the nation's consumer protection agency, publishes the statistical data from the CSN report each year. The CSN is a secure online database of consumer complaints to the FTC, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Department of Defense, Better Business Bureau, U.S. Postal Service Inspector, and...

Fewer consumers applied for new residential mortgages and refinancing last week, according to a weekly survey released on Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). For the week ending February 19, the index used to measure mortgage loan application volume decreased 8.5% from the previous week, seasonally-adjusted. Unadjusted, the index dropped 7.3% from the previous week.For purchases, the seasonally-adjusted index decreased 7.3% from the week before, putting the index at its lowest level since May 1997,...

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) announced on Wednesday that they've proposed a new forbearance program to help qualified homeowners who lose their jobs. The program would allow homeowners to stay in their homes and pay a reduced mortgage payment for up to nine months as they search for a new job. "The vast majority of new distressed borrowers we are seeing involve the loss of income," said John A. Courson, MBA's President and CEO. "This program...

Most consumers are aware that they have access to a free credit report from all three major credit reporting bureaus each and every year, entitled by federal law. But sometimes that's just where the confusion begins. Musicians playing catchy jingles with "free credit report" said over and over in an advertisement can easily mislead any consumer into believing that they are getting the free credit report authorized by federal law when they respond to one of...

Beginning today, consumers are now protected against many tricky credit card practices that once caused confusion for cardholders. The new rules are part of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009.Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said in a statement, "With today's implementation of new rules, we are taking a critical step forward in our effort to protect American families by prohibiting the use of unfair retroactive rate hikes and late fee and over-limit...

More than one out of every nine home loans in the U.S. is delinquent, according to a report released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Friday.The rate of residential mortgage delinquencies fell in the fourth quarter 2009 to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 9.47% of all mortgages. Non-adjusted, the fourth quarter delinquency rate was 10.44%, up 50 basis points from 9.94% in the third quarter. Loans are considered as delinquent by the MBA survey when at...

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time unexpectedly rose last week, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday.For the week ending February 13, 473,000 initial claims were filed, up by 31,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 442,000. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility, was 467,500, down by 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 469,000.The insured unemployment rate for the week ending February 6 was unchanged...

Existing home sales were strong across most states during the fourth quarter of 2009 with many metro areas showing price increases from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported on Thursday.Fourth quarter sales increased from the previous quarter in 48 states and the District of Colombia and 32 states had gains in the double digits. Total existing home sales increased 13.9% to a seasonally-adjusted annual pace of 6.03 million in the fourth quarter,...