Finance Globe

On Monday, as part of its effort to increase consumer protections, the Federal Reserve Board announced proposed new rules that would restrict the fees and expiration dates that may eat up the value of gift cards.The rules would protect consumers from unexpected costs associated with not using the gift card right away, and also requires issuers to clearly state the terms and conditions of the gift card.Currently, many issuers of gift cards begin to deduct a...

New jobless claims for the week ending November 7 was 502,000, seasonally-adjusted, which is down 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure 514,00, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported on Thursday. The four-week moving average, which smooths out volatility, was 519,750, down 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 524,250.The advance number for seasonally-adjusted insured unemployed during the week ending October 31 was 5,631,000 - down 139,000 from the preceding week's revised number of 5,770,000....

On Tuesday, the Obama Administration released the next monthly report for the Making Home Affordable loan modification program. As part of the administration's ongoing commitment to transparency, the report includes for the first time state-specific trial modification numbers. The Treasury Department said that there are more than 650,000 modifications under way across the country, and that the program is on track to meet its goals over the next several years.One of those goals is help three...

Existing-home sales continue to rise in most states across the U.S. for the third quarter, according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). From the second quarter, sales rose in 45 states and the District of Colombia - with 28 states and D.C. experiencing gains in the double digits.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the tax credit is a significant factor. “We can’t underestimate just how powerful a catalyst the first-time...

To help the housing recovery along and aid in stimulating the economy, President Obama signed an expanded and extended homebuyer's tax credit last Friday. The $8000 first-time home-buyer's credit was set to expire on November 30, 2009 under the original plan. The extended program keeps the first-time buyer program in effect until April 30, 2010. To qualify as a first-time buyer, the purchaser or their spouse cannot have owned a home in the past three years....

Our friendly Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a notice last week stating that over a hundred thousand taxpayers have yet to receive the tax refund they are due because the IRS doesn't have an accurate, up-to-date mailing address for them.The IRS has 107,831 undeliverable refund checks for a combined total of $123.5 million. These checks were returned to the IRS by the U.S. Postal Service due to mailing address errors.“We are eager to get this money...

Pending home sales rose for the eighth straight month of consecutive gains - the longest winning streak since measurement in 2001 - according to a report released today by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).The pending home sales index rose 6.1% to 110.1 from a reading of 103.8 in August, the highest reading since Decmeber 2006 when the the index was 112.8. The pending-home sales index is a forward-looking indicator that is based on contracts signed...

Nine more U.S. banks failed on Friday - all subsidiaries of one company, the FBOP Corporation. The banks were located mostly in the West: Arizona, California, Illinois, and Texas.The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with U.S. Bank, NA, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a wholly-owned subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, to assume all of the deposits and essentially all of the assets of nine failed banks. The nine banks were closed this evening by federal and...

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Thursday awards of $338 million in Recovery Act funding for the development domestic geothermal energy.The grants will be used to support 123 projects in 39 states for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies. Also, the grants will support the deployment and creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects across the country.Grant recipients include private industry, academic institutions, tribal...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has issued a warning to consumers that fraudulent emails have been circulating, clearly in an attempt for identity thieves to obtain consumers' personal identifying information.The emails falsely inform consumers that their personal bank has failed and has been taken over by the FDIC, and instruct consumer to follow a fraudulent link that looks like it's the FDIC website.The FDIC has received numerous reports on these suspicious emails that look like...