GOP starts taking tactical cues from Romney

WASHINGTON (AP) – Now that Mitt Romney has emerged as the likely GOP presidential nominee, congressional Republicans increasingly are taking their cues from him even if it causes heartburn and grumbling among conservatives unhappy about having to beat a tactical retreat.

That dynamic was on full display last week as House Speaker John Boehner coped with the dust-up generated by President Obama over student loans and Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell sidestepped Democratic attempts to brand Republicans as soft on the issue of violence against women.

It's a defensive game for Republicans, determined to avoid their stumbles last year when they lost the political battle over renewing Obama's payroll tax cut.

"Some folks in an election year would say you need to take tough issues off the table," said Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga. "Other folks in an election year say you need to bring your best solutions to the toughest issues, and I'm in that latter camp."

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If both parties want low rates on student loans, why the fight?

Who's playing politics on student loans? Answer: everybody.

On July 1, interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford student loans, held by 7.4 million Americans, will double from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

A little background: Last week, Democrats figured the pending rise in student loan rates would be an excellent way to needle Republicans and rouse a key constituency: young voters (and perhaps their tuition-paying parents, too). Democrats figured that Republicans would blanch at spending the $6 billion it would take to extend the lower loan rate for another year. Moreover, they could again score points off one of their big bogeymen – the House budget authored by Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin, which did not extend past July 1 the lower rate on student loans.

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Want a job? Better get your credit score up

Having a good credit score can do more than help people get loans, it can also help them get a job. But a bad credit score can be a huge hurdle for people looking for work, according to Fox Business.

Checking credit scores of potential employees is pretty common in the U.S. Approximately 60 percent of employers look at the credit scores of at least some of their potential employees, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

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Obama talks low loan rates in pitch to college students

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – President Obama kicked off a two-day, three-stop tour of college campuses Tuesday with soaring speeches on student loan interest rates that quickly veered into an all-out appeal for students' support.

His likely Republican opponent in November, Mitt Romney, didn't wait for the president's visit here to make his own appeal to young people and to charge that Obama had failed them.

The give-and-take was typical of a fledgling general election campaign in which neither side allows an issue or a charge to go without an instant response. And it highlighted what will certainly be a crucial battleground in the fall for the hearts and minds of young people.

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U.S. March business loans up -ELFA

April 23 (Reuters) - U.S. companies stepped up borrowing to buy equipment in March, mainly to replace aging goods rather than for expansion, as a sluggish economic recovery puts a lid on new capital spending, the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association said on Monday.

Companies signed up for $6.8 billion in loans, leases and lines of credit in March, 10 percent more than $6.2 billion a year earlier, and 36 percent more than February's $5.0 billion, ELFA said.

Business borrowing has been growing at "recovery-like" rates for more than two years and the pace will likely be tempered without more significant economic growth, the group's Chief Executive William Sutton said in an interview.

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Half of new graduates are jobless or underemployed

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for the Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

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Bank of America earns $653M in first quarter

NEW YORK – Bank of America said Thursday that it set aside less money to cover bad loans in the first three months of the year than it has since before the 2008 financial crisis.

The bank said it earned $653 million in the first quarter, or 3 cents per share. That included an accounting charge of 28 cents per share because the value of debt held by Bank of America (BAC) rose.

Without the accounting charge, Bank of America beat the estimate of 9 cents by Wall Street analysts polled by FactSet, a provider of financial data. The stock climbed in premarket trading.

Banks have to record an accounting charge when the value of their debt rises on the open market because it would cost the banks more in theory to buy back that debt.

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UPDATE 2-Geithner says U.S. plays key role helping Europe

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday that the United States was playing a "central" role in helping Europe cope with its debt crisis and any suggestion that it was holding back from doing so was wrong.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution ahead of a series of meetings that will focus on Europe, Geithner said the IMF can raise money quickly if needed and pointed out that the Federal Reserve has opened currency swap lines to ensure European dollar liquidity.

The key issue for sessions that open Thursday with an informal gathering of Group of Seven rich countries is whether to further bolster the International Monetary Fund's resources so that it protect other nations against potential adverse spillover from Europe's woes.

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UPDATE 2-U.S. says EU must do what it takes to solve debt crisis

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - Europe must commit to long-term reforms that strengthen its currency union, a senior U.S. Treasury Department official said on Tuesday, but she repeated the U.S. will not contribute more to the International Monetary Fund to contain the eurozone debt crisis.

Speaking ahead of a Group of 20 finance ministers' meeting on Friday, U.S. Treasury Under Secretary Lael Brainard said Europe will have to be flexible and ready to move toward greater fiscal integration in future.

"The path ahead obviously required them to address the longer-term contours of their union and ultimately address questions of fiscal integration," she said.

"The euro area will need to strike a careful balance to avoid a downward spiral of austerity and recession," Brainard said and it will take time to do so.

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More American workers sue employers for overtime pay

Americans were pushed to their limit in the recession and its aftermath as they worked longer hours, often for the same or less pay, after businesses laid off almost 9 million employees.

Now, many are striking back in court. Since the height of the recession in 2008, more workers across the nation have been suing employers under federal and state wage-and-hour laws. The number of lawsuits filed last year was up 32% vs. 2008, an increase that some experts partly attribute to a post-downturn austerity that pervaded the American workplace and artificially inflated U.S. productivity.

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Despite challenge, US pick favoured to lead World Bank

WASHINGTON, USA: Despite an unprecedented challenge from two developing-world candidates, Washington's 66-year lock on the World Bank presidency will almost certainly remain intact when directors meet Monday to fill the post.

Even after one of the challengers dropped out Friday to push his support to the other -- Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala -- they won't be able to overcome US and European backing for the US nominee, health expert Jim Yong Kim, analysts say.

But the first-ever challenge to traditional American control of the job has signaled that, as with the International Monetary Fund, emerging economies are flexing their muscles for a bigger say in how the near seven-decade old institutions are run.

Bank directors say they aim for a consensus decision when they meet formally on Monday to replace current President Robert Zoellick, the former US diplomat incumbent who is leaving in June at the end of his five-year term.

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Rate on 30-year fixed mortgage falls to 3.88%

WASHINGTON – The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage dropped near its all-time low this week, making home-buying and refinancing a bargain for those who can qualify.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan fell to 3.88% from 3.98%. That's just above the rate of 3.87% reached in February, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.
The 15-year mortgage, a popular option for refinancing, plunged to a fresh low of 3.11% from 3.21% last week. The previous record of 3.13% was hit last month.

Mortgage rates are lower because they tend to track the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. Last week's disappointing report on March job growth led more investors to sell stocks and buy Treasurys, which are considered safer investments. As demand for Treasurys increases, the yield falls.

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5 Method To Fix Your Credit Score

Today, now more than ever, you have to have a good credit history. Poor credit will help keep from obtaining a phone, utilities with your name, obtaining a condo and even obtaining insurance. You could find ways to fix your credit. This can be done easily and for free most of the time. A Bad Credit Score Loan services are pricey and might be prevented if you take these few steps to fix your low score.

5 Actions That Hurt Your Credit Report

Inquiries; In case you open a new account or obtain a loan or line of credit it puts an inquiry in your credit. Too many of this may lower your credit.


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Federal regulator may allow loan principal reductions

WASHINGTON – The federal regulator who oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is softening his position against allowing the mortgage giants to reduce the principal owed for U.S. homeowers at risk of foreclosure.

Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a speech Tuesday that the agency is considering whether to allow Fannie and Freddie to offer principal reductions. That's a subtle shift from his firm opposition to the concept.

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Small bank lending program shows progress-US Treasury

(Reuters) - The Treasury Department on Monday released a report to Congress on a $30 billion small business lending fund aimed at providing credit to community banks, which showed an increase in lending during the last three months of 2011.

The Small Business Lending Fund, which has provided federal capital to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets, gives incentives to participants to extend more loans to small companies as a way to spur growth.

Community banks and other participants increased lending by $1.3 billion in the final quarter of 2011 over the prior quarter, according to Treasury.

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Downturn leads to rise in costly 401(k) loans by minorities

While millions of workers used money from their retirement savings to pay expenses during the Great Recession, African Americans and Hispanics dipped into their 401(k) plans at a much higher rate.

The rise in 401(k) withdrawals, loans and cash-outs among African Americans and Hispanics represents a major setback for their long-term retirement security, says Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, co-sponsor of a survey on the recession's impact on retirement plans.

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Senior citizens owe billions in student loans

When you think of student loans, you think of students and recent graduates -- younger people in their 20s and 30s working to pay off the thousands of dollars in debt from undergraduate and graduate schools.

It's a good bet you don't think of people in their 60s, 70s and even 80s struggling to [pay off student debt. But new research shows that Americans 60 and older owe $36 billion in educational debt and account for 5 percent of delinquent student loans.

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Depths of foreclosure crisis difficult to measure

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) – When Frank Verna pulls up to a battered, four-unit apartment building at lunch hour, he's just over a mile as the seagull flies from the gated, oceanfront palaces of South Florida's wealthiest.



But this stretch of 21st Street, pocked by homes with boarded-up windows and dead-ending at railroad tracks, is unlikely to make it to a tourism poster. Verna turns the car around in case he needs to make a quick exit and tucks a Smith & Wesson pistol into his jeans.
"Just watch your step," the real estate agent says, parting bushes grown across the building's entry path. Beyond is the darkened doorway to Unit 1 — missing its door.

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