Finance Globe

Ten U.S. banks have agreed to pay $8.5 billion to settle charges that they wrongfully foreclosed on millions of homeowners in the aftermath of the housing bust, the Federal Reserve reported on Monday. Banks involved in the settlement are Aurora, Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, MetLife Bank, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. Four other banks - HSBC, Ally, EverBank and One West - are still in negotiations.The sum includes $3.3 billion in...

The number of adults living in shared housing and the number receiving food stamps increased since before the beginning of the recession through 2011, but the there was little change in the number receiving public assistance, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released on Wednesday.The Census Bureau defines shared housing as a home with an adult resident who is neither the householder or the householder’s spouse or cohabiting partner. Adult relatives, roommates, and other unrelated...

Hurricane Sandy slammed the Northeast on Tuesday and left devastation in its wake. Dozens of human lives were lost, millions more have been affected by flooding and power loss, and property has suffered billions of dollars in damage.But the losses don’t end there. After any major disaster, the climate is perfect for the lowest of the low to come out and prey on unsuspecting victims - fraudulent creeps who come up with a number of post-disaster...

The government’s unemployment figures reported for September reflect that the nation’s jobless rate fell a whopping 0.3 percent and brought the unemployment rate to its lowest level since January 2009. The unemployment rate fell from 8.1 percent in August to 7.8 percent last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The big decline was unexpected - economists had predicted the September jobless rate would increase 0.1 percentage point to 8.2 percent. Since the beginning of 2012,...

Refunds will be sent this week to consumers who were swindled by a telemarketing scam that promised “free” goods and services such as gift cards, gas cards, and resort vacations, the Federal Trade Commission reported on Thursday.Consumers who were victimized by the alleged scam were misled into thinking the caller was from the consumers’ own credit card issuer or a major retailer, and then billed for goods and services they never agreed to. When consumers didn’t...

Earlier this month, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that last year the nation’s median income slipped 1.5 percent to $50,502, the percent without health insurance coverage fell by 0.6 percentage points to 15.7 percent, and the poverty rate roughly held steady at 15 percent. On Wednesday, the Bureau released its findings on states, cities, and smaller communities for 2011. "The American Community Survey provides reliable, local statistics about our nation's people, housing and economy that are...

More than one in four American households do not have a savings account and one in ten don’t have a checking account, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation found in a 2011 survey released on Thursday. Roughly two-thirds of U.S. households have both a checking and savings account. The findings are the result of the second National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, sponsored last year by the FDIC and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The...

Americans continued to feel the pinch in a sputtering economy and saw their incomes decline for the second year in a row - but fewer people are going without health insurance, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday.The U.S. median household income fell 1.5 percentage points to $50,054 in 2011 - falling the most for blacks, who experienced a 2.7 percent decline in their incomes from 2010 to 2011, while the...

The national unemployment rate fell from 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent in August, according to Labor Department statistics released on Friday. The economy added 96,000 jobs last month - mostly in food services and drinking places, in professional and technical services, and in health care.The number of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more), 5 million, changed little in August and account for 40 percent of the unemployed.Of the major worker groups as defined by...

Consumer confidence rose slightly in July after declining for four straight months - but consumers still remain cautious due to the job market, a private research group reported on Tuesday.The Conference Board reported that the consumer confidence index rose 65.9 in July from 62.7 the previous month, surprisingly higher than the 61.5 that economics had predicted. The index that measures expectations rose improved to 79.1 from 73.4, but the present situation index fell slightly to 46.2...