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WASHINGTON (AFP) - Former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers said Sunday it was too early to declare the financial markets crisis over and said chances had risen sharply of an economic downturn in the United States. ADVERTISEMENT Despite interventions by the US Federal Reserve last week which appeared to reverse heavy selling pressure over the collapsing US housing debt market, Summers said the risk of recession was its highest since the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks. "We certainly saw some repair and some return to normality this week, but I think it would be far premature to...

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Thursday the U.S. housing downturn is likely to lead the country into recession, but that the largest U.S. mortgage lender will survive.</p> <p>In an interview, Mozilo also said that to promote liquidity, the U.S. Federal Reserve should cut the rate it charges banks to borrow.</p>

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Bond remained higher Friday despite a surprisingly strong durables goods reading as credit worries continued to trouble investors. The dollar fell against the euro and the yen. Video More video Luke Newman joins CNN to explain how a private investor can build a balanced portfolio in uncertain times. Play video The 10-year benchmark note gained 8/32, or $2.50 on a $1,000 note, to yield 4.62 percent, down from 4.64 late Thursday. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions. Bernanke: The un-Greenspan The closely watched three-month Treasury bills, which have been the focus of the market...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Countrywide Financial, the nation's biggest home lender and one of those most affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, found itself the target of stinging criticism Thursday from an organization trying to help homeowners in peril. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America said Countrywide (Charts, Fortune 500) was not doing enough to help people who took out subprime adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) over the past few years and now may lose their homes. Subprime loans are issued to borrowers with poor credit histories who often lack the funds to make large down payments. Justin Urquhart Stewart of Seven...

As the carcasses of subprime mortgage-backed securities lie rotting on Wall Street, the buzzards are circling heretofore untouchable prey: the rating agencies. Critics say the ratings industry was too late in downgrading mortgage-backed securities, echoing cries after past crises involving Enron, WorldCom and Russian debt, among others. But the current episode comes with a different twist: Rather than merely third-party observers, some sources say Moody's (MCO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), Standard & Poor's and their smaller rival Fitch Ratings played active roles in structuring MBS and related securities. Therefore, they could be deemed underwriters and exposed to...

Remember when Wall Street would obsess over the next leveraged buyout candidate, and hedge fund masters of the universe could raise ungodly war chests with just a handful of phone calls? What a difference a few months make. Lately, hedge fund implosions have replaced the LBO parade as the market's signature event. Investors have seen huge setbacks at funds run by Bear Stearns (BSC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), UBS (UBS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) and Goldman Sachs (GS - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), among others, as the credit environment has grown fraught...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Fallout from the mortgage mess and lower home prices may have started to creep into the credit card arena, judging from July payments and some initial moves by issuers to tighten the screws on cardholders. After falling for three consecutive months, delinquent payments on credit cards -- defined as more than 30 days late - increased slightly in July, to 4.64 percent from 4.62 percent in June, according to CardWeb.com. A year ago, the delinquency rate was 4.18 percent. The amount of credit card debt consumers are paying off, meanwhile, has fallen. The portion of outstanding...

Fretting about bonus money is Wall Street's latest fixation, but investment bankers may soon have more pressing worries. September could bring a wave of layoffs as big banks aim to bounce back from the summer's credit market swoon. Mass firings now could help brokerage firms cut costs and show investors they're taking decisive action to compete better in a tough market. It also may have dawned on banking honchos that cutting staff will help preserve whatever's left of their dwindling bonus pools. "I think [bank execs] are thinking, if I cut right now maybe I save some of this bonus,"...

The New York investment bank will cut 1,200 positions in 23 locations as a result of the closing of BNC Mortgage. It will take an after-tax charge of $25 million and a goodwill write-down of $27 million, it said. Lehman said that poor market conditions in the mortgage space of late have "necessitated a substantial reduction in its resources and capacity in the subprime space," according to a release. The company said earlier this summer that it was combining its two non-prime residential mortgage businesses - Aurora Loan Services of Littleton, Colo., which specializes in Alt-A mortgages, and BNC Mortgage...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors who are counting on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates sometime in the next month or so may end up badly disappointed. The credit crunch of the last month has convinced many on Wall Street that a cut in the central bank's key short-term interest rate is basically a lock. Stocks jumped Friday after the Fed announced a surprise cut in the little used discount rate that the central bank charges on loans made directly to banks - and again on Tuesday on bets the Fed will cut its other key rate, the fed...

H&R Block Inc.'s (HRB:H&R Block, Inc News, chart, profile, more Last: 19.79+0.59+3.07% 9:15am 08/22/2007 Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolio Analyst Create alertInsider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: HRB19.79, +0.59, +3.1%) Block Financial Corp. unit withdrew a net of $650 million from its working capital lines of credit to cover capital needs during the credit crunch. The Kansas City, Mo., company said it withdrew $200 million on Aug. 16 and an added $850 million on Aug. 20, using the money to pay off the previous loan. The company said in recent weeks "the credit market has become increasingly constrained and unstable," cutting...

WASHINGTON - Plummeting stock prices. Mortgage lenders filing for bankruptcy or shutting down. Layoffs at homebuilders and banks. Soaring foreclosures and loan defaults. Damage from the nation's slumping housing market is evident throughout the economy and permeates financial markets. Add real estate agents to the growing list of victims, although they know few tears will be shed for them. The National Association of Realtors expects membership rolls to decline this year for the first time in a decade. The group ended 2006 with nearly 1.4 million members — almost double the roughly 716,000 it had in 1997 — but expects...

The Indian Medical Association has launched a probe after three doctors were shown on television offering to amputate beggars' limbs for money. The secret filming apparently shows one senior doctor offering to perform the operation for the equivalent of $200. There have long been rumours that criminal gangs pay for the amputation as beggars are able to generate more sympathy and make more money. The police say they will investigate the allegations. 'Shocking' One of the surgeons, who works in a government hospital on the outskirts of Delhi, is seen examining a street beggar, and offering to amputate his leg....

The idea still holds a bit of novelty, though Shelton and Brandi Koskie aren't banking on that alone. Rather, the Wichita couple is hoping the generosity of strangers is what ultimately pays off. The Koskies, who spent 17 months attempting to conceive a child the old-fashioned way, recently turned to a doctor for help. It was then they learned Shelton had a medical condition that made in vitro fertilization their best option. They also learned it would cost $15,000. Shelton, 26, works in publications at Cessna, and Brandi, 25, is an advertising account executive. That much money seemed like a...

Oslo politicians are angered by a recent invasion of organized foreign panhandlers drawn to the capital by recent legislation forbidding the policing of beggars. Police and the city council advise people to stop giving to the city's new beggars, and claim that organized bands from Romania have invaded Oslo, newspaper Dagsavisen reports. Police have received a rash of complaints from Oslo residents who are frustrated by aggressive beggars, and there are a growing number of visiting supplicants from abroad, with beggars from eastern Europe now present year round, instead of just in the summer. "These beggars have a different approach,...

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Publicity about a pair of ‘affluent’ Ashland panhandlers has cut handouts for some others who say they’re lucky to get enough for food Jenah Dodge panhandled in downtown Ashland Sunday carrying a cardboard sign that declared she was pregnant. A passerby cried out, "I’ve heard that one before." Dodge, who showed her swollen stomach to prove she was pregnant, just shrugged the comment off, saying, "I never lie when I get money. I believe in karma." While the 20-year-old, who says she gets $20 to $30 a day, hasn’t noticed a drop-off in donations, other panhandlers say the publicity about...

Couple fend off public ire following news article ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars." Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets. "What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast. A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Angry residents vented frustration Wednesday at the debut of rebuilding proposals for this devastated city, with some vowing to defend their land from possible government buyouts and others saying the city needs to get out of their way and let them rebuild. The proposed rebuilding plan caused so much anger in part because it suggests a moratorium on new building permits in areas heavily flooded by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, such as parts of the Ninth Ward, Lakeview and East New Orleans. "Our neighborhood is ready to come home," said Jeb Bruneau of the Lakeview...

The first time 30-year-old Elizabeth Johnson stopped a stranger on the street to ask for money, she was really nervous. She was six months pregnant and desperate, having just spent seven days in jail for shoplifting books... Now Johnson and her 34-year-old partner, Jason Pancoast, who have been together for 14 years, support themselves and their three children, 6-year-old Seth, 3-year-old Adrianne and 3-month-old Synclair, by panhandling...