Two More Banks Fail; Total at 151
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Regulators seized two small banks in Michigan and Pennsylvania, marking 151 failures for 2010.

Mortgage Rates, at Six-Month High, Threaten Refis and Fed
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Home-mortgage rates have surged to their highest level in six months, yanked higher by the recent sudden rise in Treasury yields, making refinancings less attractive and potentially hurting the Fed's efforts to maintain low rates.

BofA Restarts Some Foreclosures
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Bank of America said it restarted about 16,000 foreclosure cases across the U.S. on Monday, but it may be weeks before it is known whether the bank's submission of new documents will pass muster with local judges.

Fannie, Freddie Pressed on Mortgages
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in talks with Obama administration officials to join fledgling government programs aimed at reducing loan balances of mortgages where borrowers owe more than their homes are worth, according to people familiar with the situation.

U.S. Mortgage Delinquency Rate Could Fall to 5% in '11
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The percentage of U.S. consumers who are delinquent on their mortgages could fall to about 5% by the end of 2011, from an expected 6.2% at the end of this year, according to a leading credit bureau. But it would still be well above historical levels.

Citi Could Get Another Boost
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Shares of Citigroup, which is nearly free from Uncle Sam, are up — and index fund managers may push them even higher.

What the Fed Is Still Owed by Wall Street
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The Federal Reserve has a story and is sticking to it: We didn’t lose taxpayer money, and we won’t. But several emergency programs and credit lines still exist, and the path to profitability on them remains uncertain.

Dr. Doom Predicts Another $1 Trillion in Housing Losses
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The drumbeat of bad news grows louder. Sales of existing homes fell more than expected in October, down 2.2 percent to an annual rate of 4.43 million, the lowest level in more than a decade, according to the National Association of Realtors. After rising in the second quarter, Standard & Poor’s Case-Schiller home price index fell 2 percent in the third quarter.

Banks May Face Rating Cuts, Analyst Says
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In a new report, Glenn Schorr, who covers brokerage firms and banks at Nomura, says that while “it’s not a done deal, at present, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley appear most at risk of being downgraded to Tier 2 status.”

Pulling Back the Curtain on Fraud Inquiries
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To hear Eric H. Holder Jr. tell it, the Justice Department is aggressively cracking down on financial fraud.

Treasury to Sell Last of Its Stake in Citigroup
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Citigroup is finally wriggling free of Uncle Sam. Two years after the financial giant was bailed out by the federal government, the United States Treasury is selling its remaining shares in the company.

Jobless Claims Rise, Housing Perks Up
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New jobless claims climbed last week, damping hopes for a quickening improvement in the labor market. But a sharp gain in an indicator of future home sales offered a positive sign for the beleaguered housing market.

The 25-Year 'Foreclosure From Hell'
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The last time Patsy Campbell made a mortgage payment on her house was October 1985. The 71-year-old Florida retiree has been fighting off the lenders ever since.

When Borrowers Default on Second Homes
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In July, a study by researchers from the European University Institute, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago concluded that the strategic default trend was “large and rising” among homeowners with an equity shortfall of $100,000. As of last March, it said, strategic defaults accounted for 35.6 percent of all foreclosures, compared with 23.6 percent a year earlier.

LETTERS: Banks’ Growing Mess
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If the right of banks to foreclose is questionable, what of the right of banks to accept even garden-variety mortgage payoffs?

So That’s Where the Money Went
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Not that we should expect to receive any thank-you notes from these institutions for rescuing them from themselves. Still, it’s good to know who got what at the bailout banquet. This helps us understand how expensive it is to live in a nation where big, politically interconnected financial institutions are not allowed to fail — even after they mess up in the most catastrophic of ways.