Report to Detail Subprime Underside
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Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are expected to draw much of the scrutiny in the Senate report and could expose Wall Street firms to more litigation.

If Home Prices Counted in Inflation
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A few years ago, the Federal Reserve remained complacent about inflation even as a housing bubble inflated. The Fed did not take the kind of action that would have seemed reasonable if it had been alarmed by rising prices.

A Flaw in New Rules for Mortgages
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If you want to get the government out of financing normal home mortgages, you have to find a way to bring in private capital — and on terms that do not make government-guaranteed mortgages a clearly superior product.

Many Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet the Basics
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Many of the jobs being added in retail, hospitality and home health care, to name a few categories, are unlikely to pay enough for workers to cover the cost of fundamentals like housing, utilities, food, health care, transportation and, in the case of working parents, child care.

The Fed’s Crisis Lending: A Billion Here, a Thousand There
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The Federal Reserve’s huge lending programs, which saved Wall Street in the fall of 2008, also benefited a wide range of other financial companies, including community banks, credit unions and foreign banks, according to documents released by the central bank on Thursday. Hundreds of small banks borrowed modest amounts of cash in 2008 and 2009, ranging from $1,000 to several million dollars, from an emergency loan program known as the discount window.

Report Criticizes High Pay at Fannie and Freddie
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Regulators have approved generous executive compensation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-backed mortgage finance giants, with little scrutiny or analysis, according to a report published Thursday by the inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

In Foreclosure Settlement Talks With Banks, Predictions of a Long Process
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The nation’s top mortgage servicers met Wednesday in Washington with the attorneys general from five states as well as Obama administration officials, beginning negotiations in earnest over new rules for homeowners who are in default.

Lennar Posts Fewer Orders for Homes
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Lennar, one of the nation’s largest home builders, reported lower quarterly orders on Tuesday, signaling continued weakness in the housing market.

F.D.I.C. Proposes Rule to Tie Banks to Mortgage Risk
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Federal regulators, seeking to outlaw a leading cause of the financial crisis, voted on Tuesday to propose new rules that would prohibit Wall Street banks from selling packages of risky mortgages to investors without holding onto a stake in the loans.

As Economy Sputters, a Timid Fed
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Whenever officials at the Federal Reserve confront a big decision, they have to weigh two competing risks. Are they doing too much to speed up economic growth and touching off inflation? Or are they doing too little and allowing unemployment to stay high?

U.S. Housing Prices Fell Again in January
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The housing market remains mired in trouble, with plummeting prices and slumping sales. First-time buyers are fleeing, sellers are frustrated, builders are depressed and lenders are skittish about making new loans.

OPINION: Where the Bailout Went Wrong
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TWO and a half years ago, Congress passed the legislation that bailed out the country’s banks. The government has declared its mission accomplished, calling the program remarkably effective “by any objective measure.” On my last day as the special inspector general of the bailout program, I regret to say that I strongly disagree. The bank bailout, more formally called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, failed to meet some of its most important goals.

Foreclosure Aid Fell Short, and Is Fading
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Last summer, as President Obama’s premier plan to save millions of Americans from foreclosure foundered, the administration tossed a new life preserver to homeowners.

Regulators to Set Rules on Mortgage Securities
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Banks will be forced to retain some risk when they securitize all but the most conservative mortgages under rules that regulators are expected to vote on Tuesday. But the banks are likely to be given wide leeway in determining what risks to keep.

Skip the bank, buy a house with cash
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An increasing number of people are paying for real estate with cash, making a surprising uptick in a market that was all but flattened two years ago.

Mortgage Servicers Resist But Cut Debts
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U.S. banks are resisting efforts by state attorneys general to force them to cut the amounts owed by some borrowers facing foreclosure. Yet mortgage companies already have reduced home-loan balances for more than 100,000 borrowers.

Problems With New Good Faith Estimate Forms
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THE revamped Good Faith Estimate form, which arrived just over a year ago, has helped give home buyers and homeowners looking to refinance their mortgages a better understanding of their borrowing costs. But industry experts say the three-page, line-by-line disclosure — which lenders must provide within three days of receiving a loan application — still falls short of telling borrowers exactly what they will be paying. Some in the mortgage industry complain that it can even distort or obscure the true cost.

A Bounce Isn’t Enough to Recover From a Bubble
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DESPITE recent volatility in global markets, domestic stocks have doubled in value in the last two years, the fastest such gain since the Great Depression.