| Personal Finance: |
| Ask AP: Importance of housing starts, honeybees
(AP)
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 AP - American farmers have long worried about the declining population of honeybees, a key crop pollinator. But honeybees originally came from Europe, so can't U.S. farms get by without them — with a little help from good old American bugs whose ancestors were here before Columbus?
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| FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime
(BusinessWeek Online)
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| BusinessWeek Online - As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers -- many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis -- are going strong. Their new strategy: taking advantage of a long-standing federal program designed to encourage homeownership by insuring mortgages for buyers of modest means. |
| 'Help' Can Be Costly
(BusinessWeek Online)
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| BusinessWeek Online - The implosion of the subprime mortgage market has been a boon to loan-modification consultants who promise to help borrowers refinance and get back on the road to financial stability. |
| Your Life Insurance Policy May Not Be Protected
(BusinessWeek Online)
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| BusinessWeek Online - With the financial system in crisis, investors increasingly rely on government guarantees to protect their money. Bank accounts are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and its $53 billion war chest. After decades on their own, money market funds now are backed by the U.S. Treasury. And life insurance policies and annuities? They're backed by state guaranty associations. There's only one hitch: The states have virtually no cash on hand and must rely on promises to pay made by healthy life insurers. |
| UK home repossessions up 12 pct in 3Q from 2Q
(AP)
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| AP - Home repossessions in Britain jumped 12 percent to 11,300 in the third quarter from the previous quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said Friday, more evidence that the financial crisis is taking its toll on households and the ailing housing market. |
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