NEW YORK - August 12, 2010 - Nan Holmes, a senior escrow officer at a title insurer, says her insider’s view of the local market gave her the confidence three years ago to pay $370,000 for a new home in Boise, Idaho. She got a price she liked from the builder and 100% bank financing.

NEW YORK - August 11, 2010 - I've been writing for a couple of years about the risks corporations face from what is now an impending cataclysm that will hit earnings, cash flows and credit. Posing that risk are pensions and other employee benefits for which the bill will soon come due.

LONDON, England - August 11, 2010 - The U.S. dollar slid to a 15-year low against the yen Wednesday, dragged down by the ongoing Depression in the world's biggest economy.

NEW YORK - August 10, 2010 - The dollar fell against the yen on Tuesday and erased gains against the euro after the Federal Reserve unveiled plans to boost a flagging economy by reinvesting money from maturing mortgage bonds into government debt.

The move marks an important policy shift for the Fed, which just months ago had been debating how to start winding up its various monetary stimulus programs. Fed officials also offered a gloomier outlook on the U.S. economy.

SAN FRANCISCO, Kalifornia - August 9, 2010 - Alana Semuels at the Los Angeles Times describes the impact of the housing/credit bust on the communities east of San Francisco.

Building has all but stopped. Home prices in San Joaquin County have fallen 63% since the peak median price of $451,500 in November 2005, according to MDA DataQuick. Prices in Contra Costa County are down 53% from their peak of $600,000 in April 2007. One in every 135 houses in Contra Costa County received a foreclosure filing in June 2010. In San Joaquin County, that figure is 1 in 104 - nearly double the Kalifornia average.

NEW YORK - August 6, 2010 - Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 131,000 in July, and the official unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5% percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Federal government employment fell, as 143,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 71,000.

PHOENIX, Arizona - August 3, 2010 - More Phoenix-area homeowners are falling behind on their mortgages or “walking away” from them. The number of pre-foreclosures in the region jumped 33% in July.

Last month, there were 7,804 notices of trustee sales, or pre-foreclosure filings, according to real estate research firm Information Market. That compares to 5,833 in June. July's figure signals the biggest month jump for new foreclosure filings in more than a year.