The housing crash has left at least 11 million people in the unenviable position of owing more on their homes than they are worth—and many more millions with properties worth far less than they paid for them. But some might not be as trapped as they think. Record-low mortgage rates and a [ Read More → ]

This month, Roy Rogers Jr. parted with Trigger, the horse made famous by his singing cowboy father. Mr. Rogers and his siblings kept the palomino, mounted and preserved, in the family museum in Branson, Mo., before its doors closed last year. The horse sold for $266,500 at Christie’s in New York, [ Read More → ]

NEW YORK—The battle over financial regulation is finally over. Now comes the harder part: kicking Americans’ love of credit. The financial crisis didn’t happen just because banks, credit-card companies and mortgage lenders forced consumers to take on massive debt. We willingly gobbled up the easy credit they offered and used it [ Read More → ]

The number of Massachusetts residents filing for bankruptcy soared in the first half of 2010, as the continued weak economy left thousands of homeowners unable to pay their mortgages or sell their properties. Nearly 12,000 people filed for bankruptcy in the first six months of this year, 25 percent more than [ Read More → ]

A new survey of over 2,500 broadband customers carried out by Broadbandchoices.co.uk has revealed what their priorities are when it comes to the service they receive and the complaints they make. When asked to identify the most important aspect when choosing a broadband service, over one third (35%) chose connection reliability. [ Read More → ]

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today announced a rise in UK retail sales for the month of June – exceeding market forecasts. According to the ONS, the value of UK retail sales grew 0.7% in June compared with May, boosted by sales of electrical goods, such as televisions for [ Read More → ]

STUDY HALL: Sure, your kid is gonna rack up an enormous amount of debt over the next four years. But isn’t that just the price your coed, or maybe you, has to pay for a good college education these days? Not so, says Zac Bissonnette, a student at University of Massachusetts [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON - Reveling in victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, a package that aims to protect consumers and ensure economic stability from Main Street to Wall Street. The law, pushed through mainly by Democrats in Washington’s deeply [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — Reveling over a new milestone in his presidency, a triumphant Barack Obama on Wednesday signed into law the most sweeping overhaul of lending and high-finance rules since the Great Depression, adding safeguards for millions of consumers and aiming to restrain Wall Street excesses that could set off a [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — Government watchdogs are telling a Senate panel that the Obama administration’s multibillion effort to help at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosure is not working and could put the economic recovery at risk. Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the financial bailouts, said that the program has not “put an appreciable dent [ Read More → ]