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Fixed U.S. mortgage rates set record lows last week for the sixth straight week, keeping affordability high for borrowers who can get loans, home funding company Freddie Mac said Thursday.
Refinancing has picked up steam but the pace remains well below last year’s peaks when rates were similarly low. Get the full story »
U.S. Senate Republicans Thursday blocked a $30-billion plan to help community banks boost lending to small businesses, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s election-year battle to reduce unemployment.
Tempers ran high as Democratic leaders failed to muster the 60 votes needed to pass the measure. Republicans were upset that Democrats shut them out from offering a number of amendments to the package, that also includes about $12 billion in tax breaks for small businesses.
A Federal Reserve official says the central bank should revive a crisis-era program to buy government debt if the country seems headed toward a bout with deflation. Get the full story »
If you think air fares have been rising, it’s not your imagination.
Figures just released from the government, though a bit dated, show that airline prices in the first three months of this year rose nearly 5 percent from a year earlier. And that doesn’t include baggage fees and other extras.
But average fares are 25 percent lower than they were in 1999 adjusting for inflation, the government says. Get the full story »
Overall U.S. economic activity is still increasing but not robustly and in a few districts has lost steam over the past several weeks, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.
The Fed’s latest Beige Book summary of national economic conditions, based on information before July 19, pointed to a less-than-booming recovery with sluggish housing markets and sales of costly items like new cars weakening. Get the full story »
In the wake of health reform’s passage, Hospira Inc. will begin testing an experimental cheaper version of a popular anemia treatment in the first phase of a U.S. clinical trial.
A path for the Food and Drug Administration to approval “biosimilar” or biogeneric drugs was a part of health reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law four months ago by President Barack Obama. Biotech brands are available only outside the U.S. but the law will enable biosimilars here in the coming years. Get the full story »
Several U.S. agencies are preparing a criminal probe of at least three companies involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, though it could take more than a year before any charges are filed, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
BP Plc, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. are the initial targets of the wide-ranging probe, which aims “to examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,” the newspaper said, citing law enforcement and other sources. Get the full story »
The Federal Aviation Administration plans a $230,000 civil penalty against Continental Airlines because it botched a nose wheel replacement on one airplane.
The FAA said Continental failed to install the washer during the replacement of a nose wheel on a Boeing 767 on Aug. 12, 2008. The plane flew 22 flights over 15 days before the problem was discovered, and the washer was installed. The fine amounts to $10,454 for each flight without the washer. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Only devising a test protocol stands in the way of a version of Pfizer’s Viagra being used to treat a rare lung disorder in children. A Food and Drug Administration panel will meet Thursday to discuss it.
The Food and Drug Administration should better explain its reasons whenever it requires additional safeguards for risky drugs, a pharmaceutical industry group said Monday.
That recommendation is one of dozens expected this week at a public meeting on the FDA’s risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, or REMS, a set of tools to protect consumers from drugs with potentially serious side effects. Get the full story »
Competition with Microsoft Corp. in the lucrative market of selling e-mail and other software kicked up another notch Monday when Google Inc. announced it was introducing a new version of its applications for government.
Google said it had been certified by the federal government to offer software known as Google Apps for sensitive but not classified information.
A local architect and developer was charged Monday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development with housing discrimination for designing and building a Chicago apartment building that it alleges does not comply with accessibility requirements.
HUD said Hector Castillo and Hector Castillo Architects Inc. violated the federal Fair Housing Act in the construction of a building at 914 W. Hubbard St. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The Illinois Student Assistance Commission, the state’s prepaid college tuition program, is caught up in the problems of ShoreBank.
European Union competition regulators launched two antitrust probes Monday against International Business Machines Corp., suspecting it of abusing its dominant position on the mainframe computer market.
One investigation followed complaints by emulator software vendors T3 and Turbo Hercules against IBM’s practices and focuses on the U.S. computer giant’s alleged tying of mainframe hardware to its mainframe operating system. Get the full story »
The Obama administration will allow tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans to expire on schedule, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday, setting up a clash with Republicans and a small but vocal group of Democrats who want to delay the looming tax increases.
Geithner said the White House would allow taxes on top earners to increase in 2011 as part of an effort to bring down the U.S. budget deficit. He said the White House plans to extend expiring tax cuts for middle- and lower-income Americans, and expects to undertake a broader revision of the tax code next year. Get the full story »
