The embattled small business lender gets a $1 billion credit line from a onetime foe as it tries to push through a restructuring plan.
By David Ellis
(CNNMoney.com) Small business lender CIT Group got a hand Friday from a most unlikely source: a billionaire activist investor who has spent the past month trying to foil the company’s restructuring plans.
New York-based CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) said Friday it reached an agreement under which Carl Icahn will support the firm’s restructuring. Icahn’s hedge fund … Continue Reading
(Associated Press – Los Angeles Times) WASHINGTON – Sales of new homes dropped unexpectedly last month as the effects of a soon-to-expire tax credit for first-time owners started to wane.
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales fell 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 from a downwardly revised 417,000 in August. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a pace of 440,000.
It was the first decline since March. Sales in September were down 7.8 percent from a year ago.
The median sales price of $204,800 was off 9.1 percent from $225,200 a year earlier, but up 2.5 percent … Continue Reading
(Politico) The biggest decision of the economic recovery will be made in the next six months, and Barack Obama will have almost nothing to do with it.
Forget the debate over TARP, and never mind the questions about a second stimulus. This decision is about when to pull out $1 trillion that’s propping up the U.S. banking system. And it will be Federal Reserve Chairman Editor's Choice Posts, Finance and Economics, Government and Politics |

By Ken Roberts
This article appeared in Business Insider Magazine’s second issue of 2009
If the real estate climate was reported like the weather, it might sound something like the following:
“Expect the stormfront in the South Bay real estate market to continue with cold temperatures, scattered showers, and occasional gale force winds in the middle class areas, gradually giving way to partial clearing and a warming trend for first-time buyers with the worst behind us for the high-end market.”
One of the barometers of the real estate climate is the number … Continue Reading