| Low Interest Rates Spur Mortgage Refinancing
Homes sales may get a boost when the fed's recent interest rate drop translates into mortgage rates. The cut will make it easier for many people to get into a new home and will also enable people to refinance to avoid future hardship. Several loan officers and mortgage lenders all say the same thing -- now is the time to refinance your home. But before you do, consumers need to understand the process is not cut and dry. Loan officers around the valley say more and more homeowners need to look into refinancing to take advantage of the low interest rate. Different loans can either lower your monthly payment or even shorter your term But it's not that simple. In order to refinance, you have to have decent credit and have some equity built up in your home.
Credit crunch threatens economy
Five months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke shrugged aside the global financial turbulence caused by risky subprime loans and pronounced himself more concerned with inflation than credit markets. But this week after a worldwide stock market rout and gloomy spending and unemployment data, Bernanke waded into the subprime mortgage mess and offered an emergency rescue package to the banks and the credit markets where the world's growing economic unease began. Just days after Washington floated the idea of tax rebates, the Fed, motivated in part by big losses in the stock market, hastily cut its benchmark interest rate in an attempt to help banks strengthen their balance sheets -- a move authorities hoped would ultimately blunt the impending economic slowdown.
Congress, White House complete deal on tax rebates, business breaks
The caps are higher for people with children.
--Business tax write-offs: Spurring business investments with so-called bonus depreciation and more generous expensing rules.
--Housing rescue: Raising the limit on Federal Housing Administration loans from $362,000 to $725,000. Boosting the cap on loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy from $417,000 to $725,000.
WHAT'S OUT
--Permanent tax cuts: Republicans conceded that their top priority would have to be left out.
--Unemployment insurance: Democrats wanted to extend benefits past 26 weeks.
--Food stamps: A boost for benefits.
--Medicaid: Democrats gave up on including Medicaid payments to states.
--Low-income heating subsidies: Democrats are surrendering the fight to include them.
Australian terror laws under scrutiny
The first came in late February, when Dr Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, suggested to a Gold Coast business summit that the American economy might be moving into a recession four words that wiped 416 points off the Dow Jones index.
The second featured the more diminutive figure of Dr Mohammed Haneef, the 27-year-old Indian doctor charged in connection with the failed UK bomb attacks.
After arriving in Australia last September, he worked at the Gold Coast Hospital and lived in an apartment complex nearby, complete with palm trees and a pool.
Just as Dr Greenspans comments focused global attention on the resilience of the US economy, Dr Haneefs arrest, questioning, charge and now immigration detention have put Australias new terror laws under close international and domestic scrutiny.
ORU weekly e-mails checked
For more: Read the latest ORU stories, view the lawsuit and other documents and watch slide shows and video.
The 2004-06 postings are purportedly to Richard Roberts from his political adviser and sister-in-law.
ORU President Richard Roberts is urged to use the ''voters and influence'' he controls to reap favors for Oral Roberts University in two years of weekly e-mails purportedly sent to him by his political adviser and sister-in-law, Stephanie Cantees.
''You intend to make ORU a political powerhouse where candidates will recognize that they will be expected to be asked questions and if elected when they come back for re-election they had better have some thing to show for the votes the students gave them,'' states one e-mail from ''Stef'' to Roberts' ORU e-mail address on Dec.
Nagaland governor stresses on impartial elections
The governor reiterated that the government's priority during the brief spell of the President's Rule was to restore law and order, revitalize the Public Distribution System (PDS) and improvement of road condition in the state.
Source : PTI .
Analysis: Application blocking diminishes iPhone
Forget bricked iPhones. For many iPhone users, the biggest disappointment with last week's iPhone software update wasn't that it rendered unlocked phones inoperable but that it disabled third-party apps that have sprung up for Apple's device. And that could lead to ongoing grief for the company, analysts say. Released last Thursday, iPhone Software Update 1.1.1 brought security updates, improved volume for the speaker and receiver, and access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Store, among other features. But the software update also brought about two changes unwelcome to users who've turned to third-party hacks to add capabilities to their iPhone—it disabled phones that had been unlocked to work with other carriers (as Apple warned it would ), and it wiped out applications—everything from games to ringtones—that users had installed on their phones.
Cost of wars may reach $3.5 trillion, report says
Joint Economic Committee Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY), speaks during a news conference with (L-R) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Joint Economic Committee Vice Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) to release a report what they call "the hidden costs of the war in Iraq" at the U.S. Capitol. .
Paydirt: Don't panic; it's not another Depression
Headlines about panicked stock traders around the globe and recession in the United States have Anna Peters worried. "I understand that it's bad news, but I don't know what it means for me," said the 26-year-old nonprofit worker in Minneapolis. She probably hasn't heard the economist's one-liner: "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job.'' I don't think it's very funny, but it gets to the simple truth about the economy: Someone is always getting ahead, and someone is always falling behind. How good or bad things are for you personally depends on what side you find yourself. It takes a while to diagnose a recession, leaving plenty of time for debate among furrowed-browed analysts. Where the stock market's headed in the short-term is anybody's guess.
Claiming losses from sale of timeshare
Baltimoresun.com's tax-advice column features three experts from the Hunt Valley accounting firm SC&H Group answering questions about preparing your return every Monday until April 16. To be included in the following weeks, please use the form at the right side of this page to submit your questions.
Editor's note: The first two questions are answered together.
Paul, Timonium: If I sold a timeshare I have had for 19 years, is it tax deductible as a long term loss?
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