NEW YORK — The number of people applying for a mortgage rose last week as lower rates lured more borrowers to refinance. The Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday its overall mortgage application index increased 2.2 percent from the previous week. ...

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WASHINGTON — A member of the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee suggested Tuesday that the Fed may need to scale back its $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program if the U.S. economy grows more quickly than expected. But Charles Plosser, who becomes ...

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WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve paid a record $78.4 billion in earnings to the U.S. government last year, reflecting gains from the central bank’s unconventional efforts to lift the economy. The payment to the Treasury Department is the largest since ...

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WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Friday that there is increasing evidence that a “self-sustaining” economic recovery is taking hold, but he said the Fed’s $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program is still needed because it will take ...

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WASHINGTON — A strong start to the holiday season is raising confidence that the consumer is back and that 2011 could be a better year for the economy than expected. Retail sales are rising, boosted by the best month for ...

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NEW YORK — Bond prices are falling sharply after the Federal Reserve said it would continue the pace of its stimulus plan because the economy is not growing quickly enough to bring unemployment down. The yield on the benchmark 10-year ...

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WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve said Tuesday it will maintain the pace of its $600 billion Treasury bond-buying program because a slowly improving economy is still too weak to bring down high unemployment. The Fed’s bond purchases are intended to ...

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WASHINGTON — Bailed-out insurance conglomerate American International Group Inc. is taking a key step toward paying off a bailout that was at one point worth $182 billion — the largest of the financial crisis. The company said in a public ...

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WASHINGTON — Democrats controlling the House are promising to freeze the budgets of most Cabinet departments while wrapping Congress’ unfinished annual spending bills into a single catchall measure. The 423-page measure, released in the wee hours Wednesday, would cap the ...

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DETROIT — General Motors is returning to life as a public company Thursday with a stock offering worth potentially $23 billion, ending the government’s role as majority shareholder and closing a remarkable chapter in American corporate history. The U.S. government ...

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