subprime mortgages

When Warren Buffett announced in August that he would spend $5 billion to snap up Bank of America shares, investors cheered. Surely this must mean that we've seen the end of the bad news from America's biggest bank, right? Wrong. So did the Oracle of Omaha blunder?

Bank of America did the right thing this week, nixing its notorious $5 a month debit card fee before it began. But B of A can't win, and even now, financial journalists are wondering how it will find ways to nickel and dime its way back from this week's fee retreat at the expense of its customers.

More than any other demographic, Latino homeowners were slammed by the mortgage crisis: Two-thirds of total Hispanic wealth in the U.S. evaporated from 2005 to 2009. But as the fastest growing demographic in the nation, they are also well positioned to power the housing rebound.

The theme for Thursday is big players adjusting to a changing world: Citigroup is shutting down a major hedge fund it used for soon-to-be-banned proprietary trading, Goldman has been subpoenaed over its role in the subprime mortgage crisis, and OPEC is thinking that it might need to pump more oil.

Allstate is suing Bank of America and its Countrywide Financial division over Countrywide's sale of $700 million in mortgage-backed securities to the insurance giant, alleging that Countrywide knew in advance that the assets would drop in value because of a high percentage of defaults.

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange asserted that his next big leak would involve documents from a major unnamed bank, investors in Bank of America got nervous and the stock has been on bumpy ride. The question now is: Have the WikiLeaks worries made BofA shares a better buy?

Countrywide Financial Corp. co-founder Angelo Mozilo, along with two others, has reached a settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to charges of insider trading and civil fraud.

Switzerland's UBS (UBS) will not take legal action against former employees for racking up the massive losses on subprime mortgages that left the company needing a bailout. Kaspar Villiger, the UBS chairman, said that company was looking to the future, according to The Associated Press. "What...

A new study by the American Sociological Review found that predatory lenders that targeted ethnic minority neighborhoods were a significant factor in the U.S. foreclosure crisis.

Some of Wall Street's financial titans are facing lawsuits from equally formidable foes: Billionaire Len Blavatnick is suing JPMorgan Chase for losing $100 million of his money in subprime mortgages, and Norway is suing Citigroup for misrepresenting its financial condition to boost its stock price.