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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pleaded with Congress and the White House on Wednesday to reach a “sensible agreement” on the fiscal cliff before the looming batch of spending cuts and tax hikes derails the economic recovery.  In a press conference in Washington after the Fed unveiled new monetary policy thresholds and an extension of a Treasury-buying program, Bernanke also sought to explain the central bank’s efforts to keep the U.S. economy float and drive down unemployment. He warned that the $ 600 billion combination of tax hikes and spending cuts contained in the fiscal cliff “could have a very [...]

ATHENS/BRUSSELS Greece extended its offer to buy back debt until Tuesday, seeking more bids from bondholders after falling short of a target to retire bonds worth 30 billion euros at a cost of just 10 billion euros. The buyback is designed to provide for about half of a 40-billion euro debt relief package for Athens agreed last month by the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Its success is crucial to ensuring Greece’s debt is put back on sustainable footing and – more immediately – to unlocking badly-needed aid for the country. Despite the initial lack of investor interest, the [...]

The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday said it had reached a draft agreement with the Russian government to revise a 13-year-old deal governing imports of hot-rolled steel. The pact raises the minimum price for Russian hot-rolled steel can be sold in the United States. The department launched the negotiations with Russia after U.S. steel company Nucor Corp. complained the 1999 agreement was out of date. Nucor and other interested parties will have a chance to comment on the deal before it is final. Those remarks are due to the Commerce Department by Nov 23. (Reporting By Doug Palmer)

If you can’t imagine paying the bills without a bank, you may be surprised to learn 10 million households representing 17 million adults make do without savings accounts or checking accounts, according to a new government report. The 2011 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, released last month, finds a slight increase in the number of those going without a traditional bank account. According to the survey findings, 8.2% of households are unbanked while another 20% are underbanked. Tracking banking habits The 2011 survey is the second one conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the first being [...]

NEW YORK Workday Inc. said Monday it expects to offer 22.75 million shares of common stock at an estimated price of $ 24 to $ 27 a share in its upcoming initial public offering. Based on the upper point of the range, the Pleasanton, Calif., provider of cloud-based technology for human capital management will raise $ 546 million in the IPO. Workday plans to trade under the symbol WDAY on the New York Stock Exchange. Shareholders in the company include entities affiliated with New [...]

Autumn is fast approaching and between work, family time and social engagements it’s hard to imagine summer has come and gone already. When life becomes hectic, it can be hard to find the time to sit down and reassess your financial life, but not carving out time to budget can lead to unnecessary spending, debt and a stunted savings account. So what’s a busy person to do? Let someone (or something) else do it for you. There are several free personal finance tools that help organize and manage your finances. Most of these applications are accessible online, on tablets and [...]

The Federal Reserve’s forecast for unemployment assumes new policy basically won’t do much for two years. The Fed is forecasting the unemployment rate will fall to a range of 7.6% to 7.9% in 2013 and to a range of 6.7% to 7.3% in 2014, from 8.1% in August. The Fed also for the first time forecast 2015 levels, when it sees the unemployment rate falling to a range of 6% to 6.8%. Federal Reserve members have shifted their thinking of when the first rate hike would be appropriate to 2015, according to the latest assessments released Thursday. There are now [...]

Tatyana McFadden is an eight-time world champion sprint athlete from the United States. She has previously participated in Paralympic Games in Athens and Beijing. So far in London, she has added a gold to her medal stash. Before the London Paralympics, Jessica Long told usaswimming.com she wanted to have fun while competing this year. This relaxed attitude has worked well for Long who has won three gold medals since arriving in London, which she is adding to her nine previous Paralympics medals. Sarah Storey was a big name for ParalympicsGB before the Games started. She cemeted her name in the [...]

Hurricane Isaac has caused up to $ 1 billion in economic losses for offshore energy properties and up to $ 1.5 billion in insured losses onshore in Louisiana and neighboring states, disaster modeler Eqecat said on Wednesday. While the estimates are early and likely to rise, they suggest that Isaac will ultimately be a much less damaging storm than 2005′s Hurricane Katrina, a larger and more powerful cyclone that hit the same region. A fuller loss picture is expected later Wednesday and into early Thursday as Isaac passes over New Orleans. Eqecat, one of the main modelers whose software is [...]