The Founding Fathers left one legacy not celebrated on Independence Day but which affects us all. It's the national debt.

Ready to give your soul for a loan in these difficult economic times? In Latvia, where the crisis has raged more than in the rest of the European Union, you can.

Manhattan apartment sales plunged more than 50 percent and the average price dropped 21.4 to 24 percent from a year ago, as the U.S. recession forced many who own a piece of the Big Apple to eat humble pie, several reports said.

Battered mortgage giant Freddie Mac received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department to help offset its mounting liabilities, according to a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications plunged to a seven-month low last week as demand for home refinancing loans tumbled 30 percent, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

Citigroup has increased interest rates on up to 15 million U.S. credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the situation.

Prices single-family homes declined in April from the prior month, but the pace moderated, suggesting stability is emerging in some regions.

Defaults on privately insured U.S. mortgages rose in May following three months of declines, and the number brought up to date fell, providing new evidence that the nation's housing market is still deteriorating.

Standard & Poor's on Wednesday cut its ratings on Ambac Financial Group and its bond insurance arm, saying the insurer has "negligible" prospects for writing new business.

A group of well-to-do German senior citizens, who lost their savings in the credit crunch, staged a revenge attack and held their terrified financial advisor to ransom, according to several published reports Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications climbed last week from a seven-month low, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, adding to emerging signs that the three-year housing market collapse may be abating.

Karthik Ramanathan, a senior official with the U.S. Treasury Department, said on Tuesday that four-fifths of the U.S. borrowing requirement was funded for fiscal 2009.

Incoming auctions of government bonds and the recent retreat in the stock markets are crowding investors into bonds, and maybe this is a good choice for a while, David Keeble, head of fixed-income strategy at Calyon, told CNBC.

Moody's Investors Service said on Tuesday that the U.S. government's triple-A credit rating was safe but added that it could be at risk if Washington were unable to bring its public debt back to a downward trajectory.

A crackdown on credit limits by card companies is squeezing the nation’s 27 million small businesses, exacerbating the problems brought on by a stagnant economy.