The 6 percent drop is significant not just for its size but also for its timing, since delinquency rates usually rise in the third quarter from the prior period, said Ezra Becker of TransUnion’s financial services group.

           
Taken together with the more than 11 percent decline seen between the first and second quarters, the results indicate that consumers are getting better at handling their debt.

           
It’s too early to tell how the recession has affected consumer behavior long-term, Becker said, but the holiday shopping season will provide some clues. The National Retail Federation, a retail trade group, expects total holiday sales will drop 1 percent from last year.

           
The United States is borrowing trillions of dollars under terms that seem "too good to be true" just as a "spending explosion" on benefits programs like Medicare and Social Security is set to begin, according to the New York Times.

           
In a series titled "Payback Time: Debt Bomb," the Times details the magnitude of our nation's borrowing and warns of an impending and monumental reality check:

           
The government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.

            

With the national debt now topping $12 trillion, the White House estimates that the government's tab for servicing the debt will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019, up from $202 billion this year, even if annual budget deficits shrink drastically."

           
Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage finance giant, said Monday it's trying to minimize losses on more than $1 billion in assets at risk because of the summer collapse of mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and a regional bank with which it did business.

           
McLean-based Freddie Mac said it filed a petition to claim about $595 million that Taylor Bean had collected on its behalf and placed on deposit at Colonial Bank, an Alabama-based bank that was shut by regulators in early August, a few weeks before Taylor Bean filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

           
Colonial Bank is now in the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. For a fee, Taylor Bean collected the monthly payments on home loans that were owned by Freddie Mac.

           
Freddie Mac also reiterated on Monday that it is due $500 million for home loans that Taylor Bean had sold the company with the promise that it would buy them back if they didn't meet Freddie Mac's standards. Freddie Mac says the loans did not pass muster and wants to sell them back, but Taylor Bean's bankruptcy prevents the sale.

           
It is not clear what the price tag associated with the collapse of Taylor Bean and Colonial Bank will ultimately be for Freddie Mac.

           
"Freddie Mac is currently assessing its other potential exposures to [Taylor Bean] and is working with the debtor in possession, the FDIC and other creditors to quantify these exposures," the company said in a statement. "At this time, Freddie Mac is unable to estimate its total potential exposure related to [Taylor Bean's] bankruptcy; however, the amount of additional losses related to such exposures could be significant."

           
Freddie Mac earlier this month posted a $5 billion loss for the third quarter, but said for the second time in a row that it didn't need any more federal aid. Freddie Mac and its rival, Fannie Mae of the District, have received $111 billion in aid since the government seized the firms in 2008.

           
Fannie Mae also did business with Taylor Bean but the company said it has reported the extent of its exposure.

           
Home prices rose slightly in September, the fourth straight monthly increases and a clear sign that the housing market's recovery is continuing.

           
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities released Tuesday rose 0.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.96 in September. Prices rose month-over-month in 11 metro areas.

Industry experts, however, still worry that rising unemployment and foreclosures could stifle the rebound in prices.

           
The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, less than the government reported last month, reflecting a smaller gain in consumer spending and a bigger trade deficit.

The increase in gross domestic product from July through September reported today by the Commerce Department in Washington compares with a 3.5 percent gain previously estimated.

Corporate profits climbed by the most in five years.

Smaller increases in spending show the U.S. was dependent on government stimulus programs to help dig the world's largest economy out of its worst recession since the 1930s. Growing profits lifted purchases of equipment and software, indicating investment by companies such as Verizon Communications Inc. will help make up for smaller gains in household purchases as unemployment mounts.

           
More than 57,000 unemployed Arizonans may be eligible for additional weeks of unemployment compensation.

Click on the video link to the right to hear from Pat Harrington with the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Pat explains who is eligible, how you can find out if you're included, how much additional compensation you may be entitled to, and where to go for help.

           
The bottom line: Anyone currently receving benefits or who exhausted benefits this year, is entitled to 14 more weeks of unemployment compensation. These weeks of compensation can go into 2010. If you've exhausted benefits you should have received a letter by now from DES, if not, contact them at AZCALLCENTER@AZDES.GOV. If you are still receiving benefits, you will receive your letter at the time you exhaust them. Both groups may be eligible for 6 more weeks but that is subject to Congress passing an extension by 12/31/09.

           
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank, said the dollar will fall to a record low next year on signs the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero until 2011 and investors seek higher-yielding assets.

           
The dollar will weaken to $1.62 per euro in the second quarter, JPMorgan foreign-exchange strategists led by London- based John Normand wrote in the bank’s Global FX Outlook 2010, published today. The bank previously predicted a trough of $1.50 in the first quarter.

           
U.S. rates at an all-time low make the dollar attractive to sell in so-called carry trades, in which investors use the greenback to fund purchases of higher-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar and Norwegian krone. The greenback also weakened this year as central banks increased the percentage of foreign reserves held in euros at the expense of the dollar.

           
“Fed policy is a key driver because it determines the dollar’s attractiveness as a funding currency and the cost of hedging the foreign-exchange risk on long-term investments,” Normand said in an interview. “The dollar’s decline is more than a carry trade. Global investors’ preference for non-U.S. equities, rising merger and acquisition outflows from the U.S. and central-bank reserve diversification are compounding the dollar’s decline.”

       
Richmond Fed Manufacturing Index declines to 1 in Nov from 7.

           
Sept. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices fall 9.4%.

National chain store sales rose 4.8% in the first three weeks of November versus the previous month, according to Redbook Research's latest indicator of national retail sales released Tuesday.

           
The rise in the index was compared to a targeted 4.8% gain.

           
The Johnson Redbook Index also showed seasonally adjusted sales for the period were up 2.1% from last year and compared to a target

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