AP - President Bush on Thursday signed a measure to provide financial relief for financially strapped homeowners facing foreclosure or in bankruptcy. Read more…

Reuters - President George W. Bush on Thursday said he would consider "all options" to help the U.S. economy weather a deep housing slump but the economy was fundamentally strong. Read more…

Reuters - Bear Stearns Cos Inc posted a much bigger-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday, capping a fiscal year when the fifth-largest U.S. investment bank took a beating on bad bets on risky subprime mortgages. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday proposed and asked for public comment on changes to Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive home mortgage lending and advertising practices. The rule, which would be adopted under the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act (HOEPA), would restrict certain practices and would also require certain mortgage disclosures to be provided earlier in the transaction. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - The proposal would establish a new category of "higher-priced mortgages" that should include virtually all subprime loans. The proposal would, for these loans: Read more…

AFP - Japan's central bank left its super-low interest rates unchanged for a 12th straight meeting Thursday due to concerns that the US subprime loan crisis and a housing slump will curb economic growth. Read more…

Bloomberg - Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Shortly before the U.S. House of Representatives voted on legislation regulating subprime lending last month, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank warned that his bill might make all parties ``a little bit unhappy.'' It was an understatement. Read more…

Reuters - Shareholder advocacy group Ethos urged more clarity from UBS over its subprime losses, increasing pressure on the bank over heavy writedowns which have hammered its share price. Read more…

AP - Japanese stocks snapped a seven-day losing streak Thursday, as concerns eased about the possibility of major Japanese banks becoming entangled in a fund to deal with the U.S. home loan crisis. Read more…

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Reuters - China has agreed to pump $5 billion into Morgan Stanley as the U.S. investment bank reported a stunning fourth-quarter loss fueled by $9.4 billion of losses in subprime mortgages and other assets. Read more…

AP - The former chief executive officer of Fannie Mae says the Bush administration helped orchestrate an accounting scandal that cost him his job and that he wants to use White House documents to defend himself in a shareholder lawsuit. Read more…

FT.com - The Financial Services Authority's discussion paper on banks' liquidity requirements mentions Northern Rock just three times. But the ghost of the failed mortgage lender haunts every line of the 46-page document. Read more…

FT.com - Morgan Stanley (AMEX:MWD) became the third top investment bank in a month to raise capital from a sovereign wealth fund after announcing higher than expected writedowns of $9.4bn, due largely to subprime related losses. Read more…

Reuters - Five banks in the New England region will announce a $125 million fund on Thursday to help subprime borrowers, the Boston Federal Reserve Bank said on Wednesday. Read more…

AP - Unable to sell his house in suburban Phoenix's anemic real estate market, Jason Winterholler rented to a couple who paid the deposit in cash and didn't haggle over price. Read more…

AFP - After flooding eurozone money markets with cheap cash, the ECB mopped up surplus funds Wednesday, a well-worn practice aimed at reassuring subprime-shy banks while taking care not to fuel inflation. Read more…

Reuters - Applications for home mortgages tumbled last week as short-term interest rates soared and refinancing requests fell back to November levels, an industry group said on Wednesday. Read more…

The Motley Fool - I know the subprime-lending crisis came about from too many risky loans being made to too many risky borrowers. Even though I haven't taken out any subprime mortgages, I also know that the crisis is having a significant effect on millions of people, as well as on lots of financial companies, including big names Citigroup (NYSE: C - News), Capital One (NYSE: COF - News), Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - News), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC - News), and Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH - News). Read more…

A new read on foreclosure filings showed a double-digit drop for November, but don't expect the slowdown to last. Read more…

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AP - Morgan Stanley, the No. 2 U.S. investment bank, reported a $9.4 billion writedown on Wednesday from bad bets on mortgage-related debt, leading it to take a $5 billion infusion from an arm of the Chinese government. Read more…

Reuters - Shares of home builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc tumbled on Wednesday after the company posted a wider-than-expected loss as the value of its land and inventory continued to deteriorate. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - A surprising new report suggests that U.S. home foreclosures actually declined 10% in November despite signs that the housing slowdown is worsening in much of the nation. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - You'd think the chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders would be alarmed that the pace of new-home construction in November dropped to the lowest level in more than 14 years, according to a Dec. 18 Commerce Dept. report. Read more…