Headlines

Following allegations of racial and gender discrimination at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the bureau’s director, Richard Cordray spoke before the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday.

The office of the Special Investigator General for TARP (SIGTARP) released its quarterly report on the progress and status of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Leaders at the Federal Reserve voted Wednesday to move forward with the central bank's plans to gradually cut monthly bond purchases, a sign of growing confidence that the economy is trending in a more favorable direction.

Congress Wednesday fired its latest rounds in its ever-escalating battle with the Federal Reserve, as a Republican-controlled House committee passed a reform bill aimed at making the Fed more accountable and transparent. The Fed’s has already warned of serious trouble if the nation’s top financial institution were held to formal policy regarding its ability to set interest rates.

The ADP National Employment Report for July 2014 shows that job growth continued throughout the month in yet another step along the way to full economic recovery. The report followed nonfarm private employment for approximately 24 million workers in the United States, who saw the addition of 218,000 jobs in July. The increase continues a trend that has been ongoing for several months.

The U.S. economy experienced a sharp turnaround from the first quarter to the second, fueling hopes of a rebound as the rest of the year plays out. Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 4.0 percent in the second quarter of the year, according to an advance estimate released by the Commerce Department. Growth came in at the high end of a survey of economists, with the consensus forecast calling for an increase of 3.1 percent.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and 13 state attorneys general announced Tuesday that obtained approximately $92 million in debt relief from Colfax Capital Corporation and Culver Capital, collectively known as “Rome Finance,” for about 17,000 U.S. service members and other consumers injured by the company’s predatory lending scheme.

Home ownership in the United States lost a little more ground last quarter, declining to a new 19-year low as consumers—particularly young adults—continue to grapple with debt and difficulties obtaining credit.

As the newly sworn-in Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Julian Castro will need to perform a complicated balancing act to move the agency forward during the current unsteady recovery.

Black Knight Financial Services released a report showing that the national Home Price Index (HPI) improved in general throughout the month of May across 18,500 examined zip codes in the United States. Home prices are now just 11 percent off of their 2006 peak. The HPI represents the price of non-distressed sales by taking into account price discounts for REO and short sales.