Real Estate Live (Washington Post)
Welcome to Real Estate Live, an online discussion of the Washington area housing market with Post Real Estate editor Maryann Haggerty.

How To Handle a Cash Crunch (The Bradford Era)
(ARA) - In the world of living paycheck to paycheck, unforeseen expenses create a very stressful situation. Whether the car breaks down, the water heater blows a leak or your dog needs emergency surgery from eating the hallway rug, finding a way to get out of the red gets harder every day.

Stocks Jump Amid Merrill Lynch News (KSAT San Antonio)
Stocks on Wall Street opened sharply higher on Friday after news of a possible cash infusion for Merrill Lynch was reported.

Sistema Announces Interim Financial Results (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
MOSCOW----Sistema , the largest diversified public corporation in Russia and the CIS, which manages fast growing companies operating in the consumer services sector, today announced its unaudited consolidated US GAAP financial results for the third quarter and the nine months ended September 30, 2007.

Credit One Financial Solutions Launches Marble Arch Home Loans, Offering Responsible Consumers a New Debt ... (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
NEWARK, Del.----Fast-growing Credit One Financial Solutions , the financial services company formed in October 1996 by five former MBNA executives, announced today it has added an extensive suite of home loan options - including home equity loans and lines of credit - to its portfolio of debt consolidation solutions for consumers with good credit and a history of paying their bills on time.

Advance America to shutter 66 sites remaining in Pa. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
Advance America, Cash Advance Centers of Spartanburg, S.C., will close all 66 of its remaining loan centers in Pennsylvania as the company awaits a ruling from the state Supreme Court on an appeal of a lower court's decision in July.

Beware those who would bail us out of this chaos (Guardian Unlimited)
The 1920s and 2000s are eerily similar decades. Both were characterised by extravagant wealth, extraordinarily cavalier lending by banks and hubristic over-optimism that the world had changed. The 1920s boom transmuted into slump when the American banking system collapsed.

Paulson says ousing in unprecedented situation: LA Times (Washington Post)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the housing sector faces "an unprecedented situation" with a huge wave of problem mortgages and the Treasury's rate-freeze plan aims to help keep it from drowning in foreclosures, The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

Marked to Make-Believe (GoldSeek.com)
*** The whole world to feel high and dry and thirsty… Copernicus and Newton were right…and more!

Color of Money Book Club (Washington Post)
Personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary hosted an online discussion with Ted and Brad Klontz and Rick Kahler, the authors of "The Financial Wisdom of Ebenezer Scrooge: 5 Principles to Transform Your Relationship With Money" (Health Communications Inc., $14.95), on Thursday, Dec. 20 at Noon ET.