China’s huge trade surplus with the United States is “directly related to its manipulation of its currency’s value,” Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in a letter released on Wednesday.
It came in a letter to a U.S. textile group concerned about a surge in clothing imports from China when quotas negotiated by the Bush administration [...]

Mortgage companies, facing criticism that they aren’t doing enough to stem the housing crisis, are pledging to let troubled borrowers know whether they’re approved for help within 45 days of receiving a homeowner’s application.
The promise is expected to be announced Tuesday by the Hope Now alliance, a Bush administration-backed industry group, as part of a [...]

Weary travelers have gotten a reprieve.
On Friday, the Bush administration temporiarly waived a portion of its post-September 11 travel restrictions at least until September.
For weeks, a proposal had been floating around Washington seeking to have travel restrictions for passport travel relieved for the next upcoming months. Since the beginning of 2007 new restrictions for citizens [...]

American International Group Inc., which provides insurance and financial services, will lend up to $300 million to support clean energy investments around the world, with the loans to be backed by government guarantees, a government agency said.
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an independent agency that provides loan guarantees and direct financing to promote U.S. investment [...]

Home-mortgage financier Freddie Mac said Friday it expects to report losses for the third and fourth quarters of 2006, citing interest rates declines.
The government-sponsored company, emerging from a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, forecast a loss of about $550 million for the third quarter, compared with a profit of $880 million in the third quarter of 2005. [...]