Incomes

In a push to simplify mortgage modifications, federal regulators announced a streamlined process that doesn't require borrowers to prove a hardship. "This new option gives delinquent borrowers another path to avoid foreclosure," Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a statement announcing the modifications Wednesday. The new modifications, however, would not include reducing the loan balance, a move promoted by housing advocates and others but resisted by DeMarco, who says it would end up costing taxpayers money and would encourage defaults.

If it's June, it means summer football passing competitions are about to go into high gear. And this summer the situation is going to be more intriguing than ever, because there's no consensus No. 1 high school quarterback in Southern California heading into the 2013 season. Plus, the college recruiting process is getting stranger every season. For example, UCLA has offers out to three quarterbacks from the class of 2015 — Kevin Dillman of La Mirada, Josh Rosen of Bellflower St. John Bosco and Ricky Town of Ventura St. Bonaventure.

WASHINGTON -- Consumer spending rose 0.4% in November after a drop the previous month attributed to  Superstorm Sandy, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Personal income also increased last month, jumping 0.6% from October, giving consumers more money in their wallets to spend. The new figures showed Americans shrugged off concerns last month about the large tax increases and government spending cuts looming Jan. 1, known as the fiscal cliff. Personal consumption expenditures increased $41.3 billion in November after falling by $20.2 billion, or 0.1%, in October, the Commerce Department said.

Apple Inc.'s success at avoiding billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through some (apparently) legal maneuvers has tax pundits pointing their guns at the corporate tax system. The case has revived numerous hoary cures for the supposed evil of corporate taxes. The cures include abolishing the corporate tax altogether, turning it into a pure "territorial" system that taxes multinational firms only in proportion to the income generated within the United States, declaring a tax "holiday" allowing businesses to repatriate cash parked overseas (where it is taxed at vanishingly small rates, like Apple's)

WASHINGTON -- Several years of rising poverty in the United States came to a halt in 2011 as more workers found full-time work, but overall household incomes on average continued a decade-long slide and inequality rose further last year, the government said Wednesday. The Census Bureau's annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage surprised analysts, who were projecting another tick up in the poverty rate, given the still-high unemployment rate and significant layoffs last year at local government offices.

Scientists may have discovered the secret to avoiding the fiscal cliff: Happiness. Regardless of whether money can buy happiness, being happy may actually make you more money down the road, new research finds. People who express more positive emotions as teenagers and greater life satisfaction as young adults tend to have higher incomes by the time they're 29, according to a study published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The difference was so great that when measuring life satisfaction on a 5-point scale, a 1-point jump at age 22 made a $2,000 difference in income down the line.

The number of Californians living in poverty grew for the fourth straight year in 2010, more evidence that continued high unemployment and a struggling economy are weighing on the state's families. About 6 million Californians had incomes below the federal poverty line of $22,113 for a family of four in 2010, census data released Tuesday show. That's 16.3% of the population, up from 15.3% in 2009. Nearly 1 in 5 residents lacked health insurance last year, one of the highest rates in the nation.

People living along the East Coast enjoyed the fastest income growth during the record prosperity of the 1980s, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. At the top of the list were residents of New Jersey, whose per-capita incomes jumped an average 8% annually, to $24,968, between 1980 and 1990, according to a study by the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The national average was 6.5% annual growth, to $18,685, for the decade.

For all the talk these days of porous borders and external threats to the United States, the core of our sense of security and identity as a nation has always come from within. What's surprising, perhaps, is that it derives less from our vaunted democracy or our freedoms than it does from that rather nebulous notion we call the American dream. The dream is the glue that keeps us all together. It's the vague promise that our lot will get better over time that gives us the patience to endure whatever indignities we suffer at the moment.

Since the early 1980s, our wages have risen and the economy has grown, which leaves many of us wondering where the money has gone. We can show, for example, that the median income of a "typical family," a two-earner, married couple, has nearly doubled from $26,879 in 1980 to $51,883 in 1993, but we can also show that what's left to spend is only $4,504 more. Those numbers tell much about why, according to consumer studies, people sense they aren't making financial progress.

Mothers are breadwinners for a record share of American families, as more women bring up children on their own and more married mothers outearn their husbands, an analysis of census data shows. The new reality is a dramatic shift from decades ago, the Pew Research Center found in a study released Wednesday. Two years ago, more than 40% of American households with children relied on a mother as their biggest or only source of income - a massive jump from 11% of families in 1960. Two things drove the change: Single mothers now make up a quarter of all U.S. households with children, the Pew analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data found.

WASHINGTON - Here's a heads-up for the growing ranks of seniors whose post-retirement monthly incomes aren't sufficient to qualify for a mortgage under today's tough underwriting standards: Thanks to a rule change by the largest players in the home loan business, you may be able to use imputed income from your 401(k), IRA and other retirement assets to qualify for the loan you want. That, in turn, could open the door to a money-saving refinancing to a lower-rate loan or a downsizing purchase of a new house or condo.

  WASHINGTON - Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook was supposed to face a hostile Capitol Hill crowd but instead he wielded the company's popularity like a shield to deflect some of the most aggressive questioning over the company's controversial tax practices. A handful of heated exchanges erupted in the hearing Tuesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations as lawmakers pressed Cook and two other Apple executives to explain how the company used its Irish subsidiaries to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details WASHINGTON -- Apple Inc. has used an elaborate web of offshore subsidiaries to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes on $44 billion in foreign income over the past four years, a Senate investigation has found. Many of the tactics, such as cost-sharing arrangements, are common among large multinational corporations seeking to shift profits to countries with lower tax rates. T he investigation did not find Apple violated any laws.

WASHINGTON - Apple Inc., one of the most successful and valuable companies on the planet, will be tested Tuesday when Chief Executive Tim Cook testifies about the company's controversial tax practices before a hostile Senate subcommittee. Should the company, as Apple and Cook argue, be applauded for creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and paying $6 billion in federal taxes last year, among the most of any U.S. corporation? Or should Apple be reviled for stashing a hoard of cash overseas so it could legally skirt an additional $15 billion in taxes over four years, making it potentially one of the country's biggest tax avoiders?

When the national healthcare law takes full effect next year, millions of Americans risk disrupted health coverage because of common life events: getting married or divorced, having children or taking on a second job. As their family incomes change, so too will their eligibility for public insurance programs. And if nothing is done, policymakers warn, many low-income patients will lose access to their doctors and medications during this massive game of health coverage pingpong. Policymakers and healthcare industry leaders across the nation are paying close attention to the issue and working to close the coverage gaps before Jan. 1, said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy.

WASHINGTON - With the sudden collapse of House Speaker John A. Boehner's Plan B to avert most year-end tax increases, President Obama and congressional leaders face a daunting choice: compromise in the few days remaining before tax hikes and spending cuts kick in, or call it quits and soar off the "fiscal cliff. " Obama appeared in the White House briefing room late Friday to urge congressional leaders to at least prevent income tax increases on household income of less than $250,000, continue long-term unemployment benefits and delay the mandatory spending cuts set to begin in January.

Speaking to donors after the election, Mitt Romney attributed his loss to President Obama to the administration's strategy of "giving a lot of stuff" to blacks and Latinos, citing in particular "free healthcare" and "amnesty for the children of illegals. " But data show a more plausible explanation: Black, Latino and Asian American voters, who overwhelmingly voted for Obama, were simply evaluating the long-term record of each party. The data we analyzed show unequivocally that minorities fare better under Democratic administrations than under Republican ones.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - After a resounding victory in Pakistan's national elections, presumptive new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif could have pressed his populist, hard-line approach that paints the U.S. as hopelessly malevolent and self-interested. Instead, Sharif, who served as prime minister in the 1990s, and his top aides have tried during the last few days to ensure that Washington does not feel alienated by his return to power. Sharif's team has denounced claims by critics who call him soft on militants and emphasized that the tension between Pakistan and the United States tied to American drone strikes and other issues cannot be resolved through threats and condemnation.

SACRAMENTO - California has been flooded with revenue this tax season and is on track to finish the fiscal year with a surplus of billions of dollars, according to officials. State coffers contain about $4.5 billion more than expected in personal income tax payments. Nearly $2.8 billion of it arrived April 17, the third-highest single-day collection in California history, according to government figures. Business taxes have also rebounded and are likely to be $200 million ahead of projections.