Key officials in the Bush administration are putting the final touches on a plan that would provide relief to up to three million homeowners struggling with their mortgage payments and help them to avoid foreclosures, sources briefed on the plan said Wednesday.

Under the plan the government would undertake to bear half of the losses on home loans if mortgage companies agree to lower borrowers’ monthly payments for a minimum of five years. The plan is expected to cost from $40 billion to $50 billion and will form part of the $700 billion rescue package approved by the US Congress earlier this month. The money would be used for covering future losses on loans that would be restructured on the basis of new standards established by the government.

According to sources, officials from the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation are working on the plan which is expected to be announced soon. Chairman of the FDIC, Sheila C Bair has been a strong proponent or the homeowners rescue proposal and a week ago became the first official to publicly discuss the idea. The plan, when completed, would be the most extensive government initiative directed at providing relief to homeowners since the mortgage crisis erupted last year

A host of reasons led US auto dealers to suffer substantial losses in the third quarter including declining sales, consumer credit squeeze as well as a weak economic climate made worse by hurricane-related damages.

Sonic, the third-largest auto dealer in the US said on Tuesday that it was putting on hold several planned showroom-related projects. Likewise the number four US auto dealer, Group 1, said that it would cut down on capital spending and detailed several cost-cutting measures which would save the dealer $35 million annually. Group 1 has already forecast a “substantial drop” in near-term revenue and has suspended its 2008 full-year outlook due to economic volatility in the US.

Several economic factors in the US and overseas markets have led to light vehicles recording the lowest sales in the past fifteen years. The most recent trigger was the market crisis which has led to stricter lending norms and difficulty in financing. While lenders are turning down loan applications with greater frequency, consumers are being discouraged by demands for higher down payments and higher rates of interest.

However both Sonic Automotive Inc and Group 1 Automotive Inc shares rose on Tuesday following announcements by the dealers on cost cutting measures as well as programs for conserving cash.

The Christian Science Monitor will become the first national newspaper in the US to abandon print when after a century of continuous publication, it will cease daily print editions and appears online only.

On Tuesday, the publisher of Christian Science Monitor announced that the newspaper which has been publishing print editions from Monday through Friday will turn into an online publication from April next year. At the same time the newspaper has plans of introducing a weekend publication. The editor of Christian Science Monitor, John Yemma, further revealed that moving to a Web version will enable the publication to keep its seven foreign bureaus in operational status.

The unprecedented cost cutting measure taken by Christian Science Monitor is a pointer to the dismal times that the newspaper industry is going through at present. In recent times, newspapers in United States have been struggling to survive by conducting lay-offs, closing bureaus and reducing the size of the product. However Lou Ureneck, chairman of the journalism department at Boston University pointed out that the Christian Science Monitor being a non-profit organization, its ceasing of daily print edition could not be taken as setting the trend for other newspapers.

The days of easy credit card offers and extravagant credit lines may be over for most Americans as lenders now seek to tighten both credit card eligibility as well as credit limits.

The pullback is expected to hit even credit-worthy consumers who are already reeling from the impact of an eroding economy. However a credit card crisis will come as the worst news for the beleaguered banking industry and pound it with another wave of losses after being at the receiving end of the recent mortgage crisis.

According to an estimate, Credit card lenders wrote off nearly $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008 as an increasingly higher number of borrowers defaulted on their payment. As the rate of unemployment rises and tens of thousands of workers are laid off, analysts estimate that the credit card industry will incur losses of up to $55 billion in the next year and a half.

The looming credit card crisis has compelled major lenders like American Express, Bank of America and Citigroup to enforce stricter standards for applicants and has led many to discard the riskiest customers from their portfolios. Customers appear to be the worst-hit as they lose once-easily available options like home equity and transfer balance to meet their credit card obligations.

Global electronics giant Sony reported a plunge of 72% in profits during the most recent quarter at its earnings suffered due to a strong yen as well as the general economic slowdown.

The Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate reported that for three months through September this year, its net profit fell to 20.8 billion yen or $213.6 million as sales declined by 0.7% to 2.07 trillion yen or $21.3 billion.

Sony cited the gains made by yen against euro as the chief reason for the drop in profits. This is because a stronger yen negatively affects exporters like Sony by making their products more expensive in overseas market and reducing the yen value of the profits earned in foreign countries.

Another important reason for the sharp drop in Sony profits is the decline in sales of several of its core electronic products. For instance the sale of its flat-panel Bravia television sets and digital cameras fell faster than expected in October, leading the company to cut its annual profit forecast by as much as 58% for the fiscal year through March 2009.

Sony’s poor performance comes as the latest instance of a trend which has seen several Asian exporters like Canon, Samsung and Honda reported loss in earnings in recent days, leading all of them to slash annual earnings forecast.