Every night before bed, Catherine Went does an energy-saving sweep: Tweaking temperature settings on the fridge, switching off all of her compact fluorescent lightbulbs, turning the thermostat down as far as she can bear. She might sound like a green warrior, but she's not. She's just broke.

From outward appearances, you'd never know it. Went, 43, has a master's degree in education, and every day she drives a sensible Saturn from her home in leafy, affluent West Lafayette to her job as an auditor at the Indiana Department of Health. But under the veneer of respectable routine, she's something of a financial disaster. By 2006 her credit card bills and other debts had soared to $55,000, the financial fallout of a layoff she endured a few years earlier. Unable to keep up, she chose the nuclear option, filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which involved selling most of her belongings to pay her creditors.

Today Went and her teenage daughter cut costs wherever they can: canceling their landline phone service, seeing movies only on DVD and splitting entrees during their rare dinners out. Went says, "I look at my life and I wonder, how did this happen to me?" But for a reminder of how she got here, she need look no further than her mailbox. Only a few

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett may buy parts of beleaguered mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp (NYSE:CFC - News), some investors are speculating, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Countrywide's debt-servicing business and its portfolio of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities may be attractive to Buffett, the Journal reported on its Web site on Monday, citing unnamed investors.

Like many mortgage lenders, Countrywide has struggled with rising delinquencies and foreclosures, and an unwillingness among bankers to extend credit, and among investors to buy the loans it makes.

Countrywide, which is being closely monitored by U.S. regulators, sought to reassure investors earlier on Monday that it is safe to do business with the company.

Buffett has been increasing his stake in financial services companies, including those with significant exposure to the

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil and natural gas prices fell Monday as Hurricane Dean headed toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and away from the U.S. energy facilities along the Gulf Coast.

A few companies evacuated some rigs and suspended production, but it didn't appear that the storm would cause much damage to operations in the United States. As supply worries faded, concerns about the battered stock market's drag on global demand came to the forefront once more.

Though the Federal Reserve boosted stocks Friday when it cut the rate it charges banks by a half percentage point, Wall Street waffled Monday on continuing credit worries, keeping alive fears that investors may need to liquidate more assets to cover losses and that a cooling economy may dampen energy demand.

Many speculative investors -- those looking to make fast money, as opposed to commercial investors who use the market to hedge their interests -- have exited the market, said Wachovia Corp. economist Jason Schenker. He added

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp sought to reassure customers on Monday it is safe to do business with the company, while a newspaper report said the largest U.S. mortgage lender has begun layoffs to help cope with a credit crunch.

The company, which is being closely monitored by U.S. regulators, had full-page advertisements in Monday editions of The New York Times and other newspapers assuring readers that mortgage market problems do not affect the safety of federally insured deposits at its Countrywide Bank unit, which it said was "well capitalized."

The ads ran as The Wall Street Journal, citing an internal e-mail, said Countrywide's Full Spectrum Lending is laying off employees. The unit offers mortgages to people with less than "prime" credit or who cannot fully document income or assets.

The unit's sales force on June 30 numbered about 6,785 people, or 38 percent of Countrywide's total sales force of

Capital One Financial Corp. said Monday it will cut 1,900 jobs and shutter its wholesale mortgage banking business, a move that comes as lenders continue to struggle in the nation's housing and mortgage markets.

Capital One said it will shut down GreenPoint Mortgage and eliminate most of the jobs by the end of year. The McLean, Va.-based company will close 31 GreenPoint locations in 19 states and "cease residential mortgage origination" effective immediately but said it will honor commitments to customers with locked rates who have loans already in the pipeline.

"Over the past few months, we have experienced an unprecedented disruption in the secondary mortgage markets," Capital One Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard D. Fairbank wrote in an internal memo to employees. "I made the decision to wind down the business with a heavy heart."

GreenPoint, based in Novato, Calif., specializes in no-documentation and Alt-A mortgage loans for borrowers with slightly better credit than subprime borrowers. In his memo, Fairbank said that market has seen a "significant reduction in