New rules allow seniors to borrow more and even buy a new home.

Retirees concerned about their decimated savings should take a second look at reverse mortgages. Beginning November 1, 2008, homeowners everywhere may borrow up to $417,000. Previously, the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program assigned various lending limits, ranging from $200,160 in rural areas to $362,790 in the most expensive housing markets. Existing reverse-mortgage borrowers may be able to refinance their loans to take advantage of the higher lending limit. Plus, the new rules cap the origination fee, previously set at 2% of the loan value, at $6,000.

And, in a major policy change, retirees will be able to use a reverse mortgage to buy a new home starting in 2009. "This provision could really transform the industry," says Peter Bell, president of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association, in Washington, D.C.

How It Works

With a reverse mortgage, homeowners 62 or older can tap the equity in their home in the form of a lump sum, line of credit, monthly payout or a combination of all three. You retain the title to your property and must continue to pay property taxes, insurance premiums and home-maintenance costs. Payouts are tax-free, but the income you receive may make you ineligible for certain state and federal benefits, including

DETROIT (AP) -- A list of job cuts, shuttered factories, canceled bonuses and commitments to fuel-efficient cars won't be enough next week when U.S. automakers get another shot to persuade Congress to give them $25 billion in loans.

Through the Thanksgiving weekend, teams will be tagging more meat to throw at skeptical lawmakers who vilified the automakers' top executives the last time they went to Washington. That means executive pay cuts, union concessions, and perhaps even higher fuel economy requirements and a glimpse at top-secret product plans.

At General Motors Corp., the largest of the Detroit Three and probably the most needy, teams are preparing a detailed plan, first for GM's board on Monday, then for delivery to Congress by a Dec. 2 deadline. The House Financial Services Committee plans to hear testimony on the loan requests Dec. 5.

Steve Adamske, a spokesman for committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said Tuesday that each company is expected to submit a report that will be made public to "give confidence to the people that we're not giving good money after bad."

People with knowledge of the plans being built by GM and Chrysler say they will contain more than just details of past restructuring. At GM, the company has slashed production and cut its U.S. payroll from 177,000 eight years ago to the current 104,000. Chrysler LLC's worldwide work force has been slashed

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama is naming a board of economic experts outside government to advise him on ways to create jobs and bring stability to the ailing financial system.

Obama was expected to introduce members of the advisory board Wednesday at a news conference, his third in as many days as Americans moved into the long Thanksgiving weekend. It was a remarkable burst of public activity for Obama, who has sought to assure nervous consumers and financial markets that he will bring swift economic relief as president.

Tuesday, Obama introduced Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag as his candidate to run the White House Office of Management and Budget. The president-elect also pledged a "page-by-page, line-by-line" budget review to root out unneeded spending.

On Monday, Obama tapped New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his treasury secretary and named several other top economic advisers.

His economic team largely complete, Obama was expected next week to introduce national security officials, including Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state. Aides said the New York senator had not yet formally accepted the offer, but transition officials have indicated that the nomination is on track.

Obama also was expected to announce he had asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to remain at the Pentagon for a year. James Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant and NATO commander, was

Oil prices rose slightly to above $51 a barrel Wednesday as reports that Russia could join OPEC in cutting output offset more bad economic news from the U.S., which had sparked a sell-off of crude overnight.

By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was up 87 cents to $51.64 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Nymex contract overnight fell $3.73 to settle at $50.77 after the U.S. said its gross domestic product shrank 0.5 percent in the third quarter, worse than previously estimated.

In London, January Brent crude rose 28 cents to $50.63 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Slowing global economic activity has spurred corporate losses and job cuts, undermining demand for fuels to power industry and cars. Meanwhile, plunging U.S. home and stock prices have gutted personal wealth and hurt consumer demand.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index tumbled a record 16.6 percent during the quarter from the same period a year ago, the lowest level since the first quarter of 2004.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday that economic output next year would likely shrink by 0.4 percent for the 30 market democracies that make up its membership, against the 1.4 percent growth prediction for 2008. That would be the worst global

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With the economy showing further signs that it is headed into a steep swoon, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is pulling more tricks out of his bag to try bolster the country's battered financial sector.

The administration and the Federal Reserve rolled out two new programs Tuesday that would provide up to $800 billion in an effort to get more loans flowing in such critical areas as mortgage lending, credit cards, auto loans and small business loans.

Credit markets liked the new efforts, but private economists said the new moves were not likely to be the last changes in the government's vast rescue program, which has already undergone significant alterations since it was passed by Congress on Oct. 3.

Analysts believe more work will need to be done because of their expectations that the economy's vital signs will continue to worsen as the country slips into what many believe could be the worst recession since the early 1980s.

More news on economic performance will be revealed Wednesday with release of data on personal spending, orders to factories for big-ticket durable goods, new home sales and weekly applications for unemployment benefits.

The report on jobless claims is expected to show that applications for benefits fell slightly last week to 537,000, according to a survey of economists by Thomson Reuters. That would be down by 5,000 from the previous week when claims hit 542,000, the highest level for weekly claims since July 1992. Even with

BEIJING (AP) -- China announced its biggest interest rate cut in 11 years on Wednesday to spur private borrowing and support a multibillion-dollar stimulus package to boost slowing economic growth.

The 1.08 percentage-point rate cut -- the fourth cut in three months -- reflects the government's urgency about raising private consumption and investment to supplement state spending on the stimulus package.

"This is the most aggressive monetary easing in recent years and should bode well for China's market performance," said Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JP Morgan & Co., in a report to clients.

The 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus aims to insulate China from a global slowdown by injecting money into the economy through spending on new highways and other public facilities. But its ultimate goal is to increase consumer spending, which a rate cut is meant to encourage.

Beijing is trying to shore up consumer and investor confidence and reverse a sharp downturn in growth. China's economy is expected to expand by at least 9 percent this year, down from 11.9 percent last year. But communist leaders worry about rising job losses -- especially in export industries hit by weak global demand -- and possible unrest.

China has avoided a big hit so far from the global financial crisis because its banks are healthy and exports strong. But conditions are expected to worsen in coming months as export demand weakens and growth

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Barack Obama isn't president yet, but his must-do list just got longer. The newest addition to the lengthy list of tasks after taking office: helping oversee the overhaul of the world's financial regulatory system.

That is one of the assignments to the president-elect from current global leaders after their weekend summit, where they pledged action to avoid a repeat of the financial mess that has caused worldwide economic chaos.

"Obama has a tall order," said Morris Goldstein, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who spent years working at the International Monetary Fund, the world's financial firefighter.

"He has a lot of things he has to do quickly in a number of areas and doesn't have a lot of time to think about them," Goldstein said in an interview Sunday.

That will put a lot of pressure on Obama. He did not participate in the emergency two-day summit that concluded Saturday, instead sending representatives to meet with leaders on the sidelines.

After taking the oath of office Jan. 20, Obama will have to figure out in short order how far his administration is willing to go in revamping oversight of financial companies and products, in the United States and abroad, and nailing down the crucial details.

"Obama has an incredible mountain to climb in the way of the economic and financial situation," said

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's economy slid into a recession for the first time since 2001, the government said Monday, as companies sharply cut back on spending in the third quarter amid the unfolding global financial crisis.

Government officials and economists warned that the world's second-largest economy could contract further in coming months.

Japan's economy shrank at an annual pace of 0.4 percent in the July-September period after a declining an annualized 3.7 percent in the second quarter. That means Japan, along with the 15-nation euro-zone, is now technically in a recession, defined as two straight quarters of contraction.

"What we're starting to see is the extent of deterioration in external demand start to weigh more heavily on the Japanese economy," said Glen Maguire, chief Asia economist at Societe Generale. "And I think looking forward, there's every indication that dynamic is going to continue."

The result was worse than expected. Economists surveyed by Kyodo News agency had predicted gross domestic product would gain an annualized 0.1 percent.

Japan's Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano said following the data's release that "the economy is in a recessionary phase."

But the worst may be yet to come, especially with dramatic declines in demand from consumers overseas