It's not as good as a job, but those who were on the brink of running out of unemployment benefits can breathe a little easier now. The Senate on Thursday reached a deal that will extend jobless benefits, yet again.

The number of newly laid-off workers filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by an unexpectedly large amount, in weekly numbers released by the Labor Department on Thursday. With that, the numbers fell to the lowest level since early January.

As we've previously covered at HULIQ, mortgage rates are approaching all-time lows. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry group, this has fueled huge demand in terms of mortage applications.

Freddi Mac's latest survy on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell below 5% this week. This is the first time since the end of May, according to Freddie Mac, and closing in on the all-time low set in April.

In this time of recession, when something like this arises, the question becomes: is this a demonstration of insensitivity or of advocacy? Or just pure greed? A limited-edition "American Girls" doll is causing controversy. The doll, "Gwen," is a homeless version of the popular doll series.

For an economy that, according to Ben Bernanke, is out of recession, it sure doesn't feel that way. Not only are there six jobless applicants for every job opening (much less those employed seeking work), now the news is that Fannie Mae mortgage defaults climbed to a record high in July.

While people like Ben Bernanke say the recession is over, ask someone unemployed and you may get a different answer. According to the Labor Department’s July numbers, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed. Do the math: that's a 6:1 ratio in the wrong direction.

The number of new jobless claims dropped for the third consecutive week. The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to a seasonally adjusted 530,000 from an upwardly revised 551,000 the previous week.

Ann Minch, who singlehandedly started a "debtor's revolt" within the last couple of weeks, after seeing huge increases in her credit card interest rate, has declared victory. In a follow up post on YouTube, Minch noted that Bank of America has agreed to reduce her rate.

Good news for some states in August. While California showed a rise in unemployment to 12.2%, Wisconsin's unemployment rate continued to fall in August. Minnesota's unemployment similarly fell.

Initial filings for unemployment insurance fell by 12,000 last week, from 557,000 to 545,000. That is the good news. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the number of continuing jobless claims keeps growing.