The IRS also erroneously issued about $4.7 million in tax credits meant for people who bought plug-in electric cars. The new tax breaks were enacted as part of the massive economic recovery package passed last year.

“Our report concludes that the IRS is having a mixed filing season this year,” George said. “On the one hand, they are having difficulty implementing many of the changes created by the passage of the laws designed to stimulate the economy. On the other hand, the news is not all bad as the IRS is detecting and stopping more erroneous refunds this year.”

The report covers returns processed as of March 5. At the time, the IRS had received about 61 million returns. The agency expects to receive about 140 million individual returns this year.

“Any time you have major tax changes you will see some confusion over it,” said IRS spokesman Terry Lemons. The IRS is doing “everything we can” to work through problems and process returns quickly.

The stimulus package enacted last year presented many challenges for taxpayers and the IRS, making an already complicated tax system even more complex. There were tax credits for qualified families who buy new homes or make energy improvements to existing ones, as well as tax breaks to help pay college tuition or buy new cars.

The Making Work Pay tax credit was President Barack Obamas signature tax break in the package. It provides individuals with up to $400 and couples up to $800.

The homebuyer tax credit was so popular that Congress extended and expanded it in November. Buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years are eligible, subject to income limits, for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers - or people who havent owned homes in the previous three years - can get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign purchase agreements before May 1 and close before July 1.

The IRS expects half the people claiming the homebuyer credit not to include proper documentation, such as a settlement statement, and that will delay refunds, according to the report.

As of April 2, the average refund was $2,950, up about $255 over last year, Lemons said. The fastest way to get a refund: file electronically and have the refund deposited directly into a bank account, which takes about 10 days.

Refunds can take six to eight weeks for last-minute filers who use paper returns and receive checks, Lemons said.

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The chairman of Dubais supreme fiscal committee said in a statement that the support aims to ensure Dubai World and property development arm Nakheel are “key contributors to the strong economic future” of the city-state. The plan offers creditors full repayment on the principal of their outstanding loans over a five to eight year period by issuing new debt. It was not clear how much interest, if any, is being offered.

Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who is also the uncle of Dubais ruler, says the new funding includes $5.7 billion of the money remaining from a bailout by neighboring Abu Dhabi and “internal Dubai Government resources.”

Investors in Dubai welcomed the news. Shares on the city-states main stock exchange, the Dubai Financial Market, shot up 4.5 percent in early trading. Shares of DP World, Dubai Worlds publicly traded port operator, rallied nearly 4 percent to trade at 50 cents apiece on the Nasdaq Dubai, another exchange in the emirate. Other Gulf markets also posted gains, reflecting investors relief over concerns Dubais debt woes could harm its neighbors.

“This is a very positive announcement and the markets are reacting accordingly,” said Mohammed Shakeel, an Abu Dhabi-based independent economist. “Dubai is essentially saying that it is through the worst.”

Dubai has received $20 billion in emergency funds from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi, which is also the capital of the United Arab Emirates, a seven-state federation of which Dubai is part. Abu Dhabi holds nearly all the UAEs oil wealth.

The plan calls for the restructuring of $23.5 billion of Dubai Worlds total debt, including $14.2 billion owed to creditors other than the government.

As part of that deal, the government plans to recapitalize the conglomerate by offering as equity an $8.9 billion claim in the company, while also pumping in $1.5 billion in new funds, according to a Dubai government statement.

Nakheel plans to present its own offer Thursday. That deal will call on banks to restructure their debt “at commercial rates,” while other creditors still owed repayment “will be offered a significant cash payment shortly and a tradable security,” according to the statement.

Aidan Birkett, Dubai Worlds Chief Restructuring Officer told reporters Thursday that the indebted company hopes for a “consensual agreement” from all the lenders, although he expects negations with creditors to take months.

Birkett said the priority of the plan was to address Nakheels problems, including paying contractors - some of whom have not been paid up to a year. The company also plans to restart some development projects to reinsure investors who have taken a loss when Dubai real estate bubble burst in 2008.

“If we fix Nakheel then we can go a long way to fix real estate issues in Dubai,” Birkett said.

“The Nakheel business plan allows work to continue as soon as possible and puts Nakheel on a sound footing. The government, as shareholder, will work closely with Nakheel so that any future projects are carefully planned and evaluated,” he said in a statement.

Dubais government rattled global markets in late November when it unexpectedly announced plans to restructure Dubai World and asked creditors to delay repayments on some $26 billion worth of debt until at least May of this year.

The focus of the restructuring centers on the companys Nakheel and Limitless real estate divisions. Nakheel is the developer behind Dubais Palm Jumeirah and other manmade islands, the majority of which sit empty.

Dubai World has tried to protect some of its more prominent internationally focused assets, including profitable global port operator DP World, by exempting them from the restructuring.

The conglomerates talks with creditors, which include major British banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered, as well as numerous local lenders, have been carried out behind closed doors. Dubai officials have said little about the restructuring process or the states backing for its many government-linked companies.

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The insurer, once the worlds largest, said March 1 it was selling AIA Group Ltd. to Prudential Plc for $35.5 billion. A week later, MetLife Inc. agreed to buy AIGs American Life Insurance Co. for $15.5 billion. After the transactions, AIG will have “more than sufficient” assets to repay senior debt, according to analysts at CreditSights Inc.

“Thats money in the door,” said Jason Brady, who oversees $8 billion in fixed-income securities including AIG debt at Santa Fe, New Mexico-based Thornburg Investment Management Inc. “The assets that they have on their books may actually be worth something, which ultimately is good for everybody, but especially for bondholders.”

AIGs $4 billion of 8.175 percent junior subordinated debentures due in 2058 have soared 13 cents to 79.5 cents on the dollar since Feb. 26, for a paper gain of $520 million, according to Trace, the bond-pricing system of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The securities traded at a low of 12.5 cents in April, Bloomberg data show.

Its Been Amazing

“Its been amazing,” said Daniel Fuss, vice chairman of Boston-based Loomis Sayles & Co., which manages more than $140 billion, including AIG debt. “It looks like they mightve made it. They got fair or good prices for those assets.”

AIG speculative-grade debt returned 6.1 percent, including reinvested interest, since Feb. 28, the best gain of the 50 biggest issuers in Bank of America Merrill Lynchs Global High- Yield index. The insurers investment-grade bonds rallied 4.8 percent, compared with a gain of 0.108 percent for the Global Broad Market Corporate Index.

Bondholders gain of at least $3.2 billion is based on the change in market value since Feb. 26 for the $71 billion of AIG debentures for which prices were available, or about 90 percent of total bonds outstanding, according to Bloomberg data.

AIG has struck deals to raise $63 billion since its September 2008 bailout. The largest agreements were for AIA, with customers in nations including China, India and Vietnam, and Alico, which operates in more than 50 countries including parts of Europe, Latin America and Japan. Proceeds from AIA and Alico will pay down most of the funds AIG drew from a $60 billion Federal Reserve credit line.

Bailed Out

AIG, which turned over a stake of almost 80 percent to the U.S. as part of its $182.3 billion bailout, owes more than $40 billion to the Treasury. The bailout also includes about $52.5 billion to buy mortgage-linked assets owned or backed by AIG.

The asset sales go a “long way” toward repaying the Fed credit line, said Tom Walsh, head of U.S. high-grade research at Barclays Capital in New York.

The Upside

“The prices are viewed by the market as being favorable for AIG because there were some numbers thrown around over the course of many months that were lower,” he said. “The upside came to fruition.”

AIG shares have surged 32 percent to $32.77 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading since Feb. 26. Credit-default swaps protecting against a default by AIG have plunged 200 basis points to 351 basis points, the lowest since before the bailout, according to CMA DataVision. That means it would cost the equivalent of $351,000 a year to protect $10 million of AIG debt against default for five years.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche still must halt losses at AIGs consumer lender and mortgage guarantor and find a new CEO for Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corp., the plane-leasing that said in February that CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy was stepping down.

AIG posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.87 billion on Feb. 26, which narrowed from $61.7 billion a year earlier when AIG recorded the biggest loss in U.S. corporate history. The wider-than-expected loss in the three months ended Dec. 31 included $6.7 billion in charges fueled by paying down the Fed credit line.

“The credit quality is tough,” Brady said. “Its a really big company with some really big liabilities and some significant issues. Its not for the faint of heart, thats for sure.”

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The unemployment insurance alone - to provide weekly unemployment checks averaging above $300 to people whose core 26-week benefit package has run out - will cost $66 billion through December. In some states people are eligible to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks.

The bill, and the test vote Tuesday, demonstrate the difficulty Democrats face as they focus on jobs. It doesnt include new ideas for boosting jobs, but instead reprises elements of last years $862 billion economic stimulus bill, which is earning mixed reviews from voters. Simply extending those provisions has produced a far more expensive measure than a separate so-called jobs bill that Democrats hope to soon send to President Barack Obama. That measure would boost highway spending and give tax breaks to companies that hire the unemployed and could clear the Senate for Obamas desk this week.

At a gross cost of about $148 billion, Tuesdays measure illustrates the extraordinary cost of the unemployment safety net as the economy inches out of the recession. Democrats say the unemployment benefits inject demand into the economy and say renewing the tax cuts helps preserve existing jobs.

The measure closes $29 billion of tax loopholes to help defray its cost, including one enjoyed by paper companies that get a credit from burning “black liquor,” a pulp-making byproduct, as if it were an alternative fuel.

All told, the measure would add $107 billion to the deficit over the coming decade. Democrats have labeled most of the bill an emergency measure, exempting it from stricter budget rules enacted just last month.

Democrats need to muster at least one Republican vote Tuesday to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to limit debate and guarantee an up-or-down vote. But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, provided crucial help last week to keep the measure out of another procedural tangle, and Democrats sound confident they will prevail.

The bill includes about 60 popular tax breaks for individuals and businesses that expired at the end of 2009. The bill would extend the tax breaks through 2010, at a cost of about $26 billion.

Congress routinely extends the tax breaks each year with large bipartisan majorities. Businesses and tax planners would prefer a more permanent solution, but lawmakers cant agree on how to pay for a longer extension.

The tax breaks include a property tax deduction for people who dont itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and development and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in the nine states without income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and Wyoming.

There is a deduction for college tuition for couples making less than $160,000 a year, and one for teachers who use their own money to buy school supplies. There is a tax credit for community development agencies that invest in low-income neighborhoods, as well as a tax break for restaurant owners and retailers who remodel their stores.

The expiration of one tax break, a $1 per gallon credit for the production of biodiesel, has already caused “a pretty substantial blow to the industry,” said Michael Frohlich, a spokesman for the National Biodiesel Board. The credit would cost $1 billion to extend for the rest of the year.

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“Unless they start making applications urgently now, many wont make it on time,” Kenichi Sugasawara, a manager at the Research and Planning Department of Credit Information Center, said in an interview in Tokyo on March 4. “It will be illegal for companies that arent registered to make new loans after the law takes effect.”

The credit-checking firms will help ensure that borrowers cant use multiple lenders to rack up loans exceeding one-third of their annual income, as the government extends a crackdown on the industry thats contributed to the closure of almost 10,000 consumer finance companies since March 2006.

Acom Co., Japans largest consumer lender by market value, and its three biggest competitors, which together account for 68 percent of consumer finance lending, have registered with Japan Credit.

Japans Supreme Court ruled in January 2006 that standard loan contracts at consumer lenders were illegal and coercive. It invalidated agreements requiring borrowers to pay more than 20 percent interest, making lenders liable to repay more than $50 billion in overcharged interest.

Fragmented Industry

The industry, which has offered credit to borrowers including those turned away by banks, ranges from national corporations employing thousands of people to one-person operations run by their owners. Promise Co., Japans second- largest consumer lender by market value, estimates the industry had outstanding loans of 9 trillion yen ($100 billion) as of March 31, 2009.

About 1,400 of Japans 4,374 consumer lenders have registered with Credit Information Center or Japan Credit Information. Credit Information Centers Sugasawara said fewer than 10 companies registered with his firm this year. Japan Credit Informations Takashi Kimura said 44 companies signed up between January and February.

Japan Credit Information expects to examine another 100 applications this month, said Kimura. Applications generally take three months to process, the company said in a statement in February.

Increased Regulation

The failure of so many small consumer lenders to register reflects doubts that theyll be able to weather stricter regulation, said Masayuki Hanabusa of the Japan Financial Services Association, which surveyed the industry last year.

Aiful, which avoided bankruptcy in December after 65 of its creditors agreed to a reprieve on debt repayments, is cutting half its workforce, or 2,095 employees. Promise said Jan. 28 it will cut 1,600 jobs and close all staffed branches. Acom is shedding more than 400 staff and forecast a full-year loss of 11.4 billion yen.

The Financial Services Agency ordered Aiful to close all its branches for 3 days in May 2006 after saying the Kyoto-based company intimidated families and illicitly obtained powers-of- attorney.

The government has said Japans banks have failed to meet the needs of small borrowers and urged them to do more to help customers. Still, Financial Services Minister Shizuka Kamei said last week he wont soften the consumer lending law changes due to take effect in June.

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The cash payment matches a provision of a competing bid by Simon Property Group Inc., which has offered to buy its biggest competitor for more than $10 billion and pay all unsecured creditors. Chicago-based General Growth rejected that bid and lined up the Brookfield investment last month with plans to split into two companies — part of a proposal that creditors called risky because of a reliance on debt and equity sales.

“If BAM moves ahead with this structure, it removes most if not all uncertainty from their previous bid, and removes any doubt to whether its credible or not,” said Jim Sullivan, an analyst at Green Street Advisors in Newport Beach, California.

New York-based Pershing Square is General Growths biggest equity investor, with a 25 percent economic interest, including 7.5 percent of its shares. Fairholme is the largest creditor with about $1.9 billion of General Growth debt, while Brookfield has about $500 million and Pershing Square owns about $434 million, according to a person familiar with the investments.

New Shares

Brookfields new plan calls for Fairholme and Pershing to buy about 380 million new General Growth shares at $10 each. The investments would combine with 250 million shares Brookfield would buy, $1.5 billion in new debt Brookfield is raising, and a $250 million rights offering for a new company, General Growth Opportunities. Brookfield will backstop $125 million of that sale, and Fairholme and Pershing Square will backstop the rest. Combined, more than $8 billion would be raised.

“The proposal from Fairholme and Pershing Square builds on the significant momentum we have created to return GGP to a strong financial foundation for the future,” General Growth Chief Executive Officer Adam Metz said in the statement. “Our goal is to raise capital in the most cost-efficient way to maximize value for all of our stakeholders. We are pleased with the support shown by one of our largest unsecured debt holders and one of our largest equity holders.”

The proposal must be approved by General Growths board and the bankruptcy court, and better offers may still emerge, the company said. Also, General Growth would have the right to reduce the $3.8 billion investment by $1.9 billion should it be able to raise equity capital on better terms.

Significant Contributions

Ackman stepped down from General Growths board as part of the plan, the company said.

“Bill Ackman has made significant contributions to GGP during his time on the Board,” Metz said. “We understand his decision to resign to facilitate Pershing Squares participation in this proposal.”

Brookfields plan gives General Growth equity holders $15 a share, compared with about $9 a share under Simons offer. The previous version of Brookfields plan called for General Growth to raise as much as $5.8 billion by issuing shares and new debt and through the sale of properties.

The new plan “would, if accepted, deliver substantially all of the cash required to fulfill the companys capital needs in connection with its emergence from bankruptcy and provide unsecured creditors with par plus accrued interest in cash,” General Growth said.

Previous Plan

Unsecured creditors said in a March 2 bankruptcy-court filing that the previous plan was too risky. Indianapolis-based Simon, in a separate filing, supported the creditors.

“While Simon has offered to pay unsecured creditors in full in cash, the consideration to be offered to unsecured creditors under the recapitalization is entirely subject to market risk,” David C. Bryan, Eric M. Rosof and Emil A. Kleinhaus, Simons attorneys, wrote in the filing. “If General Growth does not raise enough money to pay unsecured creditors, they will be stuck with the equity securities of a highly leveraged company.”

David Fick, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore, said the new plan is likely an effort to compel Simon to boost its offer.

“These guys dont have the ability to run these assets without the existing GGP management,” he said. “The Pershing Square and Brookfield interests are best aligned with getting a sale done.”

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In November, the federal government extended a tax credit of up to $8,000 for people who hadnt owned a home for three years. This credit had helped boost home sales last summer and fall. Seeking to build on that momentum, the government added a new credit of up to $6,500 for current homeowners, hoping it would transform them into house-hunters this winter and spring.

But real estate agents around the country say the credit is doing little to elevate sales. Reasons vary.

The unemployment rate is still near 10 percent and consumer confidence is falling. Home prices have stabilized in some markets, but are still a third below their 2006 peak. Droves of people who want to sell are stuck because their home is worth less than they paid for it. Harsh winter weather has Americans shoveling driveways instead of preparing their home for buyer visits.

“No one is saying, I need to buy something before it expires,” said Tim Surratt, an agent with Greenwood King Properties in Houston.

The tax credit for current homeowners was intended to help stabilize prices and bolster the economy, but the housing market remains vulnerable. Sales of both new and previously occupied homes dropped in January, and the Mortgage Bankers Associations index of loan applications recently hit a 12 1/2-year low.

Also, the percentage of current homeowners looking to buy was nearly flat from January to February, according to a poll of 1,500 real estate agents by Campbell Communications and Inside Mortgage Finance.

The Obama administration has pumped billions into the housing market, hoping it will lead the nation out of its economic doldrums. Efforts to modify loans facing foreclosure have largely failed. So, hundreds of thousands of discounted homes will hit the market this year, stressing a market desperate to balance high supply with sluggish demand.

“Youve got a really big problem that requires big guns, and the tax credit is just not big enough,” said Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Agents believe the credits true test will come in the spring, the busiest home-buying season. Concerns about high unemployment could keep buyers on the fence.

“If you dont have a job, youre not going to be able to buy a new house,” said Deborah Farmer, owner of StarLight Realty in Tampa, Fla.

Another problem is that homeowners, in many cases, will need to sell their current home to afford a new one and claim the credit on tax returns. Thats a major issue for borrowers who owe more than their home is worth. Nearly one-in-three homeowners with a mortgage is currently in that situation, according to Moodys Economy.com.

For a home sold at the national median sales price of $164,700, the agents commission is $9,882. There goes the $6,500, and then some.

Economists argue that a tax credit is rarely the sole motivation for a home purchase. Many believe tax credits just accelerate sales that would have happened anyway, leading to a drop off once that demand is exhausted.

And, bad weather in much of the country this winter has stymied home buying.

So far, the credit “is hardly registering on the economic Richter scale,” said Patrick Newport, an economist with IHS Global Insight.

Real estate agents hope that the tax credit will lure more buyers as its approaches its April deadline. Both tax breaks are expected to create an estimated 600,000 additional home sales this year, the Realtors group said. The group hasnt broken down an estimate for first-time buyers and existing homeowners.

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Under the Brookfield proposal, General Growth stockholders would receive one new General Growth share with an initial value of $10, plus one share of a new company, to be called General Growth Opportunities, with an initial value of $5, for each share they own. Unsecured creditors would be repaid in full plus interest. Simon Property Group Inc., which last week made public a $10 billion takeover bid for General Growth, dismissed the plan as “a risky equity play.”

“This sets the floor in our mind — $15 — and you have a sophisticated real estate investor setting that price,” General Growth President Thomas H. Nolan Jr. said in an interview. “We are hopeful that our stock will continue to rise, and our existing shareholders will continue to benefit from that.”

Under the unsolicited offer by Simon, the largest U.S. shopping mall owner, equity investors would have received about $9 a share and unsecured creditors paid in full for about $7 billion. General Growth said the offer was too low and it would invite others to submit bids.

Highly Speculative

“General Growths proposed recapitalization amounts to a risky equity play on the backs of its unsecured creditors,” Simon said in a statement. The plan is “highly speculative” because it would involve raising as much as $5.8 billion through equity and debt offerings and through asset sales in “todays uncertain markets,” the Indianapolis-based company said.

Brookfield, a Toronto-based company whose holdings include office properties and hydroelectric plants, would have a 30 percent stake in General Growth under the proposal. The plan is backed by General Growths biggest shareholder, William Ackmans Pershing Square Capital Management LP, the statement said.

Yesterdays proposal wasnt Brookfields first bid for General Growth. A previous Brookfield proposal valued General Growth at $11 a share, according to a letter from Brookfield Senior Managing Partner Cyrus Madon dated yesterday. The letter, to Nolan and General Growth Chief Executive Officer Adam S. Metz, was included in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission filing.

Court Approval

Brookfields plan from yesterday is subject to definitive documentation and bankruptcy court approval, General Growth said yesterday. The company may still receive other offers as part of the bankruptcy process, Nolan said.

Simon Property yesterday signed a non-disclosure agreement to receive information from General Growth, said a person with knowledge of the agreement. Simon on Feb. 19 called General Growths draft of the agreement “unreasonable.” Simon will be allowed to talk with potential partners, which General Growth had previously barred, the person said.

Knockout Blow

Its up to Simon to decide if it wants to raise its bid or “deliver a knockout blow — something thats so good for everybody that the bid will end right there,” he said.

Simon said yesterday in bankruptcy court documents that it has been rebuffed by General Growth since August, and said the company shouldnt be allowed to control its bankruptcy for another six months, as General Growth has requested.

Westfield spokeswoman Julia Clarke declined to comment today. Westfield is “watching the situation” at General Growth, Managing Director Steven M. Lowy said last week in a conference call with analysts and investors.

Westfield has $8 billion of borrowing capacity on hand, and is thus far acting along, the Wall Street Journal reporter earlier, citing people familiar with the matter.

General Growths official committee of unsecured creditors supports Simons offer, which would pay the debt holders in cash. Under the Brookfield-based offer, General Growth would pay unsecured creditors with a mix of cash and equity should it use only Brookfields investment, Nolan said. By selling unsecured debt and issuing shares as well, General Growth would be able to pay cash to unsecured creditors who dont want equity, he said.

Hawaiian Land

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It might sound like ridiculous oversharing, but Blippy is serious. While there already are plenty of Web sites focused on what people are purchasing, the sites founders think it offers a new way to learn about deals and new products. And knowing your spending habits are being transmitted to a flock of friends might make you think twice before spending $500 on a pair of designer shoes. Charities could use Blippy to show the public that their donations are being used responsibly, too.

Co-founded by entrepreneur Philip Kaplan, the joker behind a profane Web site that mocked failed startups during the dot-com bust, Blippy encourages you to connect credit cards and accounts at e-commerce sites like eBay and Apples iTunes Store to your profile on the site. Then, whenever you buy something in person or on the Web - a cup of coffee at Starbucks or, say, a pair of boots at Zappos.com - the purchase is immediately posted for your friends to see and comment on. Theyd see something like “Joe1234 spent $2.98 at iTunes.”

Some purchases are more descriptive than others. If you buy an iPhone game Blippy can show its name, not just how much you paid. But - at least for now - if you spend $250 at a grocery store using a linked credit card, Blippy would just indicate the total amount rather than everything you put on the conveyor belt. Users can enter more details about their transactions on their own.

Blippy doesnt store its users credit card numbers. Instead you give the site the username and password that you use to access your credit card account online. Other sites, such as the popular personal finance site Mint.com, have a similar setup.

For those wary of baring all, Blippy lets you hide individual purchases from your activity stream or make it so only approved friends can see your transactions.

The idea for the site emerged late last year when Ashvin Kumar and Chris Estreich, the sites other founders, started thinking about how people are comfortable sharing all sorts of information on social networking sites, but not financial transactions. They decided to see what would happen if people could easily share that information with others.

At first, it was a tough sell. Kumar says the founders needed to convince a handful of friends to try an early version of the site. Even Kaplan admits that at first he shared only one credit card that he didnt use that much.

“There is a hump people need to get over, including me, before you feel comfortable sharing this information,” he says.

But since launching publicly in January, Blippy has gotten more than 13,000 consumers to do the same.

Chris Broyles, a Blippy user who works as a litigation consultant in Chicago, understands the site isnt for everyone - including his wife. Still, he sees it as a way to keep track of what hes spending while saving up to move his family of five to a new home.

Broyles shares two credit cards and several online accounts on Blippy and says it has helped him cut down on nonessential purchases. He was recently tempted by a $300 Blu-ray disc player from Best Buy, but hesitated when he thought about how the information would be shared and where the money could go instead.

Blippy has also piqued the interest of investors, snagging about $1.7 million from Sequoia Capital and Charles River Ventures, where Kaplan had been the entrepreneur in residence. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams also has invested.

Kaplan thinks there are several ways Blippy could make money. Companies might pay to mine the posted data in order to get in touch with their best customers. Blippy also could link to products that users have bought online and get a fee when another Blippy user clicked through and purchased the same thing.

Kumar noted that people were initially wary of sharing such detailed information on sites such as Facebook, but now its common.

“For people that already talk about what they buy on Twitter, this could be harnessing that kind of energy,” says Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

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Investors turned to the securities after the government- supported companies said they would buy about $200 billion of loans out of their mortgage bonds, mostly from higher-coupon debt, whose holders are now suffering losses following the announcement. The shift will leave investors with cash to reinvest as the Federal Reserves purchases of $1.25 trillion of home-loan debt ends next month.

“Itll be a cushion for the end of the Fed program,” said David Cannon, global co-head of asset- and mortgage-backed securities at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut, a unit of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. “It probably makes sense for most of it to come right back into mortgages again,” he said, referring to the cash used to buy the delinquent loans.

Elsewhere in credit markets, the extra yield investors demand to own company bonds instead of government debt was unchanged at 170 basis points yesterday, while overall yields rose to 4.16 percent from 4.14 percent a day earlier, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynchs Global Broad Market Corporate Index.

Bond Sales Tumble

Sales of corporate bonds tumbled to $23.5 billion this week, 61 percent below the average over the previous year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Man Group Plc, the largest publicly traded hedge-fund company, sold 600 million euros ($821 million) of five-year bonds in its first issue in the common European currency. Life Technologies Corp., a provider of gene-analysis tools for medical research, sold $1.5 billion of debt to repay loans.

Songa Offshore SE, the Norwegian owner of drilling rigs, and capacitor-maker Kemet Corp. postponed high-yield debt offerings in the U.S. yesterday, joining at least seven other companies that have pulled or delayed deals worldwide since Jan. 21, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Benchmark gauges of credit risk in Europe rose today after European leaders stopped short of offering concrete steps in their announcement that theyd reached an agreement to contain Greeces budget crisis.

European leaders promised to take “determined and coordinated action” on Greece if needed while ordering the country to get the euro-regions biggest budget deficit under control.

Lot of Questions

“There are a lot of questions that are going to need to be answered,” Marvin Barth, chief investment strategist at Santa Monica, California-based Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “In particular, what tests is Greece going to have to get whatever aid might be available.”

High-Yield Bonds

The Markit iTraxx Crossover Index, a credit-default swaps index linked to the debt of 50 European companies with mostly high-yield credit ratings, climbed 21.5 basis points to 497.5, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. prices at 10:09 a.m. in London. An increase signals a deterioration in perceptions of credit quality. The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index fell 3.25 basis points to a mid-price of 98.25 basis points yesterday, according to Barclays Capital.

A basis point, or 0.01 percentage point, equals $1,000 a year on a contract protecting $10 million of debt.

Credit-default swaps on the SovX Western Europe Index, which is linked to the debt of 15 governments, were little changed at 94.5 basis points, according to CMA DataVision. Swaps on Greece were unchanged at 353.5, after soaring to a record 428 on Feb. 4, CMA prices show. Portugal fell 3 basis points to 202, Spain was unchanged at 137.5 and Italy fell 1 basis point to 128. Contracts on Portugal dropped 3 basis points to 202.

Massive Exaggeration

“Two years ago, the market thought there was no difference in risk between Greece, Spain and Portugal, and now people say theyre on the verge of default,” Pierre Cailleteau, head of global sovereign ratings at Moodys Investors Service, said yesterday in an interview in New York. “Thats a massive exaggeration. Thats not a measured way to look at problems.”

Credit-default swaps are derivatives, or contracts with values derived from assets or events, including stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates or the weather. Banks, hedge funds and insurance companies use the swaps to insure bonds and loans against default or to speculate on the creditworthiness of countries and companies.

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