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After a 38-day trip through bankruptcy, small business lender CIT Group emerged on Thursday and says it’s ready to charge back into the lending fray. Its next challenge: Rebuilding relationships with customers damaged by the bank’s struggles.

The Melting Pot once counted CIT (CIT, Fortune 500) as one of its preferred lenders. The fondue franchise has 145 restaurants in 37 states, and opened more than a dozen new outposts each year in 2007 and 2008. But as CIT’s troubles deepened, its lending to franchise operators — once a core part of its customer base — came to a near standstill.

None of the seven Melting Pot franchises that opened this year borrowed money from CIT, or any other national bank: "We didn’t do one loan with a major player," said Dan Stone, director of franchise development for Tampa, Fla.-based Melting Pot.

The CIT account representative that worked with Melting Pot has left. "Even if things turn around, we’ve lost that relationship and knowledge of our concept," Stone said. "We have to start over again."

CIT will be starting over with many customers. In 2008, it was the top lender through the Small Business Administration’s flagship financing program, investing $771 million to fund more than 1,200 loans. But this year, as CIT struggled unsuccessfully to avoid bankruptcy, its lending dried up. In the SBA’s 2009 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, CIT funded just 142 loans, totaling $105 million.

Now CIT says it’s ready to reopen its coffers. The bank announced this week that it has $500 million in funding available to make SBA-backed loans this year. To win back potential customers, CIT plans to waive packaging fees for the loans for 90 days starting Monday.

Given that CIT was the No. 1 SBA lender in the U.S. for nine years straight, people should have no qualms about seeking financing from the company now that it’s back in the lending business, said Chris Reilly, president of CIT Small Business Lending.

"We have the infrastructure to lend that much money," she said. "The team and I are pretty confident the demand is out there. Realistically, I think there is going to be a lot of competition for loans."

Financing the retail supply chain

While the SBA-backed loan program took a hit, CIT Group’s factoring business — a type of financing that lets companies borrow against their customer invoices — remained relatively unscathed.

An estimated 2,000 manufacturers rely on CIT’s factoring services to finance the goods they supply to some 300,000 retailers. That cash pipeline kept operating through the past year and was unaffected by CIT’s bankruptcy. But there, too, CIT has some rebuilding to do.

The company pumped $23 Same day payday loans.7 billion through its factoring business in the first nine months of 2009 — down 32% from the same period a year earlier. The weak retail environment reduced demand for CIT’s services, but customers have also expressed wariness about running credit balances with a financially strapped lender. In a recent regulatory filing, CIT said that the uncertainty surrounding its business resulted in a "virtual standstill" in signing new business last quarter.

Meanwhile, existing customers took steps to shield themselves from CIT’s risks. Hooker Furniture, a home furniture manufacturer in Martinsville, Va., changed the terms of its financing agreement with CIT in July, when it heard the company was considering bankruptcy. Hooker now retains ownership of its customer invoices. Hooker also immediately drew down its entire available credit balance with CIT in July, to avoid losing access to the money.

"It’s a better situation for us going forward," said Larry Ryder, Hooker’s executive vice president of finance and administration. But with those new safeguards in place, Hooker is happy to remain a CIT customer, he said.

Many customers, like Hooker, changed their financing terms and drew down their credit lines in recent months, CIT said in its filing. The company held credit balances of $898 million for its factoring clients as of Sept. 30, down from $3 billion nine months earlier.

But analysts think CIT has a fighting chance to get back onto solid ground.

As far as bankruptcies go, CIT’s was relatively short, and the company was savvy in structuring its reorganization plan, particularly in terms of debt, said Brian Charles, an equity analyst with New York-based brokerage firm RW Pressprich & Co.

The company has not only reduced its debt by $10.5 billion, but has pushed out the maturity of its remaining debt to 2013 and beyond, he said, buying CIT time to reinvest in the parts of its business that will be most profitable.

"They can work off of its existing portfolio and realize the cash flow from that without having to worry about debt maturities in the near term," Charles said. "This gives them the ability to put that back into the business."

The money is ready to flow again. Now CIT has to convince borrowers that it’s back in the game.

"We as a company would be willing to work with CIT again," said Dan Stone of Melting Pot. "But I could understand if some franchises were hesitant and, if given the option of going with a local bank that hasn’t had as much difficulty, would do that instead." 

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Lending cash to individuals looking for cash advance or payday loans.

Uncle Sam is getting picky.

Despite two wars, President Obama’s 30,000 troop surge in Afghanistan and the Army’s goal to swell its ranks by 15,000 this fiscal year, potential recruits are finding that it’s a lot tougher to sign up.

"Military recruiting is through the roof," said Mackenzie Eaglen, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. "In fact, they’re turning people away."

The dismal job market has put the armed forces in an enviable position. Unemployment is at a 26-year high of 10.2%, and the U.S. economy has lost 7.3 million jobs since the start of 2008. This has prompted many Americans to consider the military for work, despite the prospect of armed combat in Afghanistan or Iraq.

"It’s just like any industry, when there’s a glut of employees vying for a certain number of jobs, the employer can be a little bit more choosey," said Army spokesman Wayne Hall, a civilian at the Pentagon. "That’s just the nature of supply and demand."

The Department of Defense said that all branches of the armed services — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps - met or exceeded recruitment goals in fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30. That’s the first time that’s happened since 1973, when the draft ended and U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam.

Raising the bar

"We have tightened up our standards," said Army recruiting spokesman Douglas Smith, a civilian at Fort Knox, Ky. "There are types of waivers that we are currently not considering that we have considered in the past."

The Army is no longer giving second chances to recruits who fail the alcohol and drug tests, as it did during the height of the Iraq war several years ago, said Smith, nor is it providing waivers to overweight recruits or high school dropouts. The Army also no longer overlooks criminal infractions for even relatively minor offenses, like excessive parking tickets, he said.

"We’ve had such a dramatic increase in the unemployment rate in the last couple of years, it’s clear that’s had a dramatic effect," said Beth Asch, military recruiting expert for the Rand Corporation, a non-profit think tank based in Santa Monica, Calif payday loans for self employed. "It’s clear that they’re being picky. People who would have been marginal before are not being considered."

A more educated recruit

Applicants in 2009 were of an unusually high academic quality, according to the Army, which recruited 13,337 enlisted men and women with higher education, more than double the 2001 tally.

That included 523 recruits with master’s degrees and 19 with post-doctorate degrees, compared with 2001, when the Army attracted 117 recruits with masters’ degrees and none in the post-doctorate category.

The highly educated recruits probably entered the military as corporals or specialists making less than $22,000 a year, said Smith. Most enlisted personnel can expect to earn $1,568.70 a month by the end of their first year, which means an annual salary of $18,824.40, according to the DOD.

Asch said that workers at the top end of the educational scale are often involved in research, but a dearth in funding is prompting them to find work elsewhere, including the military.

"It’s really breathtaking, to get someone with a doctorate degree," she said. "That’s really unusual."

In it for the long haul

Sgt. 1st Class Marcus Pinkey, an Army recruiter in Carlisle, Penn. since 2002, said that some of the more seasoned recruits have an easier time adjusting to military life, because they’ve already experienced hardship.

"They know that it’s something that they have to do for the survival for their family," he said.

He added that the vetting has gotten tougher, to ensure that recruits are committed to a military life.

"The screening process is a little more stringent, to make sure that people want to stay in for a longer period of time, instead of just waiting for the economy to get better," he said. 

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Learn what faxless payday loans are and how online payday loans can be used as a quick fix to pay off your bills.

Looking for a holiday gift for the kids that might have lasting meaning? There’s an abundance of well-written, even entertaining books on the market that teach kids lessons in finance.

The Berenstain Bears’ Trouble With Money — Stan & Jan Berenstain, Random House Children’s Books, $3.99

From junk food to environmental pollution, the Berenstain Bears haven’t been afraid of tackling the issues since they first appeared on the children’s literature scene with 1962’s "The Big Honey Hunt." This title, first published in 1983, teaches kids ages 4 to 7 the basics about money. It’s not just about spending, but earning. Brother and Sister Bear find ways to build up a stash of quarters so they can play video games. Along the way, they learn how to find a middle ground between being spendthrifts and little misers.

The Teens Guide to Personal Finance — Joshua Holmberg, David Bruzzese, iUniverse Inc., $12.95

Designed for young adults taking the first step to learn about money management, "The Teens Guide to Personal Finance" lays out the basics concepts of saving, borrowing, investing and maximizing tax advantages. It’s all explained in a way that’s easy to understand with graphics, work sheets and action plans.

Prepare to be a Teen Millionaire — Kimberly Spinks-Burleson, Robyn Collins, Health Communications Inc., $16.95

The authors are founders of a Texas-based business magazine called "Millionaire Blueprints" and here they compile some of the best advice from some of their issues on how successful young entrepreneurs turn their vision for a business into reality. The book features the real stories of successful teens. It details how they raised money, promoted their business ideas and other aspects of launching their ventures.

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A senior U.S. lawmaker unveiled a much-anticipated proposal on Wednesday that would give government regulators the power to break up financial firms that pose a risk to economic stability.

Democratic Representative Paul Kanjorski, chairman of the House capital markets subcommittee, said his proposal would give that power to a Financial Services Oversight Council, subject to review by the president in some cases.

He offered the plan as an amendment to a bill being debated and amended this week by the House Financial Services Committee as part of a broad push by the Obama administration and Democrats to tighten bank and capital market regulation.

“If my amendment is accepted, financial firms would need to demonstrate to regulators that their failure would not undermine the financial stability of the American economy,” Kanjorski said in a statement.

“No firm should be considered to be ‘too big to fail.’ Financial firms that want to play in a casino need to have their own resources to cover their bets and not assume that tax dollars are available in reserve if their bets fail,” he said.

Financial companies could appeal council actions, under the bill, according to a summary.

Size would be one factor considered by the council in determining whether to take action against a firm. Other factors would include “scope, scale, exposure, leverage, interconnectedness of financial activities,” the summary said.

Actions that could be taken would include “modifying existing prudential standards, imposing conditions on or terminating activities, limiting mergers and acquisitions, and in the most extreme cases, breaking up the company,” it said cash til payday.

Kanjorski added he will coordinate with the European Union on the issue. “After meeting with many European Union officials and members of the European Parliament earlier this year, I realized that we share many of the same concerns,” he said.

EU regulators are considering measures to force banks across Europe to sell assets and sometimes even break up to compensate for massive state aid they have received.

BIG BANKS WARN

On Monday, some of the world’s largest financial firms urged Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat, not to pursue big bank break-up legislation.

The Financial Services Forum, a lobbying group for CEOs of firms such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, said empowering regulators to break up “too-big-to-fail” banks could cause “long-term damage to the U.S. economy.”

But small and mid-sized banks, which have demonstrated considerable political clout through this year’s financial reform debate, support break-up legislation, which would cut their largest rivals down to size, lobbyists said.

Giving break-up power to regulators would be “a good thing,” said Paul Miller, a policy analyst at investment firm FBR Capital Markets, on Wednesday. 

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U.S. consumers are increasingly late paying off loans on their primary home, as the highest unemployment in a quarter of a century pushes up delinquency rates on home loans and most other types of loans, according to a monthly report by the Equifax credit bureau.

“Every major consumer product line, in terms of delinquency, is up again, except for (credit) cards,” said Dann Adams, president of U.S. Information Systems.

Among U.S. homeowners with mortgages, a record 7.65 percent were at least 30 days late on payments in September, up from 7.58 percent the previous month. The rate of delinquencies is more than double the 3.55 percent rate in September 2007, according to Equifax.

The rate of subprime mortgage delinquencies rose slightly to 41.36 percent. Early-stage delinquencies are an initial warning sign of potential future defaults, which in turn drive home foreclosures. The large supply of bank-owned homes reaching the market has helped prevent a strong recovery in prices.

Home equity and auto loan delinquencies also rose, both sequentially and from a year ago, but delinquencies on student loans have held steady during the recession.

Demand for student loans is soaring, up 15 percent from a year ago, as more people stay in school longer or go back to school to improve their job prospects. It is the only area where credit is expanding.

“We’ve never seen this dramatic growth before,” Adams said about student loans.

BORROWERS FALL BEHIND

Data for the credit trends report is based on Equifax’s more than 200 million files of U.S. consumers using credit.

A notable characteristic of the current economic downturn is that, unlike in past recessions, borrowers are more likely to fall behind on multiple types of credit, rather than just one or two.

Many households are staying current on credit cards and auto loans rather than on other types of loans, because cards carry higher interest rates and are a last resort pay for necessities.

For some, the burden is too much. Personal bankruptcies continue to rise, up 40 percent from a year ago. Filings of 1 million so far this year are approaching 2008’s total of 1.1 million.

Meanwhile, the U.S. jobless rate — at 9.8 percent, the highest since 1983 — is both causing consumers to seek out less credit, and lenders to offer fewer loans to limit risk.

NERVOUSNESS OVER JOBS, HOME PRICES

Consumers have become so leery of debt that total consumer debt has fallen by more than $440 billion, or 3.8 percent, from its peak in the third quarter of 2008, to about $11 trillion. 

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U.S. auto parts maker Delphi ended four years in bankruptcy Tuesday, emerging from Chapter 11 as a private company and removing a major uncertainty for former parent General Motors Co.

Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy Oct. 8, 2005, fired thousands of workers, divested several businesses and agreed to sell its steering systems operations and four plants back to GM for the reorganization.

The parts maker completed the sale of most of its operations to a group that acquired its bankruptcy financing during the four-years of court protection.

Rodney O’Neal will remain chief executive of the company and the current leadership will remain in place, Delphi said in a statement low fee pay day loans.

The group acquiring the now much-smaller Delphi is led by Elliott Management Corp and Silver Point Capital LP. It has agreed to forgive nearly $3.5 billion of bankruptcy loans and invest $750 million in capital in the new company.

Other parts of the company will be sold back to GM and the rest will be liquidated under the plan approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in July. 

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Stocks rallied Wednesday, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 ending at 11-month highs as investors welcomed a Federal Reserve report that indicated the economy is stabilizing.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 50 points, or 0.5%, ending just short of a 10-month high.

The S&P 500 (SPX) index gained 8 points, or 0.8%, ending the session at an 11-month high.

The Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 22 points, or 1.1%, ending the session at the highest point since Oct. 1.

Stocks struggled in the first 30 minutes of trading and then made a move higher. Investors initially took a step back after the release of the Fed’s "Beige Book" survey of the economy, but then redoubled their efforts late in the session.

"It’s the combination of the weak dollar lifting a lot of companies with international operations and a lot of news coming out of all the techs," said Dave Rovelli, managing director of U.S. equity trading at Canaccord Adams.

A variety of heavily-weighted Dow components rose, including Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), 3M (MMM, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) and United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500).

Citigroup’s annual tech conference, Apple’s afternoon media event and mid-quarter updates from Altera (ALTR) and Texas Instruments (TXN, Fortune 500) were among the tech events Rovelli cited.

With the S&P 500 up more than 50% off the March 9 lows, stocks are going to be facing some challenges on the technical side of trading going forward, Rovelli said, as the S&P 500 bats against the 1040 to 1045 level.

Beige Book: The Federal Reserve said reports from its 12 districts showed economic conditions continued to improve in July and August, although consumer spending remained weak. Most of the regions said that there was some improvement in the residential real estate market although home prices continued to slip.

Apple: CEO Steve Jobs delivered the keynote address at the company’s media event in the afternoon, making his first appearance at an Apple event in nearly a year. Jobs returned to work this summer after taking a medical leave for the first six months of the year.

Jobs announced a new version of iTunes. Apple also said the company’s 8 GB iPod Nano will include a built-in video camera and FM radio.

Earlier Wednesday, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) cut prices on its line of iPods by as much as $120.

Shares closed 1% lower.

Currencies and commodities: The greenback held close to yearly lows versus the euro and Australian currency, and two-month lows versus the yen.

The weak dollar has boosted oil, gold and other dollar-traded commodity prices. Those prices have also been on the rise on bets of a global economy recovery.

U.S. light crude oil for October delivery rose 21 cents to settle at $71.31 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for December delivery fell $2.70 to settle at $997.10 an ounce, after topping the key $1,000 level earlier in the session for the second day in a row.

Bonds: Treasury prices ended higher, erasing losses after Treasury saw solid demand for a $20 billion auction of ten-year notes. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note fell to 3.47% from 3.48% late Tuesday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

On Thursday, Treasury auctions $12 billion in 30-year bonds.

McDonald’s: The fast-food chain said global sales at restaurants open a year or more rose 2.2% in August, the slowest growth in nearly a year. Weakness in Asia and a slowdown in the U.S. countered strength in Europe. Shares of McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500), a Dow component, slumped 2%.

Other company news: Biotech Vivus (VVUS) reported positive results from two late-stage studies of its experimental weight loss drug, Qnexa. Shares gained 71%.

World markets: Global markets were mixed. In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 crossed the 5,000 mark, while France’s CAC 40 and the German DAX gained at least 1%. Asian markets ended lower.

Market breadth was positive. On the New York Stock Exchange, winners topped losers seven to three on volume of 1.24 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, advancers beat decliners by over two to one on volume of 2.51 billion shares.

How does your portfolio look nearly one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers? What investment choices hurt you or helped you the most? What strategy changes are you making for the future? Tell us your story. E-mail realstories@cnnmoney.com and your thoughts could be part of an upcoming story. For the CNNMoney.com Comment Policy, click here. 

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Oil prices Tuesday posted their biggest gain in almost three weeks as the dollar weakened and investors sought tangible commodities to hedge inflation.

U.S. crude for October delivery rose $3.08, or 4.5%, to $71.10 a barrel, the largest percentage increase since Aug. 19.

The gains came as the dollar slumped to its lowest level in almost a year against a basket of currencies and gold rallied above $1,000 an ounce, its highest since March 2008.

"Today’s move by gold above $1,000 probably triggered crude markets to rally, spurring inflation fears and causing traders to buy oil as a hedge against inflation," said analyst Eugen Weinberg at Commerzbank.

Global commodities, priced in dollars, tend to rise when the value of the U.S. currency falls.

"Nothing has really changed fundamentally," said trader Rob Montefusco at Sucden Financial. "It’s all technical levels blowing through as the dollar gets spanked against the euro and gold."

OPEC. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets in Vienna on Wednesday, with most analysts expecting OPEC, the source of more than a third of the world’s oil supply, to maintain its official price target of around $70.

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said producers and consumers are happy with current oil prices, though he added world crude inventories appeared too high free credit report.

"Nobody expects anything from them," said Weinberg at Commerzbank. "There are some other issues; compliance, non-OPEC production, and huge ventures worldwide that might still have an impact, but otherwise nobody expects them to cut any more production."

Oil prices, which fell 6.5% last week, have been trading in a range between $65 and $75 a barrel since the start of August, with prices swinging on economic data as investors seek clues about the speed of a recovery from the recession.

Investors will be on watch for inventory data, delayed by a day this week due to Monday’s Labor Day holiday.

The American Petroleum Institute’s petroleum stocks report will be delayed one day to Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. ET and Energy Information Administration snapshot of crude oil, distillates and gasoline stocks will be pushed out to Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.

Traders will also keep an eye out as Tropical Storm Fred formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean on Monday with top winds of 40 mph, but did not immediately threaten any land, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. 

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Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of top bond fund PIMCO, said in an interview on Friday the risk of stalled economic growth in 2010 is increasing, given a still-weak labor market.

While there are signs that economic recovery is taking shape, a soft job market and flat incomes could hinder a sustained recovery, El-Erian told Reuters after the release of the latest U.S. unemployment figures.

The Labor Department said the pace of U.S. job losses slowed in August, with employers cutting 216,000 jobs from payrolls, fewer than forecast, after a 276,000 drop in July. But the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent from 9.4 percent.

“The risk of a double dip for U.S. economic growth in 2010 is increasing,” said El-Erian, who oversees $850 billion in assets for Pacific Investment Management Co, also known as PIMCO.

“This challenges equity markets that are currently pricing a V-like recovery in corporate revenues and credit availability.”

The summer rally in equity markets and lower-quality bonds has outpaced what is warranted on the basis of forward-looking indicators for demand, revenue, profits and credit flows, El-Erian added.

The first week of September began in the red for U business cards.S. stocks as major indices dropped on Tuesday and never quite recovered. In late morning trade on Friday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 added 0.3 percent to stay above the key 1,000 level.

JOBS KEY TO SOLID RECOVERY

El-Erian said that especially with the drying-up in credit, employment and wages are the key to a sustainable recovery. The payroll data Friday confirmed that the transition from the boost from government stimulus and replenished inventories to an increase in consumer and corporate demand is “far from assured.”

“The unemployment rate is heading to 10 percent by the end of 2009 and, unfortunately, will stay at high levels for an unusually prolonged time,” he said. “The implications of a stubbornly high unemployment rate go well beyond economics as there are also important political and social dimensions.”

With a history of very flexible and responsive labor markets, the United States does not have sufficiently broad safety nets to deal well with high unemployment, El-Erian said.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Yahoo Inc. board member Carl Icahn has cut back his stake in Yahoo, selling nearly 13 million shares since last Thursday, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

Icahn Capital reported that the overall Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500) stake held by various Icahn-related funds was 4.48%, down from 5.38% as of June 30, according to Reuters data.

Icahn’s stock sales come one month after Yahoo struck a deal to outsource its search technology to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, Fortune 500), a partnership Icahn advocated.

Since the deal was announced, Yahoo’s stock price has declined nearly 16%, closing Monday at $14.49.

According to Monday’s filing, Icahn remained optimistic about Yahoo’s long-term prospects.

Icahn sold his Yahoo shares to better "balance" his portfolio of tech stocks and because the window for Yahoo directors and offices to sell stock would be closing after August 31, according to the filing.

"The reporting persons continue to believe in the wisdom of the Microsoft-Yahoo search transaction and fully support the performance of the Issuer’s CEO Carol Bartz," Icahn Capital said in its filing. 

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