Carol Bartz, fired as chief executive of Yahoo Inc. last September, wishes she did one thing differently during her troubled tenure."I probably wouldn't have said the F-word,'' Ms. Bartz said at a Women in the Economy conference this month organized by The Wall Street Journal. Fellow Yahoo directors discouraged her frequent use of swear words, people familiar with the matter have said. Yet Ms. Bartz, 63 years old, used profanity to energize employees about beating competitors while successfully running Autodesk Inc. for 14 years. Staffers there "loved me,'' she told me recently. Four-letter words language "show passion and commitment.''Generally, cursing at work can damn your career. Managers who cuss appear unprofessional and out of control, executive coaches and recruiters say. But that's not always the ... Continue reading →

BY RUTH SIMON Charles Ward fell behind on his mortgage in September, just as his late wife began a losing battle with lung cancer and her medical costs soared. His lender seized his $2,958 federal tax refund and has taken a $131 bite from each of his last four monthly Social Security checks. "What little money I had saved up has just disappeared," says Mr. Ward, a 71-year-old former truck driver who bought his $128,000 home in Nelsonville, Ohio, in 2008. He receives about $200 a month in food stamps and takes on odd jobs to make ends meet. Mr. Ward's lender isn't ...BY RUTH SIMON Charles Ward fell behind on his mortgage in September, just as his late wife began a losing battle with ... Continue reading →

BY JEAN EAGLESHAM A law-enforcement group formed to go after wrongdoing related to the financial crisis needs more investigators in order to rev up its work, New York's attorney general said. More than 100 people now work for the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a coalition of U.S. and state regulators and prosecutors announced by President Barack Obama in January. President Obama said the group would "turn the page on an era of recklessness" by bringing lawbreakers to justice. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, one of the five officials in charge of the group, said it is making impressive progress but could ...BY JEAN EAGLESHAM A law-enforcement group formed to go after wrongdoing related to the financial crisis needs more investigators in order to ... Continue reading →

BY NICK TIMIRAOS AND JOANN S. LUBLIN Fannie Mae has narrowed its search for a new chief executive to two finalists and could soon offer the position to Timothy Mayopoulos, the mortgage-finance company's general counsel and lead candidate, according to people familiar with the matter. But the potential promotion could force Mr. Mayopoulos to take a big pay cut, raising new challenges for Fannie's board and its government regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which in March pledged to cap pay for the next chief executive at around $500,000. As Fannie's general counsel, Mr. Mayopoulos stands to make up to $2.66 million in annual salary and deferred ...BY NICK TIMIRAOS AND JOANN S. LUBLIN Fannie Mae has narrowed its search for a new chief executive ... Continue reading →