Telling your waitress that the lukewarm coffee she just brought is OK might cost you more than aggravation — it might cost you money, too.

Consumers who lie to avoid confrontation are more likely to reward the people who have irritated them, scientists now say. So in the case of the server who brings unpalatable food or drink, that can translate into a bigger tip, said Jennifer J. Argo, co-author of a new study that explored the impact of these little consumer white lies.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A 4% mortgage sounds too good to be true — and for more than 90% of borrowers, it is.

The average rate for a 30-year mortgage dropped below 4% earlier this month for the first time, hitting 3.94%, Freddie Mac reported.

But at the same time, LendingTree (TREE) reported that the average rate offered to borrowers by its network of lenders was about 4.32%.

Only about 9% of LendingTree borrowers got loans below 4%. About a third got loans between 4.5% and 5%.

Those rates are still low, but a half point rate difference adds about $700 a year to the payments on a $200,000 mortgage.

NEW YORK — Maybe gold isn’t so safe after all.

After months of setting record after record, the price of gold plunged $104, or 5.6 percent, Wednesday to finish at $1,757 per ounce. That was the biggest percentage drop in nearly 3½ years and a blow to investors who thought the metal could go only one way — up.

“Gold was considered a safe haven for years because it wasn’t popular, but now it’s popular,” said Cetin Ciner, a professor of finance at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. “You can’t have a fad and a safe haven at the same time.”

NEW YORK — Stocks lost most of their gains late in the trading session Thursday, closing mixed after an unexpected decrease in unemployment claims sent the market slightly higher earlier even as a stalemate continued in Washington over how to avoid a U.S. debt default.

The government said first-time applications for unemployment benefits fell to 398,000 last week, the lowest level in four months. That’s a sign that employers are laying off fewer workers.

The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen over the previous four days over worries that the U.S. might default on its debt as soon as next week if Congress doesn’t raise the country’s borrowing limit.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Prospects for a debt-ceiling deal dimmed late Friday afternoon when talks broke down between President Obama and House speaker John Boehner.

Lawmakers will continue negotiating, and a deal is still ultimately possible, but what happens if lawmakers fail to act by the Aug. 2 deadline?

Well, it’s hard to say, because lawmakers have never before put the United States in a position where it can’t pay all its bills.

But it wouldn’t be pretty. A failure to raise the debt ceiling would likely send shockwaves through the underpinnings of the financial system — and possibly ripple out to individual investors and consumers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks ended Thursday’s session mostly flat, erasing earlier losses as commodities and energy stocks climbed higher. The gains in oil offset weakness in the banking and technology sectors.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 14 points, or 0.1%, to 12,285. The Dow was down as much as 107 points earlier in the session.

All of the 16 women who lost their jobs were middle-age, long-time employees who were happy to retain their jobs after the casino’s sale only to lose them because of their appearances in a skimpy costume.

Union officials say that Resorts is using the 1920s flapper-style uniforms as a way to get rid of older cocktail waitresses in order to cultivate a younger clientel

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration wants to shrink the government’s role in the mortgage system — a proposal that would remake decades of federal policy aimed at getting Americans to buy homes and would probably make home loans more expensive across the board.

The Treasury Department rolled out a plan Friday to slowly dissolve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored programs that bought up mortgages to encourage more lending and required bailouts during the 2008 financial crisis.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — MySpace said Tuesday that it is laying off 500 employees, cutting its staff by 47%.

“Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability,” CEO Mike Jones said in a written statement. “These changes were purely driven by issues related to our legacy business, and in no way reflect the performance of the new product.”

CHICAGO — Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many baby boomers are facing a personal finance disaster just as they’re hoping to retire.

Starting in January, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years.

The boomers, who in their youth revolutionized everything from music to race relations, are set to redefine retirement. But a generation that made its mark in the tumultuous 1960s now faces a crisis as it hits its own mid-60s.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The gap between the rich and the middle class is larger than it has ever been due to the bursting of the housing bubble.

The richest 1% of U.S. households had a net worth 225 times greater than that of the average American household in 2009, according to analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. That’s up from the previous record of 190 times greater, which was set in 2004.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The nomination of North Carolina bank commissioner Joseph Smith to head the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac died on Wednesday as the U.S. Senate adjourned without acting on it.

While President Barack Obama could renominate Smith to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the new Senate convenes on January 5, he may be reluctant to do so, given Republican opposition. The Republicans’ hand will be even stronger next year because they will gain five more seats in the Senate.