UBS AG's wealth-management division says about 75% of its more than $10 billion in securities-based loans are used for purposes other than buying additional securities, including for purchasing real estate and cars or for paying tax bills and a child's tuition.

"Things can go very wrong with a margin loan," says Sue Stevens, director of Morningstar Inc.'s financial-planning practice. Although such loans can help meet short-term cash needs, she recommends that investors pay the loan back within three months, since the markets can shift quickly.

In total, margin debt at New York Stock Exchange member companies, as tracked by the exchange, was $222.78 billion in February, the most recent month for which figures are available, up from $173.22 billion at the end of 2003. That compares with a peak of $278.53 billion of margin debt outstanding in March 2000. For Wall Street, margin lending is becoming a bigger contributor to revenues.

"Schwab reports April activity that includes: Net new assets brought to the company by new and current clients in April 2006 totaled $4.6 bln. Total client assets were a record $1.300 trillion as of month-end April, up 22% from April 2005 and up 1% from March 2006. Client daily average trades, which include Schwab Investor Services asset-based trades and Schwab Institutional asset-based trades, were 293.3 thousand in April 2006, up 44% from April 2005 and up 5% from March 2006."

When the House had a chance to take a positive step to increase gasoline supplies and lower prices last week by making it easier for oil companies to expand their domestic refinery capacity -- Northeastern Republicans teamed with Democrats to bring the measure down. The U.S. now consumes 21 million barrels of oil a day but has a refining capacity of only 17 million. As usual, the loudest Congressional complainers about high gas prices voted as a bloc to keep supplies precariously low.

At GreenCity Lofts, a 62-unit development in Emeryville that touts sustainably-harvest wood floors and edible landscaping, 1,100-square-foot lofts that recently sold for about $650,000 are now being offered at $499,000.

A full 29% of people who took out mortgages or refinanced in 2005 have no equity or negative equity in their homes, according to Christopher Cagan of First American Real Estate Solutions, a data provider. That's a shocking figure, compared with 10.6% of people who took out mortgages in 2004.

The biggest and most underrated development in the U.S. economy over the past year is that the personal-savings rate went negative. In other words, Americans spent more money than they made last year -- for the first time since, oh, the Great Depression. The average worker hasn't participated in the economic recovery. Inflation-adjusted hourly and weekly wages are still below where they were at the start of the recovery in November 2001, points out the Economic Policy Institute.

As we all know, people made up for this by borrowing more, primarily from their homes. As short-term rates rose, however, home-equity loans and low-cost mortgages became less attractive. Home prices seem to be stalling out.