HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan on Thursday said the U.S. economy is "clearly on the edge" of a recession.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp announced a management shake-up at its loss-making online division on Thursday, thrusting an outsider into a prominent position ahead of a proposed merger with Yahoo Inc .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The widening U.S. housing finance crisis prompted calls in Congress on Thursday for new scrutiny of bond insurers and credit raters, while Senate Democrats offered a rescue plan for troubled homeowners.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Thursday minimized the compensation it owes Exxon Mobil Corp for an oil project, the latest volley in hard-ball negotiations that have prompted a threat to stop sending America oil.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - GMAC LLC, the auto and mortgage lender controlled by Cerberus Capital, may face "substantial difficulty" if credit markets do not improve, Cerberus founder Stephen Feinberg wrote in a January letter to investors, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most U.S. consumers think domestic manufacturers no longer offer the best quality or make the most innovative products, a survey released Thursday shows.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times said on Thursday it will eliminate 100 newsroom jobs as the newspaper girds for a weaker economy and an overall decline in print advertising and circulation revenues.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The recapitalization of U.S. bond insurers hit by the subprime mortgage crisis could occur within a couple of days, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer said on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - MBIA Inc said that Bill Ackman's estimate that the bond insurer faces more than $11 billion of potential losses is based on faulty assumptions, and is clearly intended to help Ackman's bet that the company's shares will drop.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, will receive a base salary of $3.4 million and could earn another estimated $16 million in annual bonuses as part of his promotion to News Corp's head of Asian and European operations, the company said on Thursday.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) - Top U.S. chief executives expect their industries to fare worse over the next six months as economic growth slows to a snail's pace, whether the United States is in recession or not.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Glassware maker Libbey Inc posted a surprise fourth-quarter profit, driven by higher sales, lower expenses and a litigation settlement, and forecast first-quarter sales above Wall Street's view, sending its shares up as much as 21 percent.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission aims to increase the transparency of Wall Street's disclosures and has more than 3 dozen investigations underway amid the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis, Chairman Christopher Cox said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday held the door open to more interest rate cuts to help the struggling U.S. economy, but told Congress the central bank expects growth to pick up later in the year.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Thursday as it benefited from higher pricing and a focus on more profitable branded tires, and its shares jumped as much as 9.6 percent.

PARIS (Reuters) - Jerome Kerviel, the trader blamed by Societe Generale for heavy losses, had a trading deficit of 2.2 billion euros ($3.2 billion) as early as June last year, an adviser to his lawyer told Paris Match.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. trade deficit narrowed more than expected in December as record exports remained one bright spot of a weakening economy, while claims for jobless benefits also fell last week, data showed on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Diversified manufacturer Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd's quarterly net profit jumped due to a large gain on the sale of its Bobcat machinery division, but results fell slightly short of Wall Street forecasts.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Marriott International Inc , the No. 2 U.S. hotel operator, lowered its 2008 profit forecast on Thursday, as the slowing U.S. economy begins to sap travel demand.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Internet firm Softbank Corp, under pressure from both sides in Microsoft Corp's bid for Yahoo Inc, may hold out for more leverage but is unlikely to derail the bid.