Sunday, September 21, 2008

Monday September 22 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Investor's Business Daily: Congress Lies Low To Avoid Bailout Blame - (www.investors.com) Is it all really Bush’s fault? This story lays much of blame of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac demise on Clinton and ties it to early/mid-90s decisions. Until now, Congress has been surprisingly passive. As Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid put it, "no one knows what to do" right now. Funny, since it was a Democrat-led Congress that helped cause the problems in the first place. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently barked "no" at reporters for daring to ask if Democrats deserved any blame for the meltdown, you saw denial in action. Pelosi and her followers would have you believe this all happened because of President Bush and his loyal Senate lapdog, John McCain. Or that big, bad predatory Wall Street banks deserve all the blame. "The American people are not protected from the risk-taking and the greed of these financial institutions," Pelosi said recently, as she vowed congressional hearings. Only one problem: It's untrue. Yes, banks did overleverage and take risks they shouldn't have. But the fact is, President Bush in 2003 tried desperately to stop Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from metastasizing into the problem they have since become. Here's the lead of a New York Times story on Sept. 11, 2003: "The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago." Bush tried to act. Who stopped him? Congress, especially Democrats with their deep financial and patronage ties to the two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie and Freddie. "These two entities — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — are not facing any kind of financial crisis," said Rep. Barney Frank, then ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. "The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." It's pretty clear who was on the right side of that debate. Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race. These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans. Lenders who refused would find themselves castigated publicly as racists. As noted this week in an IBD editorial, no fewer than four federal bank regulators scrutinized financial firms' books to make sure they were in compliance. Failure to comply meant your bank might not be allowed to expand lending, add new branches or merge with other companies. Banks were given a so-called "CRA rating" that graded how diverse their lending portfolio was. It was economic hardball. "We have to use every means at our disposal to end discrimination and to end it as quickly as possible," Clinton's comptroller of the currency, Eugene Ludwig, told the Senate Banking Committee in 1993. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac grew to become monsters, accounting for nearly half of all U.S. mortgage loans. At the time of their bailouts this month, they held $5.4 trillion in loans on their books. About $1.4 trillion of those were subprime. As they grew, Fannie and Freddie grew heavily involved in "community development," giving money to local housing rights groups and "empowering" the groups, such as ACORN, for whom Barack Obama once worked in Chicago. Warning signals were everywhere. Yet at every turn, Democrats in Congress halted attempts to stop the madness. It happened in 1992, again in 2000, in 2003 and in 2005. It may happen this year, too. Since 1989, Fannie and Freddie have spent an estimated $140 million on lobbying Washington. They contributed millions to politicians, mostly Democrats, including Senator Chris Dodd (No. 1 recipient) and Barack Obama (No. 3 recipient, despite only three years in office). The Clinton White House used Fannie and Freddie as a patronage job bank. Former executives and board members read like a who's who of the Clinton-era Democratic Party, including Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Jim Johnson and current Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Collectively, they and others made well more than $100 million from Fannie and Freddie, whose books were cooked Enron-style during the late 1990s and early 2000s to ensure executives got their massive bonuses. They got the bonuses. You get the bill.

Seven Days That Shook Wall Street - (www.businessweek.com) It was the week that shook the financial world to the core. On Friday, Sept. 12, traders left the New York Stock Exchange for the weekend. But key banking officials, facing the impending failure of the venerable Lehman Brothers investment house and a shaky outlook for two other huge financial players—investment firm Merrill Lynch (MER) and insurance giant American International Group (AIG)—began a series of weekend meetings in an effort to prevent a possible collapse of the global financial system. Over the next seven days, the nation's financial leaders, captained by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, produced a rapid succession of moves that reversed a decades-long trend toward financial deregulation and fundamentally changed the face of the American financial system. Lehman failed and Merrill was sold to Bank of America (BAC). The government took effective control of AIG in an $85 billion bailout. And, in the biggest intervention of all, officials proposed to purchase the troubled mortgage assets of financial firms, a move that could cost hundreds of billions of additional dollars.

Congressional Leaders Stunned by Dire Warnings - (www.nytimes.com) “When you listened to him describe it you gulped," said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. As Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, put it Friday morning on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” the congressional leaders were told “that we’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system, with all the implications here at home and globally.” Mr. Schumer added, “History was sort of hanging over it, like this was a moment.” When Mr. Schumer described the meeting as “somber,” Mr. Dodd cut in. “Somber doesn’t begin to justify the words,” he said. “We have never heard language like this.” “What you heard last evening,” he added, “is one of those rare moments, certainly rare in my experience here, is Democrats and Republicans deciding we need to work together quickly.”

Congressional Leaders Stunned That Bernanke Finally Admits The Truth - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) Congress was stunned because Bernanke finally admitted the truth (or at least came closer to doing so). Congress ought to be reading blogs rather than listening to clowns like Paulson and Bernanke. How many times have we heard Paulson the Parrot sing the praises of the strong dollar and the soundness of the US financial system? For more on the "sound banking system" please see You Know The Banking System Is Unsound When.... and Don't Worry, The Banking System Is Sound. The market called Bernanke's Bluff, and came close to a virtual meltdown.. For now, Armageddon was Postponed as Fed Intervenes In Money Markets. The list of reasons the financial system is unsound grew massively today, by the tune of a $1.2 trillion taxpayer funded bailout designed to bail out the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Earlier today Paulson has the gall to state "this will cost the tax payer less than the alternative".

Ron Paul video on the Glenn Beck show - (www.stockmarketimplode.comm) - It's funny to see Glenn Beck scramble to suck up to Ron Paul. What's sad the rest of the country still ignores him. But now it's too late seeds are sown, the damage is still to be done. Good points made that we are now handing the banks and FED more power after they completely screwed up. They ought to be tried and jailed, not given additional money.

Anticlimax of the Week: The Collapse of Ambac - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) In what would have been major news nearly any other week this year, MarketWatch is reporting Ambac warns downgrade would put unit under pressure. Moody's warned late Thursday that it may downgrade the main bond insurance units of Ambac (ABK) again because losses on mortgage-related securities they guaranteed are likely to get much worse. Ambac shares slumped 42% on Friday after the warning, while MBIA stock fell 8%. Ambac shares fell another 7% to $3.60 during after-hours trading. Ambac said late Friday that a downgrade would increase pressure on its financial services business, which includes guaranteed investment contracts, or GICs. GICs provide institutions a certain rate of return on specific amounts of money. Providers promise to pay an agreed rate and get the money to invest in return. Profits are made on the spread between the rate the provider offers the buyer and the returns it can generate itself.

Capitalism in convulsion: Toxic assets head towards the public balance sheet - (www.ft.com) In the space of just two momentous weeks, the landscape of global finance has been dramatically transformed. President George W. Bush’s administration has mounted a multi-billion-dollar rescue of the financial system at the cost of inflicting severe damage on the US model of free-market capitalism. Heavy costs will be inflicted on the American taxpayer, who is now subsidising Wall Street – and indeed financial institutions around the world – in a bail-out of unprecedented size.

O.C. Flippers Took WaMu for Millions - (www.ocregister.com) - Records show that Washington Mutual, America's largest savings and loan and one of its most precariously perched lending institutions, financed at least 43 mortgages worth $24.5 million on properties bought and sold by members of the Soni family since early 2007. Of the 22 homes sold in that period, at least six have become problems for Washington Mutual: Four were foreclosed, one received a notice of default and another was listed for sale at a $260,000 loss. Total value of WaMu's mortgages on the troubled properties: $2.7 million. Leonard and others said the Sonis' transactions probably escaped notice because Washington Mutual, like many other lenders:
· Allowed financing of property flips that occur less than 90 days after purchase. The Federal Housing Administration imposed a ban on financing 90-day flips in 2006. The FHA also requires a second appraisal for homes sold at a 100 percent gain less than 180 days after purchase.
· Relied heavily on imperfect fraud detection software. Computers are good at flagging statistical aberrations – such as unrealistic income statements – but can be deceived by knowledgeable and determined insiders.
· Did not check criminal backgrounds. The Sonis had been convicted in 2003 of numerous felonies for a real estate fraud scheme. WaMu checks criminal backgrounds of loan originators, such as outside mortgage brokers, but not borrowers.

The US economy nearly fell into a Great Great Depression - (housingpanic.blogspot.com) And we made it through the week, thanks to the desperate and illegal actions of Hank Paulson, Chris Cox, Ben Bernanke and George Bush. And now, we'll see a taxpayer-funded bailout of the banks and mortgage gamblers in the trillions, again to stave off a Great Great Depression. It may work. Or it may not. And all of this will be without an independent Congressional or criminal investigation. America has been taken over by corrupt interests, enabled by incompetent fools, powered by a subservient media, greased by realtors on commission, elected by ignorant voters.

Krugman: "We Are Socializing American Finance" - (bigpicture.typepad.com) Paul Krugman, an economics professor at Princeton University, talks about the U.S. government's move to cleanse banks of troubled assets and halt an exodus of investors from money markets and the outlook for the U.S. financial-services industry and economy


OTHER STORIES:

Bush Administration Seeks $700B for Economic Bailout - (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Historic Market Bailout Set in Motion - (www.washingtonpost.com)
U.S. readies massive toxic-debt plan - (www.reuters.com)
Treasury's Backstop Blues - (online.barrons.com)
Bailout Is As Big as Budget for Pentagon - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Wall Street Turmoil Continues To Ripple Through Main Street - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Costly Financial Rescue Could Narrow Economic Options Later - (www.nytimes.com)
Your Money at Work, Fixing Others’ Mistakes - (www.nytimes.com)
A Hail Mary Pass, but No Receiver in the End Zone - (www.nytimes.com)
A Professor and a Banker Bury Old Dogma on Markets - (www.nytimes.com)
Silicon Valley's rich Santa Clara County down more than 20% per year - (www.dqnews.com)
Sales up, prices down as foreclosures flood Southern CA - (www.latimes.com)
Rewind: SoCal prices down 34%, back to '03 levels - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
America's Surprising Foreclosure Hot Spots - (www.forbes.com)
'Short sellers' may be just an easy target - (www.latimes.com)
For Young Financiers, Risk Hits Home - (www.nytimes.com)
The Street Doesn't Look So Shiny Anymore - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Rescue Plan for Funds Will Come at a Cost - (www.nytimes.com)
10 astounding market facts from Wall Street's wildest week - (www.marketwatch.com)

U.S. Bailout Plan Calms Markets, But Struggle Looms Over Details - (www.ml-implode.com) - ""The plan offered to Congress also gives the Treasury legal immunity from any lawsuits. "Decisions by the secretary pursuant to...
The Underlying Basis of Finance & Credit - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Here is an oddly interesting observation: Over the entire history of human finance, the underlying premise of all credit trans...
Follow the money - (www.ml-implode.com) - The picture says it all
Hedge funds' misery as FSA bans short-selling on 32 firms - (www.ml-implode.com)
Details of a Rescue Plan Are Unclear, but Some Already Benefit - (www.ml-implode.com)
Paulson Proposes To Turn Into Financial Dictator - (www.ml-implode.com)
Panic Sweeping Wall Street May Leave No One Standing - (www.usnews.com)
Wall Street's bad dream - (www.economist.com)
Wall Street's Just Deserts - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Need a Job? $17,000 an Hour. No Success Required. - (www.nytimes.com)
Scrambling to Clean Up After A Category 4 Financial Storm - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Citigroup metals analysts ask why gold is not already at $2,000/oz - (www.ml-implode.com)
Bailout: Few Details Yet - (www.ml-implode.com)
New Bailout Proposal Costs Estimated at $500 Billion to $1 Trillion Listen to this article. - (www.ml-implode.com)

The Housing Slump Rolls On - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Federal Reserve and other central banks announce further measures - (www.federalreserve.gov)
Housing problems not solved by bailouts - (money.cnn.com)
U.S. should prevent a financial crisis chain reaction - (mdn.mainichi.jp)
The New Boomer Retirement Plan: Crash Pads? - (www.marketwatch.com)
Worst is yet to come, investment strategist warns - (www.marketwatch.com)
U.S. Credit Rating Could Be In Jeopardy - (www.nuwireinvestor.com)

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