Thursday December 20 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

CIBC May Take More Writedowns After ACA Downgrade - (www.bloomberg.com)
Banks Study Bailing Out Struggling Bond Insurer - (www.nytimes.com)
Southern California prices down 10% - (www.reuters.com)
Confidence in US housing market spirals lower - (www.guardian.co.uk)
Loan fiasco leads to money fund concerns – (www.investmentnews.com)
Deal With Devil Funded Carrera Crash Before Bust - (www.bloomberg.com)
Guilty plea in Bay Area subprime mortgage scam - (www.sfgate.com)
31 Accused in Florida of Falsifying Home Loans - (www.nytimes.com)
FBI Probes Virginia Mortgage Scam - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Financial Day of Reckoning Approaches - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/)
Why Michigan is a Basket Case - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/)
ECB's $500 Billion Loan Won't Help Solvency Problems - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/)

ECB $500B Injection Huge (5% of entire US Banking assets) - (www.bloomberg.com)
Another Fed gift to Wall Street - (articles.moneycentral.msn.com)
Colorado foreclosures set record - (www.denverpost.com)
Schwarzenegger Will 'Declare Fiscal Emergency' In Weeks - (www.nbc11.com)
Great Depression drives Bernanke's rescue - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Sallie Mae plunges on CEO remarks - (www.ft.com)
Cash-Starved Banks Jam The Fed's First Auction - (www.cnbc.com)
Morgan Stanley Posts Loss, Gets China Investment - (www.cnbc.com)


Other Stories:

Top 10 U.S. Housing Markets to Drop 8% in 2008 - (seekingalpha.com)
Japanese housing gloom adds to decline - (www.ft.com)

U.S. Foreclosures Rose 68 Percent in November, RealtyTrac Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Home construction drops to lowest level since '91 - (www.ajc.com)
Call for $75bn boost to US economy - (www.ft.com) ($)
In Reversal, Fed Approves Plan to Curb Risky Lending - (www.nytimes.com)
Fed proposes new rules to clean up mortgages - (www.rte.ie)
Insight into the decision-making process - (patrick.net)
Bail Out 4 All - (www.bailout4all.info)
Home sales in Southland plunge 43% - (www.latimes.com)
93 Banks Place Bids to Borrow From Fed - (www.nytimes.com)
Houston-area home sales stay on their downward path - (www.chron.com)
More in metro Atlanta seek mortgage help - (www.ajc.com)
N.Y. farms said facing economic hardship - (www.chron.com)
A Look at Past U.S. House Price Corrections - (efinancedirectory.com)
Dispelling The Myth That A House Is A Good Investment - (millionairemommynextdoor)
US housing crisis reverberates around the globe - (news.yahoo.com)
U.S. Housebuilder Confidence Declines To All Time Low - (www.allheadlinenews.com)
Housing - Simple As That - (www.financialsense.com)
Fed Shrugged as Subprime Crisis Spread - (www.nytimes.com)
Ambac, MBIA Outlook Lowered by S&P, ACA Cut to CCC - (www.bloomberg.com)
US Foreclosure Filings Up 68 Pct in Nov. - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Wall St. analysts still in fantasyland - (money.cnn.com)
S&P paints bleak picture of 2008 debt outlook - (www.ft.com) ($)
Money Market Rates Fall for Second Day After ECB Cash Injection - (www.bloomberg.com)
Now, Even Borrowers With Good Credit Pose Risks - (www.wsj.com) ($)
Analysts in fantasyland - (www.fortune.com)
Municipal Bonds Swoon With Worst Total U.S. Returns Since 1999 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Pension Fund Shortages Create Hard Choices - (www.nytimes.com)
How Hidden Incentives Distort Home Prices - (www.wsj.com) ($)
Year-end squeeze fears start to recede - (www.ft.com)
Cambridge suffers further loss - (www.ft.com)

Morgan Stanley Reports Worse-Than-Estimated Loss - (www.bloomberg.com)
Idaho in desperate act with Micron? - (www.43rdstateblues.com)

German Business Confidence Drops to Two-Year Low – (www.bloomberg.com)
Trichet Says Inflation Pickup to Be `More Protracted' - (www.bloomberg.com)
Northern Rock rescue to cost us £1,800 each - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
German business morale tumbles - (www.ft.com) ($)

Tale of Two Deficits: It’s All in the Accounting - (www.cfo.com)
A $500 Billion Correction - (www.nytimes.com)
A Crisis Long Foretold - (www.nytimes.com)
Hedge Fund Wizards - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Another Credit Minefield - (www.washingtonpost.com)