Thursday January 31 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Immigrants hit hard by slowdown, subprime crisis - Yahoo! News - (news.yahoo.com)
S&P Lowers or May Cut Ratings on $534 Billion of Mortgage Debt - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bond insurers bail-out 'unlikely' - (www.ft.com)
Broke houseowners linked to arsons - (articles.moneycentral.msn.com)
Brokers Asked to Refund Money After Buyers Walk Away (ah, another type of lawsuit being played out) - (futurerealestate.blogspot.com)
FGIC Loses AAA Rating at Fitch After Missing Deadline - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. 10-city house price drop a record in Nov - (www.reuters.com)
FBI Probe Excludes The Biggest Fraudster: Fannie Mae - (news.yahoo.com)
California Unemployment Agency Blames Housing - (edd.ca.gov)
The great fiscal stimulus package ... of 1929 - (www.marketwatch.com)
High anxiety for 401(k) investors - (www.latimes.com)
Basis hedge fund valued at 2 cents in dollar - (www.ft.com)
Subprime Lenders Get Big Accounting Break at SEC - (www.bloomberg.com)


Other Stories:

BNP Paribas Profit Falls 42% on Credit Market Slump - (www.bloomberg.com)
Don't Make The California Refinance Mistake - (www.sandiegopredatorylending.com)
Is the Fed Bailing out the Economy or the Banks? I think we all know the answer here. Both, but not until the banks started having trouble - (www.prospect.org)
U.S. Economy Expanded 0.6 Percent, Less Than Forecast - (www.bloomberg.com)
Text of FOMC statement - (www.marketwatch.com)
Fed Lowers Rate to 3% as Six-Year U.S. Expansion Falters - (www.bloomberg.com)
CFO optimism plunges on recession fears - (www.reuters.com)
Foreclosures continue to soar - (money.cnn.com)
House prices keep falling - (money.cnn.com)
Fed’s Issue on Rates: How Low? - (www.nytimes.com)
$146 Billion Stimulus Plan Passes House - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Mortgage applications near 4-year high: MBA - (www.reuters.com)
FBI Probing Subprime - (www.thestreet.com)
Economic growth in '07 weakest in five years - (www.reuters.com)
House Prices Fall, but Remain Unaffordable - (biz.yahoo.com)
House Foreclosure Rate Soars in 2007 - (biz.yahoo.com)
In America, the land of bubbles, the next pop will be the biggest - (www.marketwatch.com)
F.B.I. Opens Subprime Inquiry - (www.nytimes.com)
Banks May Write Down $70 Billion on Insurers, Oppenheimer Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
KKR: Expect PE Deals To Shrink - (www.thestreet.com)
Merrill to Exit CDO, Structured Credit Businesses, Thain Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Morgan Stanley Writes Down SIVs After Helping Its Money Funds - (www.bloomberg.com)
The Fed and Mortgage Debt as Money - (patrick.net)
Real Problem: Consumers at End of Their Ropes - (robertreich.blogspot.com)
What's Bernanke To Do? - (www.seekingalpha.com)
UBS Reports Record Loss After $14 Billion Writedown - (www.bloomberg.com)
2 Biggest Wall Street Firms Probed - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Britian keen on preventing bank runs - (money.cnn.com)
The Fed is between a rock & a hard place - (www.nypost.com)

Case-Shiller Housing Index Continues to Slide - (seekingalpha.com)
SPCase-Shiller Data for November 2007 - (eastbayhousingbubble.blogspot.com)
Great news! House prices are down - (www.timesonline.co.uk)