Friday February 22 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Owners strip houses before banks take them back - (www.sptimes.com)
Mortgage Rates Spike Despite Rate Cuts - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Calif. budget deficit grows to $16B - (www.businessweek.com)
Dresdner Rescues $19 Billion SIV, Follows Citigroup - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dresdner questions future of SIVs - (www.ft.com)
Proposal would invest pension funds in start-ups - (www.startribune.com)
KKR works to resolve credit crunch - (www.nypost.com)
Whistle-blower Web site ordered shut down - (www.ml-implode.com)
Free rent to care for vacant houses? - (www.hometenders.net)
Philadelphia Fed Index Falls to Lowest Since 2001 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Mortgage demand plunges as interest rates soar - (news.yahoo.com)
German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse - (www.ml-implode.com)
Now not time for mortgage bailout: Treasury - ``now is not the time to create a federal backstop for falling property values, a senior Treasury official said on Thursday.'' -... - (www.ml-implode.com)
Conned into a deeper mortgage mess - (www.chron.com)


Other Stories:

FBI Will Not Go After Borrowers Who Lied on Mortgage Applications - Too many of them. Guess this means Casey is off the hook! - (www.ml-implode.com)
ACA Capital Forbearance Extended until April 23, 2008 - The bond insurer still needs $1.7B. Third time's a charm... everyone knows the markets will be fully recovered by April 23! - (www.ml-implode.com)
Hovnanian: U.S. housing bottom at year end - 'Hovnanian Enterprises Inc's chief executive said on Thursday he sees a challenging U.S. housing market for the next two years, ... - (www.ml-implode.com)
Pain in the ARS - 'The ARS (Auction Rate Security) market has frozen up since then and the municipal bond market itself has frozen up as a result ... - (www.ml-implode.com)
Countrywide Scaling Back Wholesale? - (www.ml-implode.com)
Foreclosure prevention plan under attack - (www.ml-implode.com)
Freddie Mac Portfolio Shrinks, Delinquencies Rise - (www.ml-implode.com)
Non-Agency Mortgage Bond Holdings Jump $48 Billion at Big Banks - (www.ml-implode.com)
Mortgage Servicers Need to Change Their Mob-Like Collection Techniques - (www.ml-implode.com)
Rising Inflation Limits the Fed as Growth Lags - (www.nytimes.com)
Fed Reins in Growth Forecast - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Fed cuts trigger inflation - (www.thestreet.com)
Fixed-rate mortgages take big jump - (www.marketwatch.com)
Credit crisis hits Main Street - (money.cnn.com)
Prices pose dilemma for Fed - (www.latimes.com)
Patrons cut back on tipping - (www.ajc.com)
Food, fuel costs erode workers’ real earnings - (www.ap.com)

Regulators Probe Funds After Failed Auctions Draw Ire - (www.bloomberg.com)
High-Grade Debt Anxiety - (online.wsj.com)
Corporate-Bond Risk Gets Trickier - (online.wsj.com)
Auction-Rate Debt Succumbs to Bid-Rig Taint as Citigroup Flees - (www.bloomberg.com)
Auction-Rate Headaches – (online.wsj.com)
Markets assess the costs of a monoline meltdown - (www.ft.com)
Cities hurt by muni bond woes - (money.cnn.com)
Our Economic Dilemma - (online.wsj.com)
Supreme Court rules workers can sue over 401(k) losses - (www.latimes.com)
FL: Lobbyists take in $200M - (www.stateline.org)
California Housing Prices - (bp0.blogger.com)
California median house price down 17 percent - (last paragraph) - (www.businessweek.com)
California in a Freefall - (www.lendingsanity.com)
Lots And Lots To Worry About - (www.raymondjames.com)
Why Wall Street rescues are failing - (articles.moneycentral.msn.com)
Credit Default Swaps: Is Your Fund at Risk? - (www.businessweek.com)
Allianz Q4 net halved as subprime hits Dresdner - (www.reuters.com)
Behind the Mess at UBS - (www.businessweek.com)
SocGen Reports Record Loss on Trading, Writedowns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Big unwind may lift cost of corporate borrowing - (www.ft.com)
Mammoth tax evasion probe widens - (www.ft.com)
British Banks Face Two Problems - (www.businessweek.com)
Mortgage application volume plummets - (www.businessweek.com)
Fed's Poole Warns Rate Cuts Bring Inflation "Costs" - (www.bloomberg.com)
Inflation gathers steam, housing slides - (news.yahoo.com)
US Fed slashes growth forecasts - (news.bbc.co.uk)
You Get the Government You Deserve - (finance.yahoo.com)
If things are bad, how come we're shopping? - (www.business24-7.ae)
Living In Luxury In Shaky Real Estate - (www.kutv.com)
Higher conforming mortgage limit won't help many - (www.marketwatch.com)
Subprime loans failing even before resets - (money.cnn.com)
Credit Market Bottom Nowhere In Sight - (www.seekingalpha.com)
The NAR is the Black Knight; The housing crash is Arthur - (www.youtube.com)