Thursday February 21 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Owners strip houses before banks take them back - (www.sptimes.com)
Homeless Woman Approved for $470,000 Mortgage - (efinancedirectory.com)
Mortgage crisis: Don't forgive debt; postpone repayment - Feb. 20 ... - (www.cnn.com) - another idiotic plan if you can believe it
California's Budget Deficit Widens to $16 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com) – But California agrees to cuts to cut about $100M from deficit
Idaho resort's owners file for bankruptcy - (www.idahostatesman.com)
Wall Street Abandons Neediest Clients as Banks Withdraw Credit - (www.bloomberg.com)
KKR Seeks to Restructure Debt - (online.wsj.com)
Slowdown Hits Towns at Outskirts of Texas Boom - (www.nytimes.com)
Countrywide delinquency rate hits 7.47% - (money.cnn.com)
GMAC to slash American workforce - (www.ft.com)
Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy After Sales Fall - (www.bloomberg.com)
More companies with debt ratings problems - (www.cfo.com)
Vallejo On Brink Of Bankruptcy - (www.nbc11.com)
Ohio AG Eyeing Fannie Mae, Will Expand Mortgage Probe - [2008-02-20] - Regarding Fannie, Dann said at the Reuters Housing Summit in New York that “it appears that they also failed to advise their… - (www.ml-implode.com)


Other Stories:

Fed Saw Need for Low Rates `For a Time,' Minutes Say - (www.bloomberg.com)
Housing Cycle Is Caught in Vicious Circle - (online.wsj.com)
Subprime loans defaulting even before resets - (money.cnn.com)
Mortgage applications down 22.6% last week: MBA - (www.marketwatch.com)
Valley new-home sales sank lower still in January - (www.arizonarepublic.com)
Report: California woes to last til 2009 - (www.businessweek.com)

Fresh credit market turmoil - (www.ft.com)
Pressure builds over CDS settlements - (www.ft.com)
Overview: Turmoil as credit spreads hit record levels - (www.ft.com)
Junk Borrowers at Risk of Violating Covenants Rises - (www.bloomberg.com)
Standard Chartered Abandons Funding $7.15 Billion SIV - (www.bloomberg.com)
Gauging the Worth of 'Market Value' - (online.wsj.com)
Wall Street Faces $30 Billion Hit from Bond Insurer Crisis - (www.nytimes.com)
Housing Cycle Is Caught in Vicious Circle - (online.wsj.com)
Mortgage Lenders Toast Wall Street with Kool Aid - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Turning a Costly Blind Eye to Mortgage Speculators - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Median LA listing prices down $110K from peak - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Preventing foreclosures: Why bother? - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
The REAL American Dream: It's NOT Owning A House! - (www.erica.biz)
Forclosure Map Of Vegas - (www.foreclosurepulse.com)
Pressure builds over CDS settlements - (www.ft.com)
Treasury Prices Fall Hard, Reflecting Investors' Worries - (online.wsj.com)
More people are tapping their 401(k) for cash - (www.msnbc.nbc.com)

U.S. thrifts post record $5.24 bln quarterly loss - (www.reuters.com)
KKR Financial Delays Repayments, Starts Negotiations - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bear faces fresh legal challenge - (www.ft.com)
A Gift Horse For Fannie & Freddie? - (www.forbes.com)
Analysts See Trouble at Investment Banks - (www.ap.com)
Banks quietly borrow $50 billion from Fed - (news.yahoo.com)
Signs Point To Banking Crisis Getting Much Worse - (www.247wallst.com)
America's economy risks the mother of all meltdowns - (news.yahoo.com)
Wall Street Faces Fury Over Subprimes - (biz.yahoo.com)
Wachovia's big mortgage buy - (www.fortune.com)
Rising US inflation puts brakes on steep rate cut - (business.timesonline.co.uk)
True cost of writedowns yet to emerge - (www.ft.com)
China's Price Rise Is Fastest Since 1996 - (online.wsj.com)
Our Economic Dilemma - (online.wsj.com)
Auctions Yield Chaos for Bonds - (www.nytimes.com)
Loans go bad as English housing bubble pops - (www.latimes.com)
Inflating Away Debt - (www.minyanville.com)
Midwage jobs vanish in Silicon Valley - (www.sfgate.com)
Obama says Clinton's housing plan helps rich - (www.reuters.com)
Housing: Is it Going to Get Worse Before it Gets Better? - (www.seekingalpha.com)