Friday March 21 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Treasury 3-Month Bill Rates Drop to Lowest Since at Least 1954 – (www.bloomberg.com) – 3 month Treasury yields are at 0.387% which is at a 54 year low.
Treasuries Safer Than Cash - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) – Story is related to above story
$200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges intimately linked - (www.afterdowningstreet.org) - Bernanke’s Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks’ mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.
PUNK ZIEGEL'S BOVE: CRISIS IS OVER! BUY BANKS! - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
Global capitalism teeters on the brink - (www.theglobeandmail.com) – Just remember, capitalism is not at fault. It is government and Fed policies that don’t let capitalism function as it should that caused this mess
Auto Makers Prepare for Worst Slump in a Decade - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
States Budget Crises Will Hurt Millions - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
Is the Commodities Boom Over? - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull) - As gold drops $100 in 3 days, people are beginning to question whether the boom is over.
Citi Warns: The Great Unwind Has Begun - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
Media Feel Pressure From Declining Real Estate Industry - (news.opb.org)
The Fed's Too Easy on Wall Street - (www.businessweek.com)
Please, do not give the impression Lehman is uncreditworthy - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Merrill Lynch Can Kiss Another $3.1 Billion Goodbye - (www.ml-implode.com)
Primary Dealers Get Flattering Marks on Collateral for Fed Loans - (www.ml-implode.com)


Other Stories:

Fitch: It’s Not Over Yet, Not By a Long Shot - (www.ml-implode.com) - ``In a conference call held Thursday, Fitch Ratings said that the subprime crunch isn’t over — and is actually gaining speed, de...
Leveraged - (www.ml-implode.com)- 'Fed facilitated finance, rogue firms, the prospect of highly destabilizing inflationary food riots and revolts and the stormin...
Report: Bernanke's own home down 260K in value - (www.ml-implode.com)- The real reason he stopped denying the bubble...
IKB Seeks Fourth Bailout After Subprime Loss Widens - (www.ml-implode.com)
NYT: Journalistic Malpractice, Again - (www.ml-implode.com)
House prices drop but interest rates rise - (www.ml-implode.com)
Brokers who lie, and more subprime nightmares - (www.ml-implode.com)
Housing: US vs. Japan - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Santa Clara County Glut Of Houses For Sale - (patrick.net)
San Joaquin Valley house prices plunge to 2004 levels - (www.modbee.com)
A Fed rate cut could send some mortgage rates even higher - (biz.yahoo.com)
Fannie $200B closer to default - (money.cnn.com)
The Looming Global Food Shortage - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
Sleepwalking into a Food Nightmare - (www.bullnotbull.com/bull)
Oil Falls in N.Y. on Concern U.S. Slowdown May Limit Demand - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dollar Rises Against Commodity Currencies as Oil, Gold Slump – (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Stocks Rally; Fannie Mae, GE Advance on Analyst Upgrades - (www.bloomberg.com)
Gold Falls to Biggest Weekly Drop Since 1990 as Dollar Rallies - (www.bloomberg.com)
Mozilo's Legacy - (www.lendingsanity.com)
Can't Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club - (www.nytimes.com)
How This Crisis Is Different - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Greenspanspeak - (www.solari.com)

Fed Says Securities Firms Borrow $28.8 Bln With New Financing - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose 22,000 to 378,000 - (www.bloomberg.com)
A new Great Depression? It's different this time - (www.latimes.com)
Fed Bypasses Emergency-Loan Policy on Rate for Securities Firms - (www.bloomberg.com)
California Leads U.S. in Defaults, Price Drop, Slowing Growth - (www.bloomberg.com)
Beware the Housing-Bottom Callers - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Alt-A Delinquencies Continue to Rise - (biz.yahoo.com)
Affluent houseowners, too, have mortgage problems - (www.iht.com)
World's central banks are worryingly far apart - (www.economist.com)
CFOs Zing Fed for Poor Bank Oversight - (www.cfo.com)
Philadelphia Index Shows Fourth Month of Contraction - (www.bloomberg.com)
Rising cost of soybeans threatens efforts to produce biofuels - (www.ajc.com)
Priced out of a commute - (money.cnn.com)
Pizza gets pricier - (money.cnn.com)
Leading Economic Indicators in U.S. Decreased 0.3% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Sunbelt Sees Slowing In Population Growth - (online.wsj.com)
Drivers have had fill of premium gasoline - (www.chron.com)

Treasuries' Scarcity Triggers Repo Market Failures - (www.bloomberg.com)
Rumor Mill Puts Banks in a Tough Spot – (online.wsj.com)
The Affluent, Too, Couldn’t Resist Adjustable Rates - (www.nytimes.com)
Alabama, California Failures Expose Muni `Dark Side' - (www.bloomberg.com)

FedEx Reports Third-Quarter Net Income Declined to $393 Million - (www.bloomberg.com)
CIT Taps $7.3 Billion of Bank Lines Amid `Disruption' - (www.bloomberg.com)
Auto Makers Prepare for Worsening Slump - (online.wsj.com)
Payers Aim to Rein in Specialty-Drug Spending - (online.wsj.com)
Dismal Year Is Forecast for Car Sales - (www.nytimes.com)
Citigroup Plans to Cut More Than 5% of Securities Employees - (www.bloomberg.com)
Allianz Expects More Writedowns in First Quarter – (www.reuters.com)
American, Northwest, Delta raise fares – (www.chicagotribune.com)

European Services, Manufacturing Expansion Slowed in March - (www.bloomberg.com)
Credit Suisse faces first-quarter loss - (www.marketwatch.com)
Japan’s Central Bank Is Without Governor, a Blow to a Nation’s Prestige - (www.nytimes.com)
IKB Loss, Markdowns to Rise as KfW Injects More Cash - (www.bloomberg.com)