Friday April 11 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Senate Passes Bill with Builder Tax Breaks - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'At a cost of $15 billion over 10 years, the Senate bill would give a $6 billion tax break to home builders by temporarily exten...
Lucrative Grim Repo Man - (clubs.ccsu.edu) – Entrepreneur takes foreclosure hunters on bus tours
Lehman Brothers Says It Liquidated Three Investment Funds - (www.bloomberg.com)
Jefferson County AL Close to Bankruptcy - Meets With Fed - (www.bloomberg.com)
Wall Street Banks May Cut 35% of Jobs - (www.bloomberg.com)
Auction Failures Force Students to Lose College Funds - (www.bloomberg.com)
Jefferson County Advisers Meet U.S. Officials as Crisis Looms - (www.bloomberg.com)
Americans with mortgages exceeding value of homes unlikely to be helped by Bush refinance plan - (www.signonsandiego.com)
Another Flavor of Bonds Threatens to Turn Sour: Mark Gilbert - (www.bloomberg.com)
GMAC's Bank Unit Has a Problem - (online.wsj.com)
Hedge Funds Make It Hard To Say Goodbye - (online.wsj.com) – Was it such a great deal to be in a hedge fund when they prevent you from withdrawing your money?
Slowdown Deals A Bad Hand to Las Vegas Casinos - (online.wsj.com)
The REO Life: Vandalism - (www.youtube.com)
Opposition to Proposed Houseowner Bailout Growing - (www.npr.org)
House committee backs additional theft of renter taxes - (www.reuters.com)


Other Stories:

White House Presents Plan To Aid Subprime Borrowers - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'The proposal was quickly criticized by consumer groups, who said it would do little to slow a mortgage meltdown that last year ...
Phoenix Foreclosures: If Not A Crisis, Pretty Close To It - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Home inventories are continuing to rise and prices are declining, so there is still some more time before the Phoenix area mark...
Scam Spam Flyer from FHA "Downpayment Assistance Firm" - (www.ml-implode.com) - We received this lovely mailer as spam to our inbox today. It quite nicely demonstrates and proves that down-payment assistance...
We only thought we were getting wealthier - (www.ml-implode.com)
Failures of the Term Auction Facility - (www.ml-implode.com)
Trouble in the Cockroach Hotels - (www.ml-implode.com)
Stress Returns to Interbank Lending - (www.ml-implode.com)
Lust helped drive the housing bust, but mass amnesia also factored - (www.ml-implode.com)

Fed Prepares for More Bank Failures In Wake of Housing Collapse - (www.marketoracle.co.uk)
Denver house prices continue to plummet - (denverpost.com)
Housing-market joy spread to England - (www.economist.com)
Lenders Giving Underwater Borrowers Cash for Keys - (www.homeguide123.com)
Drop in house values brings dip in property taxes - (www.modbee.com)

Ron Paul Questions General Petraeus Yesterday [Video] - (www.dailypaul.com)
Fed fears deep recession - (www.thestar.com)
The Fed Is Terrified - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)
Fed mulls options in easing credit crunch - (www.financialnews-us.com)
Volker: Is the Fed's Bear Stearns Loan Legal? - (www.bloomberg.com)
Interactive Foreclosure Map of Denver - 11,000 More Foreclosures Expected This Year - (www.usatoday.com)
Americans: Can't Get Ahead, Hard to Keep Up - (www.washingtonpost.com)
US Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Widens - (www.bloomberg.com)
Iceland Raises Benchmark Rates to 15.5% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasury Notes Fall as U.S. Stocks Advance, After Fed Auction - (www.bloomberg.com)
Crude Oil Falls on Signs Record Prices Will Curb U.S. Demand - (www.bloomberg.com)
Diesel price fuels US truckers’ anger - (www.ft.com)

Real Estate: A Capital Trap for National Savings - (Charles Hugh Smith)
Bob's tips on renting safely during the next few years - (www.politicalgateway.com)
Ambac, MBIA Finally Get the Rating They Deserve - (www.seekingalpha.com)
35 signs the market hasn't hit bottom - (www.marketwatch.com)
U.S. Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Widened on Imports - (www.bloomberg.com)
Inflation Is Set to Reach Decade High - (online.wsj.com)
IMF sees U.S. falling into recession - (www.chicagotribune.com)
U.S. office vacancies up as leasing ebbs - (www.latimes.com)
Volcker, ex-Fed chairman, chides Bernanke - (www.iht.com)
Fed Bashed, ECB Spared in Finger-Pointing Match - (www.cnbc.com)

Housing Bust Offers Insights - (online.wsj.com)
The Bank-Loan Haircut - (online.wsj.com)
'B-Pieces' Wield Their CMBS Clout - (online.wsj.com)
Asian currencies rise as recession fears hit dollar - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)
Having lost fortunes, banks such as UBS have to raise money - (www.economist.com)
Soros Says Credit Crisis Will Worsen Before Improving - (www.bloomberg.com)
Are you upside down in your home? - (www.ocregister.com)
Painful shake-out seen for Asian hedge funds - (www.reuters.com)
Volatile Waters Tossed Around Hedge Funds - (online.wsj.com)
New Delays Loom as F.A.A. Expands Airliner Review - (www.nytimes.com)
Slowdown Deals A Bad Hand to Las Vegas Casinos - (online.wsj.com)
Fuel Costs Just Part of Airlines’ List of Woes - (www.nytimes.com)

Bank of England cuts key rate by quarter point - (www.marketwatch.com)
World inflation fuelled by surge in farm, energy prices - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)
Iceland Raises Benchmark Interest Rate to 15.5% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Australia aims regulatory fire at hedge funds - (www.ft.com)
A New Poll Finds Americans Feeling a Lot More Squeezed - (www.washingtonpost.com)
What We've Learned From the Market Mess - (online.wsj.com)