Tuesday April 8 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Market slump makes divorce more difficult - (www.sfgate.com)
"Stated income" loans should be reported to IRS - (market-ticker.denninger.net) – Pretty radical concept
Crude Oil Rises More Than $2 as Gasoline Surges to a Record - (www.bloomberg.com)
Lenders retreat as housing market plummets - (www.sfgate.com)
Rice Run Prompts Curbs to Rival Credit Market Seizure - (www.bloomberg.com) - Rice, the staple food for half the world, rose 2.4 percent to a record $21 per 100 pounds in Chicago today, double the price a year ago and a fivefold increase from 2001.
As standards tighten, borrowers face equity credit roadblock - (www.projo.com)
Biggest bond insurer loses AAA rating - (www.bloomberg.com)
Foreclosures come to McMansion country - (www.ml-implode.com) – The crisis has hit especially hard here in Loudoun County, Virginia, where upscale developments have supplanted horse farms over the past fifteen years.... Now the bill has come due. One out of every 69 households in the county was in foreclosure in the last three months of 2008. Yes, most people eventually get what they deserve and in this case
Good time to buy? Only if you believe your own lies. - (www.builderonline.com)
The Mortgage Bust Goes Global - (www.nytimes.com)
Stymied house sellers slashing prices - (www.palmbeachpost.com)
Soros predicts end of the road for cheap borrowing - (www.independent.co.uk)
Foreclosures leave Clearwater's Island Estates residents disenchanted - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'Sale prices on the island averaged $1.25-million two years ago. Among the homes under contract this month, the average price is...
The Assassination of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer - [2008-04-07] - Like an Iceberg. Just a bunch of crap from some Spitzer defenders.
Housing Bubble Bursts Wide Open In Spain - (www.ml-implode.com)
Nine Mortgage Servicers Sign Pact to Help Ohio Homeowners - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'Ohio Governor Ted Strickland announced today that nine mortgage loan servicers have signed the “Compact to Help Ohioans Preserve Homeownership,” a pledge to work with the state to stem a rise in foreclosures.' Yes, another idiotic government program that will fail.


Other Stories:

Which Traders Scored Big Betting Against Housing? - (www.ml-implode.com) 'John Paulson, who ran a medium-sized fund until last year, zoomed to the top of the industry's earnings table when he took home...
And ... it's a hat trick - (www.ml-implode.com)
Hemingway haunt gives discounts to "poor Americans" - (www.ml-implode.com)
More than 14,000 Mortgage Layoffs in First Quarter - (www.ml-implode.com)
FDIC chief: We could do more - (www.ml-implode.com)
Deposed, not composed. - (www.ml-implode.com)
Wild, Wild West: California Cold To 'Jumbo Conforming' Loans - (www.ml-implode.com)

Shallowness of pro-housing arguments - (www.nytimes.com)
Housing and Ponzi Units - (optionarmageddon.blogspot.com)
Two Wrongs Make A Wrong - (great graphics!) - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)

Advanced Micro Sales Miss Forecast; Job Cuts Planned - (www.bloomberg.com)
Alcoa Says Profit Falls 54% as Energy Costs Rise - (www.bloomberg.com)
Housing Bust Duration - (calculatedrisk.blogspot.com)
Reverse Ripple Theory of Metropolitan Price Corrections - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Bankruptcies Jump 30% in March, Led by Housing-Bust States - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasuries Fall as Confidence Grows Fed Steps to Limit Slowdown - (www.bloomberg.com)
Credit Cost Hikes Know No Boundaries - (www.cfo.com)
Consumer credit rose $5.16 bln in February - (www.reuters.com)

Auction-Rate Collapse Quadruples Expenses for Bond Alternatives - (www.bloomberg.com)
Shareholders get more involved - (www.cfo.com)
Mortgages: Is the wound fatal this time? - (www.ocregister.com)
Soros Says Deregulation Created Super-Bubble - (www.bloomberg.com)
Borrowers Default On Mortgage, Lenders Let Them Stay Free! - (www.bloomberg.com)
Don't shift mortgage burden to taxpayers - (www.detnews.com)
The problem is unimaginably, indescribably big - (www.jamaica-gleaner.com)
Across the Globe, Hints of More Perils in Housing - (www.nytimes.com)

Washington Mutual to receive $5 bln from TPG, others - report - (money.cnn.com)
Losing Leverage: Some Firms Cut Debt in This Uncertain Era - (online.wsj.com)
Builders' Rally Masks Lingering Questions - (www.thestreet.com)
Idle cars signal a downturn - (www.latimes.com)
More layoffs expected in construction, real estate - (www.ajc.com)
Hard times hit U.S. hardwood lumber industry - (www.ap.com)
Surging renminbi - (www.ft.com)
Europeans Target Inflation, not Slowdown - (www.cfo.com)
Shirakawa Is Nominated to Lead Japan's Central Bank - (www.bloomberg.com)
Eastern Europe Boom May Prove Bust Amid Labor Dearth - (www.bloomberg.com)
US policymakers could learn from ECB - (www.ft.com)