KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Sunday November 14 Housing and Economic stories

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Sunday November 14 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

Fannie Mae asks for $2.5 billion in new US aid - (news.yahoo.com/s/ap) Government-controlled mortgage buyer Fannie Maeis asking for $2.5 billion in additional federal aid after posting a narrower loss in the third quarter. Fannie Mae said Friday it lost $3.46 billion, or 61 cents a share, in the July-September quarter. That takes into account $2.1 billion in dividend payments to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of $19.8 billion, or $3.47 a share, in the third quarter of 2009. The government rescued Washington-based Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac about two years ago and it estimates that will cost taxpayers up to $259 billion. That's nearly twice the $133.4 billion Fannie and Freddie are in line to receive from taxpayers so far and would make it the most expensive bailout of the financial crisis. The $2.5 billion in additional aid that Fannie is asking for compares with a request for $1.5 billion in the second quarter.

Year's Total Bank Failures Top All of 2009 - (online.wsj.com) The number of bank failures in 2010 eclipsed the total bank failures seen last year as U.S. regulators announced the closure of four more banks amid continued weakness in the U.S. economy. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced the failures of banks in Maryland, California and Washington for a total of 143 bank failures so far this year. In all of 2009, 140 banks failed. Regulators closed K Bank of Randallstown, Md., Pierce Commercial Bank of Tacoma, Wash., Western Commercial Bank of Woodland Hills, Calif., and First Vietnamese American Bank of Westminster, Calif.

A change of fortunes for J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon - (www.washingtonpost.com) Jamie Dimon wanted Washington Mutual and he wanted it bad. The J.P. Morgan Chase chief executive was determined to expand on the West Coast, and Seattle-based WaMu, as it was called, was a prime target. Dimon had a team of auditors poring over WaMu's books in March 2008, at the same moment the Treasury Department was pressing him to acquire struggling investment bank Bear Stearns. While he initially couldn't make a deal for the Seattle lender, J.P. Morgan did buy WaMu in September 2008 after it was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which meant the assets came at a bargain price of $1.9 billion. The 2,200 WaMu branches in California, Washington and 12 other states gave J.P. Morgan's consumer bank, Chase, a total of 5,410 branches - the second-biggest network in the nation. And it moved Chase to first from third in deposits, with $905 billion after the deal closed.

Surging bond yields fuel fresh Greece fears - (www.ft.com) A surge in Greek bond yields has underscored growing concern about political stability in Athens ahead of Sunday’s local government elections. Yields on Greek 10-year bonds spiked to 11.34 per cent on Friday, approaching the historic highs of last May when the country had to be bailed out by the European Union and International Monetary Fund to avert a sovereign default. George Papandreou, prime minister, is threatening to call a snap general election if voter support for his embattled Socialist party, which has been steadily been losing ground according to opinion polls, falls by a significant margin. The prime minister repeated the threat at a rally on Thursday night in the western city of Patras, the Papandreou family’s political stronghold. “I won’t hesitate to do what the situation calls for if the opposition’s unpatriotic attempts to undermine the struggle of the Greek people continues … I’m not bluffing,” Mr Papandreou said.