Thursday April 17 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

JPMorgan Quietly Raising $6 Billion - (www.ml-implode.com) - The hush-hush plans to raise capital at the Wall Street bank would seem to contrast sharply against remarks made by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon earlier Wednesday, who had said that the credit mess was “working itself out.” No mention was made on the earnings call about raising $6 billion, and a source that spoke with HW reacted to the news with stunned silence upon hearing of the plan.
Foreclosures' grim rise reverses fortunes in city - (www.palmbeachpost.com)
States Tackle Foreclosures In Absence of Federal Help - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Foreclosure Act Does Squat for Houseowners - (www.thestreet.com) – It shouldn’t do squat for homeowners or lenders or banks. Let’s face it, most deserve the situation they are in.
US mortgage clock ticking, Dodd warns - (www.ft.com)
Der Spiegel: The Madness of Ben Bernanke - (www.spiegel.de)
Washington Mutual swings to 1Q loss on $3.5B provision - (www.forbes.com)
Merrill Upped Ante as Bonds Fizzled - (online.wsj.com)
JPMorgan Net Drops 50% on $5.1 Billion of Writedowns, Reserves - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dollar Falls to Record Against Euro as EU Inflation Quickens - (www.bloomberg.com)
Businesses Get Big Tax Breaks in Housing Bill - (www.nytimes.com)
Banking Supervisors Move to Gird International System - (www.iht.com)
March's housing stats grim; no sign of foreclosure peak - (www.modbee.com)
Houseowners get that drowning feeling - (www.sfgate.com)
SoCal house prices fall to 2004 levels - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Housing crisis yields 18.9-month supply of houses for sale - (www.freep.com)
Merrill's Reckless Mortgage Bond Binge - (www.ml-implode.com)


Other Stories:

S&P may cut $57 bln subprime debt, reviewing loss - (www.ml-implode.com) - Standard & Poor's on Tuesday said it may cut $57.1 billion of subprime-related debt due to continuing delinquencies and a wor...
Government plans to help UK banks - (www.ml-implode.com) - The Bank of England is poised to launch a new lending programme for UK banks in an effort to break the logjam in the credit mar...
CtW Invest Asks WaMu Board To Demand Resignations Of 2 Directors - (www.ml-implode.com)
Economists Debate Link Between War, Credit Crisis - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Coming Soon to a Bank Near You: The $57 Overdraft Fee? - (blog.lendingclub.com)
The Price of Oil Hasn't Budged Since 2001 -- Priced in Gold - (www.dailygreen.com)
Bush the Most Unpopular Post War President Ever - (abcnews.go.com)
Fears of Long Recession Rising - (money.cnn.com)
80% of Arab World Has Negative View of US - (news.bbc.co.uk)
Obama Would Ask His AG to "Immediately Review" Potential Bush War Crimes - (www.philly.com)
Dollar Falls to Record Low vs. Euro - (www.bloomberg.com)
Price of Oil, Gas Hit New Highs - (ww.nytimes.com)
The Next Mortgage Crisis - (www.slate.com)
Why the next mortgage crisis may be worse - (www.slate.com)
House Sales, Prices Down In January - (www.allheadlinenews.com)
New buyers need a price crash - (www.introducertoday.co.uk)
Borrowers Sober Up - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Ron Paul Sees Bailout Writing on the Wall - (www.usnews.com)
Angry Renter: Oppose the Mortgage Lender Housing Bailout - (www.angryrenter.com)

Gold, Silver Climb as Dollar Falls to All-Time Low Against Euro - (www.bloomberg.com)
Oil, Gasoline Rise to Records After Unexpected U.S. Supply Drop - (www.bloomberg.com)
Foreclosures Jump 57% as Homedebtors WALK AWAY - (www.bloomberg.com)
California Foreclosures Increase 20 Percent in March - (www.kpbs.org)
Foreclosures continue to soar, worst is not over - (www.msnbc.msn.com)
Foreclosure glut further depresses housing prices - (www.latimes.com)
As Greenspan's reputation sinks, Volcker's rises - (msnbc.msn.com)
Wholesale prices soared in March: Thank The Fed - (news.yahoo.com)
'Mr. No Bailout' getting noticed - (www.kentucky.com)

U.S. Housing Starts Slide to Lowest Level in 17 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Consumer Prices Rose 0.3% in March, Led by Food - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed Beige Book Says Economy `Weakened' Since February - (www.bloomberg.com)
Inflation Everywhere - (www.forbes.com)
Bankruptcy filings rise 38% in 2007 - (www.latimes.com)
An Inflation Indicator Leaves the Fed in a Tough Spot - (www.nytimes.com)
Houston's upscale home sales fall victim to slump - (www.chron.com)
Record number of Atlanta properties up for auction - (www.ajc.com)
Rate of home foreclosures expected to get worse - (www.usatoday.com)
Bankers Cast Doubt on Key Rate - (online.wsj.com)
OECD predicts subprime losses to hit $420bn - (www.ft.com)
Subprime past its heyday - (www.financialweek.com)
Foreclosure glut further depresses housing prices - (www.latimes.com)
Hedge Funds Need More Oversight, Transparency, Treasury Panels Say - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Merrill Lynch to write down further $6-8 bln: report - (www.reuters.com)
Fannie, Freddie regulator sees more risk ahead - (www.reuters.com)
GM plant partially halts production due to strike - (money.cnn.com)
2 more carriers consider merging - (www.latimes.com)
Europe car sales hit by financial crisis - (www.ft.com)
North Korea Faces Food Crisis, UN Agency Warns - (www.bloomberg.com)

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)

Thursday April 10 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Bond insurance downgrades trigger possible bankruptcy of AL county - (www.al.com)
Glut of Unsold Housing in Santa Clara County -- Proof - (patrick.net) – Great photo with Google Maps proof that realtor signs are not faked
Goldman Sachs Level 3 Assets Jump, Exceeding Rivals' - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ex-owners trash foreclosed houses before leaving - (www.sun-sentinel.com)
Congress' latest dumb idea to fix the housing crisis - (www.slate.com)
White House says can't support Senate housing bill - (www.reuters.com)
The Great Dumbing Down of the Market - (www.ml-implode.com) - We have been talking about this for six months, but there seems to be a refusal on the part of many observers to accept that the...
Who Will Bail Out the FED? - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'The Fed bankers, whose progenitors have already bribed our Congress to un-constitutionally turn over Congress' exclusive power ...
Chances of Homeowner Relief Losing Momentum in Senate - (www.nytimes.com)
Dear Mr. Greenspan: You played a part in this mess - (www.financialweek.com)
Greenspan: Not My Fault - (biz.yahoo.com)
Citigroup, Wells Fargo May Loan Less After Downgrades - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.K. Consumer Confidence Falls to Lowest Since 2004 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Media Missed Details of WaMu Story - (www.ml-implode.com) - On Tuesday, the knights of the business keyboards rang in with thoughts on Washington Mutual's deal, singing its praises. But t...
Australian Consumer Confidence Slumps to 15-Year Low - (www.bloomberg.com)
Looming Deficit Impedes Federal Housing Agency - (www.nytimes.com)
Americans doubt ability to fund retirement - (money.cnn.com)
Economic slowdown hits Silicon Valley - (www.iht.com)


Other Stories:

The futile $100M foreclosure fix - (www.ml-implode.com)
Banks Rein in Lending Ahead of Slowdown - (www.ml-implode.com)
IMF bites the bullet as crisis deepens - (www.ml-implode.com)

Roubini Now Says House Prices to Fall 30% - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Fed Weighs Its Options in Easing Crunch - (online.wsj.com)
Bush to Expand Help on Mortgages - (online.wsj.com)
For Many, a Boom That Wasn’t - (www.nytimes.com)
Ex-Fed Chairman Chides Current One - (www.nytimes.com)
Fed looking at how to beef up lending power: report - (www.reuters.com)
Long commutes, gas prices crimping American Dream - (www.philly.com)
Fed members worried about deep recession - (www.ap.com)
Gains in Worker Productivity Slow - (online.wsj.com)
Mortgage Application Volume Rises - (www.ap.com)
Middle Class Feeling The Financial Squeeze - (www.cbsnews.com)
IPO for Apollo Management - (online.wsj.com)
NYSE Volume Drops to `08 Low as Traders `Wait and See' Profits - (www.bloomberg.com)

Boeing Delays 787 Again to Third Quarter of 2009 - (www.bloomberg.com)
UPS cuts outlook, blaming fuel - (money.cnn.com)
CBS layoffs signal a financial squeeze on TV stations - (www.latimes.com)
Retailers' Struggles Mean Lean Times at the Mall - (online.wsj.com)
GE consumer finance unit gives up on U.S. consumer - (www.financialweek.com)
For Pilots, Dreams Run Into Reality - (www.nytimes.com)
American Airlines cancels 1,000 flights - (www.ft.com)
Off-balance sheet rules 'irretrievably broken' - (www.ft.com)
Arctic Cat warning of diminished earnings - (www.startribune.com)
Rising currency squeezes exporters in China - (www.latimes.com)
Egypt's Soaring Food Prices Bring Bread Lines, Deficit Pressure - (www.bloomberg.com)
IMF Puts Cost of Crisis Near $1 Trillion - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Of course it's Greenspan's fault - (www.iht.com)
Used-house sales falls to record low - (biz.yahoo.com)
Credit crunch costs '$1 trillion' - (news.bbc.co.uk)
IMF: Financial crisis costs will near $1 trillion - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Property Tax Delinquency In Central Valley - (media.modbee.com)
Track the NAR's Spin and Lies - (bp0.blogger.com)
Hooverizing the Housing Bubble - (patrick.net)
UK House Prices Plunge Over the Cliff - (www.marketoracle.co.uk)
Bigger Bubbles To Pop - (greatdepression2006.blogspot.com)

Wednesday April 9 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

HOUSING: 'Feeding frenzy' in Las Vegas - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'More than half of Las Vegas home sales in March were foreclosures or short sales, the president of Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said Monday.'
Stockton: Ghost Town USA - (marketplace.publicradio.org)
Aging process quickly hits homes in Las Vegas - (www.latimes.com)
Big US student loan guarantor files for bankruptcy - (www.reuters.com) – Credit crisis could be affecting whether students go to college
Lenders could have verified borrower income with IRS - (www.nytimes.com) - But why would they want to do something like this, this would have cut back on their bond offerings and big bonuses J
First Marblehead Tumbles After Guarantor Files Chapter 11 - (www.bloomberg.com)
As housing falls, short sales becoming common - (www.ml-implode.com) - “... numbers suggest that 20 percent of completed home sales nationwide are short sales,”
Greenspan: Credit Crisis Worst in 50 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
Greenspan Blames Investors For Crisis - (www.nypost.com) – Still not taking responsibility and making up reasons why the credit crisis is not his fault
Greenspan overfloweth - (www.ml-implode.com) - 'Sometimes the best defense is a good offense and that clearly seems to be the tack that former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan has ...
His Legacy Tarnished, Greenspan Goes on Defensive - (online.wsj.com)
Institutional Panic May Fuel Recession - (www.bloomberg.com)
Railcars idle as economy falters - (www.ap.com)
Rice Jumps to Record on Philippine Imports, Curbs on Exports - (www.bloomberg.com)
A Society that Punishes Savers - (www.mybudget360.com)
Foreclosures come to McMansion country - (news.yahoo.com)
Ex-insider tells how subprime lenders spun out of control - (www.dallasnews.com)
WaMu to Get $7 Billion Infusion; Bank Slashes Dividend, Posts Loss – (www.ml-implode.com) - ``Washington Mutual Inc. Tuesday unveiled a deal to receive $7 billion from an investment group led by private-equity irm TPG a...


Other Stories:

DOW P/E Reaches Insane Heights - (www.ml-implode.com)
Who Would Have Thought? - (www.ml-implode.com) - “Clearly, the recession that hasn’t begun yet is over. At least, that’s what all the folks who never saw the recession coming, then decided we are going to have one, and who now say it’s over, believe. I know because I heard them say so on TV, time and again.”
Clif Droke: Now We Know the Real Reasons For the Credit "Crisis" - (www.safehaven.com)
Today's Housing Market Is a Real Fixer-Upper - (finance.yahoo.com)
Krugman: 40% or 50% declines - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Bear Stearns Customers Were Not at Risk - (www.hussman.net)
Food Additives Could Be as Damaging at Leaded Gas - (www.independent.co.uk)
IMF Says Financial, Economic Losses May Swell to $945 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com)
IMF to Sell 12.5% of Gold Stake - 403 Tons! - (www.marketwatch.com)
Over the Top Fed Actions Feed Conspiracy Thinking - (www.alternet.org)
Asian Inflation Begins to Sting US Consumers - (www.nytimes.com)
Jim Rogers: The Failure of the Federal Reserve - (www.moneymorning.com)
A closer look at the ARM reset problem - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Mortgage lenders prepare for the worst - (www.independent.co.uk)
How Many Foreclosures in Palo Alto, 1 or 74? - (patrick.net)
Our housing-bubble hangover - (articles.moneycentral.msn.com)
House is where the heartache lies - (business.smh.com.au)
Corporate Distressed Debt Levels Rise to Five Year Peak - (us.ft.com)
Natural Gas Run on in Pennsylvania - (www.nytimes.com)
WSJ: Detroit Sets Bold Goal: Exporting U.S. Cars - (online.wsj.com)
How to survive the Great Depression of 2008 - 2009 - (www.politicalgateway.com)
Bernanke's solutions worse than the problem - (www.informationclearinghouse.info)
Congress' proposals favor lenders and builders more than owners - (www.buffalonews.com)
Credit bubble deregulation gone wild - (www.seekingalpha.com)

Greenspan Says Current Credit Crisis Is Worst in at Least Half a Century - (www.bloomberg.com)
Borrowing Slows Down - (www.nytimes.com)
Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers - (www.nytimes.com)
A buck that can't be passed - (www.iht.com)

Hedge funds lose more ground in March -- data - (www.reuters.com)
Distressed debt levels rise to five-year peak - (www.ft.com)
IMF Says Financial, Economic Losses May Swell to $945 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com)
Simons, Mandel Post Biggest Drop in Hedge Fund Slump - (www.bloomberg.com)
Hedge funds face tougher times - (www.iht.com)
IMF to sell 12.5% of gold stake, worth more than $13 billion - (www.marketwatch.com)

Alcoa says energy costs, weak dollar hurt profit - (www.latimes.com)
AMD to cut 10% of workforce - (www.latimes.com)
Detroit's Bold Goal: Exporting Cars - (online.wsj.com)
Audit Panels Face Reckoning In Credit Mess - (online.wsj.com)
United Rentals's ex-CFO Indicted - (www.cfo.com)

U.K. House Prices Fall the Most Since 1992, HBOS Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
New Zealand Business Confidence Plummets to 33-Year Low on Falling Sales - (www.bloomberg.com)
As Price of Lead Soars, British Churches Find Holes in Roof - (www.nytimes.com)

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)

Monday April 7 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Skybus Becomes Latest Airline to Shut Down - (www.cnbc.com) – Third US air carrier in 1 week to shut its doors. This is different than 2003-2004 where carriers went into bankruptcy to get rid of debt. These are permanently shutting their doors due to Fed inflationary policies.
Must listen-to interview with Bill Fleckenstein - Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve – (www.financialsense.com) – Yes, we must try Greenspan, and see if this criminal belongs in prison for fleecing the public.
Lenders refuse title on foreclosures, avoid taxes and maintenance - (bigpicture.typepad.com)
MBIA Loses AAA Insurer Rating From Fitch Over Capital - (www.ml-implode.com) - Fitch Ratings cut MBIA Inc.'s insurance unit to AA from AAA, saying the bond insurer no longer has enough capital to warrant the...
Woman Accused Of Burning House On Eve Of Foreclosure - (www.wyff4.com) - Yes folks, another smart individual who thought she wouldn’t get caught burning her own house down to get out of her foreclosure.
Mass State Treasurer: "No matter how bad this year was, 2009 is going to be worse." - (news.bostonherald.com)
Mortgage lender files for Chapter 7 - (www.sanluisobispo.com) - Mortgage lender files for Chapter 7
San Luis Obispo-based company with $28 million in debts had offered loans to people with ‘bruised credit’
Lenders Buried By Foreclosures Let Late Borrowers Stay in Homes - (www.bloomberg.com) – Many living in homes without making any payments for 6 or more months
Foreclosure crisis reaches into rural communities, too - (www.usatoday.com)
Student Lenders Stifled by Auction Failures as Cities Refinance - (www.bloomberg.com)
Congress Introduces Student-Loan Aid For Lenders - (online.wsj.com)
Investors abandon $2.6bn Delphi deal - (www.ft.com) Serious implications for General Motors - 15:
Rice jumps as Africa joins race for supplies - (www.ft.com) Prices more than doubled since January
Washington's $4-billion land grab - (www.latimes.com)
Buying a New House Before Letting The Old Go Into Foreclosure - (kathyneilsen.blogspot.com)
Soros Sees Additional Stock Market Declines - (www.bloomberg.com)


Other Stories:

Housing bill gives more to businesses - (www.usatoday.com)
Paulson Plan's Problems - (www.theconglomerate.org)
Unsold Homes Tie Down Would-Be Transplants - (nytimes.com)
Denver House Prices - (www.ml-implode.com) - An interesting case of a market that is mostly "inventory-bad", not "price-bad".
The Forbidden Financial Topic: U.S. National Debt - (www.ml-implode.com)
Goldman's Equity Arm Backs Out Of $794 Million Myers Takeover - (money.cnn.com) – Another private equity deal goes bad due to credit crisis
Soros Lambasts Paulson, Call for Intervention - (www.ml-implode.com)
BayernLB profit slumps as write-downs reach $6.7 billion - (www.marketwatch.com)
Bank Write-Downs: No End Yet - (www.time.com)
Congress Bails Out the Homebuilders - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Food Prices to Rise For Years, Thanks to Biofuels - (www.reuters.com)
Food Riots Rock Yemen - (www.inteldaily.com)
Reuters: Hungry Crowds Spell Trouble for World Leaders - (www.alertnet.org)
Hey, Fed: Stop robbing my savings! - (www.marketwatch.com)
The great inflation cover-up - (money.cnn.com)
House Prices Around the Nation - (efinancedirectory.com)

Bankruptcies Jump 30% in March, Led by Housing-Bust States - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Suffers Biggest Jobs Drop In 5 Years as Downturn Spreads - (online.wsj.com)
81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on the Wrong Track - (www.nytimes.com)
U.S. Loses 80,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Increases - (www.bloomberg.com)
Texas gas price sets record high - (www.chron.com)

Why lenders are feeling the squeeze - (www.ft.com)
Fed Officials Defend Bailout of Bear Stearns - (www.nytimes.com)
Fed money is based on confidence - (www.rfdoc.com)
In God We Better Trust - (eyeonmiami.blogspot.com)
Soros Calls For Clearing House For Credit Default Swaps In US - (online.wsj.com)
Death of a Bond Insurer - (www.businessweek.com)
Rooms With a Bubble View - (online.wsj.com)
Hundreds to foreclose on Placer land - (www.sacramentobizjournals.com)
Corn hits $6 on tight supplies - (www.chicagotribune.com)
An Insider's Look at the Subprime Mortgage Collapse - (www.seekingalpha.com)
When leverage gets out control - (www.iht.com)
Overdue Consumer Debts Highest Since 1992 - (www.bloomberg.com)

Microsoft May Cut Yahoo Bid Amid Slowdown, People Familiar Say - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dimon Rejected Rescuing Bear Until Geithner Promised Funding - (www.bloomberg.com)
Latest Hitch for Delphi, New Worry for G.M. - (www.nytimes.com)
Northwest raising fuel surcharges, freezing pilot hiring - (www.ajc.com)

Mortgage golden age comes to close - (www.ft.com)
Euro zone finance ministers back ECB's inflation battle - (www.iht.com)
No Cushion Against Hubris - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Take financial talking-heads with a grain of salt - (www.ft.com)