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)