Wednesday August 5 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Overpriced DC's Watergate Hotel draws no bids at foreclosure auction - (www.mcclatchydc.com) The Watergate Hotel, the iconic property synonymous with the downfall of President Richard Nixon, failed to attract any bids when it was auctioned Tuesday. Joseph Cooper, who wielded the gavel, seemed surprised when there was silence after the auction opened at $25 million. "It's a Washington landmark," said Cooper, the president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, after calling the bid a few times. Still, no one called out a higher amount. "It's a national landmark, really," he told the crowd. The June 17, 1972, burglary of Democratic National Committee headquarters at the complex was at the center of the scandal that would lead to Nixon's resignation two years later. In the end, New York-based PB Capital Corp., which had lent previous owner Monument Realty $40 million for the property, agreed to take the hotel for $25 million. That means that Monument Realty still owes PB Capital $15 million, said Paul Cooper, the vice president of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, which conducted the auction. "Something good will come out of this," said Michael Darby, the owner of Monument Realty. "This puts it in the hands of a group that can move it forward. It should be a first-class hotel." Darby said the lender will likely look for a private buyer for the hotel, which is estimated to need tens of millions of dollars in renovations to reopen. The city foreclosed on the property Thursday after Monument Realty defaulted on its loan, hurt by a partnership with the failed Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers. It's been closed since 2007, when Monument Realty planned a $170 million renovation. The 251-room, 12-story hotel, built in 1967, is part of a complex of offices and condominiums made famous not only by the scandal, but also as one of the city's most fashionable addresses. Big-name Washingtonians such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Senate leader Bob Dole and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been residents of the complex. So was Monica Lewinsky, the other woman in the Bill Clinton impeachment scandal, who lived with her mother next door to Dole. About 10 mostly local bidders put down deposits of $1 million to participate in the auction, which also attracted dozens of reporters, spectators and those in the real estate industry. After no one bid, Charles Welch Tiedemann, a lawyer representing Monument Realty, said he wasn't surprised with the outcome, saying it was typical for real estate auctions. "Most everyone in the room was either media or curiosity-seekers," he said.

Realtors cry foul over low-ball appraisals - (money.cnn.com) Ken comment: The realtor and builder industry associations are howling again. If I were lending my own money, I would definitely not trust these two industry groups to provide their own appraisers or appraisals. If I were lending the money, I would demand that my own appraiser be used before lending my money……..Realtors and builders do not care about the quality of the appraisal because they are not providing the financial backing for the deal!!!! Real estate appraisers are the latest villains in the continuing saga of the bursting of the real estate bubble. Industry groups including the National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Home Builders (who were happy using fraudulent and inflated appraisals in previous years) are howling that new appraisal guidelines that went into effect on May 1 are producing below-market appraisals that are killing sales and adding yet another tough hurdle to refinancing. The NAR reports that 17% of its members say they have recently lost one sale due to an appraisal coming in way below a purchase price, and 20% of members say they have lost more than one deal because of low appraisals. NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun blamed “faulty valuations that keep buyers from getting a loan” as the reason May home sales data weren’t stronger. The dust-up is a reaction to the new Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC) for mortgages securitized or held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The new rules prohibit real estate agents and mortgage brokers from hiring the appraiser. The mortgage lender is now in charge of that part of the loan process; the lender can use an in-house appraiser to handle the evaluation or farm it out to an appraisal management company. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo pushed through the new regulation as settlement of a 2007 lawsuit that accused mortgage lender Washington Mutual (now subsumed by Chase) of a far-too-cozy relationship with an appraisal management company that used appraisers who were happy to sign off on inflated valuations. Realtors, builders and mortgage brokers insist this corrective measure has swung the pendulum to the other extreme, threatening any chance of a meaningful real estate rebound. Their main gripe seems to be that lenders are relying more on appraisal management companies as middlemen to handle the assignment and execution of appraisals, and the companies — according to the howlers — are assigning appraisers to neighborhoods and entire regions they are wholly unfamiliar with. That then leads to lower appraisals, they say, since only a local would be able to understand the nuances of that particular market.

US financial market bailout tab hits $4.7 trillion - (news.yahoo.com/s/ap) The federal government has devoted $4.7 trillion to help the financial sector through its crisis, a level of assistance equal to about one-third of the overall U.S. economy, a watchdog report said Monday. Under the worst of circumstances, the report said, the government's maximum exposure could total nearly $24 trillion, or $80,000 for every American. The figures are part of a tough new quarterly report to Congress from special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who accuses the Treasury Department of repeatedly failing to adopt recommendations aimed at making one component of the government financial rescue effort more accountable and transparent. The $4.7 trillion commitment to the industry takes into account about 50 initiatives and programs set up since 2007 by the Bush and Obama administrations as well as by the Federal Reserve. Barofsky oversees one of the initiatives — the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Much of the government assistance is backed by collateral and Barofsky's $23.7 trillion estimate represents the gross, not net, exposure that the government could face. Because of declining participation in short-term loan programs and because some infusions of money have been repaid, the maximum amount actually spent has declined to a current outstanding balance of $3 trillion, Barofsky said. Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the actual cash outlay to date of all the programs cited by Barofsky is actually less than $2 trillion and said the maximum exposure estimate "is inflated in a number of ways."

Regional Banks Wave Red Flag On Economy - (www.forbes.com) With smaller institutions reporting falling consumer and business loan demand, the foundation doesn't seem solid for a recovery. In stark contrast to the second-quarter gains logged by the biggest U.S. banks last week, regional banks that don't have big in-house bond trading desks and depend more heavily on traditional lending are demonstrating what conditions are really like for bankers out there. Not good. Comerica and Regions Financial posted second-quarter losses on deteriorating loan books and a lackluster business climate. Provisions for loan losses about doubled at each bank, which have big real estate exposures in Florida and other parts of the recession-scarred South and Midwest. The banks said loan demand from consumer and business borrowers was down, a sign that revenue growth from lending activities--one of the things politicians in Washington hope will lift the economy to recovery--will be blunted until that turnaround comes. Other large regional lenders, including KeyCorp, SunTrust Huntington Bancshares and Fifth Third, are expected to post losses in the quarter, as is CIT Group, a troubled lender to small and medium-size business. It scrambled over the weekend to arrange a $3 billion rescue deal with its bondholders but acknowledged in a regulatory filing Tuesday that the deal might not keep it out of bankruptcy court after all. Wells Fargo, which inherited a big brokerage division when it bought Wachovia (and inherited a lot of troubled mortgage loans, to boot) is expected to report a profit Wednesday.

Argentina: Winter Meltdown – (www.safehaven.com) It's the beginning of winter in Argentina and the only thing that's hot right now is the capital outflows. To give some idea of how hot, outflows increased by 150% in Q1 to $5.7 billion. If the $6 billion estimate for the second quarter proves correct, that would mean a total of $43 billion has left the financial system since Q3 2007. Individuals and corporations alone accounted for $3.6 billion of net outflow in the first quarter (see Chart 5). At present, the only thing catching on more quickly is Twitter. So what is causing Argentineans to stash their money away in foreign banks and mattresses? President Cristina Fernandez. Since taking office in 2007, the president has been plagued by a messy debt situation left over from the default in 2002 and a slew of heterodox policies implemented by her husband when he was president - not her fault. However, it's the manner in which she has been handling these challenges that has caused the capital flight. To name a few - drastically increased taxation on soy farmers has stoked a farming crisis since 2007, the nationalization of private pension assets in 2008, and a constant stream of dubious inflation statistics to keep the country's inflation-indexed bond payments artificially low. These are not exactly confidence boosters, and if there's anything we have learned over the past year it is that a basis of confidence, trust, and predictability in policymaking is the foundation of stable markets. Just ask Tim Geithner. While these heavy outflows have troubling implications for consumer spending and domestic investment (and thus will exacerbate the current downturn), the real threat is to central bank reserves and the feed-through effects on the currency. Capital inflows normally cover shortfalls on the current account ledger, and the threat stems from the possibility that the central bank may be forced to liquidate some reserves for payment purposes should the outflows continue to accelerate. Reserves are currently stagnating as the central bank fans peso demand by selling dollars and could decrease significantly should a deficit need covering, thus reserve backing would wane for the Argentine peso and a sharp depreciation could be witnessed. Understandably, investors are scared. How will the government cover its interest payments while adding to the mountain of debt this year as it records its first fiscal deficit since 2002? Will it nationalize more assets? Will it slap on capital controls to halt the exodus? Will it...(gulp)... default? What the government needs to do is engineer a swift and transparent structural reform of the public finances. Cut spending, raise taxes a tiny bit, throw out stimulus packages, etc. because the economic pain that the country could potentially face should profligate spending continue will be far worse than tightening the belt right now. Restoring government finances to a sustainable trajectory, using legal and transparent measures, will greatly boost confidence and likely solve the capital flight problem. The question is however, whether the government has the will to do this. Going forward, expect a tumultuous few months as the government grapples with inevitability. Buenos Aires can either change its ways or deal with the consequences. Whatever the path chosen, it shall certainly be a long winter for Mrs. Fernandez and her legislature.

Bernanke Terrified Over Commercial Real Estate, Seeks Still More Power Over Consumers - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) When a member of the Fed admits a problem, especially chairman Bernanke, you can rest assured the problem is far worse than what they admit. Such is case today as Bernanke Says Commercial Property May Pose Risk for Economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said a potential wave of defaults in commercial real estate may present a “difficult” challenge for the economy, without committing to additional steps to aid the market. Bernanke, testifying before the Senate Banking Committee today, urged lenders to modify “problem” mortgages to avert defaults. Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who chairs the panel, told Bernanke that “some have suggested” the commercial market “may even dwarf the residential mortgage problems” in the U.S. It “may be appropriate” for the government and Congress to consider “fiscal” steps to support the industry, Bernanke said today. Ideas for fresh support for the market could include government guarantees for commercial mortgages, Bernanke also said today, while noting no proposal on the subject has emerged. U.S. commercial property prices fell 7.6 percent in May from a month earlier, bringing the total decline to 35 percent since the market’s peak, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report this week. Commercial properties in the U.S. valued at more than $108 billion are now in default, foreclosure or bankruptcy, almost double than at the start of the year, Real Capital Analytics Inc. said earlier this month. “As the recession’s gotten worse in the last six months or so, we’re seeing increased vacancy, declining rents, falling prices -- and so, more pressure on commercial real estate,” Bernanke said yesterday. “We are somewhat concerned about that sector and are paying very close attention to it. We’re taking the steps that we can through the banking system and through the securitization markets to try to address it.” One of the main issues for the industry is that the market for debt backed by commercial mortgages “has completely shut down,” the Fed chief said yesterday. Bernanke Terrified Over Commercial Real Estate: Given the commercial mortgages have "completely shut down", does anyone buy Bernanke's line that he is "somewhat concerned"? Here is the real deal: Bernanke is terrified and so is the rest of the Fed.

OTHER STORIES:

Rich Harvard, Poor Harvard - (www.vanityfair.com)

Goldman owes Paulson a $1 billion bonus - (www.marketwatch.com)

Bernanke: Economy better, but ... - (money.cnn.com)

Key forecaster sees ‘grim' second quarter- (www.globalinvestor.com)

Subprime Brokers Resurface as Dubious Loan Fixers - (www.nytimes.com)

Out of work, out of benefits, out of luck - (money.cnn.com)

US banks warn on commercial property - (www.ft.com)

Ginnie Mae Market May Swell to $1 Trillion on Low Down Payments - (www.bloomberg.com)

Money struggles to pass through banking pipe - (www.ft.com)

US rating agencies escape overhaul - (www.ft.com)

California's biggest government pension funds lose almost $100 billion - (www.latimes.com)

Hedge Funds Had Record Rally in April-June, Eurekahedge Says - (www.bloomberg.com)

China to deploy forex reserves - (www.ft.com)

Spain Housing Collapse Cuts Rents in Worst Glut Since 1950s - (www.bloomberg.com)

China’s New Stock Accounts Advance to 18-Month High - (www.bloomberg.com)

U.S. Home Prices Drop 5.6% in May From Year Ago on Job Losses - (www.bloomberg.com)

Fed Aims to Hold Down Interest Rates - (www.nytimes.com)

Week-to-week mortgage filings up 2.8% as rates rise: MBA - (www.marketwatch.com)

Bernanke dragged into stimulus debate - (www.ft.com)

Bernanke Jabs Back at Fed's Critics In Congress - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Cities spike parking fines to boost revenue - (www.usatoday.com)

Wells Fargo Says Bad Loans Rise in Second Quarter; Shares Drop - (www.bloomberg.com)

Morgan Stanley posts 2Q loss of more than $1.2B - (finance.yahoo.com)

CIT Hit With Interest Rate More Than 25 Times Libor - (www.bloomberg.com)

Goldman Sachs Pays $1.1 Billion for Treasury Warrants - (www.bloomberg.com)

Challenge to Health Bill: Selling Reform - (www.nytimes.com)

CIT Tremors Force Sleeping-Bag Maker to Seek Cover - (www.bloomberg.com)

Endowment Losses From Harvard to Yale Leave Universities Poorer - (www.bloomberg.com)

Too big to fail? Wall Street, we have a problem - (www.ft.com)

Tuesday December 16 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

The Downturn Hits Dubai - www.businessweek.com) With the Persian Gulf economy shriveling from the oil price drop, Dubai's push to become a global financial hub is in jeopardy. For a year or so, the movers and shakers of the small but oil-rich United Arab Emirates have watched the unfolding of the credit crisis in the West with a mixture of dismay and denial. It won't happen here, was their view. And for a long time it didn't. But now it is. The price of oil, the lifeblood of the Persian Gulf economy, has fallen more than 60% since its mid-July peak. Real estate, the other mainstay, especially in oil-poor Dubai, has been quick to follow. An industry source in Dubai estimates that prices, which rose about 14.4% in the first eight months of this year, have suddenly dropped by 20% to 30%, with some developments seeing 50% declines. With prices for villas and apartments falling and sales grinding to a halt, big developers such as Nakheel, which is building the iconic palm frond-shaped projects on fill dredged from the sea bottom, are halting construction and laying off staff. Jobs, though on a lesser scale, also are being lost at investment banks such as Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS), which have seen the Gulf as one place business was not drying up. They are now trimming staff, to the alarm of the local authorities, who have staked their future on the Gulf's becoming a global financial center. A chill wind is blowing through the Gulf. Credit has dried up; stock exchanges have crashed; and the region's once-vaunted Sovereign Wealth Funds, set up to save for a future when oil reserves are exhausted, have instead sustained huge losses, potentially in the hundreds of billions of dollars. It has long been assumed that if Dubai got into trouble, it would be bailed out by its neighbor, Abu Dhabi, one of the great oil powers and the deep pockets behind the UAE. Already there are signs of a rescue process beginning. It's being handled at the UAE federal level, with Abu Dhabi likely providing whatever funding is needed. Trading in the shares of two publicly traded but partly state-owned mortgage finance companies, Tamweel and Amlak Finance (AMLK), was suspended on Nov. 20. The two companies, which account for about 50% of the mortgage market, with $5.5 billion in assets, are to be merged into a little known federal government entity called the Real Estate Bank of the UAE. In addition, the UAE has guaranteed all bank deposits for three years and has earmarked about $33 billion for support of the banking system. Nominally, the capital is coming from the central bank and the UAE Ministry of Finance, but, as one analyst put it, "All money in the UAE comes from Abu Dhabi."

GSE's May Waive Appraisals For Refinances - (www.bloomberg.com) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance companies seized by the U.S. government, are considering forgoing new appraisals on refinanced loans to help struggling homeowners, their regulator said. “If they refinance someone, rather than doing a loan mod, do they need a new appraisal if they already have the credit?” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart told reporters after a speech in Washington today. “That’s an issue that’s being discussed. They’re looking at it.” Fannie and Freddie, which own or guarantee $5.3 trillion of the $12 trillion U.S. home loan market, must consider that some homeowners who need to refinance owe more than their property is worth and wouldn’t qualify for the necessary mortgage insurance, Lockhart said. Another consideration is the issue surrounding the valuation of refinanced loans on the companies’ balance sheets. “It sounds like a disaster,” said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia. “What you’re doing is postponing the problem into the future and not giving the system time to fix itself,” he said, adding that regulators are bowing to political pressure.

Realtors propose plan to rejuvenate housing market - (www.akron.com) - Sorry, but letting these fucking morons propose anything is ridiculous. Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist, who predicted last year the turnaround would begin in late 2008, stated pending home sales slipped 4.6 percent nationwide in September from August but remained 1.6 percent higher than a year earlier. He also stated some of the areas hardest hit by the slowdown, including Florida and California, showed “consistent, solid gains” and that NAR’s housing affordability index is averaging 19 percentage points higher this year than in 2007. Based on a recent NAR survey, 35 percent to 40 percent of all recent home sales across the country were “distress sales,” such as bank-owned foreclosures or “short” sales in which the lender agrees to take less than the amount owed. In Florida, distress sales could be as high as 50 percent or 60 percent of all recent closings. NAR recently presented Congress with a Four-Point Housing Stimulus Plan to help stabilize the housing and mortgage markets. The package suggests using $130 billion of the $700 federal billion bailout funds on housing, specifically earmarked for an interest-rate buy-down and more tax credits.

More CRA Idiocy - (www.ritholtz.com) - Howard Husock has an exercise in cognitive dissonance in today’s NYT Op-Ed pages titled Housing Goals We Can’t Afford, and it begins: “The national wave of home foreclosures, many concentrated in lower-income and minority neighborhoods, has created a strong temptation to find the villains responsible.” What can you say about an Op-Ed whose very first sentence is a giant pile of steaming bullshit? That statement is demonstrably false. As the prior post on foreclosures shows, the concentration is mostly middle class and upper middle class white suburban neighborhoods. California leads the nation in foreclosures. The state’s foreclosure activity was up 51% from a year ago. These are not CRA communities, they are what were hoped to be surburban bedroom communities east of the major cities (San Diego and L.A.) Next up is Florida; The state’s foreclosure activity was still up 68 percent from November 2007. The enormous overbuilding of Condos, and not CRA, is to blame. These weren’t inner city loans to minorities, as Dan Gross pointed out, they were “WCI Communities — builder of highly amenitized condos in Florida (no subprime purchasers welcome there)” WCI filed for bankruptcy in August. “Very few of the tens of thousands of now-surplus condominiums in Miami were conceived to be marketed to subprime borrowers, or minorities—unless you count rich Venezuelans and Colombians as minorities.”

GMAC at the brink - (money.cnn.com) Is it possible GMAC was counting on the government load to GM for $19B before it was cut significantly? General Motors' finance unit is falling short of capital requirements it needs to become a bank holding company and access needed cash from the government. GMAC Financial Services, the finance unit tied to automaker General Motors, said Wednesday it is coming up well short in its efforts to raise the capital it needs to become a bank holding company, a move the unit is counting on to gain access to needed funds from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve.
The unit, which is 49% owned by General Motors and 51% owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, had applied to become a bank holding company last month but warned Wednesday that it may have to pull the application.

BIS warns of collapse in global lending - (www.telegraph.co.uk) The City of London has suffered a dramatic collapse in its core business as global lending falls at the steepest rate since records began, according to new figures from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). In its quarterly report, the BIS warned the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and other central banks that near-zero interest rates and emergency monetary stimulus may come at a cost. By opening the cash spigot, the authorities risk displacing the money markets and may "discourage banks from lending to other banks". The money markets are a crucial lubricant for the financial system, but they cannot function if rates fall too low. The sector can wither away, as Japan discovered during its "Lost Decade". The BIS also hinted that the European Central Bank and Sweden's Riksbank may have blundered by raising rates this year to contain the oil shock. It said short-term energy spikes have no lasting effect on inflation or wage deals.

Zell's Tribune: The Canary in a Scary Mine - (www.businessweek.com) Sam Zell's folly will be the first in a wave of newspaper restructuring and consolidation. When I wrote a column of predictions last week, I expected some of my guesses for 2009 would never happen. Leave it to Tribune's Sam Zell, though, to make one of them wrong by filing Chapter 11 while the calendar still reads 2008. Zell's $8.2 billion deal, which went from "we did it" to "we're bankrupt" in less than a year, illustrates the folly of buying declining businesses with billions of dollars of borrowed money. That seems an obvious and fatuous statement now, but apparently it didn't occur to Zell. (A Tribune spokesman did not respond to several calls and e-mails.) The Tribune deal left a company that generates revenue mainly from newspapers with around nine times more debt than annual cash flow, or at least what had been its annual cash flow, since that figure is declining by the month. It was extreme enough to warrant "whoas" even from media executives accustomed to doing deals involving lots of debt. Things being what they are, those executives are now too busy going fetal under their desks and licking their wounds to be playing "I told you so."

Bank of America to shed up to 35,000 jobs - (money.cnn.com) Bank of America said Thursday it plans to slash up to 35,000 jobs over the next three years as it absorbs Merrill Lynch and contends with the deepening recession. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, which will be the nation's largest financial services firm when the Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) deal closes in coming weeks, said it will announce a final job reduction plan in early 2009. The cuts will come from both companies and will affect all lines of business.




OTHER STORIES:

Stocks slump on auto bailout worries Oil jumps $4.50 - (money.cnn.com)
Detroit bailout faces Senate fight - (money.cnn.com)
Help near for seniors slammed by stocks - (money.cnn.com)
Get ready for the final rate cut - will it matter? - (money.cnn.com)
Mad about the economy - (money.cnn.com)
U.S. sellers to world: Please buy our leftovers - (money.cnn.com)

Dire Forecast for Global Economy and Trade - (www.nytimes.com)
Half of 'rescued' borrowers still default - (money.cnn.com)
CFOs: Recession to last another year - (money.cnn.com)
Jobless Claims at 26-Year High; Import Prices Fall - (www.cnbc.com)
Procter & Gamble Trims Second-Quarter Sales Outlook - (www.cnbc.com)
Eli Lilly's Lechleiter: "Ludicrous" Stock Price - (www.cnbc.com)
Foreclosure Activity Drops to June Levels - (www.cnbc.com)
Boeing Delays Dreamliner Flight, Deliveries - (www.cnbc.com)
Costco's Profit Rises as Gas Stations Fuel Growth - (www.cnbc.com)
US Bancorp Sees $1 Billion in Writedowns Ahead - (www.cnbc.com)
AIG Asset Sales Plan May Be Delayed: CEO - (www.cnbc.com)

Update: Fidelity Home Mortgage Corp. Is No Longer - (www.ml-implode.com) - After a tipster wrote in to inquire about the current status of Fidelity Home Mortgage Corp., we did some looking...
UPDATE: Deutsche Bank closes MortgageIT? - (www.ml-implode.com)
Ex-Officer Faults Mortgage Giants for ‘Orgy’ of Nonprime Loans - (www.ml-implode.com)

Thursday April 24 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Good Bush Clip – We are not in a recession - (www.youtube.com) – We are in a slowdown, not in a recession J
First National Mortgage Sources Files BK - (www.ml-implode.com)
Buybacks, Lawsuits Move Cameron Financial Group, Inc. (1st Choice Mtg) To File BK - (www.ml-implode.com) - Cameron Financial Group, Inc. (dba 1st Choice Mortgage) has filed for Chapter 7. View the petition, lawsuits and more in our la...
AMBAC: Lawyers Scrutinizing Certain Transactions - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Bond insurer Ambac Financial Group Inc. has hired legal and forensic experts to examine 17 of its financial guarantee transact...
Roubini predicts 12 to 18 month recession - (www.youtube.com)
Americans slaves to jobs to keep houses - (economictimes.indiatimes.com)
Excessive House Prices Cause Divorce - (articles.moneycentral.msn.com) – I am sure excessive house prices caused marriages initially when couples were blinded by how smart their spouses were J
The cost of a lifeline: Humbled financial groups brace for more regulation - (www.ft.com) – Do any of us feel sorry for the financials?
Countrywide ripped at hearing - (www.chicagotribune.com) – Again, do any of us feel sorry for CFC? Of course, Countrywide did not attend the hearing.
If the public knew more, they wouldn't use realtors - (news.com.au)
Nevada: Borrowers trash homes - (www.businessweek.com)
The House-Burning Foreclosure Alternative - (www.npr.org)
Stuck with two mortgages - (www.chicagobusiness.com)
3% of Housedebtors To Be In Foreclosure In Next Two Years - (www.pewtrusts.org)
Government Seeks to Buy Student Loans - (www.nytimes.com) – If the government buys student loans from the servicers, then these servicing companies should make very little profit. They are not finding investors or using their own money so what exactly what value will they be providing? None that I can see except helping users fill out the needed paperwork.
Financial groups raise $28bn - (www.ft.com) – Of course, they are raising the money by diluting their existing shares.
Lenders Swamped by Delinquent Mortgages - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Office Investor Broadway Partners Faces the Music on Short-Term Debt - (online.wsj.com) - Broadway's strategy for dealing with its mountain of debt will involve several pieces falling into place amid a challenging real-estate finance market. It wants to raise $200 million in equity to purchase some of its short-term debt back at a discount to its face value. That will involve both persuading equity partners to put up more cash, and getting debtholders to part with their investments at a loss. It also needs to execute property sales at a time when buyers are having trouble securing loans.
Subprime crisis provokes ‘tsunami’ of lawsuits - (www.ft.com)
Ambac Posts Loss on CDO Writedowns, New Business Drop - (www.bloomberg.com) – Ambak stock drops 45% on the news and is again at 52 week lows.
Americans hoard food as industry seeks regs - (www.washingtontimes.com)


Other Stories:

Target credit-card defaults jump - (www.startribune.com)
Equifirst Halts All Lending Pending FHA Rollout - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Effective today, EquiFirst is suspending our subprime lending products until further notice. We will focus all of our efforts o...
Ailing Ambac - (www.ml-implode.com) - Even worse, its “good bank” line of work has evaporated more quickly than its “bad bank” operations. Business in public finance ...
Washington Mutual spent $980,000 lobbying - (www.ml-implode.com)
Bank Of America CEO Lewis Defends Countrywide Acquisition - (www.ml-implode.com)


Foreclosures soar in state, SF Bay Area - (sfgate.com)
Foreclosures surge in California - (www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com)
California foreclosure surge 327% from '07 levels - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
Prices tumbling in Florida's luxury market - (www.reportonbusiness.com)
Financial regulatory limitations - (www.ml-implode.com) - Regulation can and often does add more systemic risk to the system because people believe the regulators will see problems and ...

Starbucks Sees First Annual Profit Decline in 8 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
Amazon.com Net Rises 29%; Shares Decline on Forecast - (www.bloomberg.com)
Housing slump may exceed Depression - (www.signonsandiego.com)
Deflation In A Fiat Regime? - (Mish)
Mortgage rescue plan will hurt more than it helps - (money.cnn.com)
No help yet for most subprime borrowers - (money.cnn.com)
Anatomy of a Collapse - (www.nytimes.com)
Triple-A Failure - (biz.yahoo.com)
Why Wall St. Needed Credit Default Swaps - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Piling On: Borrowers Buried by Fees - (www.nytimes.com)
$200K per year, and still not "rich"? - (www.sfgate.com)
Lenders Swamped by Delinquent Mortgages - (www.washingtonpost.com)

California home foreclosures hit a record - (www.latimes.com)
Inflation Fears Could End Fed's Fiddling - (www.thestreet.com)
U.S. Architects' Services Index Falls to Record as Demand Slows - (www.bloomberg.com)
Gasoline prices have yet to peak - (www.kansascity.com)
Texas and area nurses consider pros and cons of unionization - (www.dallasnews.com)
Libor Hits U.S. Borrowers - (online.wsj.com)
Credit vehicle defaults continue to climb - (www.ft.com)
Regulators Back Away From Changes to Commodity Hedging - (www.nytimes.com)

Yahoo's earnings report fails to wow Wall Street - (www.latimes.com)
Effort to Rein In Fannie, Freddie Gains Steam - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Loans fear spreads beyond mortgages as defaults climb - (www.ft.com)
UPS 1Q profit, revenues up; outlook lower for the year - (www.ajc.com)
Regulator fears wave of bank failures - (www.ft.com)
New rules would raise fuel-economy standards - (www.latimes.com)

Wall Street losing patience with UnitedHealth - (www.startribune.com)
FDA Short of Funds For Inspections - (online.wsj.com)
Surging Energy Costs Take a Big Toll on Airline Earnings - (www.nytimes.com)
UBS to Slim Down Investment Bank After Record Losses - (www.bloomberg.com)
Craigslist fires back at eBay over lawsuit - (money.cnn.com)

European Services Growth Unexpectedly Accelerated - (www.bloomberg.com)
India to take steps to control rising prices for food - (www.signonsandiego.com)
Bank of England Splits Three Ways in Rate-Cut Vote - (www.bloomberg.com)
Australia's core inflation rises at fastest pace in nearly 17 years - (www.iht.com)
Singapore's March Inflation Accelerates to Fastest in 26 Years - (www.bloomberg.com)

The emerging markets will export inflation across the globe - (www.ft.com)
Food Crisis Is Depicted As 'Silent Tsunami' - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Service contracts provide never-ending angst - (www.chron.com)