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)

Tuesday April 22 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Libor rate jumps again, still not quite honest - (www.marketwatch.com)
Minnesota's new ghost towns - (www.startribune.com)
Chic, Urban, and Deserted in Vegas - (www.lasvegassun.com)
Subprime debt selling at 10-20 cents on the dollar - (www.goldmau.com)
When a HELOC freezes over - (money.cnn.com)
Bank of America Net Income Falls 77% on Writedowns - (www.ml-implode.com)
$10 Billion Hedge Fund Trade Stings Rivals - (www.nytimes.com) – Yes, Hedge Funds have been playing the steep yield curve trade again and some got partially burned last week.
Amid strong farm economy, some dire signs - (www.ap.com)
Credit getting even tighter for condominium buyers - (www.chicagotribune.com)
BoE unveils 'special liquidity scheme' - (www.ft.com) – Bank of England silently nationalizing mortgage market like the US. Also taking bad debt off the hands of unwise and speculative lenders.
Bank of England Will Unveil Bond Swap to Ease Mortgage Market - (www.bloomberg.com)
$100 Billion Securities Swap at Bank of England - (www.nytimes.com)
Are 98% of the Henderson, NV area houses for sale in foreclosure? - (patrick.net)
OC's high-rent districts suffer higher apartment vacancies - (lansner.freedomblogging.com)
The Orange County you won't see on fantasy TV - (www.businessweek.com)
Analyst Whitney Thinks Wells Fargo Needs Reserves, Capital - (www.ml-implode.com) - Whitney believes that Wells Fargo is under-reserved by at least $4.5 billion as of Monday and will need to raise capital to res...
Auction-Rate Market Shrinks by 18% Amid State Probes - (www.ml-implode.com) - The U.S. auction-rate bond market is starting to disappear. At least $58.9 billion, or 18 percent of the securities outstan...


Other Stories:

Homebuilder shares fall ahead of earnings this week amid troubled housing market - (www.ml-implode.com) - ''Homebuilder shares fell Monday as several companies prepare to report quarterly results this week amid a housing market that c...
The trillion-dollar mortgage time bomb - (www.ml-implode.com) - ''Among the nightmares lurking around the corner for the already battered housing and credit markets would be a meltdown at mort...
Maladjustment - (www.ml-implode.com) - ''Don’t look now, but the next casualties of Bubble-Economics is being set up. Agriculture today is a about as distorted and mal...
An Alarming Forecast For The Housing Bust - (www.ml-implode.com)

Auction-Rate Market Shrinks by 18% as SEC, States Investigate - (www.bloomberg.com)
Euro Rises to Within Cent of Record Versus Dollar on ECB View - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasuries Little Changed as Fed Rate Cut Expectations Decline - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bernanke Grapples With Greenspan as Volcker Scorns Fed Bailouts - (www.bloomberg.com)
Credit Woes Stifle Small-Biz Loans - (www.cfo.com)
Risks rise for Fannie, Freddie - (money.cnn.com)
Florida luxury home market shows signs of wear - (www.ml-implode.com)

Financial slump could hit new graduates - (www.ft.com)
Teens turn to thrift as jobs vanish and prices rise - (www.usatoday.com)
Door maker to shut down Tolleson plant - (www.azcentral.com)
Colorado town outsources public works - (denver.bizjournals.com)
Survey: 30 percent believe economy will shrink - (www.newsday.com)

Treasury sell-off hits housing recovery hopes - (www.ft.com)
Wheels Come Off ADS, Blackstone Deal - (www.thestreet.com).com
Debt may be a factor in suspicious house, car fires - (www.latimes.com)
Housing: Time to Halt Taxpayer Subsidies - (www.businessweek.com)
Fed hawks warn on inflation - (www.reuters.com)
Ponzi Squared - (norris.blogs.nytimes.com)
Big Pensions Slash Stock Investments - (www.cfo.com)
Venture capital investing slows in first quarter - (www.marketwatch.com)
Oil producers refuse to raise output - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)

Lenders lock out new borrowers - (www.independent.co.uk)
Bring back the Gold Standard? - (optionarmageddon.blogspot.com)
Foreclosed listings from Hollywood to Glendale - (www.latimes.com)
Housing slide picks up speed in Chicago - (www.chicagobusiness.com)
Housing sales tumble across Canada - (www.reportonbusiness.com)
How I am Surviving the Sub-Prime Crisis - (www.hubpages.com)
A seller triumphs in a bad micro-market's micro-bloodbath - (www.sfgate.com)
Greenspan, Cheerleader for debt - (from 2004) - (www.bloomberg.com)
Gas, CPI, and Fraud - (www.youtube.com)

Bank of America Net Income Falls 77% on Writedowns - (www.bloomberg.com)
XM, Sirius Still Have Much to Prove - (www.thestreet.com).com
Funds to invest up to $8bn in National City bank - (www.ft.com)
Dollar's plunge becoming lynchpin in 1Q earnings - (www.signonsandiego.com)
Student Lenders Pull a Failing Grade - (www.thestreet.com).com
Corroded to the core: How a staid Swiss bank let ambitions lead it into folly - (www.ft.com)
AT&T to cut about 4,600 jobs - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Is this the end for cheap airline fares? - (www.chicagotribune.com)

Hint of Division in ECB - (online.wsj.com)
World recession 'worst since 70s' - (news.bbc.co.uk)
Asia Risks `Silent Famine' as Food Soars, WFP Warns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Wall St. Socialism A Brave New Federal Reserve - (www.nypost.com)
D.C. debate is whether to regulate or not - (www.ap.com)