Friday June 6 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Holyfield's Estate Under Foreclosure - (www.11alive.com) - A legal notice that appeared in a local newspaper showed his Fayette County estate is under foreclosure. The home worth an estimated $10 million is set to be auctioned by a bank on July 1. The mother of one of Holyfield's nine children said he has missed two child-support payments. Toi Irvin, who lives in Clayton County, filed a petition for contempt in Fayette County Superior Court on behalf of her 10-year-old son. Irvin said she was told by Holyfield's representatives not to expect the payment for May and June totaling $6,000.
Ed McMahon Loses Home - (and Blames Britney Spears) - (www.clusterstock.com) - "In the midst of trying to sell this property, there were a lot of distractions," Davis said, citing paparazzi who have converged around the nearby home of Britney Spears. "When we were trying to sell the house one time, there were about 100 paparazzi there," he said. Where's that mortgage bailout when you need it?
Home foreclosures set record in first quarter - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Home foreclosures and late payments set records over the first three months of the year and are expected to keep rising, stark signs of the housing crisis' mounting damage to homeowners and the economy. The latest snapshot of the mortgage market, released Thursday, showed that the proportion of mortgages that fell into foreclosure soared to 0.99 percent in the January-through-March period. That surpassed the previous high of 0.83 percent over the last three months in 2007.
Luxury houses in Napa Valley falling into foreclosure - (www.latimes.com) - Napa County saw 112 homes repossessed in the first quarter, up from 23 a year earlier, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Most of those foreclosures have been in lower-priced areas, where new-home construction and sub-prime lending were widespread during the housing boom. But the top end is now starting to tumble.
Builder sees 'depression' in housing market - (money.cnn.com) - The chief executive of Toll Brothers Inc., the nation's largest luxury-home builder, said Wednesday the housing industry is in a "depression" and any recovery could be two or three years away.
$5 Trillion Hidden Off Bank Balance Sheets - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) The absurdity is not $5 trillion coming back on bank balance sheets. Rather the absurdity is with accounting rules that let banks hold this much stuff off balance sheets in the first place. It makes a mockery of stated leverage, value at risk, and capitalization ratios. Banks claim to be well capitalized but the ratio is a mere 6% and that 6% does not include the effects of hiding $5 trillion off balance sheets.
Jeff Lacker, Suddenly Uncomfortable With These Fed Lending Facility Things - (www.ml-implode.com) - Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, in a speech — and later, an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip — says the acronym soup the Fed has created (TSLF, TAF, et al) to combat the credit crisis is distorting asset values and encouraging risky behavior. In essence, he has thrown the “moral hazard” flag on the various creative efforts undertaken by Mr. Bernanke & Co. to help markets that are frozen.''
Tax Those Vacant Properties Away! - (www.ml-implode.com) - The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to double the tax rate on vacant properties and make permanent some of the tighter enforcement rules the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has been practicing since early last year. Starting Oct. 1, the vacant property rate will be $10 per $100 of assessed value, up from $5, once approved by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Congress. The new rate is more than five times the $1.85 charged to the majority of commercial properties and the 85 cents charged for residential properties.
Countrywide’s Mozilo Hushes Homeowner With an Unaffordable Loan Modification - (www.ml-implode.com) - it is interesting that Mr. Dan Bailey was given a pretty decent loan modification. But what was VERY interesting was the fact that Dan still can’t afford the loan offered and gave to him by Countrywide.



Other Stories:

Fixed Mortgage Rates Hold Steady; Adjustable Rates Fall Sharply - (www.ml-implode.com) - "During a week when mortgage applications took a nose dive, average mortgage rates tended to hold tight as inflation concerns do...
Toll Bros. CEO: Housing in 'depression'; recovery years away - (www.ml-implode.com) - The chief executive of Toll Brothers Inc., the nation's largest luxury-home builder, said Wednesday that the housing industry i...
Home Equity Loans Losing Value - (www.ml-implode.com)
REO Tech Provider Sees Historic Growth as Bank-Owned Properties Swell - (www.ml-implode.com)
BofA's Ken Lewis moving forward with Countrywide Toxic Mortgage - (www.ml-implode.com)
Court OKs Fieldstone Mortgage Chapter 11 BK plan - (www.ml-implode.com)
Subprime Debacle May Spark 2-Year Credit Crisis - (www.ml-implode.com)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Conspire to Put Real Estate Investors In Harm's Way... - (www.ml-implode.com)

Mortgaging America: America For Sale - (www.latimes.com)Lawrence Lindsay: It Is Only Going to Get Worse - (www.aei.org)Return of the Credit Crisis: Did It Ever Leave? - (www.financialsense.com)Wall Street to Shed Up To 25,000 Jobs - (www.thestar.com)Airline Industry Faces 'Worst Crisis Since 9/11' - (www.marketwatch.com)

Bernanke "warns" of danger of weak dollar - (www.guardian.co.uk)
Downsizing the American house - (money.cnn.com)
Subprime debacle may spark 2-year credit recession - (news.yahoo.com)
Prices are falling. Wait. - (patrick.net)
MBIA, Ambac Credit Ratings Under Threat - (www.bloomberg.com)
Sliced, Diced Mortgages More Likely to Default - (www.bloomberg.com)
Buying debt at deep discount - (www.dailybusinessreview.com)
MBIA, Ambac Hammered on News of Likely Downgrades - (www.housingwire.com)
In South Florida, Eviction Spares Few - (www.nytimes.com)
The Golden Collapse - (www.reason.com)

Treasuries Decline as Policy Makers Stoke Inflation Concern - (www.bloomberg.com)
Oil Rebounds From a 3-Week Low After Dollar Drops Against Euro - (www.bloomberg.com)
Euro Rises After Trichet Says July Rate Increase Is `Possible' - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Stocks Rise Most in Month on Retail Sales, Jobless Claims - (www.bloomberg.com)

Lacker Says Fed Loans to Wall Street Risk More Crises - (www.bloomberg.com)
Even with bad economy, job number could be good - (www.nypost.com)
Bernanke to Grads: No Repeat of '70s - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Summer airfares double, triple, quadruple - (www.usatoday.com)
Jobless claims show unexpected improvement - (www.ap.com)
Atlanta may charge street vendors rent - (www.ajc.com)
Large lot inventory hangs over Tuscon market - (www.azbiz.com)
Airfares from Bush Intercontinental leaping skyward - (www.chron.com)

S&P in warning over leveraged loans - (www.ft.com)
Food Is Gold, and Investors Pour Billions Into Farming - (www.nytimes.com)
As layoffs bite Wall St, New York real estate hit - (www.ap.com)
Number of Wall Street IPOs pulled - (www.ft.com)
Small businesses turn to alternative lenders - (www.dallasnews.com)
Ed McMahon fights foreclosure on Beverly Hills home - (www.reuters.com)
Santa Maria house bought with no money down goes into foreclosure - (www.latimes.com)

MBIA, Ambac May Quit Aaa Battle on Moody's Likely Cut - (www.bloomberg.com)
Parts suppliers crushed by auto plant closings, cuts - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Chrysler may be next to announce production cuts - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Betting against Lehman at record levels - (www.ft.com)
Detroit wakes up to need for new vehicle mix - (www.ft.com)
Neiman Marcus plans to add discounts - (www.dallasnews.com)
Fidelity in new round of layoffs - (www.boston.com)
Electric Retailer's Default Pushes Texas Into Action - (online.wsj.com)
More fliers are cashing in their miles - (www.startribune.com)
Continental to cut 3,000 jobs, slash domestic flights - (www.chron.com)
Airlines raise nonstop fares sharply for summer - (www.azcentral.com)

Upturn in costs fuels higher pay deals - (www.ft.com)
ECB, Bank of England leave key rates unchanged - (www.ap.com)
Britain faces deepest slump since 1990s - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Producers lose taste for going overseas - (www.ft.com)
U.K. House Prices Decline Most in 15 Years, HBOS Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Indonesia, Philippines Raise Rates to Fight Inflation - (www.bloomberg.com)
Russian Inflation Accelerated to 15.1% in May on Food - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fuel price rise may only power inflation - (www.ft.com)
China's trade surplus 'to shrink' for first time in five years - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)
Bollard Says New Zealand May Cut Interest Rate; Currency Slumps - (www.bloomberg.com)
Time to Put Investment Banking Back in Its Box: Mark Gilbert - (www.bloomberg.com)
Climate change will add to food, utility bills - (www.reuters.com)

Thursday June 5 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Ed McMahon Faces Foreclosure - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) – Now it has gone too far!!! Ed McMahon, the longtime sidekick to television star Johnny Carson, faces the possible loss of his Beverly Hills home to a foreclosure action initiated by a unit of Countrywide Financial Corp. Why should an 85 year old former TV star of Johnny Carson show need to work at 85? Something went very wrong here. McMahon should have been set for life. Perhaps there are some medical or personal problems I am not aware of but this should be enough to give everyone pause to think. Where will you be at 85?
Calif. congresswoman defaulted on houses six times - (realestate.aol.com) - Rep. Laura Richardson, whose Sacramento home was recently sold into foreclosure, has two other homes in Southern California that have fallen into default six times, according to a published report. During much of that time, Richardson used $177,500 to finance her campaigns for Congress and the California Assembly, the newspaper said. The worst part is this complete TWIT is trying to use her experiences to help other homeowners by legislating changes. Let’s face it LAURA, you are a complete irresponsible TWIT and should not be creating legislation to address foreclosures as all your problems are caused by your own STUPIDITY. I have several large lines of credit. If I borrow against those and default, I should not create legislation against those who provided the lines of credit to me.
Richardson attempted to link her situation to the plight of others facing foreclosure, and said the experience would help make her a better advocate on foreclosure issues.
"I think this is what many Americans are unfortunately facing right now," she said. "I am concerned that I can take what I have learned from this to help somebody else. - Many people are one step away from issues that are life-changing moments. When a person moves across the country, that is a life-changing moment."
Foreclosures lead Merced's downturn - (mobile.latimes.com) - Homes are left partially constructed last month in Merced, Calif., after developers halted projects amid low demand. Some areas look like ghost towns, and in others, houses abandoned by owners in foreclosure become eyesores. It wasn't long ago that Andy Krotik was selling houses to out-of-town investors who would sometimes buy two at a time. Now, Krotik spends his days warily entering abandoned houses, checking for angry holdouts or startled squatters. He wants to make sure the properties are empty and secure so he can sell them for the banks that have repossessed them. "We're experiencing a tsunami of bank-owned properties," said Krotik, who has been selling real estate in this Central Valley town since 1989.
House flipping now can draw fines - (www.spokesmanreview.com) - The Washington state law requires flippers planning to make $500 or more in home improvements to either be a registered contractor, which requires thousands of dollars in collateral, or to own a property for more than a year before selling. It places the same requirement on people who build new houses speculatively, or without a specific buyer in mind.
Mortgage Applications Hit 6-Year Low as Rates Surge: MBA - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Applications for mortgages stumbled to their lowest level in six years last week as rates on fixed-rate mortgages surged, accor...
Lehman loses $600m on hedging position - (www.ft.com)
Banks fear new $5,000bn balance burden - (www.ft.com)
Lehman Is Seeking Overseas Capital - (online.wsj.com)
S&P rating cuts could cost banks billions - (www.ft.com)
Airlines' situation is called 'desperate' - (www.chicagotribune.com)


Other Stories:

Buying debt at deep discount - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Investors are making an end-run around owners, buying mortgages on well-located commercial and residential properties, foreclos...
Massachusetts AG Sues Option One, H&R Block - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Option One may be gone from H&R Block’s books, but the ghost of the subprime lender continues to haunt the tax preparers presen...
More Grim Words on the State of the UK Housing Market - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Jeepers. What a way to start a week. Any remaining doubt that the housing market is in freefall was blown away by figures showi...
Ratings Agencies Near Deal with NY AG - (www.ml-implode.com)
Massachusetts sues H&R Block over mortgages to minorities - (www.ml-implode.com)
Bernanke Blames Saving Glut For Housing Bubble - (www.ml-implode.com)
Goodbye Hummer - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) - Can someone tell me why GM even exists? The scale of their folly is so colossal it defies comprehension. I guess this is what you get when public bailouts are expected.

State Cutbacks Will Deepen Recession - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com)
CA Housing Stats: 4.25 Years Supply? - (mrmortgage.ml-implode.com)
Could 50% of All Houses End Up in Foreclosure? - (Charles Hugh Smith)
Credit card debt became more-toxic mortgage debt - (www.salon.com)
Las Vegas called 'mortgage fraud ground zero' - (www.usatoday.com)
Bernanke Blames Saving Glut For Housing Bubble - (Mish)
British Bank Must Buy $4.1 Billion GMAC Crap Loans - (www.bloomberg.com)
Soros Says Record Oil Prices Result of Bubble - (www.bloomberg.com)
The Oil-Price Bubble - (www.mises.org)
Did Wall Street Wreck The Economy? - (www.consumeraffairs.com)
Foreclosure Mess Heading into Suburbs - (www.housingwire.com)
Slowdown not sparing many Vegas locales - (www.lasvegassun.com)
LI houseowners find house equity lines cut by lenders - (www.newsday.com)
Foreclosures taking Hamptons by surprise - (www.newsday.com)
A megabubble will pop in 2011 - (www.marketwatch.com)

Crude Oil Falls to Three-Week Low as Prices Reduce Fuel Demand - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. First-Quarter Productivity Rose More Than First Estimated - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bernanke Puts the Dollar on Fed's Radar - (www.bloomberg.com)
Rising Prices, Falling Dollar Stoke Memories of the '70s - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Mortgage application volume slips as rates rise - (www.ap.com)
State bankruptcy filings jump 27.2 percent in first quarter - (www.chicagotribune.com)

Rating agencies agree to change charges - (www.ft.com)
Overused Hybrid Securities Threatened - (online.wsj.com)
Admit to your losses, FSF chief tells banks - (www.ft.com)
LI homeowners find home equity lines cut by lenders - (www.newsday.com)

GM, Ford Sales Plunge As Truck Demand Wanes - (online.wsj.com)
Homebuilders offer bleak outlook and post losses - (www.chicagotribune.com)
S.D. voters OK plan for first new U.S. refinery in 30 years - (www.chron.com)
Lehman Puts, Default Swaps Show Investors Bet on Further Drop - (www.bloomberg.com)
Bennigan's Owner In Crucial Credit Talks - (online.wsj.com)
Lehman Battles an Insurgent Investor - (www.nytimes.com)
Fliers in for pain as airlines pack it in - (www.usatoday.com)

Nordic banks warn of credit crisis threat - (www.ft.com)
Europe Retail Sales Drop by Record on Gas, Food Costs - (www.bloomberg.com)
Sub-prime fallout extends to banks in eastern Germany - (www.latimes.com)
U.K. Services Unexpectedly Contract, Consumer Confidence Drops - (www.bloomberg.com)
Malaysia raises fuel prices 40% - (www.iht.com)

Wednesday June 4 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

The "parking lot" homeless of Santa Barbara - (edition.cnn.com) There are 12 parking lots across Santa Barbara that have been set up to accommodate the growing middle-class homelessness. It is illegal for people in California to sleep in their cars on streets. New Beginnings worked with the city to allow the parking lots as a safe place for the homeless to sleep in their vehicles without being harassed by people on the streets or ticketed by police.
Harvey stays at the city's only parking lot for women. "This is very safe, and that's why I feel very comfortable," she said.
Fat pensions spell doom for many cities - (money.cnn.com) – People should be up in arms over these costs: But the real nail in Vallejo's coffin was the city's labor costs. Under the current labor agreement, the average police officer walking the beat in Vallejo will be paid $122,000 this year before overtime, according to city documents. An average sergeant will make $151,000; a captain, $231,000. The average firefighter, meanwhile, will bring in $130,000 before overtime.
It’s Not So Easy Being Less Rich - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) - NANCY CHEMTOB, a divorce lawyer in Manhattan, has found that her days have become crammed seeing clients, all worried about how an economic downturn will affect their marriages. One of her clients recently confessed that his net worth had decreased to $8 million from more than $20 million, and he thinks that his wife will leave him. He has hidden their fall in fortune by taking on debt to pay for her extravagant clothes and vacations. “I literally had to sit there and tell him that he had to tell his wife that she had to stop spending,” she said. “He was actually scared she would leave him because their financial situation changed so drastically.”
Mr. Mortgage: CA Housing Stats…The Real Story. 4.25 Years Supply - (www.ml-implode.com) - ``Most think the CA ‘housing crash’ has been ongoing for a couple of years. That is not the case... California has YEARS OF INVE...
-2 + -2 = 4 as Liabilities Get New Bond Math - (www.bloomberg.com) Leave it to Wall Street to profit from its own distress. Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc. and four other U.S. financial companies have used an accounting rule adopted last year to book almost $12 billion of revenue after a decline in prices of their own bonds. The rule, intended to expand the ``mark-to- market'' accounting that banks use to record profits or losses on trading assets, allows them to report gains when market prices for their liabilities fall.
Expensive House Fails To Sell, Then Burns - (www.arktimes.com)
Villains in Mortgage Mess? Start at Wall Street. Keep Going. - (www.washingtonpost.com) - But make no mistake: Today's crisis dwarfs the S&L fiasco. The eventual cost to taxpayers of this scandal is likely to make yesteryear's culprits look like pikers.
The short version of how we got here: Lenders, fat with money made cheap by the federal government, aggressively coaxed millions of borrowers to take out unaffordable mortgages. They lent this money without assessing whether borrowers could repay it. They assumed, in fact, that most wouldn't be able to and would have to refinance into new, equally unaffordable loans. This process would produce an endless cycle of fees for the lenders -- but only if home prices rose, fairy-tale-like, forever.
Another English Bank In Trouble - (news.yahoo.com) - Shares in British buy-to-let specialist Bradford & Bingley plunged Monday after it issued a profit warning and agreed to a massive US cash boost, sparking fresh credit-crunch nerves after the Northern Rock fiasco
Foreclosure capital Stockton has odd market - (msnbc.msn.com)
Thornburg Earnings Further Delayed, Stock Faces Delisting - (www.ml-implode.com) - Thornburg Mortgage announced today that it needed even more time to complete its form 10-Q for the first quarter, which was expe...


Other Stories:

Bernanke Blames Saving Glut For Housing Bubble - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) – Greenspan was known for his Fed Speak, but I think this tops many of Greenspan’s deflections of blame. Very funny. In the financial sphere, the three longer-term developments I have identified are linked by the fact that a substantial increase in the net supply of saving in emerging market economies contributed to both the U.S. housing boom and the broader credit boom. The sources of this increase in net saving included rapid growth in high-saving East Asian countries and, outside of China, reduced investment rates in that region; large buildups in foreign exchange reserves in a number of emerging markets; and the enormous increases in the revenues received by exporters of oil and other commodities. The pressure of these net savings flows led to lower long-term real interest rates around the world, stimulated asset prices (including house prices), and pushed current accounts toward deficit in the industrial countries--notably the United States--that received these flows. To be sure, the large inflows of savings and low global interest rates presented a valuable opportunity to the recipient countries, provided they invested the inflows wisely. Unfortunately, this did not always occur, as an increased appetite for risk-taking--a "reaching for yield"--stimulated some financial innovations and lending practices that proved imprudent or otherwise questionable.
America's Recession Could Slip to Depression - (waldo.villagesgroup.com)Nystrom: The Second Great Depression Visits Detroit – (depression2.tv/d2/node/118)
US News: Peter Schiff's Worst Case Scenario - (www.usnews.com)
Economist: America's Housing Prices Falling Faster than During Great Depression - (www.economist.com)
* VIDEO: THE CASE FOR THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER * - (bullnotbull.blogspot.com)
Mike Whitney: Economic depression in America: Evidence of a withering economy is everywhere - (www.globalresearch.ca)
Credit Hurricane To Make Landfall - (www.ml-implode.com) - An incredible (yet sobering) article by Benet Sedecca. Some highlights: Another important takeaway was that the older and mo...
Foreclosures Cost Lenders, Homeowners, the Community, and You Big Bucks - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Earlier this month a reader, Pamela Norvell, wrote a suggestion for lessening the foreclosure crisis. She suggested a freeze an...
Corporate Bankruptcies Increase As More Near "Financial Disaster" - (www.bankruptcy-statistics.com)
GM Closing 4 More Plants in North America - (biz.yahoo.com/ap)
Bernanke Signals Discomfort With Weak Dollar (But what's he going to do about it?) - (www.marketwatch.com)
Subprime Crisis to Hit Egypt? - (weekly.ahram.org.eg)
Ike Obasi Wants to Sell You a House - (www.businessweek.com)
House Prices, Confidence Continue Plunge - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Where the Financial Crisis Is Headed Next - (www.smartmoney.com)
Why Lower House Prices Are in Your Interest - (www.seekingalpha.com)
Alt-A Borrowers Looking More Like Subprime than Prime - (www.researchrecap.com)
Desperate Americans Selling Nest Eggs - (www.clusterstock.com)
Total Borrowings of Banks from Fed - (research.stlouisfed.org)
Japan financial firms' 2007 subprime losses total Y1.9 trillion - (www.marketwatch.com)
Japan a good buy in contrary trend - (www.iht.com)
Foreclosure Bus Tour, Sign of Housing Bust, Hits NY Area - (bloomberg.com)
The market turns cold in a desert boomtown - (latimes.com)
High food and energy prices not all bad - (www.washingtontimes.com)

Oil Falls More Than $1 as Bernanke Signals U.S. Rates on Hold - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Stocks Rise on Bernanke Outlook, Growth in Factory Orders - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dollar Rises to Two-Week High Versus Euro on Bernanke's Remarks - (www.bloomberg.com)

Bernanke signals discomfort with weak dollar - (www.marketwatch.com)
Skyrocketing gasoline prices force changes - (www.latimes.com)
Souring economy puts the bite on pet owners - (www.chicagotribune.com)
After Mortgages, Construction Crisis May Be Building - (online.wsj.com)
Credit worries rattle markets again - (www.reuters.com)
An Impossible Dream, the Euro Finds Its Way - (www.nytimes.com)
Apollo unit halts cash payouts - (www.ft.com)
Soros sounds alarm on oil 'bubble' - (www.ft.com)
Las Vegas called 'mortgage fraud ground zero' - (www.usatoday.com)
Wheat futures surge near $8 on hot U.S. weather - (www.signonsandiego.com)

Lehman may raise $3-4 billion fresh capital: (online.wsj.com) - (www.reuters.com)
GM to Close Four Plants, Shift Production to Cars - (www.bloomberg.com)
Lehman Weighs Raising Capital - (online.wsj.com)
Toll Brothers swings to Q2 loss - (www.reuters.com)
Marriott sees softening US demand - (www.marketwatch.com)
ResCap says needs more liquidity - (www.ap.com)
After Wachovia, WaMu Shuffles, Who's Next? - (www.thestreet.com)
Winnebago Idles Plant in Iowa - (online.wsj.com)
Dutch wind power giant to open research center in Houston - (www.chron.com)
GM seen cutting deeper as recovery sideswiped - (www.reuters.com)

European Producer-Price Inflation Accelerates to 6.1% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Foreign investors 'losing faith' in economy - (www.ft.com)
U.S. Slump Spreading To Canada? - (www.forbes.com)
Inflating China - (online.wsj.com)
Europe's Expansion Accelerates More Than Estimated - (www.bloomberg.com)
China says U.S. economic slump won't deflate exports - (www.latimes.com)
Food Production Must Rise 50% - (online.wsj.com)

Tuesday June 3 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Has Phase 2 of the Credit Crisis begun???:
Student Loans Start to Bypass 2-Year Colleges - (www.nytimes.com) – Credit crunch beginning to freeze loans for 2 year colleges and lower quality (perceived by lenders) 4 year colleges.
Wachovia Ousts Thompson on Writedowns, Share Plunge - (www.ml-implode.com) - Wachovia Corp. ousted Kennedy Thompson as chief executive officer of the fourth-largest U.S. bank after the board blamed him for...
Expect further declines in 2008 and into 2009 - (www.freddiemac.com) - While we expect to see further declines in average home values throughout this year and into 2009, we will be watching very carefully for signs of stabilization in indicators of real housing activity, such as a leveling off in home sales, now that the traditional home-buying season spanning late spring and early summer is underway
Liars Rejoice! Stated income cannot be used against you - (www.theconglomerate.org) - Judge Leslie Tchaikovsky, a bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of California, has issued a whopper of an opinion holding that a mortgage lender on a stated income loan is not entitled to rely on the "stated" income in the loan application for purposes of bankruptcy discharge.
Permabear Peter Schiff's Worst-Case Scenario - (www.usnews.com) – First off, the title is a bit unfair, as Peter was not a bear 12 years ago. He says “There's nothing good to say about our situation. The policies both the Fed and government are pursuing are making the situation worse. We've been getting a free ride on the global gravy train. Other countries are starting to reclaim their resources and goods, so as Americans are priced out of various markets, the rest of the world is going to enjoy the consumption of goods Americans had previously purchased. This is a natural consequence of this phony economy. If America had maintained a viable economy and continued to produce goods instead of merely consuming them, and if we had saved money instead of borrowing, our standard of living could rise with everybody else's. Instead, we gutted our manufacturing, let our infrastructure decay, and encouraged our citizens to borrow with reckless abandon.”
Price Erosion Hits the $5 Million-Plus Market - (finance.yahoo.com)
Moody's Implied Ratings Show MBIA, Ambac Are Junk - (www.bloomberg.com)
House of pain - (www.jsonline.com) - While earning $9.25 an hour, Medellin struggles to pay a $103,500 high-interest loan for an often-vandalized house on Milwaukee's north side. The city assessed the property at almost $40,000 less.
Next Housing Market to Crash? Seattle - (www.usnews.com)
SUV Owners Trash Vehicles, Turn in the Keys - (www.ml-implode.com)
Repackaged Mortgage Garbage Is Still Garbage - (www.ml-implode.com) - It's what financial engineering and securitization is all about: It's taking something nobody wants and creating something people will want, be able to finance, or able to hold,'' said James Grady, a managing director at the New York-based unit, which has $240 billion of fixed-income assets under management
Credit where it’s due - (www.ml-implode.com) - The slowdown in housing looks increasingly hazardous to the overall economy…. Without such a strong underlying economy, the current malaise in housing could turn into a deeper, longer downturn….Arguably, the current episode may…be one of the worst housing downturns we have ever seen, given the amount of excess supply coupled with extremely low levels of affordability and the deflation of what could be described as a speculative investment mania
Apollo company halts cash payouts - (www.ft.com) A fourth company owned by private equity firm Apollo Management has exercised its option to suspend cash payments on part of its debt, taking advantage of one of the most controversial financing techniques of the leveraged buy-out boom. But the obvious downside is that some investors are being paid with paper, increasing their exposure to troubled companies. Other companies with PIK options enabling them to suspend cash payments on their bonds include some of the targets of the leveraged buy-out binge – such as Freescale Semiconductor, HCA and Univision.
Moody's Implied Ratings Show MBIA, Ambac Turn to Junk - (www.bloomberg.com) - The team from Moody's Analytics, which operates separately from Moody's ratings division, uses credit-default swap prices as an alternative system of grading debt. These so-called implied ratings often differ significantly from Moody's official grades. The implied ratings frequently show that swap traders think debt is in more danger of defaulting than Moody's credit ratings signify. And here's the kicker: The swaps traders are usually right
Banks' credit crisis solutions have echoes of 1929 Depression - (www.telegraph.co.uk)


Other Stories:

Thornburg Earnings Further Delayed, Stock Faces Delisting - (www.ml-implode.com) - Thornburg Mortgage announced today that it needed even more time to complete its form 10-Q for the first quarter, which was expe...
A Tale of Two Housing Markets: There’s REO, and Everything Else - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Proving that even within a single local housing market, sales trends can be more complex than they might otherwise seem, new da...
Real Price Declines Swamping Nominal Home Price Trends: First American - (www.ml-implode.com) - "That inflation monster investors are worried about? It may prove to have a strong bite on housing just yet, according to data released Monday morning by First American CoreLogic
Fed On Hold Till the Fall (Despite Calls to Raise Rates)? - (www.ml-implode.com) - "It appears the US central bank got taken to the woodshed at a conference hosted by the New York Fed for overly aggressive rate ...
Number of Foreclosed Homes Keeps Rising - (www.ml-implode.com)
Fed Buying Less at Treasury Auctions Thanks to New Facilities - (www.ml-implode.com)
In ‘Foreclosure Capital’ 3 out of 4 homes for sale is a foreclosure - (www.ml-implode.com)
Research Zeitgeist: Inflation, Libor and Vintage Subprime - (www.ml-implode.com)
Liquidity Issues Hit Hedge Funds - (www.ml-implode.com)
Kohn Signals Wall Street May Get Permanent Access to Fed Loans - (www.ml-implode.com)

The Lowdown on Libor - (www.businessweek.com)
Traders Seek Truth With Swaps Instead Of Libor - (www.bloomberg.com)
The State of Real Estate - (PDF - patrick.net)
Trouble in Housing Trickles Up - (www.nytimes.com)
Troubled Sellers Up 463% In San Mateo County - (sanmateore.dreamhosters.com)
Global housing markets in review; forecasts for 2008 - (www.globalpropertyguide.com)
Banks' solutions have echoes of 1929 Depression - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Newly Overdue Mortgages Swamp Effort to Fix Defaults - (www.bloomberg.com)
It's Only Going to Get Worse - (www.weeklystandard.com)
U.S. Bank Failures Loom - (www.blacklistednews.com)
Don't raid retirement savings to pay the mortgage - (www.marketwatch.com)
Maryland County Realtors' Building For Sale - (patrick.net)

Influx of workers 65 or older working in retail jobs - (www.chron.com)
Egg price reflects soaring costs for diesel, feed, chicks - (www.ajc.com)
Economic chill freezes Vegas budget - (www.lasvegassun.com)
Slow economic times mean pay cuts for many workers - (www.usatoday.com)

Morgan Stanley, Merrill, Lehman Ratings Cut by S&P - (www.bloomberg.com)
The market turns cold in a desert boomtown - (www.latimes.com)
U.S. Treasury secretary: No 'quick fix' for high oil prices - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Number of Foreclosed Homes Keeps Rising - (online.wsj.com)
Foreclosure Bus Tour, Sign of Housing Bust, Hits New York Area - (www.bloomberg.com)
A Return of That ’70s Show? - (www.nytimes.com)
U.S. ISM Factory Index Probably Shrank in May for Fourth Month - (www.bloomberg.com)
The Fed, the cost of oil and inflation - (www.ft.com)

Wachovia Ousts Thompson on Writedowns, Share Plunge - (www.bloomberg.com)
HSBC overhauling mortgage, credit practices - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Luxury retailers realize it's a new shopping scene - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Airline Group Sees ‘Desperate’ Times - (www.nytimes.com)
GM, Motorola, New York Times Burn Cash Flow, Keeping Dividends - (www.bloomberg.com)
Airline industry to plunge into loss - (www.ft.com)
Minnesota town tells Google Maps to get lost - (news.cnet.com)
Student Loans Start to Bypass 2-Year Colleges - (www.nytimes.com)

U.K. Mortgage Approvals Drop to Record, Factory Growth Stalls - (www.bloomberg.com)
European Finance Ministers Signal Inflation Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Outlook: UK nears recession - (www.ft.com)
US staring at double-dip recession as calls for higher interest rates grow - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
South Korea to delay resumption of U.S. beef imports - (www.chron.com)
Negative equity mounting in the UK - (www.guardian.co.uk)
Malaysia tired of subsidizing gas for Thai drivers - (www.chron.com)