tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62767432008-07-25T18:17:15.732-04:00Dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13359188353648713239noreply@blogger.comBlogger1593125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-55769038974379192862008-07-25T10:04:00.007-04:002008-07-25T18:17:15.754-04:00

Items of Interest: Timothy R. Homan / Bloomberg: New-Home Sales in the U.S. Fell 0.6% to 530,000 Pace in June -- New-home sales in the U.S. in June were higher than forecast and the number of properties on the market dropped by the most in four decades, indicating builders are making some headway in clearing out inventories. Purchases decreased 0.6 percent to a 530,000 pace, from an upwardly

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-23781590783999501802008-07-24T00:32:00.012-04:002008-07-24T23:29:33.145-04:00

Items of Interest: Housing Wire: Existing Home Sales Continue Freefall -- Sales of previously-owned U.S. homes fell to a 10-year low in June, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors. Existing-home sales — which include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops — fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.86 million units in June from a

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-36264857941112687692008-07-23T09:27:00.006-04:002008-07-24T00:28:17.245-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: U.S. House Approves Fannie-Freddie Bill by 272-152 -- The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation designed to shore up confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and stem the record surge in mortgage foreclosures, sending the bill to the Senate. House members voted 272-152 in favor of the measure, which lawmakers and administration officials

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-75229287147422448472008-07-22T11:29:00.010-04:002008-07-22T22:25:18.362-04:00

Items of Interest: --- --- Bloomberg: U.S. Lawmakers Reach Deal on Fannie, Freddie Bill -- U.S. lawmakers reached agreement on a rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the House may vote on tomorrow, Representative Barney Frank said. Under a modified version of proposals made by the Bush administration, the Treasury Department would gain authority to inject capital into the two

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-59600466641301522082008-07-21T12:46:00.010-04:002008-07-21T18:59:01.773-04:00

Items of Interest: Housing Wire: Concerns Subside Over Fannie, Freddie -- After two weeks that saw investor concerns over dual housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac veer wildly from serial dilution to outright insolvency, and shares in both quasi-governmental firms punished to historic lows as a result, both companies started out Monday strongly, continuing a rebound that began on

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-81198957323814676752008-07-18T11:50:00.007-04:002008-07-19T11:43:38.358-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: Bernanke, Frank Form Improbable Alliance Over Subprime Crisis -- After Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke detailed to a U.S. House panel yesterday the Fed's new efforts to toughen mortgage-lending rules, Representative Barney Frank praised him and panned his predecessor. ``If the Federal Reserve Board, before you became the chair, had promulgated the rules

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-27530560163309747052008-07-17T08:37:00.014-04:002008-07-17T23:25:54.975-04:00

Items of Interest: Andrew Napolitano, NY Sun: Housing Bailout is Simply Unconstitutional - When Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced that the government would provide a credit line to shareholders of Bear Stearns in order to prevent the giant investment bank from collapsing, he was consciously making a profound choice to use taxpayer dollars to save one bank and not to save another... The

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-11013080681337881932008-07-16T22:43:00.003-04:002008-07-17T08:36:25.727-04:00

Items of Interest: LA Daily News: Cops to IndyMac customers: Remain calm or face arrest -- Police ordered angry customers lined up outside an IndyMac Bank branch to remain calm or face arrest Tuesday as they tried to pull their money on the second day of the failed institution's federal takeover. At least three police squad cars showed up early Tuesday as tensions rose outside the San Fernando

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-86309389415475651382008-07-15T13:01:00.006-04:002008-07-15T22:47:14.896-04:00

Items of Interest: CBS News: Fannie & Freddie: Friends In High Places? -- Inside How The Influential Loan Backer Kept Regulations At A Distance It was during the Great Depression that Fannie Mae was founded - in 1938 - with a simple purpose in mind: to give lower and middle income Americans more access to the Great American Dream, owning your own home. It did it by guaranteeing if a homeowner

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-10745717501317264382008-07-13T23:11:00.013-04:002008-07-14T19:35:30.006-04:00

Items of Interest: Watershed Moment: U.S. Government Tries to Bail Out Market "The financial-based dike is springing a lot of holes and there are only so many fingers with which to plug them." - Todd Harrison, Minyanville.com---- NY Times: Treasury Acts to Save Mortgage Giants -- Alarmed by the sharply eroding confidence in the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, the Bush

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-81132090740412588562008-07-11T22:52:00.000-04:002008-07-14T18:27:25.179-04:00

Items of Interest: INDYMAC — The 2nd Largest Bank Failure In U.S. History Reuters: U.S. seizes IndyMac as troubles spread -- U.S. banking regulators swooped in to seize mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc on Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history. California-based IndyMac, which specialized in a type of mortgage that often

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-78536173117042341332008-07-10T12:23:00.006-04:002008-07-10T23:58:20.494-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: Foreclosures Rose 53% in June, Bank Seizures Triple -- U.S. foreclosure filings rose 53 percent in June from a year earlier and bank repossessions increased the most since RealtyTrac Inc. began collecting data in January 2005 as deteriorating property values forced more people to give up their homes. One in every 501 U.S. households either lost the home to

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-80766995702886528482008-07-09T12:11:00.006-04:002008-07-09T23:31:25.146-04:00

Items of Interest: CNNMoney.com: The Fannie and Freddie doomsday scenario -- It's time to wonder what would happen if Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed. ere's a scary, and relevant, question to ponder as the housing market continues to slide: What would it take for the government to step in and help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and how would a rescue affect you, the taxpayer? A Lehman analyst's

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-4121252699449517222008-07-08T16:02:00.004-04:002008-07-09T23:26:14.656-04:00

Items of Interest: Pending homes sales index falls 4.7% in May, versus a 3.0% decline forecast by economists. Housing Wire: Drop in Pending Home Sales Dashes Hopes of Near-Term Housing Recovery -- The number of contracts entered into for existing U.S. homes fell 4.7 percent in May, dashing any hopes of a short-term housing recovery that had been created by a jump in pending home sales during

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-60688863365606145872008-07-07T12:03:00.008-04:002008-07-08T01:07:05.586-04:00

Items of Interest: CNNMoney.com: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plunge -- Shares of mortgage financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both plummeted Monday after an analyst with Lehman Brothers wrote in a report that the two companies may need to raise billions of dollars if accounting rules are changed. Shares of Fannie Mae (FNM) fell more than 16% to $15.74. The stock set a new 52-week low

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-53250646062408031242008-07-03T08:14:00.013-04:002008-07-05T23:00:01.630-04:00

Items of Interest: The Mess That Greenspan Made blog: An odd choice of images for the new FDIC ad -- The irony of this new FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.] ad amid soaring inflation around the world, rising gold prices, and hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe (where you see similar looking currency) is quite rich. update: On December 31, 1934 the price of gold was $35/ounce. The $100,000 gold

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-16061636295970610482008-07-02T14:08:00.006-04:002008-07-04T10:48:29.979-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: Overdue Home-Equity Credit Lines Rise Most Since 1987, ABA Says -- Home-equity lines of credit at least 30 days past due rose 14 basis points to 1.1 percent of accounts for the quarter, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. Delinquent credit-card accounts increased 13 basis points to 4.51 percent, the highest level since 2006. ``People are looking

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-53062142010765429142008-07-01T13:17:00.005-04:002008-07-01T18:26:13.158-04:00

Items of Interest: Washington Post: Resets Peaking on Subprime Loans -- Jumping Payments Raise Foreclosure Projections The number of homeowners facing an increase in their subprime adjustable-rate mortgage payments will peak this summer, testing the efforts of lenders and others to keep those people out of foreclosure and stabilize the housing market. The timing reflects the height of subprime

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-87467366667179664612008-06-30T12:01:00.007-04:002008-07-07T23:23:39.919-04:00

by John Prittie © 2007 - 2008 His hips and his thighs, were American-sized Full of hamburg and cheese from Wisconsin But as big asses go his was bigger than most And he liked his kielbasa well seasoned The hotdogs he ate bowlin’ sometimes stayed in his colon While the beer just went straight to his belly And surrounded his chest like a warm goose-down vest That shook when he laughed like mint

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-51973644438272351052008-06-30T08:42:00.010-04:002008-06-30T21:41:25.060-04:00

Items of Interest: BusinessWeek The Housing Abyss -- Why the worst may be yet to come as forces battering the market gain strength. And the remedy coming from Congress? It's likely to fall short of the mark. The housing crisis is entering a new and frightening stage. On June 24, Standard & Poor's announced that the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index had fallen more than 15% in April from

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-5863872879919396172008-06-28T00:01:00.012-04:002008-06-28T13:22:15.501-04:00

The sudden death of television journalist Tim Russert at age 58 was a painful reminder to baby boomers, who are now mostly in their 50's, that there are no guarantees about reaching age 60. Here is a list of 50 famous Americans who died while still in their 50's. --- Fred "Rerun" Berry (March 13, 1951 – October 21, 2003) was an American actor best known for playing the role of the jolly and

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-69697942449271115362008-06-27T14:36:00.002-04:002008-06-28T01:11:51.054-04:00

Items of Interest: Kai Wright / The Nation: The Subprime Swindle -- Nearly 18,000 homes faced foreclosure in the Atlanta area during the first quarter of 2008, an almost 40 percent jump from the first quarter of 2007. In Fulton County, which encompasses most of the city's core and is heavily African-American, one in 122 homes was in foreclosure in the first week of April. A digest of Atlanta's

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-67333292011921924992008-06-26T11:56:00.000-04:002008-06-26T23:26:28.092-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: Home Resales in U.S. Rose to 4.99 Million Rate in May -- Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. rose in May from a record low, signaling depressed prices lured some buyers into the market. Resales increased 2 percent to a 4.99 million annual rate, higher than forecast, from a 4.89 million pace in April, the National Association of Realtors said today in

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-76477080587249002402008-06-25T09:26:00.000-04:002008-06-25T11:17:53.024-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: New-Home Sales in the U.S. Fell 2.5 Percent in May -- Sales of new U.S. houses fell 2.5 percent in May, signaling the real estate slump will keep weighing on the economy. Purchases dropped to a 512,000 annual pace, as forecast and the second-fewest in almost 17 years, from a revised 525,000 rate in April, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. A separate

jbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276743.post-69942909156391754112008-06-24T11:30:00.000-04:002008-06-24T18:07:44.742-04:00

Items of Interest: Bloomberg: S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices Fell 15.3% in April -- Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in April by the most on record, signaling the housing recession is far from over, a private survey showed today. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 15.3 percent from a year earlier, less than forecast, after a 14.3 percent decline in March. The gauge has

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