Archive for March, 2008
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
GWB's embattled Secretary for Housing and Urban Development is expected to resign tomorrow according to the Journal.HUD, usually a backwater federal agency, has been at the heart of the administration's attempts to ease problems for homeowners. Although Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has taken the lead on many initiatives, Mr. Jackson ...
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Sunday, March 30th, 2008
An oldie but a goodie (via Andrew Abraham). Warren Buffett explains in allegory why the trade deficit is bad news for the dollar over the long-run. [He wrote this piece in 2003, by the way. Since then, America's current account balance has worsened significantly.] And it's not ...
Posted in Dollar, Economy, Interest Rates, international trade, tutorial | 3 Comments »
Friday, March 28th, 2008
This is good news and big news. I'm not a fan of regulation in general. This is a good first stepWASHINGTON — The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send ...
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
House prices continue to slide nationwide, according to the latest Case-Shiller data.But the National Association of Realtors can't help itself, trying their best to put a smiley face on the implosion of the housing market:The headline read, "Existing Home Sales Rise in February", but the real story in yesterday's existing ...
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
"Does someone around here have an MBA" to explain all this stuff to us? W has one......(via CR.)And a bonus video. I imagine plenty of my readers might be interested in this piece on Clinton and her "experience." I've noted before that her economic proposals are ...
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Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
The National Associate of Realtors wants you to know that "buying a house this year" would be a "good move, both for your family and [for] building your long-term wealth." To spread this message, they're running commercials on CBS during the NCAA Final Four Tournament. They're pushing people ...
Posted in bubble, Economy, housing | 10 Comments »
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Can't say I support this move. Seems a bit short-sighted to add MORE debt to Fannie's and Freddie's balance sheets. We're simply encouraging them to throw more good money after bad in a quixotic attempt to keep house prices from falling any farther. And taxpayers remain on the ...
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Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
Why do lower interest rates depress the value of the dollar? And why should you care? Good questions worthy of a textbook-length response. I will try my best.....First of all, it shouldn't take much to convince you that you care about the value of the dollar. ...
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
The American banking system?..................Read other posts on OptionARMageddon:How 'bout some good news!Capital Raising, Merrill trickeryFannie/Freddie may need to raise MUCH more capitalA Great Society No Longer? Interview with GAO chief David WalkerWalking Away......Sanity at last? Paulson rejects bailoutsCDS, a hedge-funder's viewBaltimore Sun Op-Ed: Ron Paul calls it on ...
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Friday, March 14th, 2008
A dear friend e-mailed me yesterday and asked that I post some good news on my blog. It can be difficult these days as the credit markets implode and the realization sinks in that the worst is far from over. House prices have farther to fall, much farther. ...
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Friday, March 14th, 2008
Mish had a fascinating post of the same title. Hopefully he doesn't mind me borrowing it. Take a look at these photos of the Sultan of Brunei's plane. (Hat tip Clif). By the way, I can't vouch for the factual accuracy of this info; I received ...
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Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Banks are strapped for cash. This much is obvious. Ways to shore up capital levels on a financial institution's balance sheet fall into two categories that I can think of. Bring it in and don't let it go. Ways to bring in new capital include infusions ...
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Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
Below a story from Housing Wire, which itself quoted some figures in the Journal. Bottom line is that Fan and Fred don't have the capital to back the mortgages they've guaranteed and will need to hit the markets for more at some point. I've written that Fan ...
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2008
This is completely unrelated to the subjects of this blog, unless you consider his time as Wall Street's great nemesis as Manhattan AG. But what a great story. Somebody obviously caught him with evidence so he's trying to pre-empt it. He'll say something contrite in the appearance ...
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Monday, March 10th, 2008
The A.P. notes that oil has reached a new high of $107 in intraday trading today:
NEW YORK (AP) -- Gasoline prices were poised Monday to set a new record at the pump, having surged to within half a cent of their record high of $3.227 a gallon. Oil prices, meanwhile, ...
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Thursday, March 6th, 2008
I can't imagine they wouldn't, despite the denials. From this morning's WSJ:Rumors that the U.S. government is going to offer an explicit backing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "absolutely not true," a Treasury spokeswoman said. The rumors have swirled through jittery markets this morning. The two providers ...
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Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
.....on office equipment that is. A large Melville, NY branch of what was American Home Mortgage is auctioning off office supplies over the next few days.Thinkpads---current bid: $25Aeron chairs & HDTVs---current bids: $100 and $250 respectivelyOne lot of "approximately" 60 HP laser printers---starting at $1....no bids yet.By the ...
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Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
Anyone think the economists from the WSJ's January poll care to revise their estimates for growth in the first half? At that point a majorty, 58%, still projected the economy would avoid recession. Presumably the all-powerful American consumer, driving 70% of GDP, would be able to pull us ...
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Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Fan and Fred reached a deal with the NY Attorney General to stop purchasing loans that don't meet new standards for independent appraisals.This is huge on a number of levels, not least of which is that it will help with price discovery in the current market. Home values are ...
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Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Commercial Real Estate that is. See today's Heard on the Street column:After suffering a beating from their exposure to home loans, banks and securities firms are about to take their lumps from office towers, hotels and other commercial real estate. And the losses could last longer than those from ...
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Saturday, March 1st, 2008
I was in a NY LT muni fund until a couple weeks ago. Talk of bond insurer failures and seizures in the auction rate securities market convinced me to sell. Now I want back in. Check out this graph from today's WSJ. It shows muni-bond yields ...
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