Archive for March, 2008
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
GREAT DEPRESSION IN THE NEWS
Great Depression questions resurface amid current economic conditions, just as they have during other downturns, Chicago Tribune declared as of 03/24/07
Fears resurface amid latest turmoil, as they have during previous downturns, but parallels are few and regulation has changed… (but further we read)…. HOLC took over 1 million mortgages in default starting in 1933, worked […]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Sharon Kayser
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
THE GREAT UNWIND HAS BEGUN, CITI WARNS
Dear Readers: This could be gloomiest day of the month. And here is why… As of March 19, 2008, CBSmarketwatch ran one of the scariest headline ever: The Great Unwind has begun:
As markets and economies de-leverage across the globe, investors should avoid companies and countries that have grown to rely too much on borrowed money, […]
1 Comment » - Posted in News by Sharon Kayser
Monday, March 17th, 2008
BANKERS ASK: WHO IS NEXT?
Today, Reuters ran an article whose headline gave us the creeps: Bank-to-bank lending freezes; bankers ask “who’s next?”
… In an effort to minimize the fallout and in conjunction with the fire sale of Bear Stearns to JP Morgan, the Fed on Sunday cut its discount lending rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.25 percent […]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Sharon Kayser
Monday, March 10th, 2008
ECONOMIC TERRORISTS
Paul Krugman does a good job at analyzing the financial arcane and picturing its deficiencies. This weekend in the New York Times, he said the following:
To understand the gravity of the situation, you have to know what the Fed did last summer, and again last fall. As late as August the favorite buzzword of financial […]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Sharon Kayser
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
THE REAL CREDIT SQUEEZE
While central banks give us the (false) impression that they flood the markets with as much commercial paper as needed to counter the global liquidity crisis, the real credit squeeze is coming. Not many have noticed this extremely relevant internet headline: Global debt markets fall 45% in fourth quarter - amid fears of rising defaults […]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Sharon Kayser
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
MORE DISASTERS ON THE HORIZON
If you thought that the subprime mess was the biggest threat, here is another one: the pay-option loans. Here below, you can read the CNBC article explainnig how the “game” works.
Countrywide Financial Corp. has seen mortgage defaults rise as the housing market went from boom to bust, but the nation’s largest home loan provider says […]
