Category: Credit Crisis 2008
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
BANKRUPT Banks Wiped Out by Tulip Backed Securities, Is China Cheap? / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The US governments takeover of the bankrupt Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday is reminiscent of the UK governments nationalization of Northern Rock Bank, albeit the scale of Sundays takeover is of several orders of magnitude larger. Still the result is the same, total loss of capital for the shareholders. I won't repeat the dynamics of what has transpired on Sunday as the volume of similar articles speak for themselves. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Gold Volatility Jumps as Deflationary Depression Battles with Inflationary Bail-Outs / Commodities / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Adrian_Ash
SPOT GOLD PRICES slipped back from an early 1.2% gain in London trade Tuesday, holding in a $10 range below $804 an ounce as Western stock markets added to their "Fannie & Freddie" surge.
Asian stock markets closed markedly lower, however, while Treasury bond prices recovered from yesterday's sharp sell-off.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Investors Hit by Fannie/Freddie “Rescue” Plan / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: Many of the largest financial institutions - including banks, insurance companies and mutual funds - own huge blocks of Fannie Mae ( FNM ) and Freddie Mac ( FRE ) shares.
Still, millions of investors who thought they were "safe" from this whole bailout mess because they didn't own Fannie or Freddie directly might get blindsided anyway. The reason: These investors may have indirect ownership in one or both of the two mortgage miscreants, thanks to shares held in their mutual funds, 401(k) plans, pension funds or annuities.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Debt Deflation Turning Economic Democracy Into a Financial Oligarchy / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Whitney
An interview with Michael Hudson, former Wall Street economist specializing in the balance of payments and real estate at the Chase Manhattan Bank (now JP Morgan Chase & Co.), Arthur Anderson, and later at the Hudson Institute (no relation).
On Friday afternoon the government announced plans to place the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, under “conservatorship.” Shareholders will be virtually wiped out (their stock already had plunged by over 90 per cent) but the US Treasury will step in to protect the companies' debt. To some extent it also will protect their preferred shares, which Morgan-Chase have marked down only by half.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Fannie and Freddie Bailout Destined to Fail as US Debt Doubles / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin D. Weiss writes: With Sunday's announcement of the most massive federal bailout of all time, it's now official: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage lenders on Earth, are bankrupt.
Some Washington bigwigs and bureaucrats will inevitably try to spin it. They'll avoid the "b" word with vengeance. They'll push the "c" word (conservatorship) with passion. And in the newspeak of 21st century bailouts, they'll tell you "it all depends on what the definition of solvency is."
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Fannie and Freddie Just the Beginning of the Derivatives Deleveraging Bailout / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
What a momentous weekend. I was pounding the table about the need to move quickly on Fannie and Freddie in my last few letters, and especially this last letter. And then they did it. There are a lot of details that have yet to come out, and it is likely to be far more expensive the Savings and Loan crisis was for the US taxpayer, but it did get done. Hopefully, we can get some real regulation for part of our costs, as well as get rid of the implicit guarantees by US taxpayers so that something like this never happens again. The fact that it did was the fault of the regulatory environment and Congress. They fired the heads of Fannie and Freddie (with multi-million dollar parting gifts), but sadly, the truly responsible parties will be re-elected to perpetrate yet more frauds. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Credit Default Swap Dealers the Big Winners from Fannie and Freddie Takeover / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
Bloomberg is reporting 1.4 Trillion in Fannie, Freddie Credit-Default Swaps May Be Settled . Investors may be forced to settle contracts protecting more than $1.4 trillion of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds against default after the U.S. seized control of the companies in a bid to bolster the housing market.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 08, 2008
Paulson's Actions Herald the Financial Collapse of the American Economy / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Peter_Schiff
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the man who said that subprime was contained and that the Bazooka in his pocket would never be used, now assures us that the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be costless to taxpayers. Despite the near euphoria that the plan has sparked on Wall Street, the move will go down in history as the biggest policy blunder of all time, and will be credited as a pivotal point in the financial collapse of the American economy. The ultimate cost to Unites States citizens will be in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps more.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 08, 2008
The Bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Paul_J_Nolte
The official take-over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has begun. Whether this is the beginning of the end or merely the end of the beginning is yet to be determined, however it is certainly the hope that this move will begin to calm the housing market and allow mortgage money to once again flow. The effect of money back into housing should put a floor in the housing markets, but those effects will only likely begin to show up in the data a few months from now.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 08, 2008
Financial Markets Make Stunning Reversals Following Fannie and Freddie Takeover / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
I went to bed at 4:00 AM. At the time....
- Treasuries were absolutely getting crucified
- The Dollar was sinking vs. the Euro
- Nasdaq Futures were up 40 points
- S&P Futures were up 38 points
- Gold was soaring
Monday, September 08, 2008
How the Credit Disaster Is Now Spreading, Next Dominos to Fall / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin D. Weiss writes: We are busy preparing for Hurricane Ike. Everyone in Florida knows what to do. And hopefully, it will pass us by.
But the financial pandemic that's spreading to the entire economy is another matter entirely.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 08, 2008
Financial Tsunami Sweeps Across World Economies / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
Investors not only returned to a shortened trading week after the Labor Day holiday on Monday, but also to a bruising on stock markets, at least for those with long equity positions.
Concerns about the global economic outlook and continued financial duress spooked bourses around the world, with a number of other factors also adding to investors' nervousness. In particular, Pimco's Bill Gross, the manager of the world's largest bond fund, said the US needed to step up and buy assets to avoid a “financial tsunami” (Bill is renowned for talking his book on occasion!), Dwight Anderson's big Ospraie commodity hedge fund closed after suffering large losses, and Russia was selling foreign currency reserves to prop up the rouble after foreign capital fled the country following Russia's invasion of Georgia.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Gold Boosted by the Greatest Financial Collapse in History / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Ned_W_Schmidt
Gold Bugs, this week around the world, will be joining together to celebrate the greatest financial collapse in history, past or future. In bureaucrat-speak, a conservatorship for FNM & FRE is being created. However, Gold Bugs know a duck when they see one. Part of that celebration will be our heartfelt thanks for those at Federal Reserve. In this week's chart we recount the glory of that institution. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 07, 2008
GSEs and Other Financial Institutions Overstate Capital Base / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
In an easily believable story the New York Times is reporting Loan Giant Overstated the Size of Its Capital Base . The government's planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced on Sunday, came together after advisers poring over the companies' books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie's accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Forces Driving the Credit Crunch / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Mike Larson writes: The credit crunch. We all know it's here, and that it's impacting virtually every corner of the financial markets. But a lot of investors don't really understand how a crunch really works ... why it's so insidious ... and why the Feds' efforts to ease the logjam have been largely ineffective.
So let me try to get at the heart of the matter today. It boils down to two key forces ...
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Continuing Credit Crisis About to Get a Lot Worse / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
- Thoughts on the Continuing Crisis
- Fool Me Once, Shame on You
- Delinquencies and Foreclosures Spike UP
- Unemployment Rises to 6.1%
- Action Is Needed Now
We are entering the next stage of the credit crisis, and one which is potentially more troubling than what we have seen over the past year, absent some policy reactions by the central banks and governments world wide. The crisis was started by an intense run-up in leverage by financial institutions and investors world wide, investing in increasingly risky assets such as subprime mortgages and then the realization that leverage could hurt. The deleveraging process started to intensify last year about this time. The easy part of that process has been just about done. Now is the time for the really hard work. It will not be pretty. In this week's letter, we look at the process and think about its implications for the markets and the economy, and visit some data on the housing market and unemployment.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Credit Crisis Phase II - The Economic Crunch / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The credit crisis having manifested itself most evidently during the past 12 months through the continuing tightening in the availability of credit to all sectors of the economy despite government and central bank actions of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars if not more than $1 trillion into the financial system so as to prevent a chain reaction of bank failures as the worlds big banks continue to announce ever larger bad debt provisions each and every quarter. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, September 05, 2008
Credit Crisis Shock Wave Hitting US Economy, Bonds and Stocks / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Something big this way comes. Events will center upon the arch-nemesis of gold, the US Treasury Bond. Market interference is too huge, for bonds, for bank stocks, for the entire financial sector. Banking system structures are too broken. The pillars of the US Economy are all in deep trouble, with profound deficits and insolvency the rule of the day. See the USGovt federal deficit (growing fast), the trade deficit (chronically large), the housing negative equity (worsening gradually), and insolvent banks (worse each quarter, despite the denials). A massive shock wave is coming. In all likelihood plans are in place, with events already set in motion, as the plan is probably to be event driven. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 04, 2008
National City Bank Pays Customers To Cancel Home Equity Accounts / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
National City Bank is desperate for capital. Evidence can be found in the Financial Times story National City offers cash to cut equity lines .
National City (NCC), the US bank that has been among the hardest hit by the subprime crisis, is trying to reduce its exposure to the riskiest category of home loans by offering customers cash to close their untapped home equity lines. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 04, 2008
FDIC To Raid Federal Reserve Coffers / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_Morning
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes: The "Bailout Bens" are at it again.
I'm talking, of course, about U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, who's clearly decided it will be " bailouts for all ."
Read full article... Read full article...