Category: Credit Crisis 2008
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Monday, August 04, 2008
Homebuilder Credit Defaults Swaps Review / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
In light of the WCI Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing this morning, inquiring minds have been asking "Who's Next?" While that question cannot be directly answered, we can take a look at how the credit market players perceive the situation.
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Saturday, August 02, 2008
Worthless AAA CDO's Hit National Bank of Australia, 90% Debt Writedowns / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Whitney
Monday's trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was a real humdinger. It started off with the White House announcing that this year's fiscal deficit would soar to a new record of nearly $500 billion. That was followed by news of rising oil prices, weak quarterly earnings and a slowdown in consumer spending. Plunk, plunk, plunk; one domino after another. By mid-morning the markets were in full retreat. That's when investment giant Merrill Lynch announced that it would notch a $4.6 billion second-quarter loss and write-downs of $9.4 billion on collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and other mortgage-related assets. Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Henry Paulson Loses Control Over US Economy, Financial System / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: F_William_Engdahl
When Henry Paulson agreed to leave his job as chairman of the powerful Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs to go to Washington as Treasury Secretary in 2006 he demanded extraordinary powers as de facto economic czar. He got it. Paulson is also head of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets -- the secretary of the treasury and the chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 01, 2008
Panicking Fed Scrambles to Hide Credit Crisis Truth / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Fed, now in continual panic mode, Extends Emergency Borrowing Program . The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it was extending its emergency borrowing program to Wall Street firms and was taking other steps to ease a tight credit market that has hobbled the national economy.
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Friday, August 01, 2008
Last Warning? Negative Real US Interest Rates Igniting Inflation / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Adrian_Ash
"...First warning? Gold doubles as the Greenspan Fed makes real interest rates negative for the first time in 25 years. Now his successor is at it again..."
SO ALAN GREENSPAN – former chairman of the Federal Reserve – thinks this equals the Great Crash, if not out-bads it.
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Friday, August 01, 2008
Greenspan the Credit Crunch Maestro Won't Face the Music / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Peter_Schiff
In an interview yesterday on CNBC, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan cast his eyes on the charred landscape of the national real estate market and offered high-minded criticisms of the obvious excesses and irrationalities that brought on the devastation. Greenspan's attitude was akin to a retired drug dealer lamenting the urban blight caused by rampant addiction. He noted that housing prices were still too high, that too many homeowners were upside down on their mortgages, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were accidents waiting to happen. Methinks the serial bubble blower doth protest too much. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Plunge Protection Team Rescues Wall Street Using Bank Window of Deceit / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Jim_Willie_CB
As vacation season approaches in the Untied States and Canada , the task of reading should give way to looking at pictures to tell a story, or gazing at scenery from a lodge or campground, or lazy afternoons at the beach. Among the many stories out there in the financial ethos, the one that strikes as most important is the bank sector. The selective enforcement of restrictions on shorting bank stocks sticks out like a child suffering acromegaly (Frankenstein disease) in deformity. Its blatant criminality has given the US financial sector its latest (and not last) black eye. This one is a loud banner of corruption waved for the entire world to see, put in the open. In fact, one can easily make the argument that price controls have finally come into the open. More on this in the August Hat Trick Letter. For the financial sector, price controls elevate prices of various securities. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Credit Losses Keep Doubling, $400bn, $800bn, $1600bn / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Hans_Wagner
Credit is the fuel that drives the economy. If you want to beat the market or want to learn to invest, it is important to have a good understanding of important factors that affect the economy. The large loan losses banks are experiencing are limiting their ability to provide credit to help companies grow. If companies cannot grow their business, the economy will continue to be weak. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Credit Crunch Reaches Downward Spiral Critical Mass / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
Some might not recognize it, but Yes Virginia, There Is A Credit Crunch. Let's look at a few examples of the credit crunch in action. Bloomberg is reporting MGM, Dubai Fall Behind on $3.5 Billion Loan for Las Vegas Plan .
MGM Mirage and Dubai World are late in raising as much as $3.5 billion for their $11.2 billion CityCenter project in Las Vegas because banks saddled with debt to casinos and hotels are wary of making new loans.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Urgent Steps to Protect Your Savings from Bank Failures / Personal_Finance / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Sharon A. Daniels writes: The ongoing credit-crunch continues to shake-up financial markets in unexpected and frightening ways. It's hard to keep up with the fast-growing list of financial sector casualties. Just take a look at the fallout so far this year ...
Bear Stearns : This, century-old, brokerage firm was on the verge of collapse in March when the Federal Reserve arranged a last-minute fire sale to JP Morgan to prevent bankruptcy.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Financial and Economic Crisis Deepening as House Prices Falls Continue / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mark_OByrne
Gold finished trading in New York yesterday at $927.70, up $1.30 and silver was up 8 cents to $17.40. Gold rose slightly in Asian trading before falling. It fell slightly in early trading in Europe but remains above yesterdays close.Financial and Economic Crisis Deepening as House Prices Continue to Fall - With the credit, financial and economic crisis clearly deepening as warned of by the IMF yesterday, gold will likely remain firm in the coming sessions due to continuing safe haven demand.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Ratchet Provisions Soak Merrill Lynch, Will Sink WaMu / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
It was just 5 days ago in Death Spiral Financing at WaMu, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup that I wrote about ratchet provisions and how they would bite companies that agreed to them. Here is the key snip:
The investors in the equity raise would have their investment “protected” by a provision which states that should the bank afterwards raise money at a lower price than what they paid, these investors would be compensated retroactively by having their initial investment priced at this lower price, thereby being issued new shares for free. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Paradox of Deleveraging at the Heart of the Credit Crisis / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
I have often commented about the problem of personal savings. We worry about the lack of savings here in the US, but many do not understand that if everyone started to save 5% of there income immediately that it would seriously impact consumer spending, pushing the US into a recession. It is a paradox, as Paul McCulley points out, that what may be good for the individual may not be good for the collective country. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 28, 2008
US Banking Crisis Goes from Bad to Worse / News_Letter / Credit Crisis 2008
By: NewsLetter
15th July 08The last four days have seen the already distressed US banking sector lurch towards the precipice of a full blown financial system meltdown. Banks that have already seen stock price falls of as much as 90% were again hit today with many falling a further 5% to 10% on fears that a series of cascading bank failures were about to be triggered following the collapse of Indymac bank on Friday, as a run on the bank had panicking depositors withdrew funds at the rate of a billion a day.
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Monday, July 28, 2008
US Banks in Death Spiral- Check Your Bank NOW! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin D. Weiss writes: The truth may be unthinkable, but the reality is undeniable: Much of our nation's financial structure is collapsing, and our government's only response is phony money, bogus bailouts and a litany of false promises.
Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, the FDIC and the U.S. Congress say they can do it all.
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Sunday, July 27, 2008
US Banks Going Straight to Hell on $1.5trillion Eventual Loss / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Alex_Wallenwein
NAB, National Australia Bank, was just forced to write down over ninety percent of its exposure to US mortgages via so-called SIV's or conduits last Friday, to the order of $830 million dollars.
This was by no means a matter of choice for NAB. The bank had just issued and sold $850 million worth of new debt paper. Buyers of that debt are now screaming bloody murder. They are asking why this information, which surely must have been known to the bank at the time of the debt sale, was not disclosed to the market beforehand. They are now demanding their money back or some other way to back out of the deal. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Bernanke's, Paulson's, Bair's, and Cox's Banking Crisis Next Step / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Fed, the FDIC, the SEC, and the treasury department are all in panic mode. Here are the key players: Ben "Helicopter Drop" Bernanke is Fed chairman. Sheila Bair, the "Bureaucrat's Bureaucrat", is the FDIC chairman. Henry "Sound Dollar Policy" Paulson is Secretary of the Treasury, and Christopher "Big Squeeze" Cox, Chairman of the SEC, is on a selective campaign against nudity. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 27, 2008
US Economy Contracting as Paulson Seeks to Rescue Collapsing Banks / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
“The Index of Leading Economic Indicators (LEI) fell 0.1% in June, following a revised 0.2% drop in May (previously estimated as a 0.1% increase). The quarterly average of LEI is down 2.0% from a year ago, the largest decline in the current business cycle. Historically, such large year-to-year declines of the quarterly average of the index are associated with recessions, with the exception of 1967.
“The National Bureau of Economic Research announces the dates of peaks and troughs of business cycles long after they occur because they need to wait for revisions of economic data. The main message from today's LEI data is that it confirms the severely weak status of the economy in the near term. LEI data have been sending warning signals for several months but they have been largely ignored.”
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Saturday, July 26, 2008
Financial Stocks Bottom, is Wall Street Living in Fantasy land? / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Mike Larson writes: My daughters love Fantasyland at Walt Disney World. The two-and-a-half year old is a fan of Cinderella's merry-go-round, while my five-and-a-half year old likes Dumbo's flying elephant ride. Heck, if they had their way, my girls would go to Fantasyland every year.
But even that wouldn't be enough for Wall Street's big money managers. They seem to head back to "Financial Fantasyland" once every few months. And the latest trip has been a real doozy.
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Friday, July 25, 2008
US Banking Crisis Warning: Uninsured Depositors At WaMu Are Asking For Trouble! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
Anyone with uninsured deposits (those exceeding FDIC limits) at Washington Mutual are begging for trouble. If you work for a corporation that has its payroll or large corporate account (above the FDIC limit) at WaMu and you want to get paid, you better get this message to corporate headquarters right away: WaMu Slumps as Gimme Credit Cites Liquidity Concern .
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