Category: Credit Crisis 2008
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Federal Reserve Throwing Everything at the Credit Crisis / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Mike Larson writes:
Feds Flying by the Seat of their Pants- Is it just me, or do the Feds seem to be flying by the seat of their pants?
Is it just me, or was Washington completely blind sided by the magnitude of this housing and mortgage crisis ... and now, they're trying desperately to play catch up?
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Thursday, March 13, 2008
Patchy Nature of the Credit Crisis / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Michael_Pento
The strange thing about myths is that while some have their basis in truth, for the most part they suffer from a dearth of reality. The same is true about today's well promulgated credit crisis. First let me admit, there clearly is a crisis in certain areas of the credit markets. For instance, there is definitive evidence of duress for hedge funds that hold Credit Default Obligations, especially in leveraged portfolios. A crunch also exists for mortgage lending companies that must issue asset-backed commercial paper. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
True Cost of This Global Banking Crisis / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Adrian_Ash
"...If only the big central banks would sit on their hands and let this crisis work out, they could save Western taxpayers up to 98% of the potential mopping-up costs..."
HOW TO KEEP YOUR HEAD when all about you are losing theirs?
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Why the Rich are Getting Poorer / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Browne
As our consumer dominated economy faces the threat of imminent stagflation (economic recession and financial inflation at the same time), losses will not be limited to the poor. Many get-rich-quick investors also will become poorer!
The effects of recession, falling asset prices, insolvency, inflation and a falling dollar are set to have a sometimes devastating effect on the real value of many investment portfolios, including those of the wealthy.
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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Fed's $200 Billion Baillout Is Positive, But Not a Cure for Credit Markets / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Chris_Ciovacco
From a perspective of investor confidence, yesterday's move by the Federal Reserve to allow banks and brokerages to temporarily swap mortgage-backed bonds for U.S. Treasuries was important. Stock market reaction was broad based and could be the beginning of a sustained rally. However, previous moves by the Fed aimed at restoring investor confidence were quickly counteracted by more announcements of credit writedowns in the banking and brokerage sector. Therefore, to call a long term bottom in stocks with any degree of confidence you have to believe the Fed's actions will address the root cause of the problem in the credit markets. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
George Soros and the Worst Financial Market Crisis in 60 Years / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Clif_Droke
“Blood in the streets” is the central theme of the financial news lately. Barely a day goes by without a barrage of bad news hitting investors like a runaway freight train. In just the past few weeks in the Financial Times newspaper we see the following headlines: Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Credit Overdose! Requiem for a Departing Economic System / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Alex_Wallenwein
Continued US Fed liquidity injections like the Fed's previous "Term Auction Facility" (TAF) and today's novel "Term Securities Lending Facility" (TSLF) will only serve to overdose the economy with exactly what ails it: too much credit. This will further boost the price of everything - and in particular, of gold and silver.
The following headline and byline appeared this morning, March 11. 2008, on MarketWatch.com: "Fed's Latest Fix Does the Trick - Wall Street applauds as Fed intercedes, not with fresh rate cut but with a further push to inject funds into the economy."
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Plan to Save the US Financial System From Collapse / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
Caroline Baum is one of my favorite financial columnists, who writes with a voice of calm reason. She writes for Bloomberg, and I encourage you to read her regularly. This week she touches on the problems in the markets and the continuing calls for government intervention.
Things are coming loose in an ever-widening array of markets in the financial world. No one is suggesting that the subprime problems will be contained, as almost every authority figure did last summer. We now know that everything is seemingly connected, a theme that I have written about for years.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
US Recession and Credit Crisis 2008 / News_Letter / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The stock market continues to trend lower towards a retest of the January lows with an increasing probability that we are now in a bear market despite a bounce off the January lows as the market prices in a definite US Recession.
The economic situation continues to deteriorate as the credit crunch turns into a credit crisis that has yet to reach its bad debts climax.
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Monday, March 10, 2008
Credit Crunch of 2007 Turning Into Credit Collapse of 2008 / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
The Credit Collapse of 2008 has begun. The place is every home, business and government. The time is now.
The credit collapse is not just an ordinary recession that repeats itself with each new business cycle of the 21st century. Nor is it the Great Depression returning to haunt us from the depths of the 1930s.
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Sunday, March 09, 2008
Financial Markets Vulnerable Due to Credit and Energy Crisis / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Brian_Bloom
Society at a crossroads - On February 12th 2008, this analyst took a decision that prevarication was no longer an option. A judgement call was needed and the judgement call was made, as follows: “Despite many conflicting signals from many different quarters, this analyst believes we have entered a Primary Bear Market for Industrial Equities.”. On that day the Dow Jones Industrial Index stood at 12,240.01.
Of course, it was to be expected that the authorities would fight the Bear with everything at their disposal, but the core issue seemed to be that the state of mind of the investing public had turned negative.
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Saturday, March 08, 2008
Deflating Housing and Credit Bubbles Will Lead to DisInflation / Economics / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
- The BS from the BLS
- 2,500,000 "Lost Jobs" and Counting
- Taking a Long-Term Perspective
- Leverage in Reverse Gear
- What's That Hissing Sound?
The official number for employment suggested a loss of 63,000 jobs. But could it have been more like 200,000? And I will make a case for 2,000,000 lost jobs last month. This week we will take a look at the confusing labor-market picture in the US. We will also look at the debate over the money supply. Is the Fed increasing the money supply at a reckless rate, fueling inflation fears down the road? All this and a lot more as we look at how the recession in affecting everyone and everything, from individuals to large businesses. (The letter will print a little long, but there are a lot of charts.)
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Saturday, March 08, 2008
US Home Owners Debts Exceed Equity / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The pace of expansion of all forms of debt is decelerating in the fourth quarter of 2007. Domestic non-financial debt rose 8% as a whole over 2007, .75% lower than in 2006. That may not seem like a slowdown, but consumers are changing course at the fastest pace, slowing from a pace of 6.75% annualized growth of debt in the third quarter to 5.5% in the fourth quarter. For the year, household debt rose at 6.75% compared to 10.25% in 2006. State and local government debt expanded at a rate of 9.75% for the entire year, while the Federal Government claims to have expanded its debt burden by 5%. I don't believe that last figure, since much of the Federal Government spending is “off the books.” Read the report and weep. We're all a bunch of debt junkies. Kicking the habit will be very hard. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 07, 2008
Global Credit and Debt Market Crisis- CNBC They Still Don't Get It! / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Peter_Schiff
Prior to my last appearance on CNBC in October 2007, I had made more than 50 appearances on the network over the prior two years. In those segments, I repeatedly exposed the superficiality of our prosperity, described the American economy as a “house of cards”, pointed out that borrowing and spending were a ticking time bomb rather than a viable plan for long term economic health, and explained how investors could prepare for the tough times ahead. At the time, those forecasts were met with ridicule and led to my being nicknamed “Dr. Doom”. Now that these predictions have come to pass, most on CNBC now claim that no one saw it coming!Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, March 07, 2008
Central Bankers Meet in Switzerland to Discuss Global Financial Crisis / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Adrian_Ash
The Ghost of Gold at the Central Bank Banquet
"Never shake thy gory locks at me...If thou canst nod, speak too."
Macbeth to Banquo's ghost, who's sitting in his chair ( Macbeth Act III, Scene iv)
THIS WEEKEND in Basel, Switzerland, central bankers from the G-10 group of rich nations meet up for one of their regular hoe-downs.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Capital and Debt Markets Crisis- Investors Four Critical Questions / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Doug_Wakefield
Does tracking the major US equity markets give us a full grasp of the amount of risks in our capital markets? Absolutely not. Consider this: Over the last 14 months, from the end of 2006 to the last day of February of 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ 100 are only down 1.58% and .63%, respectively. But, if we look at some of the major SECTORS of our economy, we get a different picture. For example, over the same timeframe, the retail index ($RLX) is down 22.85%, the housing index ($HGX) is down 42.55%, the brokerage index ($XBD) is down 24.90%, and the banking index ($BKX) is down 29.91%, while the healthcare index ($HCX) is only down 2.32%. So, four major areas of our economy are down substantially, and neither the Dow nor the NASDAQ 100 has reflected this reality.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Credit Crisis Mega Opportunities as Everything is Repriced to True Values / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Ty_Andros
I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be alive in today's markets. This past week was one of great importance as the markets really signaled enormous new realities which now have to be priced in over the coming years. Volatility is opportunity and it is abundant . What makes it even juicier for the prepared investor is that it is now apparent on WEEKLY and MONTHLY charts, signaling the enormous timeframes in which we are anticipating BIG MOVES! We're only in the second inning in a 9-inning ballgame. Re-pricing of everything to its TRUE VALUE is underway and creating mega opportunities for prepared investors. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Real Estate and Credit Bubble Deflation: Anatomy of a Murder / Housing-Market / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Steve_Moyer
"And there should be no doubt about who is really responsible for the subprime woes. The investment banks employ some of the country's "best and brightest" -- sharp guys who have studied at some of our finest colleges and universities. Does anyone really believe that a Harvard MBA -- who understands all the fine-points of high-finance -- really thought that ignoring all of the standard criteria for prudent lending, and issuing trillions of dollars in loans to applicants who had no job, no collateral, bad credit, and were unable to come up with a few thousand dollars for a down-payment -- was a great idea?" ~ Mike Whitney Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 03, 2008
Credit Crisis Presents A Great Buying Opportunity? / Interest-Rates / Credit Crisis 2008
By: John_Mauldin
This week we look at yet another rather obscure credit market that is in essential lockdown as the subject of your Outside the Box. My London partner Niels Jensen, head of Absolute Return Partners, has written a very interesting piece on the leveraged loan and bank loan markets, which are now upside down and getting more so in the recent weeks. This situation cannot continue, as what are clearly inferior products are selling for more than there high class cousins. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 03, 2008
Credit Crisis Morphs Into Stagflation- Protect Your Wealth! / Stock-Markets / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The credit crunch that broke with the two hedge funds failing in July 2007 is now into its ninth month with announces losses / bad debt write downs of £163 billions.
Way back in July the expectations were that sub prime related losses would be in the region of some $140billions.
With some venturing as far as possibly suggesting losses of $200, with some mavericks venturing to as high as $400 billion which was larger than that of the Savings and Loans crisis of $160 billions that required a US Tax Payer bailout of $124billions.
The article of July 07 (Hedge Fund Sub prime Credit Crunch to Impact Interest Rates ) pointed out that the consequences of the credit crunch would be the worlds central banks ratcheting up money supply growth and making deep cuts in interest rates despite the inflationary consequences as the Central banks attempted to counter the credit crunch liquidity squeeze. Read full article... Read full article...