April 2008

Steve Hanke, a libertarian economist who writes for Forbes, argues that the Fed is panicked about the economy in a piece that came out today. He believes they have lowered the Fed Funds interest rate to where inflation is now a problem.…

Forbes just published a piece today that finds ten markets that are the worst in which to sell a home. Take a look.Two weeks ago, they published a list of America's riskiest markets (here).

Barack Obama, speaking at a gathering in Gary, Indiana, made some very accurate comments about the dollar's weakness and its causes (see Reuters story)."We are spending all our money, spending overseas and spending dollars and nobody is…

We are months into the credit crisis that began last summer, triggered by the meltdown in U.S. sub-prime lending. The crisis has been much deeper, much wider and longer than most market participants have expected. Yet, until the failure…

I am now updating the information on my Credit Crisis Timeline here:https://creditwritedowns.com/credit-crisis-timelineThere have been a tremendous number of economic dislocations during the present financial crisis. Initially written off…

The banking crisis in the U.S. is taking on a significant turn for the worse as banks tighten the screws on consumers. With banks facing record writedowns to their equity capital, they are looking to limit their exposure to the mortgage…

Since the housing bubble created a global credit crunch in June 2007 after Bear Stearns announced the collapse of two funds it ran (its High-Grade Structured Credit Fund and its High Grade Structured Credit Enhanced Leveraged Fund), there…

I have been in Europe for a while and am back at blogging after a two-week hiatus. This morning I was listening to "Wake Up To Money," a British finance show that one can hear via podcast. The gist of the discussion was that the UK…

2008 06 - Next Phase of the Credit Crisis to Hit Credit Default Swaps $62 Trillion Market2008 06 - Frank-Dodd Rescue Prolongs Housing Crisis by Deferring Defaults2008 06 - Federal Reserve and ECB are in no mood to save us from the…

Update: Also see my list of Bankrupt global financial institutions. Recently, the pace of writedowns by major money center banks has increased. UBS announced today it wrote down $19 billion. Deutsche Bank announced today it wrote down $4…