September 2008

The finance and investing website Money Morning has a very provocative piece om Jim Rogers today. Rogers, who has been railing against the bailout of Fannie and Freddie for some time, thinks the Treasury and Federal Reserve will fail in…

Today, David Wighton over at the Times Online referenced U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's quip that the U.S. Government had a bazooka ready to us in the case of the Frannie and Freddie Nightmare on Wall Street in saying:Helping to…

While everybody's focused on the 'good' news about the Fannie-Freddie bailout and they are partying like it's 1999, it might be a good time to slip in that bad news you were going to announce next week. Let's see if any company is crafty…

Apparently, the answer is yes. Thirteen "major" dealers of credit-default swaps agreed "unanimously" that the rescue constitutes a credit event triggering payment or delivery of the companies' bonds, the International Swaps and Derivatives…

The news of the day is obviously the fact that the U.S. government now owns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and thus controls over half of the U.S. mortgage market. This is a step unprecedented since the Great Depression and should remind us…

I posted yesterday that Nationwide had confirmed it was in advanced talks with both Cheshire and Derbyshire. Now, it seems the mergers are complete. However, it should be noted that these deals were done under duress (see post mentioned…

If you are looking for the fallout from the Fannie and Freddie Nightmare on Wall Street, look no further than Gateway Financial and Midwest Banc. These two regional banks have nearly one-third of their tangible net worth tied up in GSE…

The U.S. government has finally stepped in to stop the bleeding. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant government sponsored enterprises have been taken into conservatorship and are now government property. As I consider this move a…

Nationwide Building Society, the largest not to demutualise, is taking full advantage of the troubles in the mortgage market and looking for rivals to snap up on the cheap. Multiple news outlets are reporting that Nationwide is in talks…

A prediction I first broached here in May in my post Question: How is Fannie Mae a AAA company? is finally coming to pass: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are getting nationalized. UPDATE: The U.S. Government takeover is now a done deal. See…