2008

According to the Wall Street Journal, Denmark has slipped into recession because of falling house prices. Denmark saw a fairly head rise in house prices during the bubble (58% appreciation from 1997-2005). Since that time, house prices…

Nationwide, the UK building society, announced today that house prices in the UK fell 0.9% in June. As the worry about the international credit crisis has expanded, the UK has moved centre stage in terms of concern over house prices. As…

Japan suffered one of the most horrific market meltdowns in history from 1984-2004. Only four years after the last market bottom and on the verge of another global market downturn, it even may be too early to use the past tense to describe…

From the Wall Street Journal: Florida Sues CountrywideThe Florida attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp. and its chief executive, Angelo Mozilo, alleging that the company engaged in deceptive and unfair…

The following are the links regarding the global credit crunch that have been recently added to the Credit Crisis Timeline. The full timeline is accessible hereLatest Additions2008 06 18 Subprime Losses Top $396 Billion on Brokers'…

Bill Gross, Pimco's founder and Chief Inestment Strategist is bold. In the past, he has argued for extreme measures to bailout subprime, questioned the CPI and said a lot more over the past few years. Now he's calling for a President Obama…

The Vancouver Sun is on a roll today. They have another post on ICBC that makes for interesting reading. Frankly, I don't know what to make of it. But it makes for a good read. Chinese bank has market cap twice that of JPMorgan First,…

I am firmly in the deflation camp. I worry about inflation over the short-term, but I still think the long-term threat to the global economy is deflation because asset price deflation will usher in deflationary forces. Nevertheless, there…

I ran a short poll over the last week and the results are in. Readers at Credit Writedowns expect house prices in the U.S. to fall well in excess of 30%. From where I sit, this makes a lot of sense (I voted too: for a 30-50% fall). If…

Bear markets are not an orgy of pain with indices going straight down. Along the way, there are always brief rallies which bring optimism that the worst is over.