Links: 2009-01-25

‘Drug money flowed into banks’ – Fin24 South Africa (This is a must-read article)

California’s First Centennial Bank Shut by Regulator – Bloomberg.com (Another FDIC Friday night special)

Older workers escaping the ax – MSN Money (Very heartening to see this trend, even if it is for legal reasons alone)

Freddie Seeks Up to $35 Billion From U.S.; Fannie May Follow – Bloomberg.com (You forgot about Fannie and Freddie? Well wait until you see how much money taxpayers are sinking into this bottomless pit. Remember, they have $5 trillion in assets.)

Cram-Downs Will Drive MBS Downgrades, Analysts Say – HousingWire ( favor cramdowns. Read Paul Jackson’s take on them)

Obama Must Face Up to Frugal China, Says Morgan Stanley’s Roach – Bloomberg.com

A Neo-Reaganite Inaugural – Patrick J. Buchanan (You may hate Buchanan because he is a conservative, but he does have interesting things to say. This one compares Obama to Reagan)

The looming divide within Europe – VoxEU

Dr Doom on the UK – FT Alphaville

China´s National Bureau Of Statistics Is Funny – immobilienblasen

Does the strategy to buy and hold really work? We run the numbers – CompareShares Australia

Miljardenverlies voor Fortis Bank – Het Financieele Dagblad (This Dutch-language article basically says Fortis is losing gobs of money)

Landesbank: 5 Milliarden Euro Verlust für die Bayern LB – FAZ (This German-language article basically says that BayernLB is losing gobs of money)

Ramifications for Decades to Come – Financial Armageddon

Spreading the Pain – Financial Armageddon

The US placed about $1.3 trillion of Treasuries with non-Chinese investors in 2008 – Brad Setser

800.000 hogares tienen todos los miembros en paro – El Mundo (This Spanish-language areticle ays there are 800,000 households in Spain where everybody is unemployed.)

Zwitserland pompt mogelijk meer geld in economie – Het Financieele Dagblad (The Swiss are getting there stimulus plans ready too)