Credit Writedowns

Below are the latest writedown stories from the web that I have seen. For the full timeline of news, visit my credit crisis timeline. Bloomberg recently updated their tally of writedowns to arrive at $503.8 Billion to date. That is on…

Oil surges above $120 as tensions rise - Fin 24 (A bit of a delayed reaction, if you asked me. Oil gapped way up $5 today. Huge move. Last I saw it was at $121)Lone Star Funds to take over IKB - BBC News (So I guess American buyout shops…

The Beijing Olympic games are supposed to be China's coming out cotillion. As the west struggles with deleveraging and recession, China wants to make a statement that it has arrived. The games have gone off remarkably well and most…

Back in May, I showed you a chart of Total U.S. Debt which demonstrated that the United States was an increasingly indebted country. This chart was for all domestic debt minus financials and it topped out at about 225% of GDP. Below is…

U.S. jobless claims were down 12,000 this week to 430,000. However, the 4-week average increased to 445,750 and is now 125,750 higher than a year ago. Over the past 4 or 5 weeks, claims have spiked up in part due to the extension of…

From where I sit, today was a complete disaster for U.S. finance. Fannie and Freddie imploded -- their shares quickly approach zero. Lehman admitted it is scared witless and has tried to line up foreign governments to bail it out. States…

Lehman Brothers is obviously desperate to avoid Bear Stearns' fate. The FT is reporting that Lehman held secret talks with foreign investors to sell up to 50% of the company. Previously, I thought one investor might be the Korea…

With sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) trolling the world for decent places to park their overflowing coffers of cash, the Germans have decided to stop them before they start.The German government has approved legislation that would enable it…

The minutes of the Bank of England's most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting demonstrate that Britain's monetary policy makers are all over the shop. Most committee members voted to keep rates at 5%, but there was also a vote…

Apparently, Lehman Brothers was looking to strike a deal with a Korean Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) for a whopping $5 billion, but the deal fell through -- this according to the NY Post.Lehman Brothers' embattled Chief Executive Dick Fuld…