Credit Writedowns

Money Week points out the scenario for Taylor Wimpey, the UK house builder resulting from the top-of-the-market merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, now that shareholders have rejected its rights offer:We've been saying you should…

As I have said in prior posts, I am a bit of a eurosceptic. It is my view that the Euro is a political construct just as the expanded European Union has been and just as the reunification of East and West Germany on a 1 for 1 currency basis…

Fortis, the Dutch-Belgian banking giant under pressure to shed assets because of the credit crisis, has disposed of part of its ABN Amro acquisition. Deutsche Bank has acquired the assets for 709 million Euros, according to a report in the…

I said last week that people were in the mood to get some of the dastardly perpetrators of this housing fiasco. Washington and law enforcement officials around the U.S. are listening to the anger of their constituents and acting by going…

After U.S. inventories reported a shock 2 million barrel draw, the price of oil rose above $144 to a new record.Crude oil futures rose to a record above $144 a barrel in New York after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected decline…

from Bloomberg News: Ambac Financial Group Inc., the world's second-biggest bond insurer, stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange in a ``subpenny halt'' after its share price fell as low as $1.04. Ambac declined 3 cents, or 2.5…

New York City has held pretty well in this housing downturn to date. However, with money center banks reeling from the credit crisis, this has changed. Bloomberg reports sales in Manhattan falling 22% in the second quarter of 2008. Sales…

Challenger Gray & Christmas said announced layoffs were 81,755 last month, up 47% compared to a year ago. For the entire second quarter, layoffs rose to 275,292, the most since late 2005. So far this year,…

The well-deserved euphoria over the European Championship in football has brought welcome relief to Spanish consumers, weighed down by a slow economy. However, global economies have not decoupled from the U.S. slowdown. European economies…

As the financial sector melts down, one wonders which institutions are the safest: smaller local banks, money center banks, super regionals, credit unions. Credit unions are certainly something to think about because they offer high rates…