Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
U.S. Swamped with Passport Requests
March 17th, 2007Waiting for clarity on the brink of oblivion… in a passport line. Via: Washington Post: …Waiting games are being played out at passport processing sites across the country as the State Department wades through an unprecedented crush of passport applications. They are pouring in at more than 1 million per month. Passport requests usually shoot […]
Bloomberg: U.S. Housing Bust Deepens
March 12th, 2007Uglier by the minute. Via: Bloomberg: Hold on to your assets. The deepest housing decline in 16 years is about to get worse. As many as 1.5 million more Americans may lose their homes, another 100,000 people in housing-related industries could be fired, and an estimated 100 additional subprime mortgage companies that lend money to […]
New York Times: Crisis Looms in Mortgages
March 11th, 2007If you liked my Wall Street Chop Shop piece, here’s a New York Times version of it; months late, of course… Via: New York Times: Like worms that surface after a torrential rain, revelations that emerge when an asset bubble bursts are often unattractive, involving dubious industry practices and even fraud. In the coming weeks, […]
Record Numbers of Americans Fleeing Cities for Rural Areas
March 6th, 2007Cryptogon readers? HA Via: ABC News: Chaotic and fast-paced, city life can wear you down and wear you out. From coast to coast, people are swapping their concrete jungles for greener pastures. In what’s been called the “Green Acres” effect, Americans are fleeing the cities for the country in record numbers. Eighteen of the 25 […]
U.S. REGULATORS ANNOUNCE CRACKDOWN ON SUBPRIME LENDING PRACTICES
March 5th, 2007Maybe I need to get a blinking siren thing for Cryptogon… We’ve got a perfect storm situation in the markets now. Via: Finfacts Ireland: The Wall Street Journal reports that US Federal bank regulators have announced a crackdown on loose lending standards on subprime home mortgages as two major lenders struggled to cope with losses […]
DOW ENDS DOWN 416 POINTS
February 27th, 2007The tapped-out U.S. consumer was like the iceberg that pierced the hull of the Titanic. We moved through a brief phase where the band kept playing and the tumblers were refilled with booze, again and again. (This was when the writing on the wall became crystal clear to people like you and me and we […]
U.S. DURABLE GOODS ORDERS PLUNGE BY RECORD 7.8%
February 27th, 2007Via: CNN: New orders for U.S.-made durable goods fell by a much worse-than-expected 7.8 percent in January, as a steep drop in civilian airliner orders helped push orders for nondefense goods to their biggest monthly decline on record, a government report showed Tuesday. The Commerce Department reported that excluding volatile transportation orders, which are heavily […]
U.S. Troops to Forgo Training in Rush to Iraq
February 27th, 2007Via: CNN: Rushed by President Bush’s decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army’s special training range in California. They are now making preparations to leave their home bases. Some in Congress and others outside the Army are beginning to question whether […]
CHINESE STOCKS SUFFER BIGGEST LOSS IN TEN YEARS; 249 of the 300 ISSUES HALTED AFTER LIMIT DOWN
February 27th, 2007It would have gone further; 249 of the 300 issues on the main Shanghai and Shenzhen index went limit down—they lost 10% in a single session—before being halted. My take, in ten words or less: China wants fewer U.S. dollar time-bombs in its house. With regard to U.S. markets: Watch for the Plunge Protection Team […]
U.S. Mortgage Crisis Goes Into Meltdown
February 27th, 2007I explained the racket in my Wall Street Chop Shop essay. Via: Telegraph: Panic has begun to sweep the sub-prime mortgage sector in the United States after the bankruptcy of 22 lenders over the past two months, setting off mass liquidation of housing loans packaged as securities. The rapid deterioration could not come at a […]
