Archive for the 'Economy' Category
BARCLAYS ADMITS BORROWING HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS AT BANK’S EMERGENCY RATE
September 1st, 2007More “technical difficulties” at one of the world’s top banks. Remember the recent Wells Fargo disaster… Via: Guardian: Barclays has been forced to borrow hundreds of millions of pounds from the Bank of England’s emergency lending facility for the second time in a fortnight, it was revealed last night. In a hurried and emotive statement […]
Joel Salatin and Polyface Farms
August 30th, 2007For me, comprehension of the way industrial scale (including “Organic”) food worked was the last straw. Many aspects of politics and society are disturbing, but toxic—and or long distance—food isn’t some theoretical, far out, future threat. The wolf is at the door. It’s right here, right now. The food issue, more than anything else, drove […]
Home Prices: Steepest Decline in Twenty Years
August 29th, 2007Via: Yahoo / AP: U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor’s began its nationwide housing index in 1987, the research group said Tuesday. The decline in home prices around the nation shows no evidence of a market recovery anytime soon, one of the […]
UNCONFIRMED – Internal Bank of America Memo on Subprime and Alt-A Loans
August 29th, 2007For your Not-News-to-Cryptogon-Readers file… The music has stopped and all the chairs are taken. Via: Calculated Risk: Bank of America’s RMBS Desk has a research note out (not publically available) that attempts to estimate the realistic refinance options, if any, for outstanding subprime ARMs that are facing reset in the immediate future. The analysis looks […]
Inside the Countrywide Swindle
August 28th, 2007Via: New York Times: ON its way to becoming the nation’s largest mortgage lender, the Countrywide Financial Corporation encouraged its sales force to court customers over the telephone with a seductive pitch that seldom varied. “I want to be sure you are getting the best loan possible,†the sales representatives would say. But providing “the […]
Fed Bends Rules to Help Citigroup and Bank of America
August 27th, 2007Via: CNN: In a clear sign that the credit crunch is still affecting the nation’s largest financial institutions, the Federal Reserve agreed this week to bend key banking regulations to help out Citigroup and Bank of America, according to documents posted Friday on the Fed’s web site. The Aug. 20 letters from the Fed to […]
Mystery Trader Bets Market Will Crash by a Third
August 26th, 2007Hedging or foreknowledge? Via: Financial News U.S.: An anonymous investor has placed a bet on an index of Europe’s top 50 stocks falling by a third by the end of September, as world equity markets plunged for a third day and volatility hit a three-year high. The mystery investor has bought put option contracts on […]
The Gathering Storm: Interesting Email from the Director of BullionVault
August 26th, 2007WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument. As you probably know, I use BullionVault to hold a small quantity of gold for diversification and cash hedging purposes. Several Cryptogon readers also use BullionVault for their professional gold vaulting needs. I have heard from some of them in private, […]
Military Whistleblowers on Fraud Facing Penalties: “It Was a Wal-Mart for Guns”
August 25th, 2007I post a lot of stories on Cryptogon, but read this one a bit slower than usual and let this sink in. Then check out the related stories below. Via: Forbes: One after another, the men and women who have stepped forward to report corruption in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq have been vilified, […]
Lehman Brothers Shuts Down Subprime Unit, Fires 1,200
August 23rd, 2007Via: Bloomberg: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the biggest underwriter of U.S. bonds backed by mortgages, became the first firm on Wall Street to close its subprime-lending unit and said 1,200 employees will lose their jobs. … BNC made about $2 billion of loans in the first quarter, down 40 percent from a year earlier, according […]
