"At least one tornado ripped through central Arkansas Thursday evening, savaging a mobile home park and sending National Weather Service forecasters into a bunker as the storm roared overhead.
" (2008-4-4)
April 4, 2008
Tornado destroys mobile homes, hurts 4
Bankruptcy aid dropped from Senate plan
"Republicans and business-friendly Democrats on Thursday scuttled a plan to give people threatened with losing their homes more leverage in winning favorable loan terms from their lenders in bankruptcy courts." (2008-4-4)
April 3, 2008
Foreclosures hit rural communities too
"While news about the mortgage crisis often focuses on cities and booming suburbs, rural America has been hit hard, too." (2008-4-3)
Mortgage fraud claims up 42 percent in ’07
"Reports of suspected mortgage fraud rose 42 percent last year as banks became more leery of lies on loan applications." (2008-4-3)
Look and feel
"The value of a coin or banknote depends on its familiarityIF RATIONALITY reigned supreme in economics, travellers would spend their foreign cash based upon its value in the currency of their home country. All too often, however, they actually treat foreign banknotes as though they were Monopoly money. Given the unfamiliarity of other countries' currencies that is not, perhaps, surprising. But a piece of research about to be published in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review by Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer, a pair of psychologists at Princeton University, shows that something similar is true even of familiar currencies, depending on the form they come in. In particular, Dr Alter and Dr Oppenheimer have demonstrated that the perceived value of a dollar changes with the form that dollar takes. For the first part of their study Dr Alter and Dr Oppenheimer picked 37 ?volunteers? at random from the university's canteen. They asked them to estimate how many simple objects?gumballs, paperclips and pencils?they could purchase with either a standard dollar bill or a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin that was presented to them. Susan B. Anthony dollars are legal tender but, having been produced only from 1979-81 and then again in 1999, they are rarely seen in circulation. ..." (2008-4-3)
Getting it right on the money
"A global crusade is under way to teach personal finance to the masses?EVERYBODY wants it. Nobody understands it. Money is the great taboo. People just won't talk about it. And that is what leads you to subprime. Take the greed and the financial misrepresentation out of it, and the root of this crisis is massive levels of financial illiteracy.?For years John Bryant has been telling anyone who will listen about the problems caused by widespread ignorance of finance. In 1992, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, he founded Operation HOPE, a non-profit organisation, to give poor people in the worst-hit parts of the city ?a hand-up, not a handout? through a mixture of financial education, advice and basic banking. Among other things, Operation HOPE offers mortgage advice to homebuyers and runs ?Banking on Our Future?, a national personal-finance course of five hour-long sessions that has already been taken by hundreds of thousands of young people, most of them high-school students. ..." (2008-4-3)
April 2, 2008
Judge to let feds look at Countrywide records
"A federal bankruptcy judge says the Justice Department can subpoena documents and officials of Countrywide Financial Corp. to determine whether the housing lender abused borrowers and the bankruptcy-claims process." (2008-4-2)
Fannie Mae tightens rules for mortgages
"Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. home funding company, told lenders on Monday that it will require a minimum credit score for loans it buys on an individual basis, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday in its online edition." (2008-4-2)
April 1, 2008
Marcel waves goodbye
"The boss departs after more big subprime-related writedowns at UBSNOT long ago, when an illustrious bank was in trouble, it could announce, with some fanfare, the support of sovereign-wealth investors from the Gulf states or the Far East. In December, when UBS secured SFr13 billion ($11.5 billion) in such funds from Singapore and the Middle East, some of its long-standing investors grumbled that they, too, should have been given the opportunity to help recapitalise the bank on the same generous terms.Be careful what you wish for. On Tuesday April 1st UBS announced ? and it was no prank ? that it was writing down a further $19 billion on its investments in American subprime and other mortgages, as part of an unexpected SFr12 billion projected loss in the first quarter. The Swiss bank also said it would call on its shareholders to supply SFr15 billion in additional funds to shore up its depleted reserves of capital. That means its sovereign-wealth backers face severe dilution, in addition to the potential losses that they have already suffered on their holdings since December. In penance, Marcel Ospel, architect of the merger that created UBS in 1998, said he would step down as chairman, to be replaced by Peter Kurer, the bank?s general counsel. ..." (2008-4-1)
Revised CPR method helps save Arizonans
"Mike Mertz was dead. With no pulse, no heartbeat and no vital signs, he lay slumped in the front seat of his Saturn, foot wedged against the accelerator with the car stuck between a tree and a stucco wall in Mertz's townhome complex in Glendale, Arizona.
" (2008-4-1)
Santé and Skal!
"Pernod Ricard buys Vin & SpritICONIC is a much-overused adjective in branding, but it is a fitting description of Absolut, the Swedish vodka. The Absolut bottle, inspired by the medicine bottles sold in Stockholm pharmacies in the 18th and 19th centuries, is a design classic. Clever marketing campaigns have propelled the spirit from its southern Swedish home to leadership of the world?s premium vodka market. This is one of the fastest-growing segments of the industry, especially in America, the world?s biggest market for spirits, so its ownership is a prize well worth winning.When the centre-right Swedish government decided to put the owner of Absolut, Vin & Sprit (V&S), up for sale almost two dozen bidders showed interest in one of the drinks industry?s most marketable brands. After a hotly contested auction running for almost four months, Pernod Ricard, a French drinks giant, emerged victorious. On Monday March 31st the Paris-based company announced its takeover of V&S for ?5.6 billion ($8.9 billion) including debt. ?The acquisition is a fantastic opportunity and represents our third transformational acquisition,? said a triumphant Patrick Ricard, Pernod?s chief executive and chairman. ..." (2008-3-31)
March 31, 2008
Paulson Proposes a Regulatory Overhaul
"The Treasury secretary would give the Fed sweeping new powers to oversee the market, eliminate some agencies and combine others in a response to the crisis gripping the housing and credit markets.
" (2008-3-31)
Paulson Proposes Regulatory Overhaul
"The Treasury secretary would give the Fed sweeping new powers to oversee the market, eliminate some agencies and combine others in a response to the crisis gripping the housing and credit markets.
" (2008-3-31)
March 30, 2008
Jumbo loans now available, until Jan. 1
"Your IRS rebate check from the economic stimulus legislation won't be arriving until sometime in May, but the stimulus plan's new supersize jumbo loans for buyers in high-price housing markets have just begun hitting the marketplace. Depending on the location...
" (2008-3-30)
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