Foreclosure modifications aren’t helping as their proponents advocated, and in fact may be making things worse: The number of delinquent homeowners on track for help dropped from January to May, and 20 percent of those whose mortgage terms were renegotiated this year have now fallen behind once again, according to a report based on data from 13 of the nation’s 20 largest servicers of subprime mortgages. The State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, composed of 11 states’ banking regulators and attorneys general, concluded that loan servicers have not developed long-term, sustainable tactics to stave off foreclosures. New York and the…
Read more…

Just in case you wanted to know how your congressman voted yesterday so you can either congratulate or blast them for their choice, here’s the list. Look for this list again the day before the election-  in case you need it for reference. :  ) Democrats who voted yes Gary Ackerman, Thomas Allen, Robert Andrews, Michael Arcuri, Brian Baird, Tammy Baldwin, Melissa Bean, Howard Berman, Marion Berry, Timothy Bishop, Sanford Bishop, Dan Boren, Leonard Boswell, Rick Boucher, Allen Boyd, Robert Brady, Corrine Brown, Lois Capps, Michael Capuano, Dennis Cardoza, Russ Carnahan, Yvette Clarke, James Clyburn, Steve Cohen, Jim Cooper, Jim…
Read more…

It took me over an hour to realize this wasn’t a joke. Zach Wells is a young, struggling Canadian poet and Via Rail porter who until recently lived just down the hill from me near The Park. I can guarantee every one of you that he has not the faintest conception of what he just did. !! HOUSING DOOM ADVERTISEMENT !! In Anything But Hank! Rachel Lebowitz and Zachariah Wells combine the whimsical humour of Lewis Carroll with the adventure-narrative balladeering of Robert Service to spin an unforgettable tale of a baby — and a pig! — in search of…
Read more…

There once was a moment in Canadian history. Never mind the details. Criticism was directed at the way the Accord was reached. They believed it lacked public sanction. The ten premiers and the prime minister came to be seen as "11 men in suits," dealing the future of the country behind closed doors. Of course, historically that always had been the case, but in the post-Charter of Rights age this came to be seen as undemocratic.  

  Well what do you know…. Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — The $700 billion financial rescue plan is being rejected as voting continues in the U.S. House. The vote was at 207 to 226 as the tally was held open while congressional leaders sought to persuade lawmakers to switch sides.

The red ink continues to run in the streets of Washington: WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The Federal Reserve on Monday announced that it was providing more liquidity into global money markets to ease recent strains. The Fed said it was boosting the size of its auctions of liquidity to commercial banks and the size of its swap agreements from a number of foreign central banks to $620 billion from $290 billion. In addition, the Fed announced a new forward auction to provide lending to banks over the year-end. "These steps are undertaken to mitigate pressures evident in the term funding markets…
Read more…

This is the point in the movie where the Empire always invokes Sovereign Default and enters a precipitous and irreversible decline. However … Out in central bank land the number of fingers [1] seems to be just about keeping up with the number of holes in the dike [2] while the Ugliest Financial Bailout in Recorded History™ looks like it might barely [3] hold things together for a while. But the most important aspect to this crisis has nothing to do with any of that — it’s the confidence and will of the American saver. A consensus has been building…
Read more…

Here’s a great audio interview with economist Nouriel Roubini, who says the U.S. bank rescue plan is "very flawed".  Roubini reminds us that this just isn’t the $700 billion plan being sent to Congress today, there are other bailouts as well: Bailout plan $700B FHA/Housing $300B Term Auction Loans $200B JPMorgan repayments $87B AIG takeover $85B Money Market Insurance $50B   Roubini says the bailout might be good for the market to rally for a few days, but then "fundamentals will kick in". Losses will continue. He says "it’s expensive, and doesn’t do the job."

If the term "foreclosure" evokes a picture in your mind of smaller, older properties sporting lots of plywood, you are behind the times.  Foreclosures have moved north of the million dollar mark in Las Vegas: The upper echelon of income earners, once regarded as somewhat immune to general economic woes, is starting to feel the pain of living in a city with the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, local luxury home brokers said. Banks and lenders bought back 87 properties valued at $1 million or more this year in Las Vegas, with 17 bank-owned homes in that price range on the…
Read more…

Last night The New York Times had,[1] Talks Implode During a Day of Chaos; Fate of Bailout Plan Remains Unresolved. And this morning the editor of The Economist (in an e-mail that arrived half a day late) shared this judgement: Rarely has a single piece of financial regulation seemed to matter so much. Hank Paulson’s bail-out plan, which is currently struggling to get through Congress, stands out not just for its size—$700 billion and counting—but also because of its importance. No rescue was ever going to be perfect, but we argue this week that this one needs to be passed….
Read more…

Wowsers! Foreign central banks were net buyers of agency debt for the second time in ten weeks [1] as they added a whopping $5.616 billion to their holdings. Meanwhile they bought a jaw-dropping $17.374 billion of treasuries. This news comes from FRBNY’s weekly statistical release H.4.1 [2] and Doom has again added the last week’s data to our CSV file going back to early 2000.[3] Once again, with that huge leap in US official obligations, the agencies / treasuries ratio continued to decline slightly. So the trend reversal continues, if flattening out a bit.

It’s almost getting ho-hum, isn’t it?  Another Friday, another bank failure.  This time however, the failure is bigger than most- Washington Mutual is selling it’s assets to JPMorgan Chase: Washington Mutual was closed by the U.S. government in by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank, and its banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion. The rescue marks a historic step to clean up a U.S. financial system littered with toxic mortgage debt. Washington Mutual, the largest U.S. savings and loan, was closed by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp…
Read more…

Hat tip to our Admin, a long time "Fark" reader.  Posters on Fark were discussing this Sun Sentinel article entitiled "What does $700 billion actually buy?"  today. You might want to check out this Fark thread- there are some funny comments.  Here’s some of the things the Sun Sentinel says $700 billion will get you: You could buy 21 new Marlin’s stadiums for EACH COUNTY in Florida You could buy braces for everyone in Great Britain…..and France! You could buy all 32 NFL teams – 27 times 2 cups of Starbucks everyday for everyone in Brazil for a year Gasoline…
Read more…

So we were sitting around the Castle this evening when Igor says, "Uh, guys, this is Thursday, so there’s no way we can straighten out the WaMu explosion and the Republican bailout counter-proposal before Asian markets open in, like, 214 minutes, so …"

In the aftermath of Bush’s Wednesday night speech [1] Congress appears ready to approve a plan [2] that will socialize many of the losses on Wall Street. While America has two political parties, it now appears to have a one-party legislative branch. ======================== UPDATE: Our friends at iTulip don’t think the plan will work anyway. Further Update: Looks like I spoke too soon (thank-you Calculated Risk!)