It’s Friday, and I thought it might be fun to watch Jon Stewart taking on Jim Cramer who says "Everyone got it wrong":    

The real reason Geithner is stalling is because he’s afraid that foreign bondholders will cut him off at the knees and stop purchasing US debt. That’s a threat that has to be taken seriously, but it shouldn’t stop him from doing his job. [1] Yesterday Mike Whitney wrote a very long and interesting analysis.[1] Doomers who go back to the summer of ’06 may have followed a link to this important story [2] from nearly four years ago where Peter Eavis is already citing problems similar to the ones he’s discussing in quotes reproduced in Mike’s post. Mike sketches a…
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… So rather than money being removed or injected into the money supply through bond issues or buybacks – why not simply have the central bank deposit money into commercial banks or withdraw money from its commercial bank accounts? It would still be an open market operation, but one which doesn’t require a government bond market to exist or even some form of centrally set level of interest – rates would be completely market controlled and dependent upon how much money the central bank deposits into, or withdraws from, commercial banks. It’s been a while since Doom has checked in…
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Do you have a net worth of less than $1 million?  You’ve got a lot more company than you did last year: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The financial crisis has weighed heavily on American households, and millionaires are no exception, according to a report released Wednesday. The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more, excluding the value of their primary residence, fell 27% to 6.7 million in 2008 from an all-time high of 9.2 million the year before, according to a report from market research firm Spectrem Group. "America has a lot fewer millionaires…
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The rebound in the S&P 500 from 665 is a bullish sign to traders who base predictions on so-called Fibonacci patterns in price charts. The index has risen 9 percent since sinking to 666.79 on March 6. The low was within 0.3 percent of 665, a level at which the benchmark index would give up 61.8 percent of the 25-year rally beginning in 1982. [1] I grabbed the above quote just before BL evaporated it (but you will still be able to see traces for a while if you google the text — and now that text has shown up…
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  Between the cooling economy and tighter credit- things are rough enough for homebuilders.  They are also facing another big problem- competing with the lenders:  [Thanks L!] In many markets, "we are no longer competing with other builders. We are competing with foreclosures," said Steve Ruffner, president of the Southern California division of KB Home. Sales of used homes are actually rising in some regions because of foreclosures, but new-home sales fell to a four-decade low in January, down 77% from their peak in summer 2005. Altogether, home builders sold houses at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 units…
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Last week, I offered to wager a friend that, “In the next three years, Fannie Mae will be engaged in a variety of business activities which are market sensitive. …” Old Doom friend Bill Maloni often has unique insight, but this time he’s brought us something special. He’s making a strong case for Fannie Mae working through FHFA conservatorship and reemerging as an independent Enterprise in about four years. I think this issue is of more than routine importance, and I make my case for this below, after the re-post that Bill has again graciously given us permission to do….
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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke urged a sweeping overhaul of U.S. financial regulations in an effort to smooth out the boom-and-bust cycles in financial markets. [1] Holy Genesis 41, Batman!  Come back in another 7 years when conditions for the next boom might be brewing and we’ll talk.  Bringing it up now is totally pointless, IMHO

The Wall Street Journal was reporting yesterday that credit is once more tightening.  If you’d like to see a real world example, how about this from the Realtor’s Remarks section of this listing, #3022824: [Remarks not available if you don't have MLS access.] Remarks: Under contract 5 times, financing fell through, please help. I promise, your clients will not be disappointed

The National Association of Home Builders has come up with another solution to "stimulate" the housing market-  bribery:   The more buyers wait, the more prices fall; and the more prices fall, the more buyers wait. The Obama administration essentially ignores this problem, though it can be addressed. The simplest way is to bribe prospective buyers not to wait. For example: Give them a 10 percent tax credit, up to $15,000, on the purchase price of a new home. Anyone who bought a $150,000 home would get a $15,000 tax break. The credit would expire in a year. Waiting would…
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Here it is, Doomers, a PowerPoint Slide for Our Times. The banks aren’t lending The banks are insolvent The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) hasn’t worked Taxpayers have given the banks billions and won’t get their money back The banks that caused this mess must be held accountable The only way to fix the banks is to nationalize them Most astute piece of analysis we’ve seen from Corporate America in years, except … It’s really a List of Myths [1] written by BoA’s CEO Kenneth Lewis on the Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page earlier today.

Courtesy of the Daily Show:

A $500 billion loan to the FDIC “begins to approximate the maximum loss from resolving the top four banks.” [1] – Chris Whalen "The money will always be there. We can’t run out of money." [3] – Sheila Bair (UPDATE) So last Friday Congress suddenly moved to hand Sheila Bair a shiny new half-trillion dollar bazooka.  Does this mean a thunderous flash and rending curtains all over the NYSE at the beginning of the next long weekend?  A mighty socialized maxi-bank rising from the ashes on the Third Day? Well, Lent is a time for reflection.  To horribly mix metaphors,…
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You’re going to love this letter that L received yesterday.  There’s a group determined to save the economy by having everyone get out there and spend ten bucks: Dear Fellow Real Estate Professional and Fellow American: A few small and immediate actions by you can go a long way to fixing our economy. This is a very sincere request which I ask that you highly consider forwarding to your customers, co-workers, and friends. Everyone in the real estate profession has been affected by the downturn in sales.  As home prices continue to decline, more homes are foreclosed.  Also, unemployment continues…
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If things are tough for homeowners, they aren’t much better for renters:   Embedded video from CNN Video