… "Thank you for contacting us regarding "share entitlements". When you purchase stock, they are held in ¿book-entry¿ (electronic) form but in"Street-Name". This provides secure and reliable methods of ownership,without the risks and worries that can be associated with a paper certificate. Due to a change implemented by the Depository Trust Company (DTC) and approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a physical certificate is "no longer" available through TD AMERITRADE. Your ownership of a security through TD AMERITRADE is maintained electronically in street name at the Depository Trust Company (DTC). from the comment thread of [1] The above…
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A foreclosed on homeowner in the Phoenix area has figured out how to make $5,000 on their way out the door.  They are renting out their home- but not in the usual manner.  No rent, no deposit- just a one time fee: 1 year old Custom Luxury, 4300 sq ft, 4 bedrooms and den in exclusive Vasaro 4 car garage 4 bathrooms wood flooring MUCh much more We built this house and the market turned. This house will either be short sold or foreclosed but not for at least 90 days and probably longer. The longer you stay the cheaper…
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As soon as I heard Part Three of CBC’s The Current on Monday I knew it deserved wide distribution. Doomers should first visit The Current’s show archive for April 27, 2009. What follows is an unauthorized Doom transcript for that third half hour, a lively interview with the prize-winning author of a new exposé on Goldman Sachs, their peer banksters and political accomplices.  Canadian Doomers especially note the references to the origins of ABCP and the Goldman alumnus presently leading our central bank. I recommend listening to the Part Three tape to get the full flavor of the interview.  It…
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The economy is cooling, and more Americans are deciding that "less is more".  Not only are many of us giving up the McMansions with the granite countertops and gourmet kitchens, we are giving up the fancy food we used to cook in them as well.  Companies are beginning to take notice: A growing number of food manufacturers are showing the staples in their portfolio a little more love these days in an attempt to remind frugal gourmets of the basics. How basic? Think butter and canned goods. Del Monte is rolling out its first television campaign for its canned fruits…
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I was forwarded this YouTube video by L.  Apparently a lender found that the new homes it had received back from a builder that had defaulted were more trouble than they were worth:  

At the end of the movie The Wizard Of Oz, the Tin Man asked, What diid you learn, Dorothy? That’s a good question to ask about any situation- what were the lessons learned? We are still sorting out the answer to that when discussing the housing crisis, but Alice Rivlin, senior fellow at Brookings and former vice chair of the Federal Reserve has some pretty decent answers: The American dream of home ownership for average families is lying in a heap of toxic assets, but it can emerge stronger than ever if we learn the right lessons from the sad…
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… "Wow, that’s even more disturbing" … – about 9:50AM Today’s third 1/2 hour of The Current (about 9:32 to 9:55 AM across Canada’s time zones) is a must-hear.  Streaming audio as it happens by region is available here. This is CBC’s promo for the segment on their site. And … Earlier this month, banking giant Goldman Sachs shocked Wall Street by posting a 1.8 Billion dollar profit in its first quarter earnings and announcing that it wants to pay off half of the 10-Billion-dollar loan it got from the U.S. Government last fall. We’ll talk to Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative…
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WASHINGTON — Virtually all of the 19 largest U.S. banks have passed the Obama administration’s controversial "stress test" with ease. [1] "I’m going to turn my back, and when I turn around one of you 19 guys will have volunteered for the suicide mission by stepping forward," said the Sergeant. Then he turned around and chose the one guy who hadn’t been paying attention and therefore hadn’t stepped back. UPDATE: Hat tip to the Implode-O-Gang for this.  Now that must have been a tea party! This supported "End the Fed" rallies that were held on Saturday. ………………………….. Look who didn’t…
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At the height of the housing boom, a number of real estate agents used the following pitch: You are going to want to purchase as much home as you can afford.  Clearly, with the appreciation that we are now enjoying, the larger your home, the greater the financial return on your investment. Many followed that advice, making the oversized McMansion immensely popular.  But what will be the fate of the McMansion market now? Population forecasts conducted by the Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University make it clear that New England is aging rapidly and this is…
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One of the shortest foreclosure periods in the country could get a little longer:  

Go to Table of Contents I think this is interesting,[11] but let’s cut to the chase. Welcome to Housing Doom blog’s curiously popular go somewhere else to learn about Novel H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu)  page.  I hope you will find some links to both general resources about the pandemic and at least a few official, media and privately maintained sites from your part of the world. Table of Contents [link navigation works best when full article displayed] Web Resources International Organizations Consultants Countries A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q,…
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Assessing that risk means answering two basic questions. Is China buying fewer foreign assets? And is it diversifying away from the dollar? Few have delved deeper into the murky world of China’s capital flows than Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and his analysis suggests a more complex picture than official statistics portray. [1] Yesterday The Economist confirmed what many Doomers already knew.[1] The CFR’s Brad Setser is the go-to guy for analysis on China and their relationship with American financial obligations. Indeed, Wednesday’s post [2] at his "Follow the Money" blog is yet another…
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I got a kick out of this "Zombie Bank" video: [Hat tip Freedoms Phoenix!]

Apparently the economy has discouraged people from moving up or moving out.  Last year, fewer Americans moved than they have since 1962:   Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

There is something really wrong with this:  [Thanks L!] WASHINGTON – The top 10 recipients of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout spent about $9.5 million on federal lobbying during the first three months of the year. The biggest spender was bailed-out automaker General Motors Corp., which devoted $2.8 million to lobbying in the first quarter of 2009. It has received $13.4 billion in government loans and could get $5 billion more, according to a government report released Tuesday. Failed insurance giant American International Group Inc. and banks Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. each reported spending more than…
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