While running at the gym the other day I looked up at the TV and saw an interview with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. I became transfixed. I had never heard such inclusive language from a world leader. I began to email key phrases on my BlackBerry to myself so I would not forget. [1] Holy Phoenix dactylifera pilatus, Batman! That’s one impressive demonstration of multitasking. Mature students at King’s pick up the durnd’st things, it would seem This one’s come up with a fresh approach to New Thought using FYP’s unit on Ancient Greek Stoicism. Weird. And…
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For now, newspapers’ attempts at gaming Google remain "rogue efforts," says Anthony Moor, deputy managing editor of the Dallas Morning News Online and a director of the Online News Association. "I wish newspapers could act together to negotiate better terms with companies like Google. Better yet, what would happen if we all turned our sites off to search engines for a week? By creating scarcity, we might finally get fair value for the work we do." Sounds like an idea Murdoch would endorse. [1] Things have gotten so bad in the newspaper business that Lord Black must be thinking there…
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I am a not huge fan of Neal Cavuto, but I’m with him 100% on this one:  

Is it fraud, or is it the economy?  Whatever it is, more borrowers are defaulting, many without making a single payment.  Notice however, that the problem does not seem to be a lack of modified mortgages: Troubled borrowers continue to default at high rates even on home loans that have been modified by lenders, according to a government report issued today. The report also found that an increasing number of borrowers default on their loans before making a single payment. The report by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulate mortgage lenders, focuses on…
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It’s Friday, and it sounds like mortgage fraud has not been reduced by tighter standards- it has merely shifted to a different venue: WASHINGTON — As the Federal Housing Administration has stepped in to help stabilize the housing market by underwriting more mortgages, the Depression-era agency is seeing growing default rates that could undermine its health, the Department of Housing and Urban Development inspector general testified Thursday. Kenneth Donohue also told the Senate Appropriations housing subcommittee that unscrupulous lenders who helped precipitate the housing crisis with subprime loans are moving into the FHA loan system, and the number of fraud…
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… there is plenty of pricing information on triple-A private RMBS and CMBS. They may not trade where banks holding lots of this paper at a loss wish they traded, but they do trade. Let’s get something clear, too — they NEVER traded with the kind of depth or frequency that Treasury, agency debt or Ginnie, Fannie and Freddie MBS do. Each bond is unique enough that it has to be manually evaluated — anything from a simple cash flow calculator that uses market conventions for prepayments and defaults – or elaborate option pricing models that take into account hundreds…
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For bloggers such as ourselves who rely heavily on the information of posters who prefer to remain anonymous, this is troubling news: LAS VEGAS – A New Hampshire Superior Court Judge has ordered Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, Inc., the owner of the popular mortgage industry crash site Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (ml-implode.com) to give up the identities of persons who provided information to the site about The Mortgage Specialists, Inc. of Plaistow New Hampshire. Rockingham County Judge Kenneth R. McHugh also ordered that the allegedly "secret" and "defamatory" content about The Mortgage Specialists would have to stay down permanently. The information consists…
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The Phoenix market continues to be in rough shape. At the peak of the market in 2004-2005, home sales sometimes exceeded 10,000/month.  Ironically, foreclosures in March are also north of 10,000/month: [Thanks M!] Lenders signaled their intention in March to foreclose on more than 10,000 Valley homes and other properties, the highest single-month total on record. The 10,635 notices of trustee sale issued through March 30 represent a 25 percent increase from February and a 100 percent increase over March 2008, according to Mesa real-estate-research firm Ion Data. Data for March 31 was not yet available. [I went to the…
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Many thanks to M for forwarding this article from the Arizona Republic yesterday by Catherine Reagor.  Apparently she got a lot of flack for making this claim in last Sunday’s Republic: Paradise Valley, the Phoenix area’s priciest community, bucked the housing market’s dramatic downturn last year. Home prices there fell less than 1 percent. In metro Phoenix, the overall median home price sank more than 30 percent. So far, Paradise Valley hasn’t seen big jumps in foreclosures or double-digit price drops like most of the metropolitan area has.   Apparently since then someone pointed out to Reagor what any good…
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I looked at Case-Shiller’s index back to 1987 and compared it to federal data on average earnings. The result, rebased to 100 in January 1987, can be seen here. And it’s alarming. By this (admittedly very simple) measure, today’s home prices are actually more expensive, in relation to average earnings, than at the peak of the 1989 property bubble. [1] A new Doom informant from deep in the financial world (you know you are, and thanks ) sent along a link to this. Click the pic to go to the article [1] with its interactive version of the graph, but…
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The Treasury Department is not ruling out (though, not endorsing either) a novel proposal floated in small circles of tech/finance experts: to post Wall Street’s toxic assets online, so any American with an Internet connection has the chance to assess their value. [1] Yes it’s still April 1st, but it would seem that HuffyPo’s serious about this.  They even have one of the bubble-sphere’s favorite analysts onside. Toxic assets are already digitized, so putting them on the web wouldn’t be hugely labor intensive. "I think it would be totally feasible," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and…
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One of Canada’s leading ling&istic a&thorities says it is looking for &ays to &ake the English lang&age &ore efficient, anno&ncing dra&atic changes s&re to rock &ords&iths aro&nd the &orld. [1] Hat tip to one of o&r &ore &&sical Doo& readers for passing along This I&portant Iss&e.  So&ething tells &e the &&een’s representative is not going to be happy abo&t this

Doom received the following question in our "Submit Ideas" box yesterday from "Inock".  The question was too good not to post: Why isn’t anyone talking about or investigating the fact that agents have solid executed offers on homes and lenders are refusing to accept the offers.  The homes just become "bank owned" and list for a far lower purchase price than what licensed agents have had signed offers for! I am an agent in southern California and Countrywide bank just turned town a cash offer that is $200K over what the last model match in the neighborhood sold for! That is $200K that could…
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