No wonder China is so angry about the derivatives losses being realized by their State Owned Enterpises. The manipulation around key prices and dates in many US markets has been apparent for some time, with a wink and a nod around option expirations for example. Thank heavens for Creative Commons. "Jesse" is outraged here about some of the things I’ve been ranting about lately.  But "his" rants are so much more elegant   "Let’s Just Whack the Oil" Jesse’s Café Américain   “The markets used to be about capital formation,” said Mr. Quast, the consultant. “Now 80 percent of trading…
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He said he had never played an active role in the companies, "so it was hardly something that was top of mind." – CBC report1 on Canada’s Minister of National Defence — "Ethics commissioner Mary Dawson called the issue a ‘serious contravention’ of the Conflict of Interest Act." Meanwhile, the other guy who destroyed the Progressive Conservative Party is confident2 that his place in history is secure.

This should come as no surprise.  When private lending got out of financing risky mortgage loans, the FHA stepped in- and now they are at risk of running out of money: The Federal Housing Administration, hit by increasing mortgage-related losses, is in danger of seeing its reserves fall below the level demanded by Congress, according to government officials, in a development that could raise concerns about whether the agency needs a taxpayer bailout. The rising losses at the FHA, part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, come as the agency has rapidly increased its role in guaranteeing…
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“It would be like Rome selling the Vatican to the Japanese to make it a hotel, and hiring the Pope as a bellboy,” he deadpans – from Bloomberg’s review1 of the new BBC drama "The Last Days of Lehman Brothers" … and the NYT has the scoop2 on "American Casino" — here’s the trailer: Any Doomers actually see these things?  Ideas for better productions?3

  It was bad enough when subprime loans [Which were in the minority.] were toxic.  Now prime loans are even worse: America’s most credit-worthy borrowers are defaulting on their loans faster than those with poor financial records, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The rate of mortgage delinquency among prime borrowers is accelerating and could mean that banks will soon be suffering more losses from the usually safe customers than from their less-reliable ones, the report said. The number of subprime borrowers falling down on their mortgage repayments reached 25 percent in the first quarter, but has…
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"If we’re going to restore and maintain investor confidence and…consistent liquidity, that is going to require an explicit backstop," said John Courson, chief executive and president of the MBA. – WSJ1 Maybe now CDARS will have to do debt instruments so that Bill Gross can get around the $100K limit on coverage Let’s see if I’ve got this one straight.  Fannie and Freddie get smashed into dozens of Fragmies.  The "good" Fragmies with the valuable assets become new private label mortgage lenders (and dues paying MBA members).  The "bad" Fragmies, with all the losses that the big GSEs managed to…
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It’s Friday, and it’s been depressing enough since CR at Calculated Risk pointed out that, according to NAR numbers, that $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit cost taxpayers $43,000 per house. [That's not including the interest for borrowing the money.]  Agents have been encouraging buyers to get out there and buy before the credit is gone.  Not to worry- it looks like the credit will be extended.  Not only is the credit likely to be extended, but perhaps very nearly doubled.  On top of that, it will probably be extended to all buyers, not just first-timers: [Hat tip Freedom’s…
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