subprime mortgages

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Bear Stearns CEO Will Step Down
Bear Stearns CEO Will
Step Down
Jan 8, 2008 7:11 AM CST

Bear Stearns CEO Will Step Down

Add Cayne to roster of victims of subprime collapse

(Newser) - Add Bear Sterns CEO Jimmy Cayne's to the list of rolling heads in the subprime mortgage market collapse, reports the Wall Street Journal. Cayne, 73, has been the target of board and shareholder angst over the 53% drop in the bank’s stock last year—the largest of any of...

Paulson Calls for More Housing Relief

Treasury secretary suggests aid for prime-rate borrowers

(Newser) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson advised the mortgage industry today to give help to millions of financially stressed homeowners whose mortgages are set to rise. His comments signal that the Bush administration is starting to push lenders to expand relief beyond subprime borrowers to homeowners with other adjustable-rate loans, reports the...

UK To Introduce Sweeping Bank Reforms

Darling announces regulatory shift after Northern Rock fiasco

(Newser) - Britain's chancellor will offer sweeping new powers to that country's equivalent of the SEC to intervene in the event of a banking crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, Alistair Darling presented a set of triggers that would allow the Financial Services Authority to step in and protect assets...

In Turnabout, '07 Mess Hurt Brokers More

Complex securities backfired on insiders, not Joe Investor

(Newser) - Ordinary investors did fairly well in 2007, but their brokers and other big financial players lost their shirts in the subprime collapse. How did that happen? The New York Times observes that “parallel markets” have developed in recent years, with stocks and bonds available to most, and specialized, acronym-heavy...

Subprime Lender Lobbying Foiled Safeguards

Ameriquest's budget to woo local, national officials: $20M+

(Newser) - Subprime giant Ameriquest spent more than $20 million on political donations from 2002 to 2006 to successfully lobby against lending restrictions meant to protect borrowers, reports the Wall Street Journal. Though the company spent millions at the national level, its focus was local, where regulators were cracking down on predatory...

New Home Sales Hit 12-Year Low
New Home Sales Hit 12-Year Low
Dec 28, 2007 11:00 AM CST

New Home Sales Hit 12-Year Low

Decline tops even worst estimate

(Newser) - New home sales fell much farther than expected in November, hitting their lowest point since 1995, Bloomberg reports, and the slide only likely to get worse. Sales fell to an annual pace of 647,000, a 9% drop from October’s revised-down 711,000 rate. Prices are falling, but buyers...

In Need of Cash, Banks Looking to Sell

It's a buyers market as banks unload 'everything from branches to entire units'

(Newser) - Still in need of cash, as subprime writedowns continue to maul bottom lines, US and European banks are selling off or shuttering non-critical assets. They've already sold stakes to foreign investors and borrowed from central banks; now it's time for the yard sale, as the Wall Street Journal puts it....

Contemporary Art Scores for Auction Houses

Sales swelled 36% in 2007; some fear houses too invested in the new

(Newser) - Contemporary art has been very good to Sotheby’s, fueling a 46% boost in sales for the world’s second-largest auctioneer this year over last, Bloomberg says. A crop of new collectors from the US, Russia and Asia brought new records for artists like Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons, for...

Student Lender Sallie Mae Plans $2.5B Stock Sale

Embattled stock drops 6.5% as investors fret

(Newser) - With a credit rating bordering on junk-bond status, embattled student loan provider Sallie Mae plans a public stock offering to raise $2.5 billion, reports the Wall Street Journal. The company will use $2 billion to buy back its own stock futures, which have lost value recently following a failed...

Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times
Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times
Dec 26, 2007 3:03 PM CST

Banks Face Simpler, Tougher Times

Effect of subprime crisis on bottom line shows no signs of abating

(Newser) - Investors waiting for the big banks to turn it around after 2007’s subprime debacle might be waiting a long time, the Wall Street Journal warns. The credit crunch has unraveled a complicated modern banking model that gave big firms nearly total balance sheet flexibility. “It was a different...

Commercial Properties Squeezed
Commercial Properties Squeezed
Dec 26, 2007 8:05 AM CST

Commercial Properties Squeezed

Owners of malls and office buildings are starting to feel the subprime pinch

(Newser) - Add the once-solid commercial real estate market to the list of sectors felled by the subprime mortgage contagion, as owners of malls, apartment complexes and office buildings have seen financing disappear, prices plunge and the pace of sales dwindle 50%, reports the Wall Street Journal. Lenders, burned by the residential...

2007: Asia's Banner Year
2007: Asia's Banner Year
OPINION
Dec 24, 2007 2:19 PM CST

2007: Asia's Banner Year

Bloomberg praises those who fuel the region's return to economic power

(Newser) - Asia's economies are soaring so mightily that Bloomberg columnist William Pesek is passing out awards for Asia's big players in 2007. They range from a “Money Talks” prize, for Arab and Asian leaders who bailed out Wall Street banks, to the “Howard's End” trophy, for Australian PM Kevin...

Merrill Deal Yields $6.2B in Capital

Bank sells discounted stock to investors, sells division to GE

(Newser) - With another quarter of massive writedowns looming, Merrill Lynch today announced a deal to raise up to $6.2 billion by selling discounted stock to two investors. Up to $5 billion will come from Temasek Holdings, Singapore's state-owned investment company. The other $1.2 billion comes from money managers Davis...

Americans Falling Behind on Credit Cards

Amount overdue on US accounts surged 26% in October

(Newser) - It’s already looking like an iffy New Year for many credit-card holders: the number of Americans falling behind on their payments spiked sharply this year and analysts don’t expect 2008 to be much brighter. The value of credit card accounts at least 30 days late surged 26% in...

Squeezed Owners Seek Tax Break as Home Values Drop

Local governments feel the pinch as property taxes decline

(Newser) - With property values falling across much of the nation, more homeowners are asking for reassessments, looking for a break from property taxes that inflated before the subprime mortgage balloon burst, reports the New York Times. For local governments, especially in areas already suffering from high rates of foreclosure, declining property...

Banks Scuttle SIV Bailout
Banks Scuttle SIV Bailout
Dec 21, 2007 3:56 PM CST

Banks Scuttle SIV Bailout

BoA, Citi and JP Morgan drop subprime fix over lack of interest

(Newser) - The three banks charged by Treasury with setting up a fund to bail out investments threatened by the subprime mess are abandoning the project, the Wall Street Journal reports. Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase had been working since September on the plan to rescue structured investment vehicles,...

Merrill Lynch Seeking $5B Cash From Singapore

Anticipating more writedowns, Merrill becomes the latest Western financial institution to look East for help

(Newser) - Facing a fourth-quarter writedown of an estimated $8 billion in subprime paper, Merrill Lynch is negotiating with Singapore’s state-owned investment fund Temasek Holdings for a $5-billion cash infusion, the Wall Street Journal reports. If the deal goes through, Merrill would join several other Western financial institutions bailed out by...

SEC Probes WaMu Home Loans
SEC Probes WaMu Home Loans
Dec 21, 2007 4:06 AM CST

SEC Probes WaMu Home Loans

Investigators focus on charges that appraisals were inflated

(Newser) - Washington Mutual, one of America's largest mortgage lenders and the biggest savings and loan in the nation, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, reports the Wall Street Journal. Regulators suspect some WaMu mortgages were based on inflated appraisals. WaMu, bloodied by the subprime mortgage crisis, lost $348...

Morgan Stanley CEO Feels Heat
Morgan Stanley CEO Feels Heat
Dec 20, 2007 11:37 AM CST

Morgan Stanley CEO Feels Heat

After 'embarassing' quarter, Mack could lose his swagger— and his job

(Newser) - When John Mack became Morgan Stanley’s CEO in 2005, he told the company to take more risks. “You’ve lost your swagger,” he told his traders. Now, after several questionable moves and yesterday's staggering $9.4 billion writedown, swagger isn’t looking so hot—and Mack could...

Bear Stearns Posts First Loss
Bear Stearns Posts First Loss
Dec 20, 2007 9:19 AM CST

Bear Stearns Posts First Loss

Subprime writedowns hobble 'bond shop,' loss almost four times what analysts expected

(Newser) - Analysts expected Bear Stearns to post its first-ever loss today, they just expected it to be smaller. After $1.9 billion in subprime writedowns, the company posted a $6.91 loss per share, dwarfing the $1.82 analysts predicted. Executives gave up their bonuses, as revenue from debt sales and...

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