smh: Building slump swings to the '60s

That interest rate relief could come sooner than expected.

creditman: Europe's Housing Markets Come To Rue High Indebtedness As Boom Turns To Bust, Says Report

The risks posed by high levels of household indebtedness among European economies are thrown into sharp relief by the collapse in the U.K., Spanish, and Irish housing markets, says a research report titled "European Economic Forecast: Boom Turns To Bust In Exposed Housing Markets," published today by Standard & Poor's.

Reuters: Global writedowns & credit losses

A breakdown of an estimated $341 billion of credit-related writedowns and losses recorded by major institutions since the credit crunch hit in the third quarter of 2007.

FT letters: No transfer, no need for scheme

Sir, You report that the government is considering an extension of the scheme whereby the Bank of England swaps mortgage-backed securities for gilts (“Darling looks at new mortgage plan”, July 28). Treasury aides are quoted as saying that “the risk would remain with lenders, not taxpayers”. If there were no transfer of risk from private lenders, there would be no need for the scheme as the mortgage-backed securities would be marketable without the Bank's help. John Whittaker, Economics Department, Lancaster University, NB - John W is also a UKIP MEP for the Northwest Region.

BBC: Miliband denies 'leadership' bid

David Miliband has insisted he is not "campaigning" for the Labour leadership - despite writing about the party's future with no mention of Gordon Brown. He said he was prompted to write his Guardian article because of the sense of "fatalism" in the party after its defeat in the Glasgow East by-election.

Posted by cheekie charlie @ 06:35 PM 17 Comments

BBC: English home prices 'set to rise'

Average house prices in England are set to rise by 25% by 2013, a National Housing Federation report claims. It sees prices falling 4.4% in 2008, 2.1% lower in 2009, recovering by 2010 and rising at over 9% in 2012 and 2013.

Posted by cheekie charlie @ 06:28 PM 6 Comments

Telegraph Online: 1.7m UK homeowners to fall into negative equity, warns S&P

About 1.7m homeowners - or one in seven - may fall into negative equity over the next year as the UK housing market deteriorates further, the world's leading ratings agency has warned. According to a report today from Standard & Poor's, house prices across Britain could fall as much as 26pc before the market bottoms out next year, which will see 14pc of homeowners with outstanding mortgages slip into negative equity.

Yahoo News: 'Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure

Not strictly MEWing, they took out a loan against a house they fully owned. Don't borrow more against your house than you can afford, if it goes down in value and you can't afford the loan.... After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug 5.

Reuters: House prices have further to fall

S&P said the average cost of a house would revert to about 4.4 times average annual earnings -- near back to where it was in 2000 -- if prices fell by 25 percent overall.

times online: British Gas raises energy bills by 35%

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, said today that it is raising gas prices by 35 per cent and electricity by 9 per cent after profits at its residential business fell by 69 per cent in the first half. The move is in response to a rise of £2 billion in market commodity prices.

BBC News: Northern Rock unveils job losses

A few more for the dole queue.

Posted by mytimeisnigh @ 05:16 PM 25 Comments

Times: County-by-county: completion prices as a percentage of asking prices

Asking prices down, completion prices - another 10% off.

Telegraph: Lloyds TSB warns of house price misery after posting 70pc profit slump

High street bank Lloyds TSB today warned of a slowing economy and a 10pc-15pc tumble in house prices this year after reporting a 70pc slump in first half profits on the back of further credit market writedowns and volatility in its insurance business.

FT Alphaville: S&P estimate on Negative Equity

Negative equity based on a conservative estimate of a further 17% decline. "We have researched the risk of negative equity under various house price scenarios, and estimate that: – The average U.K. mortgage has a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of only around 54%. – Nevertheless, around 70,000 or 0.6% of U.K. borrowers are currently in negative equity. – A further house price decline of 17% would raise this number to around 1.7 million (14%). – Borrowers in the buy-to-let and nonconforming sectors are more exposed to negative equity under this house price decline assumption." I will post the report as a comment here because it is buried halfway down the FT Alphaville piece and I can't find the original S&P report online.

Posted by mountain goat @ 01:05 PM 7 Comments

BBC: Zimbabwe introduces new currency

Zimbabwe's central bank has said it will introduce a new currency on 1 August as part of efforts to fight the effects of hyperinflation. The bank's governor has announced that ten zeros will be lopped off the Zimbabwe dollar, making 10bn dollars one dollar. Zimbabe's inflation is running at over 9,000,000% So far this year, Zimbabwe has been forced to print Z$100m, Z$250m and Z$500m notes in rapid succession, now mostly worthless. The new Z$100Bn note introduced last week is not enough to buy a loaf of bread.

Posted by little professor @ 12:59 PM 7 Comments

BBC Website: Bank Losses shame disgruntled Swiss

When banks were offering 125% six times salary mortgages the great mystery was where the money was coming from. Now the tap has been turned off we find out a major source was the Swiss. However I doubt if they will be doing it again in a hurry.

SOTT: Mortgage Market Musing

Normally moving money out of a government in excess of the total taxes that year would be hard to do. However, I could use securities fraud. I could issue a lot more government securities and government agency (like mortgage agencies) securities than I recorded on the government books and sell them abroad. I would have to make sure not to publish audited financial statements as that would increase the liabilities of engaging in this kind of fraud. It would help a lot if I could pool mortgages and sell government agency securities to finance those mortgages in a process where the same mortgage could be sold many times into the same pool. Investors would not notice or care because the securities were government guaranteed.

Times Online: They mustn't mortgage fairness to buy votes

You can see the temptation so clearly. Government in the doldrums; poll ratings tumbling with the economy; housing market frozen (frozen my assets - it's just collapsing); and - hey, what's this? - a plan to kickstart the Government's fortunes by kickstarting the housing market by underwriting mortgage lending.

Posted by nooneo @ 11:35 AM 11 Comments

mortgagestrategy: 70% of B2L investors to expand portfolio this year

In the face of falling house prices and fears of a recession 70% of property investors are planning to grow their portfolios this year, reports the Property Investor Show. The event surveyed UK buy-to-let investors and found that the majority are looking to take advantage of rising rental yields.Landlords are not unaware however of the struggling economy as 65% of respondents believe the UK is heading for a recession and 70% see house prices falling in 2008.

Posted by jack c @ 11:22 AM 11 Comments

Wall Street Journal: U.K. Retail, Mortgage Data Paint A Grim Picture of Economy

LONDON -- The U.K. economy's outlook darkened further as retail-sales growth and home-mortgage activity slowed sharply. The Confederation of British Industry, a business group, reported Tuesday that its measure of July retail-sales volume tumbled to its lowest in 25 years. Bank of England figures showed mortgage approvals in June slumped to their lowest since the data series began in 1999. The central bank also reported sharp drops in consumer and mortgage lending.

Telegraph: Homeowners face call to act responsibly

"Sir James Crosby, the former HBOS chief executive who is leading a review into wholesale mortgage finance for the Treasury, may propose a regime of "tough love" for Britain's cash-strapped homeowners."

Posted by letthemfall @ 10:19 AM 19 Comments

FT: UK Mortgage Market

In summary there is a stand off between buyers and sellers and at some point soon sellers will capitulate and we'll see some proper price falls. As if they aren't underway already..

Posted by cash is always king @ 09:19 AM 7 Comments

The Telegraph: Doha world trade talks collapse in blow to globalisation

The Doha round of world trade talks has collapsed in what one former trade chief called the biggest blow to globalisation since the end of the Cold War

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:52 AM 11 Comments

This Is London: News Article

"Supermarkets in Europe do a better job of sheilding shoppers from price rises than supermarkets in in UK"........Inflation is the fault of greedy supermarkets and petrol companies. nothing to do with the 20% devaluation in sterling then? That's lucky because we want to print another 90 billion pound notes.

Posted by ingermany @ 07:37 AM 9 Comments

telegraph: Growth slump may force Italy out of eurozone

Italy can at least take some comfort that other euro members are feeling the strain too, reducing the risk of EMU break-up. France's Insee consumer confidence plunged to a 21-year low in July.The epicentre of the unfolding crisis is Spain, where the number of houses built this year is expected to collapse by half from the 760,000 constructed in 2007 at the peak of the bubble. Spanish unemployment is rising by almost 70,000 a month, touching 10.6pc at the end of the fourth quarter. However, Spain has a much small public debt than Italy.

Posted by big chris @ 12:31 AM 9 Comments

telegraph: Australia faces worse crisis than America

The world's financial storm has swept through Australia and New Zealand this week amid mounting signs of contagion across the Pacific region. . Housing starts slumped 20pc in June to the lowest since 1986. Both the Australian and New Zealand dollars have fallen hard in recent days and now appear to be breaking down through key technical support against major currencies, including the US dollar. "The Aussie is going down, big time," said Mr Redeker.

FT: Labour MP tells premier to resign for sake of party

Not the PM resigning bit, this bit: "Another Labour MP, Rob Marris [Wolverhampton South West], called on Mr Brown to consider imposing one-off taxes on oil companies and on banks, as part of setting a "clear direction"."

Posted by mark wadsworth @ 08:46 PM 15 Comments

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC): Canadians worth $137,300 each: Statistics Canada

I got this article, from Alan Watt's website. His response to it: "Since I'm losing out here and sure others are too, and since the government's claim we are each worth $137,300, then I figure the government must have my $137,250.12 and I'd like it back please. Like minded people should do the same." We wouldn't need mortgages at all if we did!! Check out Alan's excellent podcast to really understand what's going on in the world, on http://www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com/audio.html

Asia Times: Bailout cure worse than disease

With President George W Bush no longer threatening a veto, the subprime mortgage and Fannie and Freddie "bailout" bill was able to sail through the US Congress. In anticipation of its enactment, congress had the foresight to raise the national debt limit to US$10.6 trillion. Who says that politicians don't plan ahead? - Why are they doing this? And increasing national debt in the process? Its because the government can't stand the thought of the useless eaters being able to buy a house on one salary. They can't stand the thought of less being dependent on social housing and benefits, of more being in a position to home school. Of more being able to juggle family life and running a business. So, mortgage company's will be bailed out to ensure that house prices are high enough to enslave us.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 06:39 PM 20 Comments

The Tragic Column: Phil and Kirsty Couldn't Have Done It Better...

Quote - "I’m waiting for the day Kirsty turns round and asks if they’ve tried swallowing."

Cantos: Property deal volumes slump 50%

Liam Bailey at Knight Frank considers if any parts of the UK market are proving immune to the current downturn. "...the reality is for most people now if you want to sell your house people are accepting they have to take 10 per cent less than they would have got last October." "...In a sense you could argue what we have now is actually a normal mortgage market. I mean certainly 10 or 15 years ago this was normal." "...when do prices stop falling and then begin to rise, and probably that's 2010"

BBC: America's house price time bomb

As Bush contemplates massive intervention in the US mortgage market a little known quirk of US law threatens to drive down house prices even faster.

Posted by enuii @ 05:14 PM 17 Comments

Guardian: US house prices fall at fastest rate on record

US house prices plummeted at their fastest pace on record in the year to May. Standard & Poor's Case Shiller home price index fell 0.9% in May from April and 15.8% from a year ago. This is the biggest annual decline since the series began in 2000. The sharpest declines in the index were in Las Vegas and Miami, where prices fell 28% on the year.

Daily Telegraph: IMF: US housing slump at centre of financial crisis

The world economy is now trapped in a "vicious circle" as the financial crisis is worsened by slumping housing markets on both sides of the Atlantic, the International Monetary Fund has warned. It said the greatly-feared "negative feedback loop" it warned of in previous reports had now materialised. It also cautioned that it remains far too early to call a bottom to the housing slump in the United States, which lies at the centre of the recent crisis.

MoneyWeek: 'Maximum pessimism' is the time to buy. But have we reached it?

Markets bottom out when investors are at their gloomiest and all hope seems lost. But how do you tell when that is? John Stepek sheds a little light – and tips the best sector to invest in now.

Posted by damien @ 02:00 PM 7 Comments

Telegraph: Crime maps to show offences for every street

Crime maps giving details of offences that have taken place in every street in the country are to be published for the first time. Residents are to be given access to Google-style internet maps of actual streets identifying assaults, muggings and burglaries in towns and villages across England and Wales, under Home Office plans. There are concerns that publishing details of neighbourhood crime could affect house prices or that the information could be abused by criminals

Daily Paul: The Silent Crash is Starting to Make Noise

This is the Dow priced in real money - gold. It is down 73% to date from its peak. If Congress, the Fed and the Treasury had not been colluding to inflate the our currency and destroy the dollar, this is what the nominal Dow would look like, too. And according to his analysis, it soon will

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 10:00 AM 20 Comments

BBC News: Mortgage lending slowdown goes on

Official figures have underlined the slowdown in the UK mortgage market. The number of new mortgages approved for house purchases fell to 36,000 in June, down from 41,000 in May, according to the Bank of England.

Google Video: George Green (The Big Picture-An economic forecast for coming times)

What Is Going On With The Housing Market, The Price Of Dollar & Gold, The Coming Financial Situation, & The Solutions

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:04 AM 40 Comments

BBC: Treasury's mortgage rescue plan

The Treasury may give a taxpayer guarantee to billions of pounds of bonds known as mortgage-backed securities created by banks out of high quality mortgages, in a radical attempt to revive Britain's rapidly shrinking mortgage market. Officials from the Treasury are examining such an ambitious and controversial scheme in response to a dire assessment of the outlook for mortgage finance to be published at 10am today by Sir James Crosby. This would be pretty controversial, as it would be seen as taxpayers underwriting a huge slug of the mortgage market. Some would argue that our entire mortgage industry would be nationalised, although that would probably be overstating it.

Posted by little professor @ 08:41 AM 16 Comments

BBC News: Plan to revive mortgage lending

''...Sir James Crosby's - the deputy chairman of the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority - assessment of the health of the British mortgage market is about as gloomy as it's possible to be....This former banker blames a collapse in demand for mortgage-backed securities, or investments created out of mortgages and sold to banks and big investors...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 08:09 AM 8 Comments

Times online: Britian's 10 worst recessions ever

If the media's constant talk of "recession", "credit crunch" and "downturn" is depressing you, bear in mind that our ancestors have had it much worse. Here Times Money looks at ten of the grimmest decades in British history – when economic troubles often coincided with bloodshed and famine...

Times: Sir James Crosby [ex-chairman of HBOS] tells Alistair Darling to reject US idea

"Sir James Crosby is expected to reject any suggestion that the Government set up a mortgage agency similar to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two troubled American companies that nearly collapsed recently. It seems unlikely that it would be right to tackle Britain's problems with last century's solution, particularly given the time that it would take to create any such agency. When the review was launched in April, Sir James said that he wanted to find market solutions to the problem." HERE'S A SIMPLE market solution: house prices are too high, let them fall and everything will be fine again. Luckily we can trust politicians to delay making a decision for long enough!

Times: Merrill Lynch forced to take emergency action ahead of writedown

Another day, another bank, another billion: "Merrill Lynch sought to bolster its balance sheet and reduce its risk last night as it announced moves to raise $8.5 billion and the sale of $11.1 billion worth of high-risk mortgage-backed securities. The group said it would record a $4.4 billion writedown in its third-quarter from the sale of the CDOs. Merrill has been particularly hard hit by the US housing crisis. Merrill Lynch acquired the CDOs that it sold yesterday for $30.6 billion. By the end of Q2 this year they had declined in value to an estimated $11.1 billion and Merrill agreed yesterday to sell them to Lone Star, the private equity fund, for $6.7 billion."

BBC News: Merrill warns of further losses

Merrill Lynch has said it expects to write off another $5.7bn (£2.9bn) in the current three-month period because of mortgage-related losses.

BBC Newsnight: Now somebody's saying the banks will be nationalised!

Banking analyst Bruce Packard of Pali International believes that Nationalisation is on the agenda for UK banks. We have looked at the Nordic banking crises of the early 1990s for potential lessons that might be applied to UK banks and a worrying measure is that UK indebtedness (loans/GDP 150%) is currently much higher than in the Nordic countries during the Nordic banking crises (less than 100%).

smh: Hundreds out of pocket as eBay trader goes bust

In the past three months ebusiness-supplies sold over $1 million worth of goods. It is the seventh biggest Australian eBay user in terms of the number of items sold. eBay was made aware of complaints about the seller weeks ago but did not disable the user account

Independent: House prices plunge again – as estate agents raise their fees

Many of Britain's biggest estate agents are raising their prices in a desperate bid to increase their earnings from the ever-dwindling number of homes they are now able to sell.

Posted by quiet guy @ 09:33 PM 10 Comments

The Times: Business News Article

The IMF predicts more housing-related pain and sounds a warning that financial strains remain and persistent stresses in global financial markets leading to still mounting losses for banks on both sides of the Atlantic and threatening to aggravate the worldwide economic downturn. This is fuelling the dangers to world economic prospects.

wsws: US housing slump “without precedent”: foreclosures up 121 percent over 2007

Foreclosures in the US continued to climb in the second quarter of 2008, experts acknowledge that the current housing slump is “without precedent” in the modern era, and the resulting stress is taking both an economic and emotional toll: a 53-year-old Massachusetts woman committed suicide July 22 only hours before her family’s home was to be put up for auction. In the three-month period April through June, some 740,000 foreclosure filings were recorded in the US, an increase of 14 percent over the first quarter and 121 percent over the same period in 2007. According to RealtyTrac, one in every 171 US households received a filing, which includes notices of default, auction sale notices and bank repossessions

evening standard: Biggest fall this year for house prices in London

Statistics from the Government's Land Registry show that prices in the capital are falling faster than anywhere else in the country. The average London home sold last month cost £345,136 - nearly £10,000 less than in May

sott: Signs Economic Commentary for 28 July 2008

Driven by a sour economy and skittish consumers, U.S. business bankruptcies saw their sharpest quarterly rise in two years, jumping 17 percent in the second quarter of 2008, according to an analysis by McClatchy. Commercial filings for the first half of 2008 are up 45 percent from last year, as the national climate for commerce continues to deteriorate amid rising energy and food costs, mounting job losses, tighter credit and a reticence among consumers to part with discretionary income.

CNNMoney.com: Stocks tumble amid ongoing jitters

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks plunged Monday, with the Dow losing nearly 200 points, amid renewed fears about the financial sector and a lack of economic news. With about two and a half hours left in the session, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) fell 1.6%. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index (SPX) fell 1.1%, while theNasdaq composite index (COMP) sank 1.3%. For Those who know what they are doing and haven't already done so,it would be wise to review your portfolios. The correction is going to be long and sustained.

Naked Capitalism: Has Deleveraging Even Begun? (Not For the Fainthearted)

It no doubt seems absurd to question the idea that deleveraging in underway. We've had three heroic central bank interventions, starting in August 2007, to reverse seize-ups in the money markets. The asset backed commercial paper market has been almost in run-off mode. Leveraged buyout loans have been scarce to non-existent. Banks have cut home equity credit lines and credit card borrowing limits. Commercial and industrial loans have fallen. The private mortgage securitization market is a shadow of its former self.

The Market Oracle: UK House Prices to Rise by 25% States National Housing Federation

The National Housing Federation (NHF) is forecasting that UK house prices will rise by 25% by 2013, that will take house prices upto an estimated £274,000 by 2013 from their current levels of approx £180,000 based on the Halifax House Price data.

Bloomberg: IMF Says U.S. Housing Slump End `Not Visible,' Credit to Worsen

The International Monetary Fund said there's no end in sight to the U.S. housing recession and warned that deteriorating credit conditions for consumers and banks may prolong a period of slow economic growth. ``At the moment, a bottom for the housing market is not visible,'' the IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report, released today in Washington. ``Stemming the decline in the U.S. housing market is necessary for market stabilization as this would help both households and financial institutions to recover.''

Credit Writedowns: Ten predictions for 2008

With 2008 now half over, it's obvious that the global economy has lurched to the downside. While many have remained unrealistically optimistic about the workout of the present credit crisis, downside risks have been the determining factors in keeping things soft. Where are we headed? See what I say as far as the UK is concerned as well as for other economies.

AP - Yahoo: Bush administration projects record 2009 deficit

The next president will inherit a record budget deficit approaching $490 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate. The official said the deficit was being driven to an all-time high by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession. A deficit approaching $490 billion would easily surpass the record deficit of $413 billion set in 2004.

BBC Business: Record deficit for next president

The next US president is expected to face a record federal budget deficit of almost half a trillion dollars. The White House is tipped to lift its deficit forecast for 2009 to $490bn (£246bn) up from $407bn. The budget deficit measures how much more the government is spending than it is raising through taxes. The slowing economy is reducing the tax take and the government has launched a stimulus plan by making payments to 130 million households to boost spending.

Telegraph: House prices fall for tenth month, says Land Registry

House prices have fallen for the tenth month in a row as the rate of growth hit a record low, new figures show.

Posted by paul @ 03:37 PM 8 Comments

Google Video: The Crash -- Coming Financial Collapse of America

A very scary and possibly real situation that could unfold very shortly.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 03:29 PM 21 Comments

The Times: Southern slump drags house prices down 1%

"Prices in the South West are 5.2 per cent lower than a year ago, while those in Greater London and the South East have fallen by 5.1 per cent and 4.6 per cent respectively."

Times Online: John Prescott: Forget about replacing Gordon Brown. None of you lot is up to the job

"John Prescott led a backlash against Cabinet plotters yesterday, saying that none had the skills or experience to rival Gordon Brown, while the Prime Minister’s allies gave warning that he would sack disloyal ministers." ... "In a statement the Justice Secretary (Jack Straw) said it would be a “big mistake” for the party to ditch Mr Brown. “I am absolutely convinced that Gordon Brown is the right man to be leading the Labour Party,” he said. He added: “It would be a big mistake for the Labour Party to now turn in on itself and indulge in a summer of introspection.”" What a lot of hot air, looks like they all say one thing to your face and another behind your back. Just make a 1% cut in Tax this will give a 2% boost to the economy without affecting the housing crash ...

Posted by fahrenheit451 @ 01:45 PM 14 Comments

FT: Rebuilding the housing market

One of the Ask the Expert series from the FT. An antidote to some of the rubbish appearing in the other papers. Quite long but worth a read, for instance this quote on unemployment: "I would therefore argue that any bounce back will take time to re-assert itself and that we are still in the very early days of the correction. It is worth noting that unemployment actually only began to rise from May 1990 with housing acting as a lead indicator."

Sky News: House Prices will soar 25% in the next 5 fives

House prices fell for the 10th month in a row during July - but there are claims the property market will bounce back stronger than ever. (Advertisement) Homes in England and Wales lost a further 1.2% of their value during the past four weeks, new figures show. The average cost of a home has now slumped by 4.4% during the past year. That is the fastest annual rate of decline since property intelligence group Hometrack first launched its index in 2001. But separate research carried out for the National Housing Federation predicted that the house prices in England will rise by 25% during the coming five years. DENIAL IS UGLY

Posted by sortofsilver @ 12:55 PM 7 Comments

The Telegraph: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Congress backs rescue package

World markets are poised for a major relief rally today after the US Congress met in a rare weekend session to pass the most far-reaching rescue package for America's financial system since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 12:37 PM 23 Comments

The Independent: Cornwall: A land of haves, and have nots

Cornwall was at the bottom of the table of wealth in a recent EU survey, level with former eastern bloc countries such as Slovakia and Slovenia. As the only county in England to qualify for emergency EU funding, it is actually one of the poorest parts of Europe. A world away from the catamarans of its Kensington holidaymakers, the area is on the front line of the global credit crunch.

MoneyWeek: Falling mortgage rates won't stop the housing bust

House prices are dropping, but now's not the time to stake your future on a buy-to-let 'bargain'. Hoard cash for a rainy day, hope you don't use it and have a nice pile to invest when the storms clear.

pw.com: Can we get a mortgage?

Just how hard is it to get on the housing ladder? As first time-buyer Justin Wood discovers, even a 10% deposit no longer guarantees a mortgage.

Posted by peter whelp @ 12:07 PM 9 Comments

Reuters: House prices fall in July

House prices fell for a 10th straight month in July to stand 4.4 percent lower on the year, a survey by property consultants Hometrack showed on Monday. That was the biggest annual fall since the survey began in 2001. Prices were 1.2 percent lower on the month.

Times Online: Is homeownership still an aspiration?

Article from David Smith in the Times suggesting that the younger generation are just not interested in buying a home any more as they have student debts, more pressing costs or just prefer to save their money. Of course he doesn't conclude with the obvious corollary that if young people aren't buying anymore then demand must fall, which means..... house prices will be permanently lower..

Firstrung: London house prices crash by 2.4 percent in the single month of June

The June data shows a monthly price change of -1.0 per cent and an annual increase of 0.1 per cent. Accounting for seasonal adjustments, the data for June marks the tenth consecutive decrease in annual price change in England and Wales. This is sustained evidence of the weakening in annual growth rates that began approximately ten months ago. The average house price in England and Wales stands at £180,781, which is a decrease from last month.This month's 2.5 per cent fall in London house prices is greater than the average for the country as a whole. London's positive annual change of 2.4 per cent is being sustained due to higher monthly increases at the start of the previous twelve months.

Posted by converted lurker @ 11:35 AM 6 Comments

Land Registry: June Land Registry Report

June LR figures out show the biggest monthly drop yet -1.0%. More to follow as this indictor lags 3 months.

BBC News: House prices 'dropped 1% in June'

House prices in England and Wales fell by 1% in June leading to a tiny rise of 0.1% over the year, according to the Land Registry.

Firstrung: Despite fears of a housing market crash house price in England will rise by 25 per cent over the next five years - NHF

The average house prices in England will rise by 25 per cent over the next five years to reach £274,700, despite fears of a housing market crash - according to a new report published today by the National Housing Federation. The document - researched by independent economists Oxford Economics - forecasts that house prices will fall in 2009, start to recover in 2010, and then rapidly increase from 2011... The paper, entitled Home Truths 2008, says that house prices will increase by: 5.2 per cent in 2011 9.2 per cent in 2012, and 9.3 per cent in 2013 - with the typical price at the end of the period being well above the average in 2007 of £222,600.

Posted by converted lurker @ 10:51 AM 7 Comments

BBC: House prices 'up by 25% by 2013'

Average house prices in England are set to rise by 25% by 2013, a National Housing Federation report says. It sees prices falling 4.4% in 2008, 2.1% lower in 2009, recovering by 2010 and rising at over 9% in 2012 and 2013.

Posted by luckyjim @ 09:49 AM 13 Comments

Firstrung: UK house prices now 4% lower than July 2007 as London prices begin to crash - Hometrack

House prices in England and Wales have fallen for the 10th consecutive month during July, losing a further 1.2% of their value, figures released by Hometrack today have shown.The latest annual rate is the lowest since the survey began in 2001 and sets a new record for the most months showing consecutive house price falls. Hometrack also reported that the falls were heaviest in southern England, particularly London...

Posted by converted lurker @ 09:27 AM 12 Comments

BBC NEWS: MPs warn of energy price impact

"Rises in gas and electricity bills in the near future will have serious consequences for millions of households, an MPs' committee has said."

TimesOnline: Two more US banks collapse as defaults soar

So another two banks in the US go bust this week, it should now only be another two months before the CDS fiasco failures start to occur in the UK. Its appears that Financial authorities in Washington spent last week securing a rescue deal for two insolvent mortgage lenders in Nevada and California amid the latest signs that America's banking crisis is deepening. The collapse of the two banks - which had combined assets of about $3.6 billion (£1.8 billion) - came as a senior financial regulator told The Times that there was no end in sight for the crisis gripping the banking industry.

Express: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/54301/House-prices-to-rise-by-25-

HOUSE prices will soar by nearly a quarter over the next five years, it was predicted yesterday. A report published by the National Housing Federation shows that demand is growing but the supply of new housing has fallen dramatically. As a result, the impact of the credit crunch – with lenders reducing the supply of mortgages – will be out-stripped by the increasing demand for homes. The average house price is set to reach £275,000 by 2013.

Posted by little professor @ 01:00 AM 57 Comments

Times: Top ten places to buy property on the coast

More rubbish from the Times' property section: "Because of rising air fares and the strong euro, holiday homes in Britain are looking increasingly attractive. Prices haven’t collapsed as some predicted, but you can negotiate a bargain if you’re breaking into the market. Houses are likely to be cheaper than last year and cheaper than in two years’ time. While Salcombe is holding up well, more people are releasing property in cheaper locations nearby, such as Dartmouth, that they perhaps shouldn’t have bought in the first place. In Whitstable, it is difficult to buy a beachside house for less than £500,000. “It’s a good bet for investment over the next five to 10 years", says a local estate agent. Broadstairs will benefit from faster rail services using the high-speed track to St Pancras."

Scotsman: City watchdog sinks teeth into mortgage fraudsters

Decent article from the Scotsman with the ever robust and tell it strait comments from the readership that reveals some rather alarming trends that the Scotsman would never dare print in its main article!

Halifax: Quarterly report out now

London down 4.3% on the quarter, 16.1% annualized. South East down 6.4% QoQ, 23.3% annualized. East Midlands down 7.2% QoQ, 25.9% annualized. The North down 9.3% QoQ, 32.4% annualized. Northern Ireland down 14.6% QoQ, 46.9% annualized. But hey, the Isle of Man is still rising!

Posted by little professor @ 10:50 PM 8 Comments

Times: Pessimists are basing their gloom on old news

My view is that this episode is likely to be remembered as one of those extremes of panic in financial markets, which tend to reoccur once or twice every decade, then turn out to be simply wrong. In making this argument, I have been accused of ignoring market realities and being blindly contrarian. The true contrarians at present are the bankers and headline-writers who keep predicting economic Armageddon. The markets are taking heart from the government guarantees offered to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - hence the 40% rise in financial shares this week. And US house prices, which almost everyone believes to be in freefall, have actually been going up for the past four months, according to the National Association of Realtors.

AP - Yahoo: As costs rise, inflation's next front is retailers

Coming to a store near you: Even higher prices. Most inflation this year has come from food and fuel, as retailers resisted passing along to strapped consumers the higher prices manufacturers charged them, but coming increases from companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Hasbro Inc. may leave them with no choice.

Halifax: Quarterly Regional Comments

The bigger they are, the harder they fall...

This is money.co.uk: House price optimism in short supply

The web is full of chatter about house prices and where they are heading. In one chatroom, a miserable vendor begs advice. One reader's guidance is blunt, but practical. 'Drop the price. Drop it again. And keep dropping it until you get an offer.'

ThisIsMoney: House prices to plunge a third by 2010

In a report released today, leading accountancy firm Deloitte says: 'We now expect UK house prices to fall by about a third by the end of 2010 with severe adverse effects on household spending and investment.' Roger Bootle, economic adviser to Deloitte and Touche, predicts that interest rates will have to be slashed to 3.5 per cent by the end of next year to tackle rapidly weakening growth.

Posted by little professor @ 11:52 AM 11 Comments

Liberal Manifesto: October 1974: Why Britain Needs Liberal Government

I came across this little gem whilst surfing this morning. I was amazed at how similar some issues were in 1974 to those we face today. “ In ten years the price of an average new house has risen three times, the cost of a mortgage has risen five times whilst the proportion of an average family's income spent on mortgage repayments has increased from 25 per cent. to 50 per cent. The average price of a new house at over £10,900 is well beyond the reach of over half the population and unless steps are taken soon to alleviate the situation, home ownership will become a thing of the past.”

Posted by wdbeast @ 10:41 AM 9 Comments

Telegraph: Summer sale: mortgage rates set to fall

The next 18 months will, without a doubt, be even harder for many families: house prices will plummet much further, the squeeze on families' incomes will intensify and hundreds of thousands will lose their jobs. With every period of economic gloom comes an excellent buying opportunity for those who can afford it. As the late investor Sir John Templeton said, the best time to invest is at the moment of "maximum pessimism". There is every indication that that moment will arrive over the next year and a half.

Telegraph: Treasury plan to rescue mortgage lenders

The Treasury is preparing a radical rescue plan for the housing market which may involve pumping billions of pounds into the stricken mortgage markets. Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, has asked his leading advisers to investigate a plan to provide government support for lenders until the financial crisis has abated. The proposal is being investigated ahead of the completion of Sir James Crosby's report into the funding struggles faced by UK banks.

Posted by quiet guy @ 10:35 AM 28 Comments

The Independant: Cornwall: A land of haves, and have nots

A microcosm of the social division that rampant hpi has brought to Britain under New Labour.

Guardian: A week that taught me home truths about the housing crisis

In today's housing market, you don't argue with a potential buyer. Selling our house required us to exchange and complete in seven days and of course we agreed. The house price surveys don't convey the scale of the crisis in the market or the price falls.

Posted by quiet guy @ 09:31 AM 12 Comments

AFP: US Senate approves sweeping housing bill

"President Bush will sign this bill when he receives it, despite our concerns with some provisions, including nearly four billion (dollars) to help lenders, not the homeowners this legislation is intended to serve". "As more homes are dumped on the market, home prices fall further, driving further mortgages underwater, leading to further foreclosures, further homes dumped on the market, and further home price declines," said economist Richard Kelly at TD Bank.

Ipsos MORI: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt Survey

14% said 'certain, very likely or fairly likely' in response to Q5) "You will not be able to keep up with your mortgage payments"

Guardian: Credit crunch: Call for extra underpinning to support new mortgages

The government will face fresh pressure from lenders next week to ease funding conditions in the mortgage market when it publishes an interim report into the cash-strapped sector by the former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby.

CNBC: Congress Approves Housing Market Rescue Bill

The Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill on Saturday, offering emergency financing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac creating a new regulator for the mortgage titans and setting up a $300 billion fund to help troubled homeowners. It amazes me that you need a license for fishing, your tv, alcohol, taxi driver, street performer, but f**k all to be a landlord.

Times: Is home ownership still an aspiration

Young adults did not think much of the idea of home ownership. Why tie yourself to a big mortgage when there are better ways to spend your money? Why get lumbered with years of housing maintenance and having nothing more exciting to do than getting the windows done? The old argument that paying rent is dead money left them unconvinced. Only 44% of 18-to 25-year-olds favour home ownership. For some people, renting is indeed the best option.

Posted by little professor @ 10:08 PM 10 Comments

australian: NATIONAL Australia Bank's write-down of $830 million has put the spotlight on the dangerous risks the banks have taken with customers' deposits.1per cent defaulted, it would wipe out Australia's banking system.

According to the latest Reserve Bank Bulletin, the Australian banking sector's exposure to derivatives was $9.8 trillion at March 31, compared with almost $13 trillion three months earlier. While most of this isn't risky, if 1per cent defaulted, it would wipe out Australia's banking system.

smh: NAB's ugly surprise

As a consequence, local councils all around the country who were sold CDOs by investment banks for their lovely yield, their safety and their credit rating are now sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of dud securities.

TBR News via ts: Voice of the White House July 25, 2008

Congress has rushed through a Band-Aid bill to : ‘help’ home owners but it is far too little and far too late to do any good. Major banks like Wachovia, Chase and Bank of America are tottering and no one is lending money to anyone anymore. Credit is drying up, evictions rise, along with gas and food prices and unemployment is just behind all of them but rising. Some of this collapse is the result of overextension, some the result of greed and much more the ineptness of the Bush administration but the fact is, we are teetering on the edge of the quarry cliff and what is coming is slow disintegration

Bloomberg: Fannie, Freddie Subordinated Debt May Be Cut by S&P (Update4)

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Standard & Poor's may downgrade the subordinated bonds of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, surprising investors who had anticipated the securities would be supported by any Treasury rescue plan The potential downgrade of the preferred stock isn't as surprising, Jackson said. ``The fact that they lumped the sub debt in there seems questionable,'' Jackson said. ``If we are talking about equity capital being contributed by the government, by any measure that we can come up with, that should protect the subordinated debt.''

Comer: Money in Trouble

The Chinese government does not seem to carry a national debt and sells Chinese Treasury bonds to cool its economy not to finance it! With so much mind boggling infrastructure construction pouring yuan into circulation, some cooling seems necessary. This May China increased the commercial bank reserve requirement again to now 16% reducing the quantity of loans they can make to a maximum of 6X their reserves. This is an alternate way to reduce bank money creation rarely used in the USA in preference to the “one blunt tool” of increasing interest rates which bankers like! Could this be the money model, a Chinese model, for a world economy to replace the dysfunctional financial system now in crisis? The Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform

Mr Mortgage: Time to Get Political Folks…Massive Bailouts Front and Center

They are on the move guys. I have always kept my political affiliations and actions a private matter, but what is going on with the Fannie/Freddie, housing, mortgage, Treasury, Fed, Wall St, Washington, rich investor and foreign Gov’t bailout plan could turn out to be nothing short of the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people. At least in my lifetime. I feel compelled to use whatever soapbox I have here to get this message out to as many as I can.

Mortgage Lender: Massive House Price Losses in Non Conforming Areas

"Fitch Ratings, arguably the only rater with their act together other than Egan-Jones, just finished with its ResiLogic enhancements. Its new mortgage loss model will be released today. In it, its new National, State and MSA-level economic and house price forecasting will make their modeling ‘far more predictive and forward-looking.’ That is a nice way to put it." BIG PROBLEM - This more micro look at the housing market in the 25 MSA’s that in the past have contained the most ‘non-conforming (Jumbo) lending, is coming up with massive house price losses in key areas with San Diego dropping as much as 47% over the next 5-years! San Francisco is looking at an additional 33%. These are your heavy Alt-A areas.

bankimplode: The Crisis Is Upon Us by Ron Paul

"I have, for the past 35 years, expressed my grave concern for the future of America. The course we have taken over the past century has threatened our liberties, security and prosperity. In spite of these long-held concerns, I have days – growing more frequent all the time – when I'm convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur. These fast-approaching events will not go unnoticed. They will affect all of us. They will not be limited to just some areas of our country. The world economy and political system will share in the chaos about to be unleashed."

financial sense: Congress Taps Paulson's Helmet

With President Bush no longer threatening a veto, the subprime mortgage and Fannie and Freddie “bailout” bill is now sailing through Congress. In anticipation of its enactment, Congress had the foresight to raise the national debt limit to $10.6 trillion. Who says that politicians don’t plan ahead? Once signed into law, the budget busting legislation will hand the Administration a blank check to prop up the ailing home lenders. The ultimate cost is anybody’s guess. I believe that the price tag will be higher than just about anyone imagines.

Market Oracle: Britain in Freefall as Economy, Housing Market and Labour Votes Crash

Gordon Browns Labour party is in crisis mode, time has effectively run out for Gordon Brown as the time for action to arrest the decline in Labour's electoral fortunes was more than 6 months ago, the same old offerings at press conferences no longer cuts it not only with the voters but also with Labour MP's who can clearly see that their jobs are now on the line. There now exists a high probability of a challenge to Gordon Browns premiership most probably at Septembers party conference. This also confirms the view that Labour will hang on for as long as possible into the deadline for a UK general election of May 2010.

Money CNN: Banks brace for more pain

Cooling credit fears Heading into this earnings season, banks were dogged by the twin investor fears of credit and capital. Analysts were betting that banks would once again have to beef up their loan loss reserves as the housing market deteriorated further and as the U.S. economy continued to sputter. Banks did just that. At the same time, nonperforming assets and net charge-offs, or loans banks don't think are collectable, continued to rise.

globaleconomicanalysis: Worldwide Hard Landing Is Coming

Alan Bollard, governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, cut the rate from 8.25 per cent to 8 per cent - still the highest in the industrialised world after Iceland - despite rising inflation, forecast to peak at 5 per cent by September. The move surprised many as it contradicts the Reserve Bank's mandate, which states that achieving and maintaining price stability are the sole objectives of monetary policy. The central bank's stated inflation target band is 1 to 3 per cent.

AFN: Think YOU and YOUR PROPERTY

"Capital must protect itself in every way, through combination and through legislation. Debts must be collected and loans and mortgages foreclosed as soon as possible. When through a process of law the common people have lost their homes, they will be more tractable and more easily governed by the strong arm of the law, applied by the central power of wealth, under control of leading financiers. Remember, it's not a question of "if" the economy will collapse, but "when". And if they can't "steal" your property with the above described scheme, they will take it via sequestration by "conservation easements" and expropriate it to international organizations, corporations and associations at "the extinction of the State" through "concessional" lending. Sustainable Development 1934

321gold: It's Always Darkest Before the Dawn... of a Depression

I think we are seeing signs of it in the desperate measures being employed to nationalize companies which trade on market exchanges as private enterprises. There is simply no way to defend the SEC's decision to selectively enforce the prohibition of naked short selling for 17 'fragile' financial companies and to not enforce it for the over 5000 other companies which trade on US stock market exchanges. And plans to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac breathe of a sort of corporate nationalism.

321gold: Where Is the Economy Going

The underlying problems have not been fixed with this massive bailout. But the much bigger implication is that the Fed is busy pouring more gasoline on the fire by fighting the collapsing housing bubble, a housing bubble created by excess liquidity, with yet more liquidity. That is the key point that should be taken from this mess. The dollar is now firmly on an even steeper slope to its ultimate demise. Other currencies will be sliding down the same slope, so another paper currency is not the answer.

ThisIsMoney: Buy-to-let: The housewife developer

When Emma Wright's husband handed her £1m and asked her to invest it in property, she vowed to try to double the money within three years. Emma plans to purchase up to 30 houses near her home in Wadhurst, East Sussex. Emma has embarked on her buy-to-let portfolio with a two-bedroom mid-terrace house at the end of her road in Wadhurst for £200,000 in cash. She is currently spending £3,000 on redecoration and will be letting it to her housekeeper and gardener for £660 a month. That works out at just 4% yield, but Emma expects that figure to rise in future as prices fall.(?????) 'We haven't really seen a big drop in prices in this area yet,' she says. 'It's a very desirable place in hot demand and easily commutable from London.

Posted by little professor @ 11:24 AM 22 Comments

FT: Mortgage rate cuts signal improving market conditions

Northern Rock, HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland yesterday became the latest lenders to cut mortgage rates, in a further sign that the market is improving for borrowers. Northern Rock, which is actively trying to shrink its mortgage book, is now offering some of the best two-year deals on the market. The bank reduced its cheapest two-year fixed rates by 15 basis points, to 6.24 per cent for house purchases and 6.34 per cent for remortgages. These rates are available to borrowers with deposits of 25 per cent, whereas previously the best rates were only offered to those with 30 per cent in cash. However, most companies are only cutting the rates on low loan-to-value deals, and still require deposits of at least 10 per cent.

FT: Rich look abroad for buy-to-let loans

Wealthy buy-to-let property investors are bypassing mainstream UK lenders to take advantage of the more favourable terms provided by some foreign banks. European banks, including Germany’s Kleinwort Benson, Sweden’s Handelsbanken and Switzerland’s EFG Bank, are willing to make multi-million-pound loans, and often at better rates with flexible terms. Some European lenders are offering lower arrangement fees, higher loan-to-values and less stringent rental requirements. “It’s great news for UK borrowers that some foreign banks with strong balance sheets are aggressively competing for high-quality assets,” said a mortgage broker. “They are taking advantage of the highest pricing levels and most conservative lending terms in the UK market for many years.”

Mail Online: Could Mr Brown be the last Prime Minister of Great Britain?

"However, the feverish discussions of Gordon Brown's political health which have dominated the airwaves over the past 24 hours have obscured a matter of much more enduring significance: whether or not the United Kingdom itself can survive beyond the next General Election." To prevent this a lot of money would have to be diverted North of the border, via tax. And would Scotland then take the Euro by default? All this confusion when house prices possibly reach a trough.

Independent: Mortgage approvals plunge by 66% in a year

Predictions for the future of the housing market remain bleak, with some ananalysts even suggesting that new mortgages could well have dried up entirely before the end of the year.

Guardian: U.S. regulators seize two more banks

First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank of California. No details as to why they failed yet.

Posted by jonb @ 05:20 AM 9 Comments

Barratt holds joint venture talks in funding bid: Daily Telegraph

Struggling housebuilder Barratt has held preliminary talks with major UK banks, such as HBOS, about creating joint ventures to own and rent out new homes it is struggling to sell. The plan envisages a joint venture vehicle created between the housebuilder and a financial backer. The joint venture would then buy the houses at near cost price and rent them out to the private market. Uhm would be interesting to see how much a 400,000quid executive detached desirable much sought after home really cost to build. I suspect about 100,000 quid!

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 05:10 AM 12 Comments

Daily Telegraph: Gordon Brown's future uncertain as Cabinet ministers plot after Glasgow East debacle

The Labour Party has no option but to replace him as leader or face certain defeat at the next general election, said one. "We cannot go any lower," Err isn't that what they keep saying about the housing market? "We are at rock bottom". Nope I still think house prices have a long way to fall and so does Gordon's reputation for economic matters! "There is only one thing that can be done, and it's a change of leader." Nope it's the economy stupid not the leader! Economic figures revealed that Britain was facing recession, with economic growth falling in May and June.

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 04:58 AM 12 Comments

thedailymash: Government to consolidate all its debts into one low monthly payment

Made me laugh - enjoy

Yahoo Finance - CNBC: 'Stealth' Housing Bailout: It's Bigger Than You Think

With Congress on the eve of passing a historic bill that would give the Treasury a blank check to lend money to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it’s worth looking at how much money the government has already pumped into the system during the housing crisis.

BBC News: Brown under fire as allies rally

The head of one of the UK's top unions has demanded a leadership contest, while Tory leader David Cameron has called for a general election.......Bring it on

Posted by titaniccaptain @ 08:37 PM 6 Comments

BBC Face The Facts (audio): Bye Buy-to-Let

Face the Facts investigates a buy-to-let property company many claim has left them out of pocket.

Telegraph: Britain's economy shrank in May and June

A number of economists changed their forecasts following today's statistics to reflect the likelihood that Britain suffers a technical recession - where GDP shrinks in two successive quarters. Capital Economics said: "An outright recession is now our central scenario. With industrial production having fallen in both the first and second quarters, industry is already in recession. "Interest rates will eventually need to fall... but this will be too late to prevent a recession".

Posted by pendulum @ 06:56 PM 7 Comments

mortgagesolutions: Average house price down £4375: Assetz

Property investment advice firm Assetz has said buyers with mortgages are being forced to haggle over house prices because they were getting a “raw deal” from lenders. Law said “profiteering” must stop to create a fairer deal for homebuyers, who were unfairly paying for the excesses and errors in the investment banking sector over the last few years..............

CNBC: Oil in the Arctic

Well if some of us didn't know already. We know now! Great little clip, like the sarcasm of the journalist.

Posted by stevie dee @ 05:31 PM 14 Comments

CNBC: Consumer Confidence Rebounds in July

U.S. consumer sentiment recovered unexpectedly from early 1980s lows in July as Americans received government tax rebate checks but remained pressured by high gasoline prices and falling home values.

NY Times: Housing Bill Has Something for Nearly Everyone

This is a good rundown of the provisions in the new US Housing Bill - not as bad as it seems as it is aimed largely at ordinary homeowners. Anyone applying for help has to have taken out their mortgage before January 2008 and has to verify their income. Second homes and investment properties are also excluded from the provisions. So anyone who lied to buy or engaged in property flipping will be left to crash and burn. Wouldn't be surprised to see a carbon copy, adjusted only for British-English spelling, to appear before the House of Commons very soon!!

MoneyWeek: What to do if you're trapped in Spanish property gloom

For increasing numbers of Brits, the dream of owning a trouble-free place in the sun is rapidly turning sour. So, if you are planning a move to Spain, in spite of an increasingly fragile economy and soaring living costs, then rent – don't buy.

Posted by damien @ 02:31 PM 11 Comments

BBC News: Buy-to-let firm faces questions

The Beeb have finally woken up to the fact that Inside Track and their sister company IAP were nothing more than a bunch of shysters..

CNN: Foreclosure filings up 120%

As foreclosures continue to soar, 220,000 homes were lost to bank repossessions in the second quarter, according to a housing market report Friday issued by RealtyTrac. That's nearly triple the number from the same period in 2007.

your mortgage.com: Assetz predicts house price plateau

It showed the five major house price indices recorded an average house price fall of 1.5% since June 2007. However, Assetz believes this is a temporary correction in the market rather than a crash, and prices will begin to level off in the autumn before starting to climb again in the second half of 2009.

Posted by housebear @ 12:16 PM 20 Comments

BBC News: I'll get on with job, says Brown

''...Gordon Brown has promised to "get on with the job" of dealing with the economy, following Labour's defeat in the Glasgow East by-election. He told the BBC the government had to "listen and hear people's concerns" over rising food and energy costs. ...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 11:16 AM 18 Comments

MoneyWeek: Grim reality overtakes the markets once again

Like it or not, the UK's economy is built on houses. And with more bad news for property on the way, now is the time to take cover and wait for the carnage to pass.

BBC News: UK economic growth slows sharply

''...The UK economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter of the year, as the credit crunch took its toll on housing and consumer spending. The figure is the lowest quarter-on-quarter growth for three years...''

You tube: The Great Panic of 2008

Interesting video comparing the Panic of 1907 with the Credit Crunch of 2008. As many know the panic of 1907 was engineered to pave the way for the creation of the Federal Reserve. After the big crash this autumn will we see more calls for a single world currency?

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:45 AM 21 Comments

Yorkshire Post: National Australia Bank takes hit from US debt

NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB), has booked another $830 million (£400m) in losses from its exposure to US mortgages, sending its shares down as much as 15 per cent.

Daily telegraph: Labour has only itself to blame if the unions hold it, and us, hostage

A very hard hitting and honest article that people know is true. We've had a party, now we've got a hangover. No getting away with it.

Posted by growler @ 09:27 AM 6 Comments

myfinances.co.uk: http://www.myfinances.co.uk/news/savings/online-savings-account/britain-52-days-from-financial-ruin-$1233270.htm

A lack of savings is putting Brits as risk of financial peril. Shockingly, over a third (36 per cent) would only be able to last 11 days, with less than £500 in accessible savings.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:29 AM 25 Comments

The Times: Fears of recession grow as Britons stop spending and sales slump

"With families already burdened by soaring costs of living, rising mortgage bills, slumping house prices and modest pay deals, Britons are set to abandon their past high-spending habits, said the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. A continuing slide in house prices until 2010 was one key factor set to take a further toll on consumer spending and confidence, it cautioned. Based on the value of homes dropping by 10 per cent, it calculated that this would reduce households’ total wealth by £357 billion"

Posted by growler @ 07:31 AM 6 Comments

BBC News: SNP Stuns Labour in Glasgow East

The SNP pulls off a stunning victory, winning one of Labour's safest seats by just a few hundred votes. That should wipe that dam smirk off his face.

Posted by it_is_going_with_a_bang @ 06:59 AM 15 Comments

Reuters: JP Morgan leads possible HBOS break-up

JP Morgan, the US banking giant that rescued Bear Stearns earlier this year, has held talks with several interested parties about forming a consortium to break up HBOS, the UK's biggest mortgage lender which includes the Halifax brand. HBOS's shares have been buffeted by the credit crunch and by fears about its £4bn rights issue. Speculation about a takeover of HBOS has been growing following the dramatic fall in its share price. They added that a consortium has not yet been formed and the talks could fall through. A break-up bid for HBOS might meet opposition from the Financial Services Authority, which would not want one of Britain's biggest banks to be destabilised.

Wizard of Id: 29 June 2008

I hope you'll forgive me for this light-hearted froth posting but it makes a change from the usual gloom and doom.

London Evening Standard: My property predictions by Foxtons £370m guru

"What must it be like - to collect £370 million, personally, for selling your business? More pertinently, try to imagine how it feels to know that when you sold was right at the very peak of the market - another few weeks later and it crashed."

Posted by doomwatch @ 08:25 PM 7 Comments

alternet: Nightmare on Wall Street: Washington Can't Bail out the Sea of Red Ink

Moyers: Usury? Greider: Usury, to be clear about it, is rich people taking advantage of poor people by lending them money on terms that are sure to make them fail. All three of the great religions, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, had a moral prohibition against usury because they recognized that society can't function like that. People of great wealth and their institutions like banks naturally have the power to overwhelm people of lesser means. And you can't allow that in a decent society. It won't survive. Moyers: Where were the gatekeepers? Where were the watchdogs? Why did it take the Fed so long to put an end to predatory practices? Greider: To make the story overly crude, Congress repealed the law against usury.

Posted by malct @ 07:38 PM 6 Comments

Bloomberg.com: U.K. Homebuilding Rally `Overdone,' Cazenove Says

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- A recent rally in U.K. homebuilder shares has been ``overdone'' and the stocks may fall back during the summer amidst further negative housing data and possible land writedowns, analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd. said.

CNN: Wall Street tumbles on economic jitters

"Investors are concerned over the weaker economic data that's coming through Thursday," said Stone. "With more jobless claims, people can't pay their bills, which means more write-offs for companies."

the age: Mortgage stress tipped to hit 1m by Xmas Higher interest rates are tipped to force more than a million Australian households into a state of mortgage stress by the end of the year, a new report says.

The government launched its National Rental Affordability Scheme which aims to increase the supply of affordable rental dwellings by 50,000, and possibly 100,000 by 2012.

goldseek.com: Ron Paul on the Housing Bill 7/23/08 - "The Mother of All Bailouts"

$2.5B line of credit to the Treasury (Fannie & Freddie – ‘F & F’) is now “open-ended” National Debt Ceiling Moved up $800 BILLION (buried in the bill) Treasuries have replaced gold and silver to back US Dollar

UK bubble: More post-NRK bad ideas from the FSA

The FSA want to keep us from knowing who its secretly funded. In fact, it is a poorly conceived idea with some seriously perverse incentives.

321gold: You Know The Banking System Is Unsound When...

Mike "Mish" Shedlock Jul 24, 2008 1. Paulson appears on Face The Nation and says "Our banking system is a safe and a sound one." If the banking system was safe and sound, everyone would know it (or at least think it). There would be no need to say it. 2. Paulson says the list of troubled banks "is a very manageable situation". The reality is there are 90 banks on the list of problem banks. Indymac was not one of them until a month before it collapsed. How many other banks will magically appear on the list a month before they collapse?

mortgagestrategy: NAEA says government should learn from US mistakes

The National Association of Estate Agents has urged the government to learn from the US government's mistakes and act now over the UK housing market slump. Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA, says "the housing market is the pillar of the UK economy" and that it will require creative thinking to ease pressures and ensure the downturn does not worsen. Bolton King says: “The first thing the government could do is introduce a tax break, such as abolishing Stamp Duty for first -time buyers and moving the thresholds up to ease pressure throughout the whole housing market giving people a reason and incentive to come back.

Posted by jack c @ 04:54 PM 10 Comments

CNN: Government uncovers oil price manipulation

You just couldnt make it up.... could you? next we will be told the last 10 years was just a dream.. and wake up to find Jordon is PM

Posted by mark @ 04:42 PM 9 Comments

ABC News: Existing Home Sales Fall 2.6 Percent in June

And prices are only down 6.1 per cent? C'mon guys, you're not even trying!

Telegraph: Shares gloom leaves pension funds with £30bn deficit

Slightly off-topic. In recent years more and more people have claimed that "their house is their pension", intending to use lifetime mortgages or equity release to live a happy retirement. Now that the housing crash is wrecking those dreams, attention is focusing back on traditional stockmarket-linked pensions. Sadly they aren't doing so well either. Where does this leave the generation who are retiring in the next few years?

Posted by drewster @ 03:03 PM 18 Comments

IFA Online: FSA removes compliance officer at disgraced mortgage firm

All the young 20 and 30 somethings with the memory of a goldfish waiting for lending conditions to return to "normal" - ie what they were pre-crunch, have got a long wait. I doubt we'll see a bubble like that again in our lifetime. Apart from the burnt fingers - the FSA won't let it happen again. Looks like they are finally getting around to properly enforcing their "suitability" regime to the mortgage market. Another nail in the coffin.

Posted by jackas @ 02:03 PM 8 Comments

Reuters: It won't end until housing bits bottom

"If prices were to moderate back to where they were relative to income in the mid and late 1990s, the S&P/Case-Shiller 20 City index would have to decline 35.1 percent in total compared with its 17.5 percent fall thus far."

Bloomberg: Optimists Buy IPhones While Pessimists Hoard Gold

1. You see a line of badly dressed people snaking along the sidewalk, seemingly oblivious to the wind and rain. A guy with a beard is pouring himself a steaming cup of something from a thermos. You conclude that they are: (a) outside a bank, desperately trying to get their savings out, (b) outside an Apple store, desperately trying to get their hands on a 3G iPhone. 2. The mortgage-backed bond market is dead, murdered by lax lending standards that destroyed investor faith in the quality of home loans. (a) We need rules to ban introductory teaser rates that reset two years later, (b) We need rules to stop unqualified home buyers lying about their incomes, (c) How are my Wall Street pals supposed to generate bonus-boosting fees without an asset-backed bond market to play in?

Independent: Jeremy Warner's Outlook: Ministers may have to consider radical action as mortgage famine intensifies

"A possible halfway house would be to extend the scope of the Bank of England's "special liquidity scheme" to new mortgages, so that for a price lenders would be able to swap new mortgages for more liquid government bonds. Yet Mr King would be vigorously opposed to any such extension and, in a falling-out that would make the present strained relationship between the Bank and the Treasury look like a vicar's tea party by comparison, would fight any such notion tooth and nail. What is clear beyond doubt is that something has to be done. The debate as to what is about to get very heated indeed." This is a fight Merv has to win...

The Times: Retail sales dive 3.9% in worst fall for 22 years

The economics of volatility on the high street. If you were in retail (or any sector), would you think of moving house?

Posted by growler @ 12:56 PM 8 Comments

CNN: Ford reports massive loss

As production winds down, Ford has been slashing production of SUVs and large trucks to meet the reduced demand and offering buyouts to its 54,000-strong workforce. Ford set a goal of cutting 15% of its work force by Aug. 1. But so far this year, only 4,200 workers have accepted the buyout offers. ------------------------------------------------------------------ how many ford workers will go in EU and UK? what about parts makers etc

Posted by mark @ 12:46 PM 8 Comments

Miya Shay: In Forbidden Video, Bush Claims “Wall Street Got Drunk”

In this unauthorised video of Bush, we see what politicians really think of our predicament. They take it for a joke!! You won't see this on CNN. We are now the media. We all need to take over press events and get news story's out on the web. As seen in Truth Rising. Just think of this response when you hear him and other politicians trying to sound sincere on the mainstream media.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 12:40 PM 10 Comments

Sydney Morning Herald: owner-shoots-herself-after-foreclosure

Woman commits suicide as buyers descend on forclosed home.

CNN: House OKs mortgage rescue

if you were about to lose you house could you afford the fees they want? And they want a cut of profit too!! BIG SCAM by the FED ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Borrowers must agree to pay an annual premium to the FHA equal to 1.5% of their new loan balance. They must also agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling or refinancing."

Bloomberg: Fannie Mae Unsold $5 Billion Homes Bring Peril to Shareholders

Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage finance company, couldn't find a buyer who would pay $6,900 for the three-bedroom house at 1916 Prospect St. in Flint, Michigan. So broker Raymond Megie, who is handling the foreclosure sale, advised cutting the price to $5,000. Megie still couldn't sell it. ``There's oversupply,'' he said. The home sold in 2005 for $110,000.

Posted by richc @ 12:03 PM 17 Comments

The Renegade Economist: FSA Secrecy

Privileged treatment of the financial sector lends weight to some people’s suspicions that bankers are part of a conspiracy to put money in their pockets at our expense. An example of how conspiracy theories are fuelled is offered by the plan to protect reckless bankers in Britain from paying the price of their own misdeeds.

BBC: Can't pay your mortgage?

Words fail me on this one. "... dependants such as adult children, you could ask them to contribute .."

Posted by doomwatch @ 10:47 AM 9 Comments

MoneyWeek: Why your bank manager may be about to turn nasty

The credit crunch may be a year old, but in reality it's only just started. Banks will have to rein in lending even more - meaning a brutal recession, lower profits and many more job losses.

telegraph: Investors buy gold bars in record numbers

Tony Baird of Baird & Co, one the UK's biggest gold bullion dealers, said business was getting busier and busier – with punters investing £1,500 to £150,000 in gold bars and coins. Baird, who has been in the gold business for 40 years, claimed that demand was on a par with the late 1970s.

Metro: Property for sale dropping £1,000 per week

This chap has finally got the message! I hope we find out the result of his Dutch auction.

Posted by mark wadsworth @ 10:03 AM 12 Comments

BBC: UK retail sales fall 3.9% in June

Retail sales in the UK fell 3.9% in June, after they had shown a sudden and unexpected 3.6% record surge in May

Mortgage Introducer: Mortgage market tormented

Capital Economics believes the mortgage market “continues to be tormented” by a combination of weak buyer confidence, the faltering economy and the credit squeeze.

Suffolk and Essex online: Suffolk house prices now 12 times salary

Urgent action was called for last night after it emerged property prices in some parts of Suffolk are 12 times the average wage. { Big drops on Property Snake see http://propertysnake.co.uk/site/location/1169 }

Telegraph: More than 40pc of UK house sales are collapsing

Four in ten house sales are collapsing in some areas as buyers back out or fail to get a mortgage, the Bank of England has disclosed.....And this in an already slow market.....

Market Watch: Federal minimum wage rises 70 cents Thursday

An estimated 13 million workers, 10% of the work force, will receive an hourly wage increase when the minimum wage is raised next year, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Posted by yoyo1 @ 09:11 AM 7 Comments

BBC News: New challenges with remortgaging

If they are forced onto a standard variable rate, they may see payments rocket by up to 64%. Even if they are offered the best two year fixed rate, they will face a deal 35% more expensive than the one they are currently on.

Telegraph: Over 40% of house sales are collapsing

Four in ten house sales are collapsing in some areas as buyers back out or fail to get a mortgage, the Bank of England has disclosed. The new figure is yet another sign of the pain being endured by the housing market as the effects of the credit crunch work their way through. Large numbers of buyers were having to retreat from deals after having mortgage offers withdrawn by lenders. Other would-be buyers simply pulled out through fear that house prices could plunge even further than they have done recently, with some analysts predicting a fall of up to 35 per cent in the next two years. Property prices are falling at a rate not seen since the early 1950s.

BBC website: Are mortgages as safe as houses

The article suggests that people being given fraudulent mortagages are "vunerable" and victims. In my opinion the real victim is Honest Joe who having got a well paid job is Priced Out or Gazumped by these criminals. For a long time I have suggested that all salary declarations on mortgage applications should be cross checked by the Inland Revenue to ensure that the correct amount of income tax has been paid.

Bank of England has room for interest rate relief: Telegraph

Is this an attempt to rig the interest rate? They way the word "discovery" is used in the article describe an academic paper by Prof Miles on the new "natural interest rate" to my mind smacks of Victorian quackery. "Ladies and Gentleman, roll up, roll up, Professor Miles is today, and this day alone selling his new restorative remedy for 1 shilling and 6." The punters never find out it is made from old soapy water and cat urine.

Posted by mikelivingstone @ 07:04 AM 7 Comments

BBC: US lawmakers pass housing rescue

The US House of Representatives has passed a massive (3,900,000,000 dollars )housing rescue bill that could help struggling homeowners get cheaper loans. More than a million Americans have lost their homes in the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. Under the rescue plan, hundreds of thousands of homeowners trapped in mortgages they cannot afford on homes that have fallen in value would be able to refinance their mortgages with more affordable, fixed-rate loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. It also includes a tax break of as much as $7,500 for first time home buyers, as well as help for troubled mortgage finance providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Many Republicans are angry about the legislation, which they say bails out irresponsible homeowners and lenders

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 06:20 AM 7 Comments

The Street.com: Sallie Mae Profits Slide 72%

Sallie Mae's profit plummeted 72% in the second quarter, as the student lender reported funding costs have been "extraordinarily high" this year amid a deteriorating credit market.

yahoo news: Bent cucumbers? With prices up, EU won't bin them

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Twisted carrots, warped leeks and bent cucumbers may soon appear -- officially -- on EU shop shelves as Europe's farm chief overrides opposition from leading producer countries to her marketing simplification plan. (Advertisement) One of the most popular jibes about EU over-regulation, where zealous Brussels bureaucrats are portrayed as wanting to set permitted sizes, lengths -- and "bendiness" -- for household fruit and vegetables, has come back to haunt the European Union. But this time, Brussels wants to cut the red tape and get rid of what it calls "unnecessary marketing standards" -- in part because of the rising price of food.

Posted by malct @ 10:52 PM 6 Comments

BBC: Strong rise in UK banking shares

Shares in some of the UK's leading banks have risen strongly on the back of takeover rumours and hopes of a recovery in the financial sector. HBOS, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, jumped 16.9% on talk that it could be a takeover target for Spanish bank BBVA.

Posted by edwardnh @ 09:36 PM 7 Comments

Credit Writedowns: Quote of the day: 23 Jul 2008 - George W. Bush

"There is no question about it. Wall Street got drunk.... That’s one reason I asked you to turn off your TV cameras....[Wall Street] got drunk and now it's got a hangover......The question is, how long will it [take to] sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments?" See the video. All the rage at Youtube.

Posted by edwardnh @ 08:02 PM 11 Comments

Fed Up USA: Fed Up USA

I am not sure if anyone in HPC is aware of this US site. It looks like some americans have started to organize themselves to protest against the bail-outs.

Credit Writedowns: Tapping the 401K and unrealized gains

This is an appalling new trend in America: tapping your pension at the cashpoint. I just picked up on a MarketWatch article about 401(k) debit cards through Tim Iacono's blog. It marks a pretty astounding trend in financial innovation. Debit cards are straightforward. You use them for purchases and money is deducted from your bank account. But when the debited account is your 401(k) retirement plan, critics angrily line up to take a swipe at that piece of plastic. It's not hard to see why. The 401(k) debit card lets you borrow from retirement savings and pay yourself back with interest over time, much as you would with a typical 401(k) loan. Only the card makes it much easier to crack your retirement nest egg; all you do is shop, swipe and sign.

BBC Business: US mortgage rates increase again

The cost of taking out a mortgage in the US has climbed again due to fears over the fate of two huge lenders, according to The New York Times. The interest rate on an average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose to 6.71% from 6.44% on Friday, HSH Associates says. And rates on loans of $729,750 or more hit 7.8%, the most since December 2000. The rate rises come as the US is trying to secure the future of troubled government backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Telegraph: Second home owners could be forced to live in country properties all year

Second home owners could be forced to live in their country properties year-round or rent them out permanently to tenants under radical proposals outlined in a countryside review commissioned by Gordon Brown.

Posted by holding out @ 04:05 PM 26 Comments

Yahoo: Fuller, Smith & Turner concerned about inflation

"The inflationary impact on our costs has increased and, despite our solid trading performance, there are many signs that the UK consumer is also feeling the squeeze,"

bbc: Why have oil prices been falling?

Oil prices have risen to record levels in recent weeks, with traders in London and New York paying more than $147 a barrel for crude oil at its peak on 11 July........................this article claims that the recent falls are just a "correction" and that demand for oil is still high in China. I don't buy it. Oil is on its way down.. and just wait until the north Alaskan oilfields start to produce.. now lets see this "correction" cascade down to the petrol pumps.

Posted by george monsoon @ 03:01 PM 10 Comments

Market Oracle: United States Unfolding Financial and Economic Nightmare

The rally you saw last week was little more than a normal, bear-market bounce — predicated on the myth of government omnipotence ... spurred by the blind faith in fiat money ... and triggered by the official attacks on short-sellers

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 12:52 PM 59 Comments

Guardian: Solar Power from Saharan Sun could provide Europe's electricity

Plans to build an enormous solar power station. Quick - buy a bit of desert.

Posted by cyril @ 12:47 PM 15 Comments

BBC: Mortgage advisers 'are failing'

Many mortgage advisers give poor advice to customers, according to research by the consumers' association Which?.

MoneyWeek: Why the credit crunch will hammer stocks as well as property

Why are investors fleeing hedge funds? Perhaps to cover bills elsewhere, or perhaps simply because they’re panicking. And as we all know, the golden rule when panicking, is to panic first. But this rush for the exits is taking its toll on stocks that have nothing to do with the credit crunch…

mortgageintroducer: Commercial demand down

In the survey, 50% more chartered surveyors reported a fall than a rise in demand compared to 31% in Q1 2008

Times: BoE minutes show three-way split over interest rate decision

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was divided over its decision to keep the interest rate on hold at 5 per cent in July but hinted that borrowing costs could rise next month. Minutes from the MPC's interest rate meeting in July revealed that while seven members voted to hold rates, Tim Besley opted to raise borrowing costs to 5.25 per cent while arch-dove David Blanchflower voted for a cut. The minutes also reveal that while members believed a rate rise this month may dent confidence, they did not rule out an increase in August.

Posted by little professor @ 11:44 AM 15 Comments

Mortgage Introducer: Checkmate launch proves market is turning

"The announcement by Checkmate Mortgages that it has obtained sufficient investment to launch in 2009 is a sign the market is turning, according to John Charcol."

Posted by renting2 @ 11:07 AM 20 Comments

Mortgage Introducer: Advisers failing their clients

"Some mortgage advisers give poor advice to their clients, according to research by the consumers' association Which?." Advice today should be - Don't Buy!!

Telegraph: House Prices: Home improvements are a waste of money

Falling house prices means that home improvements such as a new kitchen or a loft conversion are a waste of money. Declining house prices mean that other, previously profitable improvements, such as extensions and new kitchens are now expected to result in negative "net value added" of between minus £13,806 and minus £20,232.

Citywire: The Daily Interview: Parts of UK in recession says Cartesian's Kelly

The weakest areas of the UK economy – banks and house builders - are already in a recession, Andrew Kelly of the Cartesian UK Opportunities fund has said. Speaking after the HBOS rights issue flopped and with the monthly total of construction layoffs above 5,000, Kelly said it was now just a question of who would follow. ‘Sectors of the UK economy are already clearly in recession, it is really now a question of when the sectors under pressure will recover,’ said Kelly.

Money Week: Why gold and silver are table-thumping buys

Comprehensive article looking at the ramifications of house price crashes in many western countries, global stagflation and unprecedented credit, solvency and systemic risk. Risk aversion and a flight to safety look set to see gold and silver embark on the second stage of a secular bull market.

BBC Business: Mortgage approvals hit fresh low

The number of new mortgages approved by the major banks fell another 23% in June to a new record low. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said its members approved just 21,118 new home loans in June, down from 27,499 in May. The figures were also 66% lower than in June last year. The collapse in sales, and the current sharp fall in prices, has been caused by the mortgage drought, due to the credit crunch in the banking system.

Posted by jack c @ 10:12 AM 19 Comments

Daily Mail: House sales drop by half in a year as repossessions soar

The number of homes sold has halved in a year, according to official figures issued yesterday. Coming alongside evidence of the soaring number of repossessions, the news lays bare the extent of the meltdown in the housing market. In June last year, 140,000 homes were sold for £40,000 or more. This was before the Northern Rock debacle began and the words 'credit crunch' were bandied about. Twelve months later, figures from HM Revenue and Customs show that just 77,000 homes were sold in June, the lowest number since records began in 2005.

Posted by uncle chris @ 08:47 AM 41 Comments

The Sun: The Sun Says

Apparently all of the unpleasantness in the economy is done and dusted. Everyone back home for tea and buns. Depressingly, I once saw Sir Bernard Ingham (Thatcher's press secretary) give a talk and he said that the first piece of advice he always gave a new minister was to read The Sun every day - "You don't sell that many papers every day without reflecting the views of the man in the street". Is this *really* what people are thinking?

Yahoo: Roubini: More Than $1 Trillion Needed to Solve Housing Crisis

To think we are seen as pessimists. In the US they have a site called walkawayplan.com

Telegraph: But honey, I'm doing it all for you

They push themselves to the limit for their families - and what thanks do they get? Jessica Fellowes meets the City's high earners who are tired of being taken for granted. TIPS FOR STANDING BY YOUR WORKING MAN (FEMINISTS, LOOK AWAY NOW…

hills blog: Bush on Economy: 'Wall Street Got Drunk'

"There's no question about it," Bush said. "Wall Street got drunk, that's one of the reasons I asked you to turn off the TV cameras. It got drunk and now it's got a hangover. The question is how long will it sober up and not try to do all these fancy financial instruments."

Posted by sold out @ 06:45 AM 7 Comments

The Australian: No smoking hot spot : Dr David Evans was a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005

Being a planner. I am concerned about whether planning policy is appropriate and appropriately evidence based. Unfortunately, the green movement is often based on the precautionary principle. This is a United Nations and EU principle that basically means, fear can be a substitute for evidence. Therefore, the risk that there may be a risk from greenhouse gases is enough to bring on eco towns upon viable farmland and to install carbon tax. So, here is another example of a scientist who has moved from the fighting global warming to being a sceptic. His story comes from his personal scientific experience. So, in our drive to solve the "housing crisis", which is infact a currency crisis (banks printed money, ploughed into mortgage securities, inflating prices), are ecotowns a distraction?

Posted by planning4acrash @ 01:02 AM 20 Comments

FT: European house price guide

Nice pictures, nothing we don't already know. Germany has barely grown; Austria, Switzerland, and Portugal had fairly low growth too. Estonia, Northern Ireland, and Poland stand out as the worst excesses - no wonder the Poles are heading back home, they want to get on the ladder before it's too late ;-) Hungary is the odd one out, it actually registered house price falls in 2006. Any ideas why?

Telegraph: House Prices: Home improvements are a waste of money

Not sure if this has posted before ... Falling house prices means that home improvements such as a new kitchen or a loft conversion are a waste of money. Declining house prices mean that other, previously profitable improvements, such as extensions and new kitchens are now expected to result in negative "net value added" of between minus £13,806 and minus £20,232.

BBC News on line: Wachovia ends wholesale mortgages

Wachovia , the 4th largest US Bank has stopped offering mortgages via brokers.This is a clear sign that the world wide mortgage drought is continuing in the same month some US house prices fell 4.5%. The UK will soon follow too.

Reuters: Fitch warns on outlook for UK mutual lenders

LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Rating agency Fitch warned on Tuesday of rising arrears for British building societies, especially for lenders exposed to specialist, higher-risk mortgages amid a deteriorating economy.

Telegraph: 50 ways to profit from the economic gloom

"Now is a great time to buy used cars... Savings accounts available up to 7.17%... Airlines are knocking down prices... Builders & plumbers are chasing work so get one in cheaply... Furniture up to 60% off... The cost of beach huts is falling back to earth... Weakness of the dollar means America and the Caribbean are terrific value... Snap up a property bargain by buying a newbuild which has been repossessed... Lower-priced properties across the country also being reduced... Shop at Lidl and Aldi..."

Posted by drewster @ 07:26 PM 17 Comments

Bloomberg: Fannie, Freddie Rescue May Cost $25 Billion, CBO Says

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would cost taxpayers an estimated $25 billion over two years under the Bush administration's rescue plan, the Congressional Budget Office said

thisislondon.co.uk: House price growth falls to seven-year low as economy continues to slow down

that nevertheless claims that London prices rose in May.

bbc: Inflation 'to hit Asian growth'

Inflation has been rising in countries across the region, where half of family expenditure is on food and fuel. To tackle inflation fiscal authorities have been tightening credit recently.

bbc: Motoring 'cheaper than in 1988

roads are full of trucks, foreign ones drain our economy of 55 million quid....each year... if motoring is cheaper, then why are people poorer? Must be because we have a stable economy with no inflation and affordable houses!!!

Channel 4: Home sales hit new low

The number of homes changing hands has nearly halved during the past year to hit a new low, Government figures show. Just 77,000 homes costing more than £40,000 were sold during June, 45% fewer than during the same month of 2007, according to HM Revenue & Customs

mortgagestrategy: FTBs returning to housing market

The National Association of Estate Agents has claimed first-time buyers are making a gradual return to the market.The NAEA makes the claim based on its report of a rise in average first-time buyer sales for June. The latest NAEA figures show that the average percentage share of first-time buyer sales in June has crept up to 11.8%, compared to 10.6% in May and up significantly from the 9.8% seen this time last year. But the data is not all positive.......................................

Posted by jack c @ 04:42 PM 17 Comments

Bedlam asset management: The Perfect Storm

Bedlam often produce the most insightful research - read on why Britain is the sick man of Europe

Times Online: Alchemy's Floors-2-Go calls in the administrators

The sliding housing market and a slump in do-it-yourself home improvements has forced Floors-2-Go, the wood and laminates flooring retailer, to collapse into administration with the loss of almost 100 jobs.

Citywire: Banks enjoy the fruits of their own recklessness

It is a glorious testament to the power and influence money can buy. Having almost single-handedly plunged the developed world into its worst financial crisis for more than half a century, one might reasonably expect the banks to be subject to some serious sanctions and rule-tightening from governments and regulators.But no. Nearly a year on from the start of the current crisis, senior bankers continue to enjoy the financial fruits of their misdeeds, safe in the knowledge they will never be called to account for their actions. Indeed, more evidence emerges today that the banks have been able to persuade regulators to loosen the rules even further, to allow them to make even bigger profits at our expense in the future.

Channel 4: 17 mortgage brokers banned

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned 17 mortgage brokers so far this year, three times as many as it took action against during the whole of 2007.

Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 02:58 PM 7 Comments

NYT: Posting Huge Loss, Wachovia Tries to Purge Lending Woes

Wachovia reported a second-quarter loss of $8.9 billion, including a $6.1 billion write-off that is tied to overpaying for several deals. The bank set aside another $9.8 billion to cover current and future losses. It also cut its quarterly dividend by 87 percent, to 5 cents a share, in order to conserve about $2.8 billion a year.

Foz Business via TS: Eleven Reasons Why America is the New Top Socialist Economy

3. Fed and U.S. Treasury adopted Enron accounting tricks Bad news: Enron failed several years ago because of its off-balance-sheet accounting scam. The Fed's doing the same thing: Dumping Bear's $30 billion liabilities onto the taxpayer's "balance sheet." Next Treasury proposes adding $5.3 trillion more from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Unfortunately clever accounting tricks by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke aren't going to fool foreign lenders analyzing America's creditworthiness. Worse-case scenario: U.S. Treasury bills with less than a triple-A rating.

The Market Oracle: UK House Price Crash of Summer 2008

"The housing market is in full panic selling mode, as property owners slashing prices are met with silence from potential home buyers."

Posted by housebear @ 02:25 PM 9 Comments

London Evening Standard: It's a Mini crisis... estate agents' runarounds lay idle

It is either the starting grid for the inaugural estate agents' championship rally or a very sorry comment on the state of the housing market. Here, parked up in a layby near Hampstead Heath, are no fewer than seven cars belonging to the agent Foxtons.

Posted by doomwatch @ 01:53 PM 6 Comments

CNN: Wachovia reports $9 billion loss

Nation's No. 4 bank misses analysts' forecasts and cuts dividend, but insists it is adequately capitalized. bit like B&B and NR did? they are all liars.....

Bloomberg: Wachovia Has Record $8.9 Billion Loss, exits wholesale mortgage business

Wachovia, America's fourth largest bank chain, has announced a record quarterly loss of $8.9 billion and slashed its dividend by 87%. Yesterday Wachovia announced its intention to exit the wholesale mortgage business altogether. The company has suffering big losses from its 2006 acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp, which pioneered the "pick a payment" negative amortisation loans, which allowed a borrower to make payments lower than the interest due on the loan. The fallout cost former CEO Kennedy Thompson his job after eight years.. Wachovia shares are down 75% from their peak last year.

The Market Oracle: UK House Price Crash of Summer 2008

The latest UK house price data as released by Rightmove shows that the UK housing market crash continues to accelerate by registering a fall of 1.8% for July 08. The rate of decent on an annualised basis now extends to -11% and on a quarterly basis to -6.7%, far above the originally forecast crash rate of 5% per quarter as per analysis of November 2007 for the quarter April to June 08, which came in at -5.8%. The housing market is in full panic selling mode, as property owners slashing prices are met with silence from potential home buyers.

Posted by nadeem walayat @ 12:58 PM 9 Comments

Ft Adviser: Nexcastle BS considers return to 95% mortgage market

Newcastle Building Society said discussions had taken place recently about offering a new product up to 95 per cent LTV for house purchase and remortgaging. Their current maximum LTV is 85%. The news followed last weeks announcement by Scarborough BS that it was launching a two-year fixed rate 95 per cent LTV product that would be available through its nine branches. However other lenders, including Yorkshire Building Society, Bank of Ireland, C&G, Woolwich and Co-op have all said they are not re-entering the 95% market anytime soon. Halifax, Nationwide and Abbey still offer 95% mortgages, but have no plans to expand their ranges.

Posted by little professor @ 12:51 PM 10 Comments

MoneyWeek: Why Brown's rule-breaking is great news for trade unions

Gordon's Golden Rule – always more of a guideline – is to be 'revised' and the unions expect the extra cash to come their way in higher pay. That's good news for them, but very bad for the rest of us...

Posted by damien @ 12:09 PM 6 Comments

reuters: Enterprise Inns warns earnings under pressure

"In a normal year, there would be exceptional circumstances where we would be helping a handful of licensees. The reality now is that we have several hundred who, through no fault of their own, require some help," "Consumer confidence is low and the rising costs of food, fuel, mortgage costs, and TAXES have put increasing pressures on disposable income and discretionary spend," said Tuppen.

BEEB: Supermarkets reduce petrol prices

UK drivers are set to benefit after a number of supermarkets said they would lower the price of petrol.

Posted by george monsoon @ 12:04 PM 6 Comments

reuters: Jump in firms in critical condition

said 4,258 companies faced critical problems, including moves to wind them up, in the three months to June 30, compared with 542 the same time last year.

New York Times: Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy

More than two years ago, Nouriel Roubini, an economist at the Stern School of Business at New York University, said that the housing bubble would give way to a financial crisis and a recession. He was widely dismissed as an attention-seeking Chicken Little. Now, Mr. Roubini says the worst is yet to come, because the account-squaring has so far been confined mostly to bad mortgages, leaving other areas remaining — credit cards, auto loans, corporate and municipal debt. Mr. Roubini says the cost of the financial system’s losses could reach $2 trillion. Even if it’s closer to $1 trillion, he adds, “we’re not even a third of the way there.”

Posted by malct @ 11:55 AM 6 Comments

international herald tribune: Is America too big to fail?

The central banks of China and Japan are on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Fannie's and Freddie's bonds - debts they took on assuming that the two companies enjoyed the backing of the American government, argues Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations. Commercial banks from South Korea to Sweden hold investments linked to American mortgages. Their losses would mount if American homeowners suddenly couldn't borrow. The global financial system could find itself short of capital and paralyzed by fear, hobbling economic growth in many lands.

CNN: American Express feels consumers' pain

American Express (AXP, Fortune 500) delivered some ugly news after the market closed Monday, posting a smaller-than-expected second-quarter profit and withdrawing its 2008 earnings guidance, saying the economic environment "has weakened significantly" since it offered up its financial projections back in January.

CNN: Wachovia to exit wholesale mortgage business

could this be the next bank to go down????? Wachovia didn't disclose how many jobs will be cut as a result of the change. More details are expected Tuesday when the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank releases its second-quarter earnings.

Telegraph: Confirmed: the lunatics are running the asylum

We were anticipating a raft of scheduled news announcements that looked like being decisive. We were not disappointed. Sitting here reflecting on the week's events, it seems to me the future is clearer. The deterioration in the UK economy revealed by the week's events is at a pace and on a scale that suggests a recession is unavoidable. This situation will be compounded by public finances in disarray and which cannot come to our rescue, even if there was the political will to do so.

Posted by tyrellcorporation @ 08:40 AM 17 Comments

BBC News: 'Take cash and leave' says lender

A former sub-prime mortgage lender is offering an 8% discount to its borrowers if they redeem their loans. A spokesman admitted the idea sounded "bizarre" but it was cheaper than selling the loans in any other fashion.

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 07:24 AM 6 Comments

Telegraph: HBOS boy wonder must now turn into Scrooge

After the worst rights issue in U.K. history. Hornby must become the Ebenezer Scrooge of UK banking. He must be as tightfisted on costs as Scrooge and as much of a kill-joy on all but the most cautious of growth plans, just as the cold-hearted Scrooge would be. Debtors in arrears can expect no sympathy and will be dealt with ruthlessly. HBOS is focused on lending to UK house buyers and corporates that has left the bank looking particularly vulnerable as far as investors are concerned. Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort, which underwrote HBOS's £4bn rights issue, will own approaching 10pc of the banking group after investors shunned the capital raising. They now have 2.8billion invested in HBOS. Morgan Stanley also disclosed it had shorted 2.3pc of HBOS's stock on Friday afternoon!!!!

Alex Jones Show: The Alex Jones Show - L I V E - July 21st - Economy special

Alex talks with the minds behind the classic 1995 documentary The Money Masters, Patrick S. J. Carmack and William T. Still. Topics covered include the private, run for profit Federal Reserve and why it needs to be repealed, the necessity to eliminate the evil of fractional reserve banking and allow government to print money to help pay off the national debt, as well as real solutions to allow us to escape from the manufactured cycles of boom and bust.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 01:51 AM 60 Comments

Bloomberg: American Card Holder defaults up by 37%

Record defaults on USA's biggest card lender by value. One would have hoped all those fat cheques from the FED would have gone some where useful.

Times Online: HBOS offer flop leaves underwriters with £2.5bn

Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort now face taking £2.5 billion worth of HBOS shares onto their own balance sheets. On Friday, rival bank Barclays said just 19 per cent of its £4.5 billion placing and open offer had been subscribed for by investors.

The Times: The Seventies are back, with less good cheer

A nice little article with a good conclusion. The comments are very interesting!

New York Times: They Told Us So…

I'd like to see an article with those who got it wrong and what they see coming next that won't happen! The most disturbing is from Ron Paul, IMHO. Now, I had assumed we were 1/4 through the crisis. He says that we are only 10%!

Guardian: House prices 'destroying village life'

"David Orr, chief executive of the federation, called for a new target to build 9,000 social homes in the countryside a year, " Mr Orr has got the wrong end of the stick. What we need is to regulate against reckless lending. We need cheaper house, houses less attractive to investors. Houses that are CHEAP for people to buy and LIVE IN.

Daily Mail: House prices could fall 30% in biggest crash ever seen in Britain, key Bank of England member warns

... and all the comments say Yipeee :)

Posted by voiceofreason @ 09:11 PM 12 Comments

International Herald Tribune: Is America too big to fail?

So the government offers its rescue of the mortgage companies, and foreigners keep stocking the government's coffers. "They don't want the U.S. to go into the worst downturn since the Depression," Tilton says. But all the while, the debt mounts along with the costs of an ultimate day of reckoning. Debate grows about the wisdom of leaning on foreign credit, and about how much longer Americans will retain the privilege of spending and investing money that isn't really theirs. Bailouts amount to mortgaging the future to stave off the wolf howling at the door. The likelihood of a painful reckoning is diminished, while the costs of a reckoning - should one come - are increased.

Posted by sold out @ 05:55 PM 6 Comments

CNN: Most banks are safe ... so is the FDIC

How bad will it get? The widespread failures of hundreds of thrifts during the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s ended up costing taxpayers about $250 billion in today's dollars, according to some estimates. That's because an FDIC-like fund in place to insure thrift deposits was overwhelmed at the time. Richard Bove, an influential banking analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann, wrote in a note last week that Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500), the nation's largest thrift with assets of $320 billion, is on the edge of the "danger zone."

afxnews, etc...: Bellway to issue fresh trading update on Aug 14

UK housebuilder Bellway Plc. said it will issue a further trading statement on Aug. 14 due to the "current difficulties in the housing market". also see www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=3112056 & www.londonstockexchange.com/LSECWS/IFSPages/MarketNewsPopup.aspx?id=1906067&source=RNS

BBC: Leading Questions: Sir Win Bischoff

Sir Win expects the credit crunch to continue through 2009 and warns that house prices in the UK and the US are likely to fall for another two years.

Daily Kos: 8,500 U.S. banks; many will die soon

If you look down from a very high level what you see is this: There is $75 trillion in global real estate, $50 trillion in annual global GDP, and $675 trillion in derivatives - synthetic financial instruments loosely associated with the real world that, when inspected, prove to be worth a small fraction of their face value. Nine years ago Weathervane McCain’s chief economic adviser, Phil Gramm, got the Glass Steagall Act largely repealed. Investment houses engaged in an orgy of what can only be described as private money printing, taking real assets, puffing them up, marking them up, passing them around, and they kept at it until there were five or six dollars of funny money for every real dollar of stuff. Ssshhh, don’t anyone tell the pension funds...

Posted by nopensionnohouse @ 03:24 PM 16 Comments

Times Online: 25 tips to sell your home in a downturn

To help struggling vendors, Times Money has spoken to five celebrity property experts to build a list of hints and tips to ensure homeowners snag that elusive sale. From new taps to laptops, here are 25 tips to help you sell your home. ******Oh, do stop - my sides can't take anymore......ha ha ha

Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 01:44 PM 26 Comments

Mortgage Introducer: FSA fines in July

The FSA has been incredibly busy with fines this month – and we’re only half way through it.

Inside Housing: Housing Blog

The likely effect of unemployment on the housing market.

Mail On Sunday: It’s a Mini crisis... estate agents’ runarounds lay idle

It is either the starting grid for the inaugural estate agents’ championship rally or a very sorry comment on the state of the housing market.....A spokeswoman for Foxtons {read as Doris who bothered to answer the phone...} denied business was slow and said the cars were parked while estate agents were in the office preparing for viewings.

Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 12:07 PM 21 Comments

Introducer Today: Homeowners urged not to over rely on property

Falling house prices are a reminder to homeowners not to over rely on their property to provide a nest egg, it has been claimed

Sky News: Yes... that should do it. Problem solved.

The report said: "As with any horror movie, there is an escape route but it is not an easy one. "It is imperative that wage increases remain restrained, despite the tremendous pressure from food and energy cost inflation."

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 11:26 AM 7 Comments

Guardian: HBOS rights issue flops

Underwriters to HBOS's £4bn rights issue have been left with almost £3.8bn of shares after investors shunned its cash call in one of the biggest fund-raising flops in UK history.

MoneyWeek: Why rents won't rise enough to save buy-to-let landlords

The UK's buy to let and commercial property bubbles popped some time ago. And while there are still some bulls who insist on looking on the bright side, they are very much mistaken.

FT: Crashes, bangs and wallops

“Each separate panic has had its own distinctive features, but all have resembled each other in occurring immediately after a period of apparent prosperity, the hollowness of which it has exposed. So uniform is this sequence, that whenever we find ourselves under circumstances that enable the acquisition of rapid fortunes, otherwise than by the road of plodding industry, we may almost be justified in auguring that the time for panic is at hand.”

Rightmove: House Prices down 1.8% MoM, 2% YoY

Average asking price down over £4,000 in the past month. following a £3,000 drop the previous month. Unsold stock reaches record level. Rightmove index goes YoY negative for the first time ever. Mortgage famine wipes out 'spring bounce'. Average time spent on the market jumps to 87 days. This is getting tasty!.

Posted by little professor @ 10:00 AM 18 Comments

Telegraph: The global economy is at the point of maximum danger

It feels like the summer of 1931. The world's two biggest financial institutions have had a heart attack. The global currency system is breaking down. The policy doctrines that got us into this mess are bankrupt. No world leader seems able to discern the problem, let alone forge a solution.

Posted by holding out @ 09:42 AM 16 Comments

Times: Average home asking price down £4,000 on a year ago

''...Homeowners are resorting to increasingly aggressive price cuts in an effort to sell their properties, with asking prices across England and Wales an average £4,000 less than they were a year ago as a new realism sets in across the housing market. The average price is now £235,219, 2 per cent less than last July, according to the Rightmove website...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 09:06 AM 6 Comments

News With Views: Freddie & Fannie Unconstitutional Bail Out Using What?

Tragically, the majority of people have zero knowledge of our monetary and banking systems. The upside is that millions do know and understand how we came to this point.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 09:06 AM 6 Comments

Matt Davies: Bankers Go To Taxpayers for a Loan

here.

The Times: HBOS rights issue snubbed by 92% of investors

HBOS has this morning announced one of the most disastrous rights issue in City history, with just 8.29 per cent of the bank's £4 billion cash raising taken on by its shareholders. The bank was upbeat this morning. "The bottom line is, we've raised £4 billion of capital," said a spokesman. "Just like ships need more ballast in heavy seas, banks need more capital in tougher times."

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 08:28 AM 27 Comments

guardian: House sellers forced to cut asking prices as pool of buyers dries up

People selling their homes have cut the asking price by an average of more than £4,300 in the past month to catch the eye of a dwindling number of buyers, according to a report published today. Shipside, "commercial director" at Rightmove, blames unrealistic prices and banks' credit clampdown for breaking his "business model"

Posted by mken @ 07:22 AM 6 Comments

MailOnline: House prices plunge £18,000 in just two months ... but experts warn worse is to come

The biggest losers are homeowners in the South East. The average asking price there was £316,521 in May, but fell sharply to £298,692, a drop of £17,829 or nearly 6 per cent in two months.

Posted by yoyo1 @ 07:18 AM 7 Comments

Times: Banks try to offload £3.6bn of HBOS shares

Two City banks will try to offload as much as £3.6 billion of unwanted HBOS shares today on to a highly nervous London stock market in one of the biggest tests of sentiment towards the banking sector.

Wall St Journal: Don't be in Denial about a Bear Market

"This is worse than the usual bear market". "Conserve your capital".

FT: UK Estate Agents

Walking down an average town centre high street in the UK, it seems like every second window is an estate agency. But the industry is showing severe signs of strain. Not just branches, but whole businesses are closing down, while shares in the few listed estate agents like Savills, or Rightmove, the property website, have plummeted.

Toxic Waste Offerings to Offset Big Losses: International Forecaster Weekly

Freddie Mac new Issue quickly approved by SEC, New offerings to absorb big losses, Gold escapes general pounding in the market, home builders sentiment index is at record low, depression is a real threat still. Note how the timing of this announcement, which came after markets closed on Friday as just noted above, was the same time frame used for the news about the IndyMac Bank closure. note how much US government and Freddie officials obviously believe Freddie to be undercapitalized after claiming outright only days ago that both Freddie and Fannie were and are adequately capitalized. Gold is resiliant. The CPI and PPI are at 26 and 27-year highs. Hedge funds are on the edge of oblivion. Bonds are producing negative rates. Credit markets are frozen. The greatest depression of all time.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 07:38 PM 6 Comments

times: times

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Credit-crunch-leaves-glut-of.4306242.jp http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article4352937.ece?openComment=true

Shropshire star: Landlords face £500 million EPC bill

Compulsory energy performance certificates (EPC) from Oct 1st - more costs for landlords - I bet Rigsby is turning in his grave.

Financial Times: Halifax cuts cost of home loan deals

Halifax, the UK's largest lender, yesterday brought momentum to the trend of falling mortgage rates as it cut the cost of a number of deals for the second time in a week. The bank reduced its two- and five-year fixed rates by up to 15 basis points. Other brands within the HBOS group - BM Solutions, Bank of Scotland (BoS) and Intelligent Finance - also cut a number of rates, including on some buy-to-let and self-certification loans.

Posted by herrbbiiee @ 12:48 PM 18 Comments

The Telegraph: Market towns 'most likely to beat housing slump'

Traditional English market towns appear best placed to survive the housing slump because people will pay more to live there, a new report suggests...........Good area or not if you cant get a mortgage for the silly prices you wont get the overpriced home.....and if you have payed off your mortgage in your Knightsbridge 1m luxury pad to downsize to the country someone still has to get a mortgage for your house...oh dear they cant

Posted by titaniccaptain @ 12:35 PM 24 Comments

The Business Channel (Sky 547): Tulipmania

If you've read about Tulipmania around these blogs, but are not sure what it was all about. Spend an hour with Sky (Channel 547) @ 14:00 and 19:00 today. A bubble that was 6 years in the making, but took only 6 days to pop. A bit off topic, but well worth a watch (especially the bit where a sailor eats an onion, only to find it was a Tulip bulb valuable enough to buy the ship he sailed on).

CNN: Scary economy, real solutions

There's a lot to fear in the economy these days, but that doesn't mean you should hit the panic button. These simple steps can protect you from looming dangers.

The Age (Australia): More doom for global economy

Mr Swan’s comments came as the International Monetary Fund released its latest economic outlook, which described the world economy as being in “a tough spot”, and said that the slowdown would be longer and deeper than forecast three months ago.

Guardian/Observer: Don't blame Alistair Darling. He's just the brush and bucket

Darling used to joke that he was spending his time hunting around Great George Street 'trying to find out where Gordon has hidden the money'. Having rummaged down the back of all the Treasury's sofas, Mr Darling discovered that there was no hidden money. It had all gone

Posted by enuii @ 09:31 AM 11 Comments

Mail Online: Northern Rock drives 'whistle blower' to brink of suicide with £130,000 legal action

A former Northern Rock employee says he has been driven to the brink of suicide after the failed bank accused him of blowing the whistle on its fat cat culture.

Posted by steerpike @ 07:47 AM 7 Comments

Times: Housing market action held back to autumn

Don't panic, don't panic - I know what I am doing. Just look at my former company HBOS!!!!!!!!! THE Treasury is ready to come forward with a package of measures to stabilise the housing market, but no action is expected until the autumn. A Treasury-commissioned report by Sir James Crosby, the former HBOS chief executive, is set to be published this week but officials have indicated that it will be only an assessment of the situation. Treasury officials have indicated their willingness to consider a range of options to deal with the crisis, including a stamp-duty holiday and action to help kickstart the market in new mortgage-backed securities. Stamp duty is always a factor when people buy houses. Have they been taking advice from that silly girl?

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 06:36 AM 7 Comments

Times: High-street bank HBOS faces rights issue disaster

HBOS will tomorrow admit to one of the most disastrous rights issues in corporate history when it concedes that as few as 10% of its investors took up its £4 billion share offer. Barclays said on Friday that only 19% of its investors took part in its £4.5 billion placing. When HBOS originally announced its rights issue two and a half months ago, it was seen as being heavily discounted against a share price that was then standing at 500p now it's 282p! But the knowledge that a large percentage will have to be sold on the market could see them drift beneath the rights price.

Times: UK economy heads for ‘horror movie’

BRITAIN is facing an “economic horror movie” because of a “toxic mixture” of a moribund credit market and volatile oil prices, according to a leading forecasting group. The Ernst & Young Item club, which uses the Treasury’s economic model, will argue in a report tomorrow that the economy will struggle to avoid recession. The dreaded R word appears again! Peter Spencer, chief economist at the Item club, said: “Both on the high street and in the housing market it is going to get a great deal worse before it gets better. Begbies Traynor monitors the number of firms reporting “critical” problems - those facing winding-up petitions or more than £5,000 in county-court judgments against them. The figure ballooned in the second quarter to 4,258, nearly seven times more than in the same period.

Telegraph: Golden rule changes 'designed to save banks'

The Treasury may be planning to raise the limit on public borrowing in an effort to give it "room for manoeuvre" for a potential rescue operation for the banking system, a leading expert has suggested. It comes amid growing disquiet about the funding position of Britain's biggest mortgage lenders, with banking groups urging the Treasury or Bank of England to extend its mortgage support scheme to cover home loans issued since the start of the year. Spencer warned Darling may have to increase the debt limit to 50 per cent of GDP or beyond if he intends to accommodate a possible support scheme for embattled lenders. "The Treasury knows the situation facing the mortgage lenders is pretty dire. I suspect that they may now be considering looking at gilt-edged funded long-term lending."

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 05:59 AM 7 Comments

MSN: Zimbabwe to introduce $100 bln dollar bank note

Zimbabwe's central bank will introduce new higher-value 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar notes on Monday as part of a desperate fight against spiralling hyperinflation, the bank said. Zimbabweans are suffering chronic shortages of meat, maize, fuel and other basic commodities due to the collapse of the once prosperous economy, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, including his violent seizure of white-owned farms.

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 11:19 PM 7 Comments

Wall Street Journal: Why no outrage?

America's 21st-century financial victims make no protest against the Federal Reserve's policy of showering dollars on the people who would seem to need them least. It wasn't the nation's small savers who brought down Bear Stearns, or tried to fob off subprime mortgages as "triple-A." Yet it's the savers who took a pay cut. To facilitate the rescue of that system, the Fed has sacrificed the quality of its own balance sheet. In June 2007, Treasury securities constituted 92% of the Fed's earning assets. Nowadays, they amount to just 54%. In their place are loans to the nation's banks and brokerage firms, the very institutions whose share prices have been in a tailspin. A currency draws its strength from the balance sheet of the central bank that issues it.

Posted by little professor @ 10:43 PM 6 Comments

NY Times: Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy

Is this a recession? How bad is housing? When will banks revive? Is my job safe? Are consumers done? Who’s to blame? QUESTIONS QUESTIONS...

NY Times: The Debt Trap

Articles and videos about americans sinking in debt

Posted by rushmore @ 07:27 PM 6 Comments

Prisonplanet: Global hyperinflationary depression is inevitable now within three, possibly two years

Bob Chapman was the world's largest gold trader in the world for a time. He says in this piece that our economic situation is so dire that a plunge is inevitable now in the next few years. OPEC says that oil will go to unlimited prices, $500 conservatively, meaning $20/gallon minimum at the pump. Meaning implosion of the EU and US economy's. Largest bank run since Great Depression at Indymac. Reporters refusing to report devaluation of the dollar causing 70% of oil inflation. 25% of the increase is speculators dumping the dollar (and sterling) looking for safe havens. AAA rating of US treasury bonds at risk if there is a hard and fast split between EU and US interests caused by a situation like how EU banks have been left with much of the costs of US subprime. Unemployment could reach 35%.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 07:25 PM 6 Comments

Guardian Newspaper money section: Three Quarters of the Answer

Three-quarters of the answer In their desperation to sell you a home, property developers have come up with a new wheeze: they'll front up 25% of the asking price.

Posted by hardlianotion @ 07:01 PM 8 Comments

Telegraph.co.uk: Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown heading for break-up

The strange relationship between Gordon Brown and his Chancellor is one of the most intriguing features of contemporary UK politics. They are long-standing friends but Darling's demeanor is now that of a man who has had enough of being pushed around. Whether he'll stand up to Brown on specifics, we shall see. But rumours swirl of rows, it is said. Some mysterious person spent all the money in good times and left Darling, and by extension the rest of us, in this dire position. Once again, his name begins with G and ends in N.

Posted by plato @ 05:43 PM 9 Comments

CNN: Businesses brace for minimum wage hike

With commodity, fuel and insurance costs hitting record highs, small-business owners are anxious about next week's federal minimum wage hike, which will require employers in 26 states and the District of Columbia to raise their base to at least $6.55. ****Crunch goes the USA***

CNN: Why the gas tax could go up

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel.

CNN: Freddie chief's jackpot

The mortgage giant steps closer to a big capital-raising move that could help its CEO keep his healthy paycheck. Syron made $10.6 million last year, according to Freddie Mac's latest report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

FT: Luxury market feels the pinch

Deflation was notable in some of the index’s items, including cars and watches. A Panerai Luminor Submersible watch is now almost 17 per cent cheaper than last year at £4,500, and an Aston Martin DBS is down 15 per cent from £188,000 to £160,000.

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 09:05 AM 28 Comments

davies.lohudblogs.com: Topical cartoon of the week

Speaks for its self...

Times: House prices tipped to fall 20% in two years

The value of homes in Britain could slump by a further 20 per cent in the next two years as the number of buyers continues to fall, experts predicted yesterday. Property values have already dropped by 10 per cent since prices peaked in August last year, wiping £20,000 off the price of an average home, figures from Halifax show. But Howard Archer, of Global Insight, the economic consultancy, said prices would plummet by a further 20 per cent, or £40,000 on average, before the market begins to recover. “Continued falls in house prices are expected until the first half of 2010, taking the average house price to £140,104, down from £199,600 in August last year,” he said. Three quarters of potential first-time buyers are abandoning plans to get on to the property ladder.

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 07:26 AM 14 Comments

Times: Taxpayer can bear no more, admits Alistair Darling

Taxpayers are at the limit of what they are willing to pay to fund public services says Darling. Darling warned that the downturn was far more profound than he had thought and could last for years rather than months. He told Cabinet ministers this week that there would be no more money for schools, hospitals, defence, transport or policing. Tax receipts are falling but unemployment costs are on the up! He confirmed that the Treasury was revising its rules to allow more borrowing. His disclosure came as figures showed that public borrowing rose by £9.2 billion last month, well above City forecasts of £7 billion and the highest for June since 1993, when monthly records began. He said Britain could still be suffering by the next election, expected in 2010.

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 07:21 AM 9 Comments

BBC "News": House prices 'will keep falling'

House prices in the UK and the US are likely to fall for another two years, the chairman of one of the world's most powerful banks has warned. ...This kind of makes the chumps at the Daily Express look like the bunch of deluded VI Spivs that they seem to be.

Daily Express: CREDIT CRUNCH: WE ARE OVER THE WORST

BRITAIN has ridden out the worst of the global credit crunch, leading world economists said last night. After months of gloomy financial forecasts, the International Monetary Fund predicts the economy will bounce back and enjoy sustained growth.

Posted by little professor @ 04:35 AM 19 Comments

Scotsman: There's nothing like the first time

First-time buyers do have one thing going for them – falling house prices. For buyers with deposits, this is great news, according to Scott Brown, of Warners estate agents. "As long as you can afford the asking price, it makes sense to buy just now," said Brown. "There is less competition for properties, you have a wider choice and there is a chance to negotiate with sellers. But the upturn in prices will be quick, so if you sit and wait for mortgage rates to improve you will miss your chance." Here are the options: BANK OF MUM AND DAD GUARANTOR MORTGAGE MULTIPLE APPLICANTS SHARED OWNERSHIP

infowars.net: Ron Paul:

Texas Congressman Ron Paul has warned the House that he is “convinced the time is now upon us that some Big Events are about to occur.” that will cause liberty to go “into deep hibernation”. Paul told the House: Paul outlined the history of the current economic crisis and alluded to key events such as the inception of the Federal Reserve System, the creation of the Bretton-Woods Monetary System and the creation of a "dollar bubble". "This bubble is different and bigger for another reason." Paul argued. "The central banks of the world secretly collude to centrally plan the world economy. I'm convinced that agreements among central banks to “monetize” U.S. debt these past 15 years have existed, although secretly and out of the reach of any oversight of anyone--especially the U.S. Congress"

The Telegraph: Gordon Brown loses grip on economy as deficit soars to record

Gordon Brown has lost his grip on the economy, experts claimed today as government borrowing soared to the highest level since records began over 60 years ago and fresh evidence emerged that the housing market crash is worsening.........................What can I say???? this is it guys......now where are our knighthoods?

Posted by titaniccaptain @ 11:00 PM 13 Comments

Economist: The spectre of stagflation: things can only get worse

FIVE years ago Mervyn King, the newly appointed governor of the Bank of England, gave warning that the “nice” decade would be followed by something less wholesome. Now starting his second term of office this month, Britain’s leading central banker looks more prescient than ever. But even he surely did not expect that the “non-inflationary consistently expansionary” era would turn quite this sour.

FT: Barclays and HBOS’ cash calls shunned

Barclays said on Friday that shareholders accounting for just 19 per cent of the UK’s third-largest bank had decided to participate in the £4.5bn offering.

CNN: London real estate's falling down

interesting video

The Rat and Mouse: Knight Frank's Feelgood Factors

The Rat and Mouse has been passed a remarkable document that's apparently dropping through London front-doors, purportedly courtesy of Knight Frank estate agency. Here's why Knight Frank agents greet you with a smile.

CNN: Freddie Mac mulling stock sale

Who gave these firms their names!!...lol Battered U.S. mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac is mulling a plan to raise capital by selling up to $10 billion in new shares, according to a published report.

Posted by mark @ 03:06 PM 10 Comments

CSMonitor: Soaring inflation undermines sustainability of Persian Gulf region

Just as Persian Gulf cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi were becoming synonymous with excess and success, the Gulf boom is in danger of going bust. Instead of conjuring images of towering skyscrapers and indoor ski slopes, they are struggling with soaring inflation rates. Indeed, the Gulf region may want to position itself at the center of global capitalism, but it will first have to contend with the impact that skyrocketing energy costs and a cooling global economy are having on the local economy and the impoverished migrant labor force that bears the brunt of rising oil and food costs.

financialsense.com: Nationalization, Fiasco, USDollar, Gold

A grotesque grandiose nationalization initiative is gradually being forced upon the USEconomy, US financial system, US political system, and the hapless US citizenry. Its crucible for construction comes from the desperate situation unfolding for the banks, the mortgage holders, and homeowners. Rising costs, falling incomes, failing banks, declining home values, eroding mortgage bonds, interfered financial markets, corruption in Congress, endless war, destructive economic counsel, an unconstitutional USDollar without gold backing, these factors all contribute toward a crisis without remedy.

BBC News: Five reasons to be cheerful amid the gloom

Feel the gloom. With more bad news on the economy this week, is there no comfort, no end to pessimism? Yes! The Magazine challenged statistical sleuths Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot to scour the data - and find us five reasons to be cheerful.

Posted by dom @ 01:20 PM 24 Comments

Dollarcollapse: The Wall Street Journal Senses That Something is Wrong

A subscription to the Wall Street Journal costs several hundred dollars a year, so most people out there don’t get it and DollarCollapse.com rarely posts links to its articles. But everybody should see today's edition, which probably sets the modern-day record for disturbing headlines. Here's a sampling of what subscribers read this(sorry wednesday) morning: Real-Estate Financier's Death Hints At Trouble for Lenders Flamboyant real-estate financier Scott Coles penned a farewell letter, put on a tuxedo and climbed into bed, where he was later found dead in what police believe was a suicide. a collection of articles from WSJ

Posted by malct @ 01:06 PM 18 Comments

BBC: Mortgage squeeze tightens further

The MSM seem to be coming over to The Dark Side - it's all doom and gloom nowadays.

reuters: As faith in bank bailouts dims, losses set to deepen

confidence in their ability to rescue the country from a housing-led financial panic is now at its lowest level since the crisis began. "You see a massive potential for financial meltdown on a global scale," said T.J. Marta, fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets. At the forefront of investor worries is the collapse of California-based mortgage lender IndyMac. Regulators seized the company on Friday after a bank run in which customers panicked over the firm's survival withdrew $1.3 billion over 11 business days. This was one of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. The scariest thing about it is that things seem to be getting worse rather than better. Gerard Cassidy, another RBC analyst, estimates that more than 300 U.S. banks could close their doors in the next three year

Money Week: Three scientists explain why markets crash

If you ever worry that you don’t know anything about how economics or finance really work, then the latest issue of New Scientist should reassure you somewhat. Because it shows that the experts know nothing either. The magazine reports that some ‘econophysicists’ and other scientist-types think they’ve made some bold new discoveries about the financial markets.

FT: Qatar becomes Barclays’ biggest shareholder

The Qatar Investment Authority has become Barclays’ largest investor after less than a fifth of the bank’s existing shareholders participated in its £4.5bn capital-raising issue.

First Rung.co.uk: What The Experts Say

Middle Britain homeowners face a ‘peak-to-trough’ crash in house prices as some £40,000 is wiped off the value of their homes before the year is out Middle Britain homeowners face a 'peak-to-trough' crash in house prices over the next six months as some £40,000 is wiped off the value of their homes before the year is out, according to a new report published today... The forecast from AXA Financial Taskforce shows that property prices in Middle Britain will fall as much as 18.3 per cent by the end of the year as the economic downturn takes its toll on one of major pillars of the UK consumer economy.

Market Oracle: Parasitic Bankers Achieve the End of Capitalism and the Sacking of America

Communism was a public relations gift to the bankers. By diverting the dialogue to “controlled versus free markets” it obscured the bankers' real intent—to insert debt into every aspect of free markets. The bankers' overwhelming success however would destroy both the bankers and the free markets on which they preyed

Wiltshire Times: Doubts over 1,300 homes

LARGE housing developments planned for the east of Trowbridge and Melksham are unlikely to go ahead for years due to the slump in the housing market, according to a local councillor.

Times: Darling under pressure as debt hits record high

''...UK public sector borrowing has soared to the highest level since the end of the Second World War, increasing pressure on the UK Government to change its self-imposed rules to borrow its way out of the current economic problems. Public borrowing in the first three months of the fiscal year rose to £24.4 billion, the highest level since 1946, and during June, it reached a nine-year high of £15.5 billion. ...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 10:18 AM 25 Comments

Firstrung: Gross mortgage lending falls by 32% year on year

Gross mortgage lending declined to an estimated £23.8 billion in June, down 3% from May and 32% from June 2007, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders...The decline between the first and second quarter was a marginal 1%. However, an increase would typically be expected in spring. The year-on-year decline has gathered pace in recent months; lending in the first quarter of 2008 was down 11% on 12 months earlier, while the second quarter was down 21%.

Market Oracle: Crude Oil Breaks Below Major Support as Forecast

Crude Oil confirmed its forecast downtrend by decidedly breaking below support of $135. The Market Oracle forecast as of 4th of July 2008 and at a price of $146, has been for an initial downtrend to support of $135, on break of which crude oil would target a trend towards major support at $110.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:51 AM 21 Comments

Building.co.uk: Industry hits 18-year low as prices rise and demand cools

The credit crunch, combined with the rising cost of raw materials and energy, has led to the sharpest fall in construction activity in 18 years. Market forecaster Experian’s index of national construction activity fell to 40 during May, its lowest level since June 1991. Meanwhile, the orders index slipped below 50 for the first time in more than a decade, indicating a big decline in orders.

Reuters: Construction group Kier to cut 350 jobs

Kier said its order book to end-June was down 45 percent on the previous year and home completions for the year are down almost 19 percent to 1,438 homes.

Telegraph: Millions of decent taxpayers will foot the bill for institutional idiocy

Well, blow me down. Who would have believed it? Ministers, best known for squandering public resources, have discovered a commodity with which they prefer to be economical - the truth

Thisismoney: House price agony hits middle classes

It warns that on average almost £40,000, or more than £100 a day, will be wiped off the value of these homes this year. A typical Middle Britain property will fall 18 per cent between January and December, says the insurance firm AXA and the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Debt advice centres in its 'heartlands' have seen inquiries rise by up to 500%. Those on salaries as high as £70,000, nearly three times the national average, are seeking help.

Mail Online: Revealed: Middle Britain will be hardest hit by falling house prices

''...Middle Britain will be hit harder by falling house prices than the rest of the country, research shows. It warns that on average almost £40,000, or more than £100 a day, will be wiped off the value of these homes this year. A typical Middle Britain property will fall 18 per cent between January and December, according to the insurance firm AXA and the Centre for Economics and Business Research...''

The Press and Journal: Property sales fall by 21% as confidence slides

However, there was a GLIMMER of hope for property owners, as the average house price in the Aberdeen Housing Market Area (AHMA) rose 4% to £210,364 compared with the first three months of 2008. The figure is very close to the average price at the same point last year (£210,536). Since the second quarter of 2007, the average house price in the AHMA, which takes in commuter towns such as Ellon, Stonehaven and Westhill, has dipped slightly but recovered to virtually the same level.

Posted by debtfree @ 09:04 AM 9 Comments

Express: SOLD OUT TO EUROPE: BROWN MAKES QUEEN SIGN AWAY OUR SOVEREIGNTY

''...GORDON Brown was last night accused of betraying Britain with a “grubby”surrender to Brussels. Under a cloak of secrecy, the Government finally ratified the Lisbon Treaty earlier this week and committed the country to a new deluge of European meddling...''

Posted by hpwatcher @ 09:00 AM 7 Comments

Times: Don't blame me for the property crash

n recent weeks I've been described as a “property porn queen” in the New Statesman, sniped at on the pages of The Guardian and lambasted by Panorama for excessively inflating house prices. I only wish that the show I present was as influential as some have been claiming. It's plain silly to point the finger at these programmes for puffing up the property market, forcing people into taking out massive mortgages or into negative equity. Some of the recent gloomy headlines make me suspect that all the journalists in the country have sold up and are doing everything in their power to cause a property house price crash so that they can buy at rock bottom.

Posted by little professor @ 08:50 AM 30 Comments

The Telegraph: Gas bills could rise 70 per cent to more than £1,000, analysts warn

Oil is 130 - down from 147. The mass media are desperately trying to ramp it up one more time. There power has gone though. Watch oil correct down to 100 and below over the next 3-6 months.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:34 AM 12 Comments

ft.com: karachi chop!

I am waiting for some direct action here in the uk.....I feel people with multiple buy to lets may just feel like climbing on to vi rooftops..why not?its the biggest financial scandal ever seen

The Telegraph: Gordon Brown to ditch strict borrowing rules

Officials would almost certainly argue that the 40 per cent rule, introduced by Mr Brown in 1997 at the start of his 10-year term as Chancellor, was relevant during the economic cycle, which was characterised by a benign economic outlook, and that the new cycle ushered in by the credit crunch requires a fresh look at the rules, principally to avoid raising taxes by increasing borrowing.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:23 AM 9 Comments

The Brad Blog: Nine House Republicans Vote for Impeachment Hearing

Bush's administration has been the main instigator for the fiscal crazyness of the credit crunch and the rediculously costly middle east wars, without which America could afford to solve its financial problems domestically, letting the rest of the world recover. So, his impeachment is extremely important. There will be a hearing related to Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s Article of Impeachment against George Bush in the House Judiciary Committee. That was assured by a vote of 238 to 180 on Tuesday. Denis put forward 35 articles of impeachment a month ago and was shot down, threatened to put forward 60 articles, but decided to focus on one this time. He has plenty of cannon fodder. Watch the historic statement on http://kucinich.us/

Wall Street Journal: Bunning: The Fed, GSEs and Socialism

The Fed is asking for more power. But the Fed has proven they can not be trusted with the power they have. They get it wrong, do not use it, or stretch it further than it was ever supposed to go. Their monetary policy is a leading cause of the mess we are in…

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 07:50 AM 8 Comments

Daily Telegraph: Gordon Brown to ditch strict borrowing rules

Gordon Brown's strict fiscal rules on borrowing are likely to be ditched as a result of the credit crisis, the Treasury confirmed. The Conservatives accused the Prime Minister of abandoning his reputation for economic competence, after officials said that the requirement for public sector borrowing to be kept below 40 per cent of the economy was being re-examined. Critics however accused the Government of planning a "scorched earth" assault on the economy to make it difficult for an upcoming Conservative administration.

Posted by who stole my pension? @ 05:38 AM 7 Comments

mail: Middle classes worst hit by housing slump

Middle Britain will be hit harder by falling house prices than the rest of the country, research shows. It warns that on average almost £40,000, or more than £100 a day, will be wiped off the value of these homes this year. typical Middle Britain property will fall 18 per cent between January and December, according to the insurance firm AXA and the Centre for Economics and Business Research. The research comes as Michael Saunders, economist at the investment bank Citigroup, warned that the fall in prices could be worse than the Great Depression.

BusinessWeek: How Bad Will It Get?

Now the damage is spreading. How far? Simplified, for every dollar of bank wealth lost, government-regulated commercial banks must eliminate some $10 of lending; for investment banks, the figure can be $30. The extent of the credit contraction to come will depend on the banks' initial losses—an elusive figure, to be sure, and one that keeps growing. The latest loss tally is $400 billion across the credit markets, but the International Monetary Fund says the total could swell to $1 trillion. Ray at Gardeniadotnet is quoted as saying, "$1 trillion? ....and the rest!"

FT: Treasury to reform Brown’s fiscal rules

Treasury officials are working privately on plans to reform Gordon’s Brown’s fiscal rules on spending and debt with a new framework that would initially allow for increased borrowing. Details will not be finalised until the Treasury knows the outcome of the huge revisions to the national accounts, planned by the Office for National Statistics for the end of September, but the autumn pre-Budget report is seen as the right time to announce the change.With the government on course to break the rule limiting net public sector debt to 40 per cent of national income, a new framework would initially be looser.

Posted by jack c @ 11:42 PM 6 Comments

Times: Don't blame me for the property crash

In recent weeks I've been described as a “property porn queen” in the New Statesman, sniped at on the pages of The Guardian and lambasted by Panorama for excessively inflating house prices. I only wish that the show I present was as influential as some have been claiming. It's plain silly to point the finger at these programmes for puffing up the property market, forcing people into taking out massive mortgages or into negative equity. Blaming such shows and their presenters for the present uncertain state of the property market is akin to blaming TV chefs for the great bulge in obesity.

Posted by little professor @ 10:34 PM 17 Comments

Campaignforliberty: Dr. Paul on Bernanke’s Testimony

Here's a new video from Dr. Paul, telling us about Ben Bernanke's testimony. How much more interesting Congress is thanks to Ron Paul, the one truth teller. Without him, it'd be a lot of bootlicking questions and waving of incense before the sacred Ben. (And P.S.: Dr. Paul's book The Revolution: A Manifesto, which explains all these issues in layman's terms, will move up on the New York Times bestseller list from #23 this Sunday to #17 on the list for July 27.)

Posted by planning4acrash @ 10:11 PM 6 Comments

International forecaster: A Complete And Systemic Breakdown

Second largest bank failure in US history has been duly noted, with a repeat bailout like Bear Stearns, paying down debts still the better plan, PPT supplies another miracle rally for the Dow, but we fear they only delay the inevitable, Fannie and Freddie collateral now Toxic Waste, liquidity drains now wide open, watch for the downward spiral. What you are witnessing is the acceleration of a complete systemic breakdown of the US and world financial systems and economies. All world stock markets are now in Bear Market Territory. The FTSE 100 finally caved in, and now all major stock exchanges are off by more than 20% from their highs. This is just the beginning of woes. Like the dollar, stocks worldwide will continue their downward spirals, abbreviated by dead cat bounces.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 09:58 PM 8 Comments

google video: Alex Jones & Bob Chapman on the Economy & Depression 6-26-08

Bob Chapman was the biggest gold dealer in the world. Here, he is interviewed by Alex Jones, discussing the coming economic depression.

Channel 4 News: Centrica report warns UK gas prices could soar by 70 per cent.

Centrica report warns UK gas prices could soar by 70 per cent. An independent report commissioned by Centrica, which owns British Gas, warns that prices are likely to soar far higher than energy companies have admitted in public. And it says the increases are not just a spike - which would give the government a problem in managing the social and economic impact.

Thisislondon: Donald trumps the housing slump by selling his mansion for £50million 4yrs after he bought it for £20 million

The housing market might be slumping, but not for Donald Trump {he of the famous comb-over}, who sold a Palm Beach mansion for £50 million to a Russian billionaire. If your a 'Russion' billionaire (sorry - mafia boss) I guess 50 mil is small change.

CNN: Blame game: Who's behind the Fannie, Freddie mess

roll up roll up freak show....

BBC: Nationwide Reduce Mortgage Rates

"With one of the country's leading lenders taking this welcome step, this should be a sign of things to come," .

Telegraph: Bradford & Bingley gets cash call go-ahead

B&B has 930,000 small shareholders in total and faced pressure from the handful of those who attended the meeting. Just 56 shareholders attended the early morning meeting at the Sheffield Arena, which has the capacity to hold over 12,000 people. Standard Life, one of the major shareholders backing the new rights issue, told the meeting it was "clearly disappointing" that shareholders had been called in to help the bank.

aboutproperty.co.uk: Bradford & BIingley wins approval for rights issue

Troubled mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley has won the support of its shareholders for its proposed rights issue. After struggling through the last few months, B&B seems to have saved itself at the last gasp!

Newstin: FSA is accused of maladministration over collapse of Equitable Li

Ombudsman reverses decision of five years ago and calls for compensation for insurer's victims By James Daley, Personal Finance Editor The Financial Services Authority will be dealt yet another hefty blow to its credibility today, as the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, reverses her decision of five years ago and accuses it of maladministration for its role in the collapse of Equit-able Life eight years ago. The FSA is one of four institutions – along with the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), Government Actuary Department (GAD) and HM Treasury – which are accused by Ms Abraham of presiding over a "decade of regulatory failure", which culminated in the insurer's collapse in December 2000. Go careful this time nooneo

Posted by malct @ 03:07 PM 18 Comments

Gobalresearch.ca: Status Report on the Collapse of the U.S. Economy

Richard C. Cook is a former U.S. federal government analyst, whose career included service with the U.S. Civil Service Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Carter White House, NASA, and the U.S. Treasury Department. - He explains here about how the US economy is heading towards a fall, and that there are people behind the viel who are pulling the strings.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 02:04 PM 58 Comments

BBC News Website: Protest over Pakistan share slump

Angry investors have attacked the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) in protest at plunging Pakistani share prices. More than 200 people took part in the demonstration at the country's main stock exchange in the southern city. A number of windows were broken and at least two people injured, Reuters news agency reports. The protesters demanded a temporary closure of the KSE to stop further slides. It is down 14% since Monday and reached an 18-month low this week.

Posted by being patient @ 11:40 AM 17 Comments

The Telegraph: Spain drops reassuring gloss as crisis deepens

"Thank Gordon we don't have an economy that is based around ever increasing house prices. It would be an absolute disaster if we did."

Posted by cheekie charlie @ 11:22 AM 9 Comments

MoneyWeek: The next victim of the credit crunch – football

At last, it seems, one of the last bastions of economic unreality is about to get a cold shower. If ever you needed proof that the 'crunch' is going to bite a lot harder, this is it – and surely not before time…

Posted by damien @ 11:16 AM 26 Comments

Signs of the Times: Naomi Klein Reexamines "The Shock Doctrine"

As the country and the world reel from crises ranging from skyrocketing oil prices and global food shortages to housing and climate change, how best to understand the government policies being pushed through? President Bush has lifted an almost two-decade-old executive order banning offshore and natural gas drilling. With prices at the pump over $4 a gallon, Bush has been pushing to allow more drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic Wildlife National Refuge, amidst strong opposition from environmentalists.

Posted by malct @ 11:13 AM 14 Comments

Bloomberg: Lawmakers Balk at Paulson's Fannie, Freddie Plan

Lawmakers balked at giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unprecedented power to use government funds to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. mortgage- finance companies grappling with a collapse of confidence.

Safe Haven: Contact Your Senator: Say No To Fannie Bailout

Shelby: "I've never known Congress" to give "an open-ended blank check for somebody to fill in." Shelby again: "When you're dealing with the taxpayer's money I don't think ambiguity has a place...We are potentially layering taxpayer resources on top of massive systemic risk."

LDP Business: B&B shareholders meet for fundraising vote

Shareholders will gather in Sheffield Arena for what could be an uncomfortable meeting for the bank’s board, after the two previous fundraising schemes collapsed.

BBC News: Banking rally boosts US markets

"US stock markets have rebounded strongly after better-than-expected results from a leading bank and further sharp falls in the price of oil. The Dow Jones index closed up 2.5% after its strongest daily performance in three months, driven by demand for leading bank stocks. Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan all rose sharply after Wells Fargo boosted its shareholder dividend. Oil, meanwhile, fell more than $4 to close below $135 a barrel." Thought i'd post this to stimulate some discussion. Are things really as bad as we thought, or is this a rally before the crash?

Posted by shipbuilder @ 09:46 AM 10 Comments

Scotsman: Embattled HBOS cuts jobs as rights issue humiliation looms

SCOTTISH banking giant HBOS announced plans to cut 650 jobs yesterday, as its share price crashed to a new low – only hours before its £4 billion rights issue closes.

Safe Haven: CNBC Europe - Bill McLaren

Good graphs comparing S&P500 with 2002 bear. Capitulation is 2-6 days away according to Bill McLaren He also thinks that the final capitulation of this bear trend will come in September/October

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 08:54 AM 24 Comments

Reuters: FBI investigating IndyMac for mortgage fraud

Failed bank IndyMac is under investigation by the FBI for possible fraud involving its mortgage lending, unnamed law enforcement officials said on Wednesday. U.S. banking regulators seized mortgage lender IndyMac on Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history. Shortly after the FDIC took over operations, Barr said most depositors were given immediate access to up to $100,000 in their accounts and 50 percent of any money beyond that. Faced with a cratering housing market, the FBI has opened a wide-ranging probe of companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities.

UK house bubble: waiting in vain for deflation

Some old-style monetarism from Alice Cook. US monetary growth is still surprisingly high, despite the credit crunch.

The Scotsman: 'Desperate' builders turn to renting as house prices fall

'To let' signs replace 'for sale' boards as the housing market switches focus after the credit crunch. SCOTLAND'S faltering housing market is forcing estate agents and builders to move into letting properties instead of selling them.

Times: The real reason why bankers feel so gloomy

Continuing his it's-all-fine-really theme, Kaletsky says: "Consider the following: In the past few weeks, US industrial production, consumer spending and trade figures have all come in much stronger than expected." --- So he's relying on government statistics to tell the whole truth and not be revised downwards later in the year? Anatole can also explain the pessimism: "The main people suffering pay cuts and job losses in the present crisis are bankers, rather than industrial workers as in previous slowdowns. Not surprisingly, this gives financiers a jaundiced view of the world." --- Wrong, Anatole, it's not just bankers. It's housebuilders, estate agents, furniture companies, builders, travel agents, airlines, JCB, Reuters, Siemens, etc. Come pay a visit to the real world some time.

Posted by drewster @ 12:44 AM 9 Comments

telegraph: Britons face losing everything as Spanish construction industry goes into meltdown

Britons face losing everything as Spanish construction industry goes into meltdown Those buyers who have made down-payments on properties that they have not yet taken possession of could find themselves losing everything, analysts have said. The warning came as Spain's largest property developer Martinsa-Fadesa filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure a loan as part of a 4 billion euros refinancing package. The crisis has sent shock waves through an already troubled real estate industry and heightened fears that other property and construction companies could also fail. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/2304401/Britons-face-losing-everything-as-Spanish-construction-industry-goes-into-meltdown.html"

MSN Money: Why inflation is great news for buy-to-let landlords

Inflation is apparently good news for buy to let investors as rents increase rapidly. Except that they aren't. If anything they are falling. Repair costs and mortgage costs are increasing rapidly though.

Posted by jonb @ 10:48 PM 11 Comments

financialsense.com: The Sacking of America

Parasitoidism is the relationship between a host and parasite where the host is ultimately killed by the parasite. This is what is happening to the US. Once the most powerful and productive economy in the world, the US, indebted by bankers and government spending beyond its ability to repay, is headed towards sovereign bankruptcy.

Credit Writedowns: Commercial property hits the front page

Stories of commercial real estate distress in the US are mounting. As the residential real estate fallout takes form, commercial real estate has come under pressure as well. The Wall Street Journal has a front-page story out today that highlights the situation in the Sun Belt. We should see the distress in commercial property in bank writedowns very soon.

EDP24: Estate agent ceases trading

Elliots, which had branches in Norwich city centre, Eaton, Wymondham, Brundall and Thorpe, has gone into liquidation. All eight staff have been made redundant and were told of the news yesterday.

Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 05:00 PM 14 Comments

Bloomberg: Oil Falls After Report Shows Unexpected Increase in Supplies

Crude oil futures fell more than $5 a barrel in New York after a U.S. Energy Department report showed an unexpected increase in inventories

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 04:19 PM 42 Comments

Bloomberg: Britain Is in No Shape to Cope With a Recession

The early 90's recession was nothing....

Posted by rubberneck @ 03:42 PM 13 Comments

Mail Online: Drop in property prices leaves millionaire criminal facing an extra EIGHT years in jail

A millionaire criminal has been hit by the credit crunch over the sale of his luxury mansion - and it could cost him an extra eight years in prison. John Gizzi, 36, was jailed for five years for crimes of violence and fraud which earned him almost £7million. A judge ordered him to pay back £2.6million of his ill-gotten gains or face an extra eight years behind bars. But the property price crash has seen the price tag of his country estate cut from £1,750,00 to just £900,000 - and it still has not sold.

BBC: US inflation rate at 26-year high

US inflation accelerated at the fastest rate in 26 years during June, pushed higher by surging energy prices, official figures have shown.

Posted by holding out @ 02:04 PM 7 Comments

The Telegraph: RBS is biggest loser in torrid day for UK banks

The collapse in the value of Britain's high street banks is continuing today, with Royal Bank of Scotland now worth little more than half the £49bn paid for ABN Amro last year.t

Daily Mail: Sharks move in as house sales hit new low

From yesterday - surprised no one posted this one ...?

BBC: UK jobless level increases again

Unemployment in the UK rose by 12,000 to 1.62 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

The Telegraph: European recession looms as Spain crumbles

The eurozone is tipping into a deeper downturn than America itself despite the tremors in the US mortgage industry, and may already be in full recession for the first time since the launch of the single currency.

BBC news: 'Rent now buy later' housing plan

They've let this one creep out, are they embarrased? A brilliant system where you start renting a property whose value is falling month on month and eventually buy it for more than it's worth. "They would have an option to buy 25% or more of the property at any time under the scheme, called Rent to Home Buy." Not sure how this system works during a House Price Crash, probably doesn't, was designed when property was always going to go up. "The government hopes that this scheme - only available in England - alongside others will help 75,000 first-time buyer households on to the property ladder." Alongside others? Great journalism BBC, just how many people is this system supposed to help?

Posted by nooneo @ 11:59 AM 29 Comments

Times Online: Why the lenders will win in this housing slump

...and at least the writer confesses her VI status! Has anyone considered what would happen if all mortgage lending was made illegal? It might just work. I would rather be able to buy a house for the price of a year's savings/ holiday/ decent night out than slave for 25 years paying some usurer for the privilege of living there. Such a measure would most probably have to be accompanied by tight restrictions on the multiple ownership of properties, to prevent the cash-rich from buying up all the houses and becoming Dickensian slum landlords.

LA Times: Obamba's website's opposition to surge gets deleted

The integrity of politicians (or lack of it) is one of the themes of this site so I thought it was worth sharing this. Apparently Bush's 'surge' has had more success than Obama said it would have, so Obama has deleted his earlier negative references to it from his website. His people say this is part of an 'update' to 'reflect changes in current events' and the video shows Obama's statement in 2007 and his spokesman's recent denial that Obama ever said what he said in the video. He practises the politician's modus operandi: airbrush history and say that you were going with the flow all along.

Posted by icarus @ 11:27 AM 6 Comments

MoneyWeek: The root of this financial crisis, and why you must buy gold now

'...As Winston Churchill put it: "All previous attempts to base money solely on intangibles such as credit or government edict or fiat have ended in inflationary panic and disaster." Sound familiar? The greatest credit expansion in history was only made possible under this post-1971 system of currency by government decree. But now it's unravelling.'

Posted by damien @ 11:27 AM 19 Comments

moneyweek: Who will pull out of the euro first?

It may seem unusual to still think of the euro as a combination of different currencies but the same approach is applied to the government bonds issued by each Eurozone country. For instance, 10-year bonds issued by the Italian government are yielding 5.034%, compared to 4.422% for German 10-year bonds. French bonds are offering just 4.636%, compared to 5.089% for Greek bonds. It is the financial strength of these countries that effectively combines to underpin the stability of the euro currency but there are clearly some variations in

Google Video: Global Imbalance - An imminent Dollar Crisis

Lecture by CA M.R. Venkatesh, Chennai Part of INDIA RE-DISCOVERED A Seminar on Global Economy By SWADESHI JAGARAN MANCH and VISION INDIA TRUST

reuters: IndyMac customers line up for cash

this will be a common site soon...

reuters: Morgan Stanley sees credit crisis extending into 2009

said the world's largest brokerage will need to raise $4 billion more in capital through the year-end.

CNN: Bankruptcies loom for airlines - report

As part of an effort to trim 6,800 jobs, or 8% of its work force, American Airlines announced Tuesday it is cutting 200 pilot jobs to cope with higher costs for jet fuel. "Any pilot reductions are regrettable, but the current economic environment is forcing us to make adjustments throughout the company," said the airline in a statement. "This proposal will help mitigate the unfortunate effects of a reduction in force." Midwest Airlines (MEH), announced Monday it will cut 1,200 jobs, or 40% of staff, and it will ground 12 planes by this fall.

Zoomf Blog: Gumtree rental report...

According to the study, half of us (51%) believe the national obsession with getting on the property ladder is old fashioned and needs to change. Over two thirds of 25-44 year-old renters (71%) are not planning to take a mortgage at all and will invest their money in other ways, and three-quarters of Brits (76%) wouldn’t buy property now even if they had the cash burning a hole in their pocket. Four in five renters (81%) can’t currently afford to buy, but they are content and want to continue renting for the foreseeable future.

Guardian: Millennium Dome: Property crash endangering Greenwich project

Large swaths of land around the O2 arena could be left derelict for decades if there is a sustained property crash, due to the small print in a deal signed by the government with the developers who took over the former Millennium Dome

CNN: Pricey gas: Fewer cops, more potholes

********And they think they are hard done to in the states, god only knows what state our roads will be in if we get any cutbacks***** In what seems to be a perverse reaction to high gas prices, some cities are cutting back on public transit - at a time when their citizens need it most. Due to skyrocketing fuel costs local governments are being forced to trim all sorts of services - not only busses - but police departments and road repair crews too.

Reuters via Infowars: Venezuela’s Chavez says oil could reach $300

Holy Moley, we thought that Iran was the only problem. This thing is going to the Moon, tonto style. Combine this with Iran? Those concrete barriers outside Parliament are to keep you out when you finally get it into your thick head that they have totally screwed you over.

independent.: If all else fails, then maybe it's time to ditch the euro

What we are talking about here is pulling out of the euro. It might never happen, but it is worth considering how and why this might come to pass

Infowars: Notes on the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Bailout

"Because the Fed itself is the lender, the loan will take the form of newly created money—that is, the loan will be pure inflation, a hidden tax on all assets denominated in dollar units, including dollar balances themselves"

Bloomberg: Rogers calls Fannie, Freddie Rescue Plan a 'Disaster'.

It’s an unmitigated disaster. I don’t know where these guys get the audacity to take our money, taxpayer money, and buy stock in Fannie Mae. I mean, what is this? If that is what they are doing with our tax money, why don’t they ask us? I didn’t say, take my money, my tax money, and buy Fannie Mae. Give it back to us if that’s what they are going to do with it. And what are they doing guaranteeing their debt? The people who bought debt in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can read a prospectus. They can read it. It says it is not guaranteed by the government. Anybody who can read a balance sheet knew that both of those companies were a sham and they had problems.......

Yahoo: Unemployment Benefit Claims Soar

he number of people on unemployment benefit has made its sharpest monthly rise in more than 15 years, according to official figures.

Times online: Three cheers for second-home owners

I remember very well the day that I moved to London in 1989. Nobody suggested to me, a country boy, that I had no right to live there, or complained that I was depriving a native East Ender of a home. It was accepted that young urban incomers like myself migrated to the capital city to seek employment. Do we really want the English countryside to return to introspection and inbreeding? If you think English villages have died as communities, you should go and visit the East German countryside or the more crumbling parts of rural France. There is no problem with incomers there, but not much in the way of civilisation either.

Posted by housebear @ 09:52 AM 16 Comments

UK jobless level increases again: BBC

Unemployment in the UK rose by 12,000 to 1.62 million in the three months to May, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said.

australian: Interest rates may be cut before inflation falls: RBA

The Reserve Bank of Australia is forecasting that inflation will fall to the top of the 2-3 per cent annual inflation band by mid 2010. “You shouldn’t be waiting until inflation has gone down to cut it (interest rates), it should be before it starts,” he said. The RBA chief was also more confident that tighter monetary policy was helping to slow domestic demand and curb inflation

The Telegraph: US faces global funding crisis, warns Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch has warned that the United States could face a foreign "financing crisis" within months as the full consequences of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage debacle spread through the world.

Posted by sold 2 rent 1 @ 09:16 AM 13 Comments

321gold: The Financial Tsunami: The Next Big Wave is Breaking

As with the Tsunami which devastated Asia in wave after terrifying wave in December 2004, the financial Tsunami we are witnessing is a low-amplitude, long-wave phenomenon of trillions of dollars of financial securities being unwound, defaulted on, dumped on the market. But the scale of the latest wave to hit, the collapse of confidence in the two Government-Sponsored Entities, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, is a harbinger of worse to come in what will be the most devastating financial and economic catastrophe in United States history. The impact will be felt globally.

Posted by malct @ 08:54 AM 54 Comments

The Times: It’s worse than we feared and there’s more pain to come

The spectacle of customers queueing outside a small California bank on Monday to withdraw their deposits was unsettling enough for an American public already traumatised by a year-long financial crisis.

Irish Independent: If all else fails, maybe it's time to ditch the Euro

With banks shares in free-fall, lending collapsing and bad debts rising by the hour, what can we do? The hollow platitudes of the "soft landing" merchants and the various paid PR men who rabbitted on about our "fundamentals" have been exposed. What we are talking about here is pulling out of the euro. Look at what is happening in the UK and the US. Both countries find themselves in the same bind as we do. Once this ponzi scheme was revealed, they let their currency fall. This allows them to recharge their exporting sector, making it more competitive and, more significantly, it gives them the opportunity to inflate their debts away. Ireland, in contrast, is trying to fight its way out of a recession without any macroeconomic policy.

Posted by little professor @ 07:42 AM 9 Comments

Sky: Council Workers Strike Over Pay

Hundreds of thousands of council workers and civil servants are striking over pay, with schools and rubbish collection among the services expected to be badly disrupted.

Posted by pendulum @ 07:37 AM 21 Comments

.guardian.co.u: He believes that the doubling in the price over the last year is partly due to investment institutions, such as pension funds, who are pumping money into indexes that track the cost of crude.

He compares it with the stock market crash of 1987, which was partly caused by a sudden rush of money into portfolio insurance – which institutions used to protect themselves against a fall in share prices.

bbc: The squeeze family panel

We will be checking back with the families every month to see what they are doing to make the most of their money and if they are making any changes to their spending habits.

mail: Global economy facing 'perfect storm' as inflation hits 16-year high - and the worst is yet to come

The Consumer Price Index, the Government's preferred measure of inflation, shows that 'essential' items, are rising the fastest. Over the last year, the cost of eggs has risen 37.1 per cent, butter 31.5 per cent, beef 17.6 per cent and bread 16.8 per cent. In June, the average price of four pints of milk rose 10p. The Office for National Statistics, which compiled

abc: Slowing economy kills need for rate rises: Westpac

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute leading index of economic activity has registered an annualised growth rate of 2.1 per cent for May, and indicates a growth rate substantially below trend for the next three to nine months. The fall in the leading index over the past six months is the sharpest decline since early 2001. Westpac says the index implies a substantial easing in spending and demonstrates that there is no further need for official interest rate rises.

iht: Europe looks no longer immune to U.S. economic stormEurope finds itself on a precipice similar to that in the United States

Europe looks no longer immune to U.S. economic storm: It is not impossible that the euro zone will dip into recession while the U.S. manages to skirt it - Holger Schmieding, the chief European economist at Bank of America - "Now the risk is that Europe could face a shrinking economy this summer," argues The International Herald Tribune. "In that sense, Europe finds itself on a precipice similar to that in the United States, which is already in or verging on a serious slump. But given the historic resilience of the U.S. economy, some economists give the Americans slightly better odds of avoiding a classically defined recession - in which economic growth shrinks for two quarters in a row - than the Europeans."

Herald: Alliance & Leicester loses allure as UK banking fears weigh

Shares in Alliance & Leicester sank by 3% yesterday, the day after it received a £1.3bn all-share takeover offer from Abbey's Spanish owner Santander, as investors digested the chances of a rival suitor making a move for the former building society. This seems increasingly unlikely, as the perceived lack of growth in the UK market would mean only a bank with an established UK presence is likely to consider a bid to reap economies of scale.

Posted by paul @ 12:11 AM 8 Comments

Times: Alistair Darling calls for pay restraint as prices rise

“Whether you are in the private sector or the public sector, whether you are sitting in the boardroom or working on the shopfloor, we cannot allow inflationary wage increases.” The inflation is already here and it's not Joe Public's doing, the blame lies firmly at the door of the UK Government and lax regulation of Mortgage Lenders.

Posted by enuii @ 11:29 PM 9 Comments

Telegraph: UK economy needs 'full-blown' plan for recovery

A "full-blown plan for recovery" is needed to protect Britain's families and businesses from the "pain" being caused by the credit crisis, according to David Cameron, who said that the Government was failing to act on several fronts and only his party were suggesting solutions to the problems caused by the economic downturn. Speaking ahead of his announcement that a Conservative Government would introduce US-style protection for companies at risk of bankruptcy, Mr Cameron laid out key areas in which the Conservatives propose alternatives to Government economic policy - "Take the housing market - we could now be cutting stamp duty for 9 out of 10 first-time buyers".

Posted by alan @ 10:52 PM 7 Comments

yahoo news: Stocks slip as financial worries persist

Fears about the world banking system overwhelmed lingering support in equity markets for a U.S. government plan to rescue mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sending the dollar to a fresh record low against the euro. Investors also bid up the price of safe-haven government debt and gold. "The U.S. housing crisis is getting worse and it has now spread from the 'subprime' segment to the 'prime' segment, with regional banks getting hit now," she added.

BBC: Half-built homes as firm closes

New home owners have been left living next to half-completed houses after a builder developing two estates in south Wales called in administrators

Youtube: Politics Show - Kirstie Allsopp talks houses (11.05.08)

Pwoperty sexpert Krusty.....blah blah blah....

Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 06:08 PM 19 Comments

BBC: Plans to lift UK mortgage lending

Unbelievable, the CML want over-extended people to continue buying overpriced property with the Bank of England essentially offering a form of secured lending in order to persuade investors to buy mortgage-backed securities.

Posted by enuii @ 05:47 PM 32 Comments

Times: How to buy property in the credit crunch

An article about someone who dropped the price on the house they were selling, got a similar drop on the house they were buying, and because both houses fell in price by a similar amount, they were able to trade up to a bigger house than they would have been able to do previously, and saved money on stamp duty.

CML: Plans to lift mortgage lending

A welcome lift supported by Jonathan Davis.

FT: Martinsa Fadesa to file for administration

Spanish property group Martinsa Fadesa on Tuesday filed for creditor protection with debts of more than €5bn, adding impetus to a stock market sell-off and forcing banks to announce an initial €350m in writedowns related to the company.

Wales Online: Estate agency reveals branch closures

THERE are more signs of a slowing housing market in Wales after leading estate agency Darlows announced it is closing two of its branches

BBC News: Plans to lift UK mortgage lending

This sounds like starting the whole proccess again from scratch, only this time its the government carrying the risks.

Market Oracle: The Next Financial Tsunami is Breaking Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and US Mortgage Debt

"The United States economy is in the early phase of its worst housing price collapse since the 1930's. No end is in sight." If this is just the early phase, how bad is it gonna get??

CNN: GM to cut jobs, suspend dividend

General Motors Corp. said Tuesday it will suspend its dividend, sell off $4 billion to $7 billion worth of assets and cut 20% worth of salaried cash costs in an overall plan to save billions of dollars.

FT Alphaville: "In Praise Of Santander"

The author is painting a very rosy picture of Santander, not sure I'd be that positive about any bank. Is Santander really that much stronger than its peers? When it comes to the Financial sector relative strength is a strength but it's far too early to say whether this bank in particular will emerge as a winner...

International Herald Tribune: Turns out U.K. sites predicting a property crash were clairvoyant

At the height of the housing boom in the U.K., several contrarian Web sites emerged, warning that the bubble was sure to burst. But as prices continued to soar, many openly scoffed at the pessimism of forums like housepricecrash.co.uk, pricedout.org.uk and glbalhousepriccrash.com, including a 2006 article in The Independent which labeled the sites “doomsters” and “Jeremiahs.” Two years later the “doomsters” are looking like soothsayers and the sites have turned into lively forums on the woes of the property market. “It is not a happy feeling that we have been proved right, given the issue,” said Jonathan Davis, who serves as spokesman for housepricecrash.co.uk. “There are going to be huge numbers repossessed, unemployed, bankrupt, etc by the end of it. I do wish more had listened to u

Posted by housebear @ 01:53 PM 48 Comments

Boris Johnson: Housing in our age

"If you want housing that is beautiful as well as affordable, if you object to the clap-clinic air of some modern blocks, then join me now and build the movement." (Also published in the Daily Telegraph.) Comment is Superfluous.

Posted by brian t @ 01:12 PM 6 Comments

BBC News: US concerns prompt market falls

Global shares have fallen sharply with London's FTSE 100 index heading towards its lowest close since October 2005.

BBC: FTSE

FTSE taking a hammering

Posted by mken @ 12:26 PM 56 Comments

Telegraph: Red alert as overdrafts hit record rate

Even people who are savvy about credit card rates often don't have a clue how much they are paying for their overdraft. A big mistake, writes Kara Gammell, when the downturn is putting pressure on our wallets Cash-strapped Britons are turning to their overdrafts to help them through the economic crisis - yet rates are at their highest for 11 years. New data from the Bank of England shows that the average authorised overdraft rate on a current account leapt from 17.4 per cent to 17.9 per cent during June - despite the Bank keeping base rates on hold.

Zoomf Blog: Country house prices in a bit of a blur

Even country bumpkins are suffering from declining prices according to the latest KnightFrank stats.

Hiday.net: PROPERTY AUCTIONS

As the grip of the credit crunch tightens, many home owners, particularly in the USA and UK are now being forced to put their properties on the market. However as property prices start to drop there is the real danger that in the not too distant future the property market might become flooded with too many properties for sale at any one time. When this happens many sellers often turn to property auctions.

MoneyWeek: How the US banking crisis will strangle the mortgage market

The US government may have deemed Fannie and Freddie too big to fail, but as for the rest of the banking system, it's dog eat dog. And there are plenty more banks that won't be so lucky.

RICS: Full June survey

Best survey of the month - the EA comments are always a treat

Posted by pelethar @ 10:16 AM 22 Comments

Mail: House prices falling at fastest rate since records began 50 years ago

''...House prices are falling at a rate not witnessed since records began in the 1950s, according to the latest report from banking giant Halifax. Its figures show the price of the average home in Britain has plunged by £17,000 since January....''

Telegraph: Housing transactions slump to lowest in 30 years, says RICS

"According to RICS, 88pc more surveyors thought house prices fell during June compared with those who saw a rise, although this was an improvement from the 92.2pc more who saw falls in April." Smoke RICS. Gives you just that little bit more.

FT: The Short View: Too big to fail

John Authers makes pertinent observations on the Fannie and Freddie bail out. Given that things are bad enough to need that Fed support, banks small enough to fail may well do so. Another point, made on Newsnight last night, is the sums are so large, the US may need to print money, which as we know means inflation. Wither deflation now.

BBC: Inflation climbs to 3.8% in June

The UK inflation rate was 3.8% in June, pushed higher by rising food and fuel costs, official figures have shown

Posted by holding out @ 09:38 AM 29 Comments

BBC: Open House, Homefront, To Buy Or Not To Buy: How property shows fight the crunch

As the housing crisis starts hitting home, Serena Davies reports on how TV's property programmes are getting their own makeovers. "We're hoping to get people such as BBC Breakfast's business correspondent Declan Curry involved from the financial side, as well as our usual tranche of property experts." Added to that, BBC daytime has three more property shows in development or production. Buy It, Sell It, Bank It, also slated for the autumn, will provide financial information on development opportunities for houses bought at auction.

Posted by tyrellcorporation @ 08:58 AM 16 Comments

BBC News: Numbers moving home at record low

I wouldn't have bothered posting this expect for the house price year change% graph. Ahww ... isnt that nice :) Let's see a VI spin that. Can you spot the trend?

Posted by quiet guy @ 01:28 AM 16 Comments

Bloomberg: House price drops close to most widespread since 1978

U.K. house-price declines in June stayed close to the most widespread since RICS started measuring the property market in 1978, pushing the country closer to a recession. The number of residential property agents and surveyors saying prices fell exceeded those reporting gains by 88 percentage points, the London-based group said today. That compares with 92.2 percent the previous month, and 94.2 in April. The number of transactions has reached an all-time record low. Jeremy Leaf, a spokesman for Rics, said: "With demand so low, would-be buyers are negotiating from a position of strength."

Daily Mail: Why do the bankers never have to suffer?

There are bound to be those who are appalled at the sight of greedy bankers and lenders, their big bonuses safely tucked away, yet again being saved from ignominy by government or a white knight from overseas. Where is the help for would-be first-time buyers or families squeezed by ever-higher mortgage rates and charges? Very few of the City bankers who brought us this mess have been sacked or had the grace to step down. Yet taxpayers face an ever-bigger bill, thanks to one of the most foolish episodes of poor lending practice in the history of banking.

Posted by little professor @ 12:22 AM 7 Comments

BBC: Bush lifts offshore drilling ban

President George W Bush has lifted an executive ban on drilling for oil in most US coastal waters, and has urged lawmakers to follow suit. He wants Congress to end its separate ban on drilling, in order to reduce US dependence on oil imports.

Posted by gardeniadotnet @ 12:07 AM 30 Comments

Telegraph: Bank of England's Mervyn King turned down £110,000 pay rise

So you are in charge of the BOE and can not stop INFLATION. Hello - what is the point of the bank then, infact why bother with the letters? This is now getting so silly I am not sure whether to laugh or cry. So he turns down a 50% pay rise but ASKS us to be patient and not get any more money for 10% inflation. He is on over £250K FOR DOING NOTHING! Rant Over.

Posted by waitingfor hpc @ 10:23 PM 8 Comments

afp: California town creates parking havens for homeless

SANTA BARBARA, California - Every night at dusk in this wealthy California coastal town, Barbara Harvey puts down food for her golden retrievers, Phoebe and Ranger, and watches as they go for their evening walk. Not long afterwards, the 66-year-old mother-of-three clambers into the back of her white Honda CR-V, pulls up a blanket, and beds down for the night, snuggling next to her beloved dogs for comfort. "For the most part I sleep okay," says Harvey. "But it is very cramped. And my dogs are big. The CR-V wasn't designed for people to sleep in.

Assetz: Rental value soars

Has anyone else noticed the way the VIs all quote each other to back themselves up? Here, Stuatz produces a quote from Arla which is, even by Assetz standards, completely ridiculous: "It was as a result of the appalling effects on young owner occupiers last time that Arla took the initiative and launched buy to let...to mitigate the dreadful social consequences of housing boom and bust." So there we have it. Buy to let is a kind of "social initiative" designed to protect poor FTBs from boom and bust.

Posted by keeprenting @ 09:16 PM 6 Comments

FT.com: UK factory gate inflation surges

"Economists said the year-on-year increase of 10 per cent in the prices charged by manufacturers increased the risk of a knock-on effect on consumer price inflation, the measure the Bank uses to decide monetary policy." Sound fundamentals - what an economy, what a myth.

CNNMoney.com: Bad week ahead for banks

Analysts expect more writedowns from Citi and Merrill. The IndyMac failure and problems with Fannie and Freddie could further darken the outlook for banks. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If this weekend's news about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Friday's IndyMac failure weren't scary enough, now Wall Street will have to contend with what is likely to be dismal quarterly results from many top financial firms. Two more weeks of writedowns coming up. Stocks are looking more and more fragile.

china post: Hard landing feared after end of Olympics

Inflation is on the rise, and rapid growth is threatening to overheat the economy

BBC: JCB axes 500 manufacturing jobs

Fallout from the debt financed construction sector hits top UK manufacturer who do not expect to see any signs of a recovery until late 2009 at the earliest.

Findaproperty: Betters Predict -25 Per Cent House Price Fall

Betters on The Cantor Spreadfair index have become more pessimistic about the trajectory of house prices over the next two-and-a-half years.

Reuters: Buy a flat; get a free Range Rover

If you fancy a new flat in the South and are looking for a new car, then this could be what you're looking for.

The Onion: Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In

"What America needs right now is not more talk and long-term strategy, but a concrete way to create more imaginary wealth in the very immediate future," said Thomas Jenkins, CFO of the Boston-area Jenkins Financial Group, a bubble-based investment firm. "We are in a crisis, and that crisis demands an unviable short-term solution."

Guardian: Bank of England can do little about inflation in current climate, King says

June's CPI will be published tomorrow, and analysts believe that it will have risen to 3.6%. The British Retail Consortium said last week that food prices were 7% higher in June than a year earlier, the highest annual food price inflation since the series began. The MPC's role is to keep inflation - as measured by their consumer prices index - at 2%.

Posted by paul @ 05:38 PM 18 Comments

MoneyWeek: Why A&L holders should cash in on the bid

"It never ceases to amaze me how companies end up paying the wrong price for buying up their competitors. But people piling afresh into UK mortgage debt right now must need their collective heads examining."

ft.com: In 2006 China shocked the world by adding $247bn to what was already the largest hoard of foreign currency reserves. In 2007, if correctly counted, China took in more than twice that amount. So far this year it is on track to double yet again.

hot money is indeed increasing as quickly as the various proxies suggest, it indicates that not only is Chinese reserve accumulation going through a large quantitative change as it doubles yet again, it is going through an even more important qualitative change.

NY Times: Horse, barn door

Snippet of information from Paul Krugman's blog that the Fed has moved to ban lenders from making high-interest, non-verified loans. It's only 5 years too late but they couldn't have interefered with that lovely bubble that brought so much paper wealth to so many, now could they? "Regarding higher-priced loans, the Fed’s new rules also prohibit lenders from: relying on income or assets that it does not verify to determine repayment ability"

signs of the times: Signs Economic Commentary for 14 July 2008

What does "state-backed financial capitalism" mean? Socialism for the banks and the rich and cut-throat capitalism for the rest of us. And we pay. Looking at it that way, it may not contradict the real ideology of neoliberalism, transferring wealth up the pyramid:

Prisonplanet: Mortgage Giants’ Collapse Could Herald 1930’s Style Depression

Veteran London Times journalist William Rees-Mogg predicts that the collapse of U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could herald a downturn into a 1930’s style depression that threatens to sweep away democratic governments. Rees-Mogg served as editor of The Times, Britain’s oldest surviving newspaper, from 1967 to 1981, and currently sits in the House of Lords.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 03:53 PM 11 Comments

Hiday.net: DUBAI OR NOT DUBAI

Dubai heralded as one of the hot property investment spots for the future has plenty of speculators, highlighting the advantages of long term capital growth and good rental yields. However for some it is a property bubble waiting to burst.

Posted by kitkat @ 12:24 PM 16 Comments

Diversified Property: Land Investment, Bucharest, Romania

You know that company that buys agricultural land in UK and then pretends that it'll be worth £Millions "as soon as they get Planning permission". Well it's the same scam all over the world. So what you are buying land that hasn't got a PUZ, and when ( if ? ) it does you will (maybe ?) get a 50% increase in your investment ?

BBC: Santander 'agrees' to A&L takeover

I wonder if this will go the way of the TPG/B&B takeover?

Posted by mark wadsworth @ 11:58 AM 12 Comments

Telegraph: Ribble Valley house prices up 17.1%

I found this article after chatting with two estate agents (one a very good friend) over the weekend. Although the rest of the country is now in a downturn, for some reason the Ribble Valley has escaped the carnage. I have known my friend for over 15 years and asside from his chosen profession, he is an honest bloke. Sales in the Ribble valley have actually increased since January and asking prices/sale prices are still rising. Something to talk about me thinks..

Posted by george monsoon @ 11:52 AM 21 Comments

MoneyWeek: Why the Fannie and Freddie bail-out means the dollar is doomed

The US government has been working on a bail-out for the companies all weekend, which it finally unveiled last night. But as usual, the government intervention is just storing up bigger problems for the future…

Posted by damien @ 11:40 AM 17 Comments

Home.co.uk: Market Sentiment Deteriorates Further

"Year on year growth in asking proces for England and Wales has entered negative territory for the first time since December 2006 and stands at -0.2% in July 2008". But look at the trend line on page three! Where is this going? More evidence to show a severe downturn is unfolding.

Firstrung: First time buyers may find 'Bank of Mum and Dad' closed

Teenagers looking forward to six weeks of summer fun funded by their parents could be in for a big shock. New research from AXA reveals that The Bank of Mum and Dad has been forced to cut back spending on children and in some cases ditch free hand-outs altogether...

guardian.co.uk: The debate is over: recession is already here

We're going into recession. That's all you need to know. Actually, not quite all you need to know. It may be worse than that - we may already be in one. The turn in the economy, although it has been lurking out there for some time, has come swiftly and sharply in the past few weeks, as is often the case with recessions. When the economic history books are written, they will almost certainly say the late-noughties recession began in earnest in the late spring of 2008

New York Times: Treasury Acts to Save Mortgage Giants

An official said that the Fed’s decision to permit the companies to borrow from its so-called discount window was approved at the request of the Treasury but that it was temporary and would probably end once Congress approved Treasury’s plan. Some officials briefed on the plan said Congress could be asked to extend the total line of credit to the institutions to $300 billion.

Posted by waitingfor hpc @ 09:02 AM 13 Comments

Guardian: UK braced for US banking backlash

Last week’s extraordinary decision by the US Federal Reserve to take over the Californian bank, Indymac, comes as the Bush administration attempts to quash speculation that America’s two largest mortgage lenders, Fannie May and Freddie Mac, also face nationalisation.

Posted by planning4acrash @ 08:40 AM 11 Comments

Telegraph: House prices could fall back a long way after their excessive rises

Roger Bootle writes: "Many British people seem to believe that it is somehow inevitable that house prices rise by 10pc, 15pc or 20pc every year, thereby squirting money around for all who have been lucky or canny enough to position themselves under the shower. You cannot shake off this sort of collective delusion without a painful adjustment. I saw a bubble blowing up in housing a few years ago but I seriously underestimated how much longer it would inflate. I therefore gave my warnings of the market's demise too early. In my defence, if you are a forecaster, being early ought to be a forgivable fault. It is certainly much better than being late - like all those postcasters who are now jumping up and down and telling us the housing market is weak."

Posted by drewster @ 02:46 AM 42 Comments

Times: This recession could easily tip into a depression

"I was born in 1928; I remember the later stages of the Depression. This recession is producing a series of nasty surprises. Things are always proving to be worse than anyone had expected. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, created by President Roosevelt in 1938, are far bigger than Bear Stearns and Northern Rock put together. The debt crisis, the banking crisis, the property crisis, the oil crisis, the shift to Asia, the bear market in stocks, are huge global adjustments that have all come together at the same time. There is now a momentum of negative events sweeping away financial flood defences; in the 1930s that force overturned democratic governments as easily as it overturned banks. Before we get back to balance, we may see dramatic changes in politics, as well as in business and finance."

Posted by drewster @ 02:01 AM 17 Comments

Times: We have financial, not economic, problems

"Sometimes markets make spectacular blunders, completely losing touch with the real economy. While Wall Street has gone into meltdown since the beginning of June, conditions in the real economy have been unambiguously improving. The latest employment figures confirmed that economic conditions had stabilised after their sharp deterioration in the winter, while purchasing managers' surveys, the most reliable indicator of very recent economic trends, suggested a continuation of the modest but clear improvement that began in April. It is time for regulators and governments to recognise that market prices are sometimes plain wrong."

Posted by drewster @ 01:47 AM 9 Comments

BBC: US announces support for lenders

No details yet as to what the bail out plans are.

Daily Mail: The REAL rate of inflation is 10%, says ex-PM John Major as he warns cost of living is going up faster than official figures

Families are being hit by a real rate of inflation as high as 10 ten per cent as Britain edges closer to recession, Sir John Major has claimed. The former Tory PM and Chancellor, in a rare intervention into domestic politics, warned the Government's official inflation figures could not be trusted. He also expressed 'human sympathy' for Gordon Brown's plight and said he regretted some of the personal attacks being made on him. But he insisted Mr Brown was partly to blame for helping to fuel the economic downturn.

Posted by uncle chris @ 10:46 PM 14 Comments

The West Australian: House price slide sparks fears in U.K

The realisation is dawning here in Oz that we are not immune despite the wealth of iron ore especially here in W. Australia

One Magazine: When Mortgages Buy the Farm

An article, written back at the start of the credit bust, with an accessible explantion of what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do, and why they matter.

Guardian: US officials check on Freddie Mac securities sale

"The Post said Treasury Department officials on Saturday spoke by telephone with major banks that normally purchase such securities to ensure that these firms still plan to place bids, and they were optimistic the sale would be a success." A sensible precaution but also a sign of how nervous the US is.

Posted by quiet guy @ 03:51 PM 8 Comments

Sky News: 16.09.97

Yes when it wasnt popular when the VIs were saying the rate of increase will fall, JDs predicts a all. Interestingly a 10% fall this year (2008) was his prediction which he - correct me if i am wrong - has now increased. In terms of the term of the falls he now is less inclined to completely rule out a japanese type fall. At the beginning of a Grand Supercycle correction? I wonder if FH believes the falls will still conform to the general time period of the cycle.

Posted by techieman @ 03:29 PM 8 Comments

BBC News: Sharp rise in UK profit warnings

"The credit crunch, declining consumer confidence and squeezed discretionary income have come together to create the perfect storm for house builders and, as the rain falls, and the floods rise, investors are waiting nervously to see who has built their house upon the sand," the report said.

Observer: Over-inflated, overstretched and over here

A sensible article which points out that the reason we are in a mess is because we have done several years' spending in advance and paid far more for houses than they are worth. Sounds a bit complicated to me. Quick, pay a banker for some wisdom.

Observer: Call to tackle boom-bust housing cycle

An unconvincing short piece on how to stop boom and bust. About as convincing as Mr Brown's assurances.

Posted by letthemfall @ 12:30 PM 10 Comments

Guardian Unlimited: This can't go on forwever - so it wont!

The article basically pridicted that the party should have end in 2005 and every one nurse their hang-over. But some dim wits decided to keep the party going until the hang-over becomes alcohol posioning.

Scotland on Sunday: Builders turn to rental market as sales fall

HOUSEBUILDERS are turning to the rental sector in a bid to generate income from new properties they cannot sell.

Posted by sosoon @ 11:57 AM 10 Comments

MoneyWeek: How long can the global downturn last?

"It is already clear that this is not going to be a short and mild recession, but we cannot yet be sure — for lack of evidence — whether it will be medium or long and severe."

The Indie: Hamish Macrae - Crashes aren't good but the bottom isn't far away

'But once house prices have clearly bottomed out, perhaps by the end of next year, confidence could come back quite fast. ' Wishful thinking twaddle from a guy who ought to know better. Cheer up lads, screw the fundamentals, it'll all be fine soon.

Independent: World's largest mortgage providers teeter on the brink of collapse

America's regulators were last night shoring up the country's financial defences, after one of the biggest bank failures in US history sparked fears about the viability of the world's largest mortgage providers.

Independent: World markets braced for more falls after US mortgage collapse

Fears of a meltdown in the US mortgage market are likely to stoke further falls in the value of equities this week, with billions of pounds expected to be wiped from company values around the world.

Mail Online: US mortgage giants' crisis sparks fear for British banks

Emergency talks were being held this weekend to rescue America’s two biggest mortgage companies amid fears their collapse could hit UK markets.

BBC: Indymac-out of business

One of the largest US mortgage lenders, the California-based IndyMac Bank, has collapsed amid a growing credit crisis.

Fox news via CFL: 30 Responses to “Dr. Paul on FOX Business tonight”

Gary Says: July 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm I strongly believe that since the banks just created the money out of thin air to issue us mortgages, the least they could do would be to forgive a minimum of 25% of the principle of all mortgages. They didn’t earn the money in the first place, they just punched the keys on a computer and created a loan, and then charge us interest on this loan. Hmmm, maybe 25% it on the low side Marilyn in Lake Jackson Says: July 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm It’s good that Dr. Paul is going to be on, but why do they always have to put him on a channel that nobody gets?

Australian: Property values plummet across nation

PLUMMETING property values have prompted warnings Australia is heading for a one in a 100 year slump.

Guardian: Credit crunch: Emergency scheme to help cash-strapped homeowners

Homeowners struggling to meet their mortgage payments would be able to sell their homes to the local authority and rent them back as tenants under radical proposals being considered by the government to prevent the misery of repossession.

Posted by quiet guy @ 08:12 AM 18 Comments

Sunday Express: BUYERS’ REVENGE ON ESTATE AGENTS

"DISGRUNTLED house buyers are trying to put estate agents out of business with a series of smear campaigns. Police believe the culprits are people who have been left with huge debts after buying a property just before the slump in prices"

Posted by alan @ 03:28 AM 26 Comments

The Market Oracle: Credit Crisis Losses Pass $1.6 Trillion as Credit Contraction Ensures Recession

It seems that with each passing month the estimates for losses in the international banking system keep rising. This time last summer the largest estimates (from credible sources), if memory serves me correct, were around $400 billion, give or take a few months. By the end of the year it was in the neighborhood of twice that. Then last quarter we saw estimates approaching $1 trillion. Last week, the number being broached was $1.6 trillion, by Bridgewater Associates, one of the top, and more credible, analytical firms in the world.

The Market Oracle: Indymac America 's Northern Rock Goes Bust as US Housing Market Implodes

One of America 's biggest savings and loans mortgage banks, Indymac goes bust as regulators stepped in to seize the banks assets on Friday. The bank saw panicking savers withdraw more then $1.3 billion in deposits in one day alone as the bank teetered on the brink of collapse under the weight of mortgage defaults as result of the meltdown in the US housing market in similar style to Britains Northern Rock bank run during September 2007.

Sunday Times: Five tips on protecting your family in a recession

Insurers have started to blacklist people who work for Housebuilders, City Firms and Estate Agents on some protection policies as job losses start to bite. Those working for building firms including Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon may be refused cover altogether, even if they have survived the latest cull in jobs.

Posted by enuii @ 10:15 PM 8 Comments

New York Times: Protected by Washington, Freddie and Fannie grew

The dominant role Fannie and Freddie play today is no accident. The companies, Wall Street, mortgage bankers, real estate agents and Washington lawmakers have built up an unusual and mutually beneficial co-dependency, helped along by robust lobbying efforts and campaign contributions. In Washington, Fannie and Freddie’s sprawling lobbying machine hired family and friends of politicians in their efforts to quickly sideline any regulations that might slow their growth or invite greater oversight of their business practices. Indeed, their rapid expansion was, at least in part, the result of such artful lobbying over the years

Times: How London property is surviving the slump

Managing sellers' expectations in the past few months has been much easier than in the beginning of the year, when we were shunned in disgust at our recommendations. Now you can see the same property still on the market for less. If you really want to sell, then that means at a 20 per cent price reduction since the peak of last year in a number of areas in London. Savills say.

FreedomWorks: Chinese Government is Top Foreign Holder of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Bonds

"If the US bails out Fannie Mae bonds, who is the biggest beneficiary? The top five foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie long-term debt are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. In total foreign investors hold over $1.3 trillion in these agency bonds. The prospectus for every GSE bond clearly states that it is not backed by the United States government. That's why investors holding agency bonds already receive a significant risk premium over Treasuries. A bailout of GSE bondholders would be perhaps the greatest taxpayer rip-off in American history. It is bad economics and you can be sure it is terrible politics."

Posted by drewster @ 06:09 PM 8 Comments

Ft.com: Why the world needs more speculators

A articulate and reasoned piece. IF you dont understand something just admit you dont understand. Dont send a stupid and worthless petition to No. 10 saying that short selling or speculation should be abolished...... and dont pick and chose when its the speculators fault. Read the article before making off the cuff and daft remarks. "More short-sellers in the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s, and the housing bubbles of the past few years, would have added a welcome dose of stability and sanity. Alas, there were not enough short-sellers – and given the amount of money they were losing at the time, the only people complaining about them were their impoverished families."

Posted by techieman @ 06:08 PM 9 Comments

Right Move: June House Price Index: Sellers make house prices more attractive in June

Based on circa 90% of newly marketed property, the House Price Index is the leading indicator of residential property prices in England and Wales...

marketwatch: U.S. stock indexes tank as crude touches new high

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks on Friday lapsed back into the cellar to close with weekly losses after a late-day burst into positive turf that followed reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke offered the central bank's discount window to battered mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Times online: President Bush moves in as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lose value

President Bush was forced yesterday to wade into the turmoil surrounding the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) which underpin America’s entire debt infrastructure

FT: Lex - Fannie & Freddie

......the already dreadful US housing market would implode if the two government- sponsored enterprises went under. That is why fears of outright failure are misplaced – Washington could not let it happen.

Fallstreet: Fed can lend to just about anyone

The fact is, even your Aunt Mabel could get an emergency loan from the Fed. Typically, the Fed has acted as a lender of last resort only for commercial banks. But the Fed has authority to lend to almost anyone, if the Fed Board of Governors agrees that conditions are dire enough. Under Fed regulations, regional Fed banks can offer loans to any "individual, partnership, or corporation" under "unusual and exigent circumstances" but only "if, in the judgment of the Federal Reserve Bank, credit is not available from other sources and failure to obtain such credit would adversely affect the economy."

Mortgage Lender: Lehman Brothers SBF - Sma