Live Peasant

The Sun may be the key for the masses but there does seem to be an orchestrated campaign going on to prepare people who have previously had little idea or interest. Today's headlines, the Government soundbites etc. seem to be ditsinctly bearish compared to the last ten days. I wasn't expecting any real reductions in HP until next year but it's looking like it will really swing into action much faster.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6988769.stm The downturn in the US housing and mortgage sectors now represents "a near-perfect storm", one of the country's leading lenders has warned. Washington Mutual chief executive Kerry Killinger said the result would likely be falling house prices across many parts of America into 2008. Centred on the sub-prime sector, the crisis in the US mortgage market has been sparked by record loan defaults. Washington Mutual may put aside an extra $500m (£247m) to cover bad loans. This would come on top of the $1.5bn to $1.7bn of exposure the company - now America's sixth largest mortgage lender - had forecast in July. "Most housing markets appear to be weakening, to us," said Mr Killinger. Global issue In recent weeks, US house price figures have been mixed. Last month, the Commerce Department said new homes sales held up in July, while further figures from the National Association of Realtors showed sales of existing properties fell to a near five-year low in the same month. The crisis in the US sub-prime mortgage sector has been sparked by American mortgage rates rising sharply over the past year. As a result more than 50,000 jobs have been lost in the US mortgage industry so far this year, including 12,000 announced last week by the largest lender Countrywide. The crisis has spread overseas, and to the wider global financial sector, because US sub-prime debt is often resold as part of a wider debt package. As a consequence, banks and investors are, as yet, unsure about how far the sub-prime downturn could spread. In turn, global banks have become far more cautious about whom they lend to, and are stockpiling funds to cover any potential liabilities of their own. The result has been a sharp downturn in available credit, and higher lending rates, both for companies wishing to borrow, and individuals trying to get a mortgage.

Target of a Takeover Bid themselves if they are in bother and lose the ABN bid?

Nothing sinister with the Halifax thing. There was a planned maintenance outage on the Halifax site between 02:00 and 08:00. This affected the https (secure bit that stops nasty crackers stealing your details) side of the system. Unfortunately, you couldn't read the message informing you of this because it wasn't on the front page. When the system came back up it had some minor ongoing formatting issues and the web server was up and down like a whore's drawers. I've had similar experiences when transferring databases to new servers for example and some work around gets broken. My guess is the maintenance over ran when somebody discovered an error in a script and it took a bit of time to solve it. Panic over. It was all fixed by mid-day and I've been doing transfers etc with no problem. The end of the world will have to wait til Tuesday.

Here it is. apologies the original sub title wasn't particularly clear. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...&refer=home Like the graphic. Rageboy is getting around. The story is being updated so it might change in the details.

Yeah, unfortunately no ability to record it here. Hope someone else can help you. Can anyone help catflap?

Trying to find a link to substantiate this but Bear Stern's attempt to file bankruptcy on a couple of hedge funds in the Caymans has been thrown out of Court. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle2215400.ece

There was a minor bounce today caused by a rumour that vials of nerve gas were found at the UN. Once they were made safe the market restored itself. Interesting that it caused a disturbance in the way that it did.

If you are struggling with repayments or looking to buy your first home, use Sun Money’s switch and save service to find the best mortgage deal for you. Hey prices are about to crash but come and get an FTB mortgage with us - Fantasy Land...

documentary about the dutch tulip bubble on Thursday 21:30. http://www.thebusinesschannel.com/whats_on.php?day=2 in case you're interested.

Though it pains me to say it, the problems of today can be summed up in one phrase - 'The Welfare State'. Multi generational government enforced idleness with barrack room lawyers demanding their rights and a middle class taxed out of existence to pay for it. Welcome to the socialist utopia.

Damn right it will be me losing my job. The Indians and the Chinese read the same manuals as we do...Fluids laws don't change because you read them in Mumbai

It's all relative. At my university (Cranfield - RMCS) the Computer Science degrees were talked of as Mickey Mouse whilst we proper engineers did aeronautical/ mechanical/civil engineering etc. i.e. 'proper degrees'. The other campus' were agricultural and business related. Arts type subjects didn't exist. The only problem was the distinct lack of any females on campus - I think the ratio was 15:1. Bsc. Mech Eng. and an MSc in Fluid Dynamics - and if it were to all go t*ts up, then who will be redundant first, me or the shiny suit sales guys with the BA in underwater basket weaving? I think I know the answer to that one.

I pulled out of the buying process earlier this month. Just had an EA on the phone asking if I was still in the market. I explained not because I thought the market was about to fall. His response was 'You're not wrong." Either looking to get on side or he knows the game is up.

I re-read the post. They've also got 6k unsecured debt. Ooops! Somebody's in for a hard time if they can't shift it.

This might have something to do with it MSE: My house is lovely (in my opinion), but its not selling! I am in desperate need to get rid of it as this will leave me debt free. I got a letter yesterday saying that my repayments are going up another £300 on 1st Sept and I cannot afford it. I dont know what to do. I have £48k secured debt costing almost £650 a month and new mortgage payments are £1129. Any suggestions anyone?

I'm an FTB. I've just pulled out of buying in Southampton. Once I'd saw the market stuff last week, I felt that I needed to wait until Easter '08 and make a decision then (maybe to hold off again). I'm not in any rush to buy and can afford to sit it out. I'm not going to overstretch myself just to get on the ladder.