Home

Federal plan 'a disaster in the making' Premium Content

By Jack Guttentag, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

The Treasury and Federal Reserve to date have doused financial fires at Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG, taking a tough line in every case to protect taxpayers. In the case of AIG, for example, the government has the right to acquire a major equity interest in the firm as a quid pro quo for a loan of $80 billion, and the CEO was forced out.  more...

Cleaning up in a down market

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

I've been sick. It's not the "I couldn't get out of bed to meet the Queen" kind of sick, nor have I been compromised to the point where if the world ceased to exist at noon today I might not catch on until, say, November. I just feel yucky. And for me, yucky can be much worse than incapacitated. This is because it gives me too much time to think.  more...

Toilets: the good, the bad, the ugly

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

Praise to our readers, they've done it again. Last week we wrote about dual-flush, water-conserving toilets when, after returning from a trip to France, a reader questioned why she could not find a dual-flush model similar to the one she used in France to install in her Alameda, Calif., home.  more...

Why consumer confidence is key to recovery

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

I don't know what was more exasperating: the number of commercials during recent sporting events telecasts or the fact that most of the paid interruptions were approved by political candidates. Can the pace possibly slow before November?  more...

Critics question bailout Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

Bush administration officials today defended a plan to unfreeze credit markets by buying hundreds of billions in "toxic" mortgage-related assets, saying the alternative is more failures of banks and financial institutions and a breakdown in lending that would cripple the economy.

The plan has come under fire from lawmakers of both parties, who want more targeted relief for troubled homeowners and assurances that the financial institutions that participate in the massive program won't profit at taxpayer expense.  more...

Millions spend 50% of income on housing

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

Nearly 15 percent of U.S. homeowners who had a mortgage on their home in 2007 spent at least half of their income on housing costs, according to an Associated Press report today.

The data, released by the U.S. Census Bureau, found that the number of homeowners included in this category -- some 7.5 million -- is up from 7.1 million in 2006.  more...

Who will originate mortgages?

By Inman News, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

The risk profile of what was once considered the safest investment in the land has taken a dramatic swing in the last 18 months.

During the peak of the U.S. housing market between 2002 and 2005, bullish forecasters and industry boosters promised that the most prudent investment in the world was U.S. home buyers. Investors from around the globe agreed, investing wildly in the residential mortgage market.  more...

Sep

23
2008

Blogs Go Global

By Joel Burslem, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers responded to our survey from 66 countries across six continents.

From Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008.  more...

New homeowners

By Bradley Inman, Tuesday, September 23, 2008.

My daughter Liz and her husband Phil closed on a house last week, as Wall Street melted down. We had a house warming party Sunday night and throughout the weekend the neighbors stopped by to welcome them to the neighborhood. Phil and Liz saved to buy the house and discussed how they must watch their spending, but that is OK because they love the little two-bedroom home.

That is how it works, nothing more and nothing less.  more...