My well-plenished house is a' vanished away

"Our house rent and taxes we've had for tae pay,
Now my well-plenished house is a' vanished away."

--From "The Unemployed Breakin' Stanes" by John Wilson (click image at left).

What a week. Since Friday, banks and mortgage lenders have announced more than 13,000 layoffs.

Countrywide Financial Corp. last week cut 500 positions in its Alt-A Full Spectrum Lending division and the subprime lending unit of its wholesale lending division.

First Magnus Financial Corp., which once employed more than 5,000, last week said it had stopped funding loans and has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Capital One said Monday it will eliminate 1,900 jobs as it shuts down its wholesale mortgage banking unit, GreenPoint Mortgage.

SunTrust banks announced Friday it will trim 2,400 workers by the end of 2008. In its last quarterly report, SunTrust said it had stopped originating Alt-A loans to hold in its investment portfolio after provisions for loan losses increased by $18.3 million in the first half of the year due to higher Alt-A loan charge-offs.

Today Accredited Home Lenders said it's closing its retail mortgage lending business and laying off more than 1,000 workers.

And now Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. says it's closing down its subprime lending subsidiary, BNC Mortgage LLC, and laying off 1,200 workers.

According to the outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., the financial industry has announced 87,962 job cuts this year, up 164 percent from last year (and that figure was tallied before the AHL and BNC announcements). Challenger figures 41 percent of the job cuts were related to the mortgage and subprime lending markets.

I'm sure most of these folks have mortgages to pay themselves...

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.