sell! sell! sell!

[Romanowski]

solar panel's still not feasible unless subsidized by our government

plus pv panel prices on the rise due to supply demand issues

we'll get there eventually but doesn't make any economical sense quite yet, only for worthwhile for hippies that want to save the environment right now

lol we the people control demand and your wrong about high prices

I work in the industry and comparatively there hasnt been a better time when you account power companies willing to pay more per unit that they sell back to you and the amount these newer panels can collect

 

[tiznow]

"incentives" of up to 100k (can only imagine what that means) on mcmansions. sheeple come and get um.

It could be a life changer arty: :money: :monsters-

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hovnanian Starts Sale to Move Houses as Slump Deepens (Update1)

By Brian Louis

Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., the homebuilder that has lost almost three-quarters of its market value this year, is offering discounts of up to almost $150,000 on homes as the U.S. housing decline deepens.

The company will start a three-day sale tomorrow, dubbed the ''Deal of the Century,'' in 18 states including California, New Jersey, New York, Arizona, Ohio and Illinois. Buyers will ''realize unprecedented savings'' with incentives of up to $100,000 in some California developments and more elsewhere, Red Bank, New Jersey-based Hovnanian said.

Hovnanian shares have dropped to the lowest since 2001 this year and the builder has reported four consecutive quarters of losses after nine years of gains. The stakes are high since Hovnanian has vowed to generate $175 million to $250 million of cash flow in the fiscal quarter ending October.

''They have to jump start their fourth quarter sales in a big way,'' said Vicki Bryan, an analyst at Gimme Credit, a bond research company.

Hovnanian rose 3 cents to $10.03 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock is down 70 percent this year.

At its Vinsanto development in Phoenix, Hovnanian is offering $5,000 toward closing costs; gift cards worth $250 to $500 for Home Depot Inc., Target Corp. and Ashley Furniture; a 42-inch plasma TV; a garage upgrade package with epoxy flooring; and free landscaping and an appliance package with refrigerator, washer and dryer, according to its Web site. Prices there start at about $150,000.

Market Response

The nationwide sale is a response to market conditions and similar programs by competitors, Chief Executive Officer Ara Hovnanian said in a Sept. 7 conference call after reporting a quarterly net loss of $77.9 million the previous day.

''We have seen several of our peers have great success, so that's what really drove it,'' Hovnanian said.

Standard Pacific Corp., based in Irvine, California, is starting a 10-day sale at developments in southern California that it says may save consumers more than $20 million.

Hovnanian is promoting the sale on its Web site and in newspaper and radio advertisements that say: ''These three days could change your life! Don't miss this once in a lifetime opportunity!''

An ad in the New York Post today says Hovnanian is ''offering amazingly low prices. . . with savings of up to $149,600 on select homes.''

Hovnanian and other builders are trying to sell their inventory of houses that are finished or almost complete and don't have a buyer because customers have canceled orders. These are sometimes called ''speculative'' homes.

'Turn Inventory'

''What Hovnanian is doing at this point is just trying to turn the inventory and turn that into cash,'' said Robert Rulla, a director at Fitch Ratings in Chicago.

Hovnanian's home prices in California start just below $200,000. Its Aliso development in Granada Hills, California, in Los Angeles County, lists up to $60,000 in incentives for houses, according to the company's Web site.

Homebuilding revenue for Hovnanian in California tumbled 42 percent in the three months ended July 31 as deliveries fell 43 percent and the average selling price declined 7.5 percent to $409,053, according to company filings.

A 5,220 square-foot home, ready to move into immediately, is priced at $1.7 million in Morris Township, New Jersey, according to Hovnanian's Web site. The three-story house has five bedrooms and 6 1/2 baths and a three car garage.

Analysts are forecasting tough times for the housing market through next year. Moody's Investors Service said on Sept. 10 the slump may last until 2009 and Standard & Poor's said today homebuilders are unlikely to see a recovery in 2008.

''It's not going to look pretty for a while,'' said Matthew Wilcox, a bond analyst at KDP Investment Advisors Inc. in Montpelier, Vermont.

 

[tiznow]

Last Updated: Thursday, 13 September 2007, 21:03 GMT 22:03 UK

company still profitable and needs a bailout??? big UK mortgage lender gets a bailout from bank of england, print, bailout, print, bailout, repeat, everything will be just fine....

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northern Rock gets bank bail out

The Bank of England has agreed to give emergency financial support to the Northern Rock, one of the UK's largest mortgage lenders, the BBC has learned.

However this does not mean that the bank is in danger of going bust, Business Editor Robert Peston says.

There was no reason for people with Northern Rock savings accounts to panic, he added.

The bank has struggled to raise money to finance its lending ever since money markets seized up over the summer.

'Temporary problem'

The decision for the Bank of England to become the "lender of last resort" is extremely rare - and comes after consultation with the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority.

However the disclosure is expected to rock financial markets, Mr Peston said.

"Although the firm remains profitable, the fact that it has had to go cap in hand to the Bank is the most tangible sign that the crisis in financial markets is spilling over into businesses that touch most of our lives," he added.

The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday that the Bank would be prepared to provide emergency loans to a bank that ran into difficulties, so long as those difficulties were the result of temporary market conditions.

"The fact that the Bank of England has been prepared to act as the lender of last resort is an indication that it thinks the problems at Northern Rock are temporary ones," Mr Peston added.

Treasury Select Committee chairman John McFall urged Northern Rock customers not to panic.

"I don't think they should be worried about their current accounts or mortgages," he said.

"The fact that the Bank is willing to act should be reassuring."

The loan would be provided at a penal interest rate, he said, as a recognition that management at the firm were not without blame.

'Question of confidence'

Following the widespread losses made by investors in loans to US homebuyers with poor credit history, the so-called sub-prime loans, investors have become wary of buying all mortgage debt, including Northern Rock's.

"All banks are having greater difficulties than normal getting funding from the market but as a specialist mortgage lender, no-one really wants to lend to Northern Rock." Mr Peston said.

"It is much more exposed than its rivals to this distaste for mortgage debt, because its business is overwhelmingly focused on providing mortgages, rather than other kinds of banking business."

Analyst Justin Urquhart-Stewart of Seven Investment Management said the problem was essentially about confidence in the markets.

"We don't know where the poison went from all these bad loans and you have to look at all these bad loans as a bit like a blancmange that's been hit very heavily by a spade and it's gone everywhere.

"They turn up in all sorts of strange funds and therefore we don't know who's got the losses."

Northern Rock is the UK's fifth largest mortgage lender.

In the first six months of the year, it made pre-tax profits of just under £300m, barely changed from the previous year.

However it massively increased its share of the mortgage market, taking 18.9% of all net mortgage lending in the UK against its previous peak of 14.5%, seen in the second half of 2006.

The firm's shares have almost halved in value this year and talk that it may be in further trouble left it as the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 on Thursday, closing down 4.9%.

Northern Rock has loans and other assets on its balance sheet of £113bn. The value of deposits placed with it by retail customers is £24bn.

 

[eek.]

I was about to post that in here.


There must be a credit shortage in the main markets, they simply aren't making the cash available.

If there's a credit crunch things will contract rapidly.

Northern Rock gets bank bail out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6994099.stm

 

[tiznow]

Panic in UK??

Paulson our current treasury secretary and also ex-CEO of goldman sucks going over to calm some nerves.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Fears grow for British economy as panic over Northern Rock spreads


Experts warn that a decade-long borrowing binge has left Britain dangerously exposed to the fallout from the global liquidity crisis

Heather Stewart and Heather Connon
Sunday September 16, 2007
The Observer

US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson flies in to London tomorrow to discuss the worsening global credit crisis with Chancellor Alistair Darling, as fears intensify that the lending squeeze could be the last straw for Britain's buy-now-pay-later economy.

Thousands of anxious customers queued outside branches of Northern Rock to withdraw their savings this weekend, ignoring calls for calm from Darling, after he helped broker an unprecedented emergency loan from the Bank of England to rescue the bank.


City economists warned that a decade-long borrowing binge had left the UK economy dangerously exposed to the fallout from the credit crunch. 'I think the UK is extremely vulnerable to this,' said Danny Gabay, director of consultants Fathom. 'The UK has a double vulnerability. We are vulnerable because of our hugely over extended consumer sector, and because of our large financial services sector.
'This is a financial market event; but the longer it goes on, the greater the risk that it becomes a real economy event - and I think we are at a tipping point.'

As the Federal Reserve prepares to cut interest rates - perhaps by as much as a half percentage point - to restore confidence in financial markets, Darling and Paulson will discuss proposals for better transparency, to prevent a recurrence of the 'contagion' that has spread the impact of bad loans in the US housing market around the world.

But analysts are still scrambling to calculate the potential impact of the current squeeze. Ross Walker, UK economist at RBS, said: 'We were already looking for a noticeable slowdown next year, and now there are further downside risks.' He predicted that the Bank would have to cut interest rates twice by the end of next year, to prevent the downturn becoming too severe with growth slowing to 2.2 per cent, from almost 3 per cent this year.

Richard Donnell, head of research at property data firm Hometrack, said the latest evidence of the severity of the sub-prime crisis would rock confidence in a housing market already struggling to absorb five interest-rate rises.

'It's taken a good year for the impact of higher rates to reach London but, finally, the whole market's feeling the pain.'

It emerged this weekend that several financial institutions have run the slide rule over Northern Rock in recent weeks, as its advisers Hoare Govett and Merrill Lynch battled to avert a Bank of England bailout by finding a buyer.

However, most potential bidders have privately ruled themselves out of the frame. Lloyds TSB has been the favourite candidate, but banking sources indicated it was unlikely to be interested. HSBC - under fire from institutional shareholder Knight Vinke for failing to capitalise on its emerging-markets interests - is also thought unlikely to bid, despite its relatively small share of the UK mortgage market. Other leading banks, including HBOS, RBS and Barclays, are also seen as unlikely to be interested.

One bank executive questioned the logic of bidding for a bank whose name has been tarnished by the Bank of England bailout and whose customers - seen as higher risk -are paying low rates on their largely fixed-rate loans and therefore likely to move elsewhere when these expire. Rival banks are instead likely to focus on poaching that business. Nor is there much scope for cutting costs, as Northern Rock is already the most efficient mortgage bank.

'What do you get with Northern Rock?' asked the banking executive. 'You get a load of customers who are probably also ours already, and you do not get a branch network to speak of.'

Northern Rock's plight has also raised concern about the prospect of heavy losses among Bradford & Bingley's buy-to-let loans, which account for more than half of its mortgage book. James Hamilton, banking analyst at Numis, thinks the increasing threat that the credit crunch will spread into an economic slowdown means that the housing market will be hit - and buy-to-let is likely to be the first area to suffer rising defaults.

An analysis by Jon Kirk at Redburn Partners shows that B&B has the second highest ratio of loans to deposits after Northern Rock, with loans accounting for 1.8 times its savings and deposits base, compared with 3.1 times for Northern Rock. While B&B was quick to reassure on Friday that it is financially secure, securitisations and wholesale markets account for 42 per cent of its funding.

 

[tiznow]

clicky the link for rest of article plus picture of the huge line of people standing in line to withdraw their money....more standing in line to come.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/how-bad-debt-infected-the-world/2007/09/16/1189881341872.html

------------------------------------------------------------------

How bad debt infected the world

Edinburgh, Saturday morning ... customers withdrew more than £1 billion from Northern Rock on Friday.




September 17, 2007
Page 1 of 5 | Single page

The foreclosure butterfly flapped its wings in smalltown USA and the hurricane built and tore through world banking. Iain Dey reports.

Cathy Busby has never met Mick Mayor. The 47-year-old hospital administrator from Colorado had no idea that when she fell behind with the mortgage payments on her three-bedroom home in the suburbs of Denver, it would stop Barclays extending the overdraft limit on Mayor's business four months later.

But this is the true story of the global credit crunch. What seemed initially to be a problem in the US housing market is now forcing up the cost of borrowing in Britain, having swept from Denver to Darlington.

Busby is just one of several hundred thousand American home owners to have become caught up in what is now known as the US subprime lending crisis. In 2005 she remortgaged the home she had lived in for 11 years and in which she raised her two sons. She borrowed $US170,000 ($203,000), the value of the house at the time, to help pay off student debts, a car loan and other personal borrowings. She knew the 7.6 per cent interest rate she had been offered was scheduled to jump sharply after two years.

But she had assumed she would be able to find a new deal, with a new lender, when the time came around.

What she hadn't banked on was the value of her home slumping to $US125,000, leaving her with no prospect of refinancing a new loan an agreeable terms. Her monthly mortgage payments jumped from a little over $US1000 a month to more than $US1500. With a monthly salary of $US4000, this was too much to take. On May 1, Busby joined the long list of American home owners to go into arrears and experience the process of repossession - a process which more than 2 million home owners are expected to face within the next 18 months or so.

Meet Jimmy Cayne. He's one of the biggest big shots on Wall Street: the chairman and chief executive of the investment bank Bear Stearns. The cigar-chomping Cayne is estimated to be worth about $US1.3 billion and likes to spend a lot of time on the golf course. He plays bridge with Warren Buffett and Alan Greenspan. Curiously, Cayne's life has been turned on its head by the problems that people such as Busby have suffered.

Two hedge funds managed by Bear Stearns owned billions of dollars worth of subprime mortgages, just like the one on Busby's home. The funds held them through complex financial instruments known as collaterised debt obligations, or CDOs, which had been used to parcel up and sell portions of all kinds of debt.

The securities held by the funds were supposed to be ultra-safe, and had AA or AAA credit ratings. But when mortgage defaults began to rise, it became apparent that some of these ratings were a little optimistic. By the middle of June, the rival banks Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase were trying to get their money out of the crumbling Bear Stearns funds.

While dozens of mortgage lenders across the US had been forced into bankruptcy by the subprime fallout, this was the first real evidence of it washing up on Wall Street. The global fear rating had just been pushed up a notch.

Cayne eventually agreed to pump $US1.6 billion into one of the funds to stave off collapse. "I'm angry," he said afterwards.

"When you walk around with the reputation for being the most rigorous risk analyser, assessor, controller and that is trashed, well, you have got to feel bad. This is personal."

It turned out to be even more personal for Warren Spector, Cayne's $US36 million-a-year golden boy and heir apparent.

Spector was forced to carry the can for Bear's excesses and was promptly shown the door. Cayne shot an 88 round at the Hollywood Golf Club in New Jersey the following day, a sharp improvement from 102 in the depths of the crisis.

Cayne was not the only one being spanked over subprime losses. Collaterised debt obligations such as those linked to the Bear funds had been sold to investors all over the world.

The CDOs with exposure to dodgy US home loans had been used as collateral against assets held in other CDOs. All these positions were leveraged. When the defaults began to show up they had a knock-on effect on funds that initially seemed unrelated. That started the panic.

Hedge funds were being forced to put up money against losses they were making on CDO investments.

They raised the cash by selling equities and high-grade bonds, assets that investors were still willing to buy. The FTSE100 was kicked into a downward spiral, along with every other big equity index. Suddenly, what had started as an obscure issue in an ethereal branch of finance was headline news, beaming into living rooms across the country.

Problems began to appear in the Canadian banking system. Then the Bank of China put its hand up, admitting that it was exposed to almost $US10 billion of US subprime loans. This was global contagion.

But it was in Germany that things began to really kick off. Josef Ackermann, the ebullient chief executive of Deutsche Bank, could see trouble brewing at IKB, a tiny state-owned bank that is supposed to lend to small companies. IKB had been denying rumours of trading losses for days.

But Ackermann knew through his commercial relationships with the bank that it had exposure to US subprime losses. He blew the whistle. A multi-billion euro, state-sponsored rescue of IKB ensued, along with the resignation of its chief executive.

"Fears of a banking crisis in Germany lack any foundation," said Axel Weber, the president of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, in early August. "The problems at IKB are of an institution-specific nature."

Really? The markets were not so sure. WestLB, perhaps the best known of the German Landesbanks, admitted it too had exposure.

It was already under fire over huge trading losses racked up by its proprietary trading operations. Shares in every German bank were being pummelled.

Then Sachsen, the regional bank owned by the state of Saxony, was sucked into the turmoil. Banks around the world were secretly raising concerns about the credit-worthiness of German banks generally. A £11.9 billion ($28.5 billion) funding vehicle for Sachsen was struggling. Other banks were refusing to buy the short-term loans that kept it afloat.

Sachsen had been reassuring investors just days earlier that it had no concerns about credit quality in its funding vehicles. But evidently the market did not believe it.

It too had to be bailed out.

This was now a European crisis of confidence that stretched way beyond fears about direct losses to subprime exposure. In London, investment bankers were cackling with glee.

German banks have long been viewed as among the more gullible institutions on the global stage. Only Deutsche's Ackermann sits at the top table alongside the big US and British banks. The view among the Mercedes-driving fraternity in the City was that the Germans should have stuck to making cars - and now they were paying the price.

But that didn't last long. By mid-August, gossip began to spread suggesting that Barclays Capital, the profit machine at the heart of the Barclays empire, was nursing losses linked to the German institutions.

It had set up some of the controversial funds for Sachsen. It had arranged similar funds for hedge funds in Geneva and London. They were all now in difficulty.

Bob Diamond, the charismatic chief executive of Barclays Capital, remained uncharacteristically quiet as rumours flew that the bank's exposure could run to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Then Ed Cahill, the banker who had set up many of these vehicles, quit, fuelling the speculation. Cahill had been nicknamed Captain Sensible in some quarters of the market.

The problem for the struggling funds was the same: they had all relied upon commercial paper for financing - short-term loans that typically last for between 30 and 90 days. Usually these loans are viewed as entirely risk-free investments and simply roll over from one period to the next.

 

[VaultedTreehouse]

The key word in so many of these articles is "bail out." Non-issues don't require bailouts. But they will continue until the music stops.

 

[tiznow]

gold 715, oil 80.18, lets cut rates, whoppie

 

[tiznow]

AP
Stocks Fall As Rate Decision Looms
Monday September 17, 2:25 pm ET
By Madlen Read, AP Business Writer
Stocks Dip As Wall Street Refrains From Big Bets Ahead of Tuesday Fed Meeting

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fell Monday as a British bank run kept tensions high on Wall Street ahead of the Federal Reserve's Tuesday decision on interest rates.

The market is betting on a rate cut from the Fed, but investors are not completely sure what the central bank will do and what it will say in its accompanying economic statement. Furthermore, with the major brokerages' third-quarter results yet to be released, investors are uncertain about how badly the summer's stock downturn, souring home loans, and credit squeeze hit the banking industry.

So as Northern Rock PLC, Britain's fifth-largest mortgage lender, saw its stock plunge and customers withdraw billions of dollars after it issued a profit warning Friday and drew on emergency funds from the Bank of England, U.S. investors took no chances and pared back their stock holdings, particularly in the financial sector. Talk from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan of the possibility of a recession amid high inflationary pressures also elevated Wall Street's jitters, as did job cuts at Merrill Lynch & Co.'s First Franklin Financial Corp.

It's possible the Fed won't go through with a rate cut at all if it believes the economy is still growing moderately and that inflation remains a threat, but most investors expect the Fed to cut the bench mark federal funds rate by at least a quarter-point. And because negative economic data has trickled in over the last couple weeks -- such as a decrease of 4,000 jobs in August and weaker-than-expected retail sales -- some anticipate a half-point rate cut.

"A quarter-point is going to be disappointing. It's already priced in," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. But the Fed probably won't want to lower rates by more than that, he said, and the central bank may not indicate in its statement that more reductions are in the offing.

"The big issue is gold and oil have been spiking higher, which people could argue is inflationary, but economic data has been weak. The Fed's in a tough place." Higher interest rates prevent costs from rising; lower rates fuel growth but also tend to accelerate inflation.

In mid-afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 49.50, or 0.37 percent, to 13,393.02.

Broader stock indicators also dipped. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 8.28, or 0.56 percent, to 1,475.97, and the Nasdaq composite index lost 20.34, or 0.78 percent, to 2,581.84. The Russell 2000 index, which tracks small company stocks, fell 7.23, or 0.92 percent, to 776.26.

Bonds rose modestly, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note down to 4.47 percent from 4.48 percent late Friday.

Trading volumes were lower than normal, indicating that many market participants were staying on the sidelines ahead of the Fed's decision.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 709.6 million shares.

Last week, stocks saw sizable gains, due largely to high expectations of a rate cut. The Dow ended up 2.51 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 2.11 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 1.42 percent. The Dow is just 4 percent below its all-time high of 14,000.41, reached in July before fears escalated about bad home loans and excessive leveraged debt.

The prospect of a recession has been keeping the markets volatile.

Greenspan said in an interview with NBC before the markets opened Monday that the risk of a recession is higher than it was at the beginning of the year, but not by much.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in Paris that regulators should not rush to impose new rules on the market because of the recent tightening in credit.

"There's tremendous growth going on in many parts of our world economy, and that's driving a lot of business here in the U.S.," said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management, noting that the markets are very focused on the U.S. housing market right now. "I'm not going to say let's not worry, but let's put it in perspective."

The dollar rose versus the pound and euro but fell against the yen. Gold jumped.

Crude oil prices gained 98 cents to $80.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising back into record territory.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.69 percent, Germany's DAX index fell 0.24 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 1.80 percent.

Japanese markets were closed Monday for a holiday. China's volatile Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.1 percent to a record, but most Asian stocks fell. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 1.20 percent.

Later in the week the major investment banks -- Bear Stearns Cos., Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. -- release their third-quarter results. On Monday, Bear Stearns fell $2.29, or 2 percent, to $114.90; Lehman fell 87 cents to $58.64; Morgan Stanley fell $1.75, or 2.6 percent, to $64.36; and Goldman fell $3.32 to $187.27.

Merrill fell $1.75, or 2.3 percent, to $72.90, after saying it was eliminating an undisclosed number of jobs.

 

[BASEHEAD]

Quarter of a point will be just fine to start.The discount window rate will also be further cut.

 

[tiznow]

Interventions just tell the markets things are really bad guys.....won't work long term.....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Monday, September 17, 2007
Government Guarantees All Deposits at Northern Rock

Note: Video of the Day (bottom of posts) is an interview with customers in a Northern Rock queue this morning.

From the Guardian: Government guarantees Northern Rock deposits

The chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, this evening promised that the government will guarantee all savings deposits at Northern Rock amid concern that Britain is plunging into its worst banking crisis in decades.

The move follows a dramatic last-minute collapse in the share price of Alliance & Leicester, which fell 32% in late trading this afternoon, and sparked fears of "contagion" from Northern Rock to other financial institutions.

Mr Darling said: "I can announce today that following the discussions with the Governor (of the Bank of England) and the Chairman of the FSA, should it be necessary, we, with the Bank of England would put in place arrangements that would guarantee all the existing deposits in Northern Rock during the current instability."

This evening queues were still stretching out of the door at branches of Northern Rock across the country, with more than £2bn already taken out by anxious savers. The value of Northern Rock shares fell sharply again today, down by 35%, but in late trading it was overtaken by a startling drop in the share price of Alliance & Leicester, Britain's seventh largest bank.
...
Northern Rock, in a formal statement issued after the Mr Darlling spoke, said that "The Chancellor's statement makes it clear beyond any doubt that all savings in Northern Rock are safe and secure. Consequently anybody who is in a queue outside a branch, or who is trying to access an online account can be fully reassured that there is no cause for concern whatsoever."

It also promised to refund any penalties that savers may have paid when they withdrew their funds from the bank - so long as they put the money back in by October 5. "Any customer who paid a penalty to withdraw their funds from Northern Rock, due to concern over the current situation, will have the penalty refunded if they reinvest those funds in the same type of account with Northern Rock by 5 October 2007," it said.
These are stunning developments in the UK. Clearly there is concern that the run at Northern Rock will spread to other institutions (like Alliance & Leicester).

The UK version of FDIC insurance actually motivates many depositors to remove their bank deposits. Only the first 2000 pounds is 100% guaranteed, and the next 30,000 (or so) is 90% guaranteed. No one wants a 10% haircut, so it makes sense to remove any deposits over 2000 pounds.

This new guarantee should calm depositor's fears.

 

[BASEHEAD]

lol....I think youre overestimating the impact this event.


The day before the fed meets the papers are alive with Greenspan scaring folks with talk of recession and Bush economics,cmon.I was pleased to see most folks took a wait and see attitude to the forthcoming cuts.

Im banging in to work tomorrow and playin golf 4 sure.

 

[cussin'it]

Hay Basey, you got a nice double-cut today bro.

:finger:

Where should I send the 20 bucks worth of 'possum jerky? hola

Gold gonna get a nice boost too as inflation ramps up.

Happy hookin' :toast: (or slicing)

 

[VaultedTreehouse]

Absolutely astounding how stupid this move is. He'll go down as one of the worst Fed Chairman ever. To sacrifice the dollar at this stage is ludicrous. WHat has it dropped 3.5% in 2 weeks? Inflation will be out of control. 100 dollar oil is a freaking certainty within months I would say...He chose to bail out Wall Street, this won't be helping the housing market even though people think it will. AS I posted weeks ago, I believed this rally would happen and 14500 in the mid winter period. Simple asset inflation, across all spectrums. I hope your income is going up and going up fast b/c a dollar last year, last month, yesterday is not worth what it was today. Pray to God China doesn't hop out of the dollar.

 

[tiznow]

yeah i'm in shock. I was expecting a quarter point cut, 50 bp at this stage in the game is hitting the panic button. long term the financial markets might hold up in dollar terms but it will only be due to massive inflation across the board.

Classic fascism in action the state and corporations working together, the repercussions to the sheep is of zero interest.

 

[tiznow]

CFC CEO SAYS BUBBLE REIGNITED WITH 50 BP CUT BUBBLES RESUME...PRINT TO INFINITY BIATCHES....THE AGE OF INFINITE FIAT IS UPON US....

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Bullish" Countrywide CEO to double branch network
Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:15pm EDT
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo said on Tuesday the largest U.S. mortgage lender plans to double the number of branches over four to six months as its business model evolves to become more like a bank than a home loan provider.

Speaking at a Bank of America conference in San Francisco, Mozilo also said he remains "bullish, very bullish, on our future," even after rising defaults, falling home prices and tighter credit markets made it harder to operate, leading to as many as 12,000 job cuts by December.

Mozilo said Countrywide operates 112 financial centers, and plans to add about the same number by March.

He also said the Calabasas, California-based company has begun to attract net inflows of retail and commercial deposits, after customers worried about Countrywide's health had lined up last month at many branches to withdraw their money.

"We have been successful at mitigating this (and have) turned the corner," Mozilo said.

Countrywide shares closed Tuesday up 58 cents at $19.85 on the New York Stock Exchange. They remain down 53.2 percent this year.

Pressure on lenders was eased Tuesday when the U.S. Federal Reserve cut a key lending rate to 4.75 percent from 5.25 percent, to help shield the economy from a housing slump and credit market turbulence.

The move is unlikely to help borrowers who face large increases in their mortgage payments as rates reset higher. Countrywide's 3 percent share price gain lagged the 4.4 percent rise in the KBW Mortgage Finance Index (.MFX: Quote, Profile, Research).

Mozilo praised the rate cut, saying it showed the central bank has "realized the importance of home financing, and the critical need to return liquidity to the market."

On Sept. 13, Countrywide said it had lined up $12 billion of secured financing. That supplemented $11.5 billion it got in August when it unexpectedly drew down a credit line, after being unable to sell short-term debt to fund operations.

Also in August, Countrywide received a $2 billion infusion from Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which could eventually give the second-largest U.S. bank a one-sixth stake in the lender.

Countrywide this summer stopped making home loans that don't meet its own banking unit's investment criteria, or which cannot be purchased by government-sponsored enterprises such as Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

It expects industry loan volumes to fall 25 percent in 2008, and Mozilo said Countrywide expects "corresponding material declines in our own volumes."

Mozilo called on policymakers to boost the cap on loans that GSEs can buy to $850,000 from $417,000. Such "conforming" loans are considered safer to own but less profitable to make.

"Loan limits should either be based on a formula relating to the median home price in a particular area of the country, or they should be broadly raised to $850,000 across the board," Mozilo said.

Mozilo also said Countrywide is "out of the subprime business," apart from subprime loans that the GSEs will buy. Subprime loans go to people with weaker credit.

Mozilo co-founded Countrywide in 1969, and his employment contract runs through 2009, when he will be 71.

 

[tiznow]

Also i might add this is the same guy that weeks back was saying this was the worst housing market since the great depression.

markets come out and beg the fed for cut, they panic and cut 50 BP, and the markets than pat the fed on the back and say thank you. pure comedy

:nohead:

 

[BASEHEAD]

:toast:

You guys are shocked-you shouldnt be.Especially as the wholesale price numbers rolled in shortly before the meeting.Inflation remains a concern but as long as oil is a supply and demand commodity and we demand it inflation will always be a concern regardless of monetary policy.

Expect more cuts-expect more folks to be bailed out. I just skimmed a headline about Congress approving more bailout legislation.Expect a tempering in growth,even today tho companies continue to beat the street,amazing.Crashing out is clearly out of the question tho.Today proved to me how clueless folks can be,especially "academics" who have no business criticizing folks who actually make policy.I told you it was either the dollar or the economy-dollar index falls again-go figure.

Credit bubble reignited? In one day theyve made this assumption.My god how gullible and or pessimistic can you be.In the coming months the loosening of credit will hopefully spawn some oversight and regulation as companies work their way thru this debacle but anyone who thinks this economy is on the verge of some collapse is smoking crack.

I suppose if one keeps beating the Hoover economy drum long enough the broken clock effect will take place but IMO youll need to be bitching an awfully long time here about it before you are actually accurate.

Hope you all made some money.

Cuss: Hows bout a nice Razorback visor? I got to enjoy what will most likely be that last hurrah for summer in NE today.Shot a 74 which Im happy with but sadly winter is coming.The vicious cycle of golfing bad,getting better again and playing well is almost over for another year.Ive got to move west again.INTC still a beast-loving GME too man.

 

[tiznow]

here's a little history from you basehead....also the dollar was strong in early 2001 so they had room to cut....market eventually bottomed out in october of 2002

Surprise Rate Cut Spurs U.S. Stocks
By Mitchell Martin
Published: THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 2001

NEW YORK: U.S. central bankers cut interest rates Wednesday in a sharp and unexpected action that came as the American economy showed signs of a rapid deterioration from its robust gains of the late 1990s.

A day after the Nasdaq composite index tumbled 7.2 percent, the action was a tonic to the stock market, overcoming all of the Tuesday loss and then some. The Nasdaq finished with a gain of over 14 percent, its largest-ever daily rise.

The Federal Open Market Committee reduced its target on the federal funds rate to 6 percent from 6.5 percent, citing weakening business conditions, lower consumer confidence, falling financial markets and high energy prices.

"The timing of the Fed's action takes us by surprise and reveals a deepening anxiety among the policymakers regarding the U.S. economy," said William Sullivan, chief economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. "It is also quite apparent that the Fed is no longer focusing on labor-market developments exclusively, as they were last year; rather, they are concentrating on sentiment measures, the ongoing pace of consumer spending and manufacturing."

Especially significant, he said, was a late-December report of flagging consumer confidence by the Conference Board, along with the National Association of Purchasing Management data on Tuesday, which showed the U.S. manufacturing economy contracting for a fifth consecutive month.

In Austin, Texas, President-elect George W. Bush said: "I am pleased that the Fed has cut the interest rates. I think the cut was needed. It was a strong statement that measures must be taken to make sure our economy does not go into a tailspin.

"One of the messages that Mr. Greenspan sent was that we need bold action, not only at the Fed, but I would interpret that to mean bold action in the halls of Congress to make sure that the economy stays vibrant, and to that end, I think it is really important for members of the Congress to understand that the tax-relief plan that I put forth is an integral part of economic recovery." (Page 3)

Just a year ago, the Fed was trying to rein in economic growth, worried that there were too few unemployed workers in the United States and that a bidding war for their services would push prices for goods and services higher.

The rate cut Wednesday of half a percentage point — twice the increment the Fed has preferred under the chairmanship of Alan Greenspan — offset an increase of that size enacted May 16.

Mr. Sullivan said that increase came shortly after the stock market roared to a peak in March and that the central bankers were obviously then concerned that equity gains were being translated into spending by consumers feeling flush from the so-called wealth effect. The resulting demand for goods and services was taxing the economy's ability to provide them, and the central bank was seeking to discourage spending by raising interest rates.

As recently as its Nov. 15 meeting, the FOMC warned that inflation was more of a danger than economic weakness, but it reversed that position Dec. 19.

Mr. Sullivan said the stock market would provide clues to the Fed's next move. It had been expected to cut rates at its Jan. 31 FOMC meeting, and a reduction at that time might still occur if the stock market does not sustain the gains seen Wednesday. "If the stock market does experience a huge rally between now and the end of the month, then the prospects of another rate cut are diminished," said Mr. Sullivan.

He said the statement's mention of tight conditions in "financial markets" was significant because it was broader than the usual "credit markets" terminology, which would have referred only to bonds.

Bond prices fell after the rate cut, reversing a "flight to quality" that occurred in recent weeks as investors fled the stock market, Mr. Sullivan said.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond rose to 5.15 percent late Wednesday from the close Tuesday of 4.92 percent but was still only slightly higher than the 5.11 percent at which it ended 2000. At the end of July, the bond yielded more than 6 percent.

Besides the FOMC move on the federal funds target, which banks charge each other on overnight loans, the Federal Reserve Board itself said it would reduce the discount rate it charges on direct loans to banks to 5.5 percent from 5.75 percent.

The federal funds rate is essentially the floor for the American credit markets, charged on short-term loans among creditworthy borrowers. The FOMC, which includes the members of the Federal Reserve Board and the presidents of the regional Fed banks, can influence that rate by adding or draining cash from the economy.

The discount rate is more of an emergency facility, available to banks that must top up their cash positions but generally shunned because it is a sign they are having trouble borrowing in the open market.

Rate reductions help economic growth in a number of ways. By reducing borrowing costs, they make it easier for those with loans to service their debts, and they also make it cheaper to borrow money to invest in the stock market or to buy productive assets such as factory machinery.

The rate cut directly benefited the financial sector, with Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley among the active gainers on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 299.60 points higher, or 2.81 percent, at 10,945.75, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 was up 5.01 percent, or 64.26 points, at 1,347.53.

But the real winners were the battered stocks on the Nasdaq, which had seen their values mauled by the prospect of a slowing economy depressing demand for their goods and thus reducing their earnings growth. The Nasdaq composite added a stunning 324.66 points, to 2,616.52, an increase of 14.17 percent.

Cisco was the most active Nasdaq issue late in the day, clawing back about 20 percent of its value, which had been halved since Aug. 31. Other active gainers were Worldcom, Sun, Intel, Oracle, Microsoft, JDS Uniphase and Dell.

Christine Callies, chief U.S. investment strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co., said that if the Fed can engineer a "soft landing," slowing economic growth to a rate that would not generate inflationary pressures but not pushing it into recession, then technology and financial stocks would be expected to benefit, along with providers of consumer goods and services that are dependent on economic growth.

Among the last category, entertainment companies such as Viacom and Time Warner were especially strong.

On the other hand, she said, the "defensive groups" that had been rising in the past few weeks were likely to come under pressure as investors returned to their focus on companies with growth prospects. Indeed, Philip Morris and Pfizer, two stocks that have been rising since the end of the summer, were among the few losers in the active list on the New York Stock Exchange.

Energy stocks, another group that had done well as the market weakened late last year, also fared poorly Wednesday, with Chevron, Amerada Hess and Texaco showing losses.

Microsoft and Intel, each up about 11 percent, were the biggest influences on the Dow industrials, along with AT&T. IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Home Depot were not far behind.


29-Mar-01 1,838.44 1,876.74 1,802.76 1,820.57 2,079,050,000 1,820.57
28-Mar-01 1,925.30 1,925.30 1,852.96 1,854.13 2,072,260,000 1,854.13
27-Mar-01 1,922.70 1,979.75 1,907.16 1,972.23 1,951,410,000 1,972.23
26-Mar-01 1,957.71 1,960.68 1,909.42 1,918.49 1,719,620,000 1,918.49
23-Mar-01 1,938.91 1,952.92 1,891.99 1,928.68 2,284,560,000 1,928.68
22-Mar-01 1,845.34 1,898.10 1,794.21 1,897.70 2,504,770,000 1,897.70
21-Mar-01 1,862.74 1,896.21 1,820.75 1,830.23 2,109,190,000 1,830.23
20-Mar-01 1,964.45 1,974.14 1,857.41 1,857.44 2,016,500,000 1,857.44
19-Mar-01 1,901.45 1,953.08 1,867.58 1,951.18 1,774,570,000 1,951.18
16-Mar-01 1,914.58 1,940.71 1,877.69 1,890.91 2,102,270,000 1,890.91
15-Mar-01 2,023.79 2,030.73 1,939.38 1,940.71 1,963,770,000 1,940.71
14-Mar-01 1,948.56 2,028.53 1,933.40 1,972.09 2,147,220,000 1,972.09
13-Mar-01 1,948.70 2,015.35 1,932.63 2,014.78 2,096,420,000 2,014.78
12-Mar-01 2,001.68 2,004.09 1,922.78 1,923.38 2,149,820,000 1,923.38
9-Mar-01 2,124.11 2,124.11 2,041.78 2,052.78 1,962,120,000 2,052.78
8-Mar-01 2,211.30 2,219.87 2,161.41 2,168.73 1,759,140,000 2,168.73
7-Mar-01 2,241.23 2,243.75 2,201.41 2,223.92 1,774,410,000 2,223.92
6-Mar-01 2,204.30 2,243.78 2,202.70 2,204.43 1,986,380,000 2,204.43
5-Mar-01 2,142.75 2,163.09 2,127.96 2,142.92 1,495,750,000 2,142.92
2-Mar-01 2,111.23 2,197.85 2,091.55 2,117.63 2,374,100,000 2,117.63
1-Mar-01 2,126.30 2,184.41 2,071.03 2,183.37 2,256,880,000 2,183.37
28-Feb-01 2,223.88 2,238.06 2,127.50 2,151.83 2,082,700,000 2,151.83
27-Feb-01 2,286.64 2,300.18 2,206.72 2,207.82 1,808,540,000 2,207.82
26-Feb-01 2,287.88 2,309.73 2,238.64 2,308.50 1,739,060,000 2,308.50
23-Feb-01 2,221.27 2,264.68 2,156.29 2,262.51 2,237,910,000 2,262.51
22-Feb-01 2,272.13 2,291.69 2,185.91 2,244.96 2,483,470,000 2,244.96
21-Feb-01 2,281.79 2,353.51 2,257.15 2,268.94 2,019,740,000 2,268.94
20-Feb-01 2,439.57 2,442.99 2,317.77 2,318.35 1,878,340,000 2,318.35
16-Feb-01 2,444.60 2,457.65 2,397.43 2,425.38 1,892,200,000 2,425.38
15-Feb-01 2,536.63 2,593.09 2,536.63 2,552.91 2,106,930,000 2,552.91
14-Feb-01 2,437.68 2,493.11 2,388.40 2,491.40 1,987,350,000 2,491.40
13-Feb-01 2,510.84 2,554.65 2,427.47 2,427.72 1,728,550,000 2,427.72
12-Feb-01 2,458.65 2,508.27 2,435.36 2,489.66 1,751,220,000 2,489.66
9-Feb-01 2,542.24 2,542.62 2,455.87 2,470.97 1,881,910,000 2,470.97
8-Feb-01 2,625.78 2,651.84 2,562.02 2,562.06 1,852,360,000 2,562.06
7-Feb-01 2,615.94 2,636.07 2,554.76 2,607.82 2,056,920,000 2,607.82
6-Feb-01 2,641.91 2,705.59 2,640.23 2,664.49 1,788,920,000 2,664.49
5-Feb-01 2,639.65 2,656.02 2,596.73 2,643.21 1,648,760,000 2,643.21
2-Feb-01 2,782.93 2,791.58 2,660.11 2,660.50 1,706,900,000 2,660.50
1-Feb-01 2,771.57 2,796.89 2,742.44 2,782.79 1,776,260,000 2,782.79
31-Jan-01 2,848.11 2,872.47 2,772.35 2,772.73 2,277,310,000 2,772.73
30-Jan-01 2,845.01 2,861.71 2,817.13 2,838.35 2,073,590,000 2,838.35
29-Jan-01 2,757.29 2,840.02 2,742.50 2,838.34 1,970,130,000 2,838.34
26-Jan-01 2,705.39 2,785.62 2,686.65 2,781.30 2,268,800,000 2,781.30
25-Jan-01 2,836.35 2,849.56 2,753.37 2,754.28 2,298,150,000 2,754.28
24-Jan-01 2,850.74 2,892.36 2,828.32 2,859.15 2,567,320,000 2,859.15
23-Jan-01 2,759.26 2,845.39 2,736.28 2,840.39 2,278,470,000 2,840.39
22-Jan-01 2,759.10 2,789.63 2,722.96 2,757.91 2,037,140,000 2,757.91
19-Jan-01 2,838.36 2,841.25 2,752.06 2,770.38 2,697,190,000 2,770.38
18-Jan-01 2,696.74 2,769.98 2,661.26 2,768.49 2,558,710,000 2,768.49
17-Jan-01 2,710.53 2,756.63 2,668.48 2,682.78 2,819,190,000 2,682.78
16-Jan-01 2,631.49 2,638.22 2,576.95 2,618.55 2,073,940,000 2,618.55
12-Jan-01 2,639.56 2,699.87 2,589.63 2,626.50 2,518,850,000 2,626.50
11-Jan-01 2,495.59 2,661.93 2,495.01 2,640.57 2,842,640,000 2,640.57
10-Jan-01 2,392.71 2,525.28 2,376.49 2,524.18 2,470,350,000 2,524.18
9-Jan-01 2,424.69 2,474.16 2,406.08 2,441.30 1,975,130,000 2,441.30
8-Jan-01 2,388.72 2,397.06 2,299.65 2,395.92 1,850,590,000 2,395.92
5-Jan-01 2,573.11 2,574.62 2,395.39 2,407.65 2,104,670,000 2,407.65
4-Jan-01 2,593.96 2,644.80 2,549.83 2,566.83 2,610,680,000 2,566.83

 

[BASEHEAD]

History? Didnt something rather large occur in Sept of 2001?