subprime mortgages

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Goldman Sits High and Dry in Credit Crunch

Wall Street envies lone investment firm that got it right

(Newser) - When Goldman Sachs reported $2.85 billion in third-quarter profits, it sounded like an “I told you so.” As most financials reported credit-crunch pratfalls, Goldman alone had read the signs and gone the right way on mortgages. “You’d have to give them an A-plus,” said...

How To Lose Your Home Without Missing a Payment

Renters out in the cold in mortgage crisis

(Newser) - When landlords default on risky subprime loans, renters are the ones left out in the cold, the New York Times reports. Thousands of renters have lost their homes, usually little suspecting they were living on precariously-financed ground. “Renters are collateral damage in the mortgage crisis,” said one lawyer....

Banks' Borrowing Rates Climb
Banks' Borrowing Rates Climb

Banks' Borrowing Rates Climb

(Newser) - Financial institutions are paying more to borrow money than the average company for the first time in over a decade, reports Bloomberg, as investors fear the $50 billion in subprime losses the big banks have reported so far is just the tip of the iceberg. “We've only seen the...

Goldman Sees $2T Credit Shortfall, Major Slowdown

Nobel winner, investment firm warn of growing risk

(Newser) - The subprime mortgage crisis that has cost financial companies $400 billion and triggered what one banker is calling the worst housing market since the Great Depression will force a $2 trillion credit squeeze that could set off a “substantial recession” in the US, reports Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs said the...

House Votes to Tighten Controls on Lenders

But Senate deadlock could keep bill tied up for months

(Newser) - The House has passed a bill intended to protect mortgage borrowers by imposing stricter regulations on lenders. But it's unlikely it will become law before the new year, given the Senate's problem passing a less controversial bill that also aims to mitigate the subprime lending crisis. The House measure bars...

E*Trade Stock in $2B Free Fall
 E*Trade Stock in $2B Free Fall

E*Trade Stock in $2B Free Fall

59% of value wiped out after analyst warns of subprime woes

(Newser) - Online brokerage pioneer E*Trade has been caught in the subprime mortgage crisis. Its shares fell 59% yesterday, wiping out $2.2 billion of its market value, reports the Wall Street Journal. Although its core business is discount brokerage, it is also a bank and has $12.4 billion in home...

Mortgage Rates Drop to 5-Month Low
Mortgage Rates Drop
to 5-Month Low

Mortgage Rates Drop to 5-Month Low

Analysts attribute dip to slackening economy

(Newser) - Rates for 30-year fixed mortgages have slipped for the third week in a row. The dip to 6.24% is the lowest level since May. Mortgage rates have been falling across the board over the last week, which analysts attribute to the slackening economy. The drop follows the Fed's cut...

Bernanke Sees Q4 Slowdown
Bernanke Sees Q4 Slowdown

Bernanke Sees Q4 Slowdown

Fed chief sees economy as 'resilient' but growth slow through this quarter

(Newser) - Economic growth will slow "noticeably" through the end of the year and into 2008, Fed chief Ben Bernanke said in prepared testimony for a congressional panel today. Bernanke called the economy "resilient," but said the housing slump will intensify before it's over, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Wall Street Bonuses In for a Fall
Wall Street Bonuses In for a Fall

Wall Street Bonuses In for a Fall

Extra pay could drop in half for some senior bond traders

(Newser) - Wall Street's multi-million-dollar bonuses are likely to take a hit for the first time in five years, with extra pay dropping in half for some senior sellers of mortgage-backed securities, according to the Wall Street Journal. Traders in stocks and commodities are expected to do better than those working with...

Calif. Budget Falls Prey to Housing Crisis

Governator orders across-the-board cuts as deficit nears $10B

(Newser) - With the housing crisis laying waste to California’s coffers, Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday ordered all state agencies to cut budgets by 10%, the LA Times reports. “We are among a handful of states that has a lot of exposure to the housing crash,” said an economist. Property, sales,...

Why the CEO Talent Pool Is So Small

As Citi, Merrill searches show, Wall Street is now a tough place to grow managers

(Newser) - With Citigroup and Merrill Lynch both suddenly searching for new CEOs, the Wall Street Journal looks at why the list of contenders for the top jobs at Wall Street's biggest firms is so short. Start with an earn-or-die corporate culture, which taints talented chief executives who fail to deliver in...

Same Missteps Felled 2 Wall Street Stars

Prince, O'Neal gambled they could ride out subprime storm

(Newser) - With the CEOs of two financial giants making their exits within a week of each other, the Financial Times looks at the similarities in the undoing of Citigroup's Chuck Prince and Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal. Both struggled unsuccessfully to change corporate cultures, making enemies along the way, and both invested...

It's Official: O'Neal Out
It's Official: O'Neal Out

It's Official: O'Neal Out

CEO ousted after subprime writedowns, backdoor merger talks

(Newser) - Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal is retiring effective immediately, the company announced today, shocking no one. Merrill characterized the ouster as a mutual decision, but massive subprime losses and takeover indiscretions clearly marked O’Neal for the chopping block. Terms of the exit package were not disclosed, but it's...

UBS Reports $712M Q3 Loss, $4.4B in Writedowns

Subprime crisis costs bank $4 billion in writedown

(Newser) - The subprime mortgage mess claimed another casualty today: Zurich-based UBS reported its first quarterly loss in nearly five years, a $712 million hit that drove down share prices as much as 1.9%, reports Bloomberg. UBS reported $4.4 billion in losses and writedowns on mortgage securities. And more writedowns...

O'Neal Exit Package Is All That's Left

Lawyers crafting golden parachute for Merrill CEO after $8.4B losses

(Newser) - CEO Stan O’Neal has leaped from the flames of Merrill Lynch after its $8.4 billion write-down last week, but nobody yet knows the size of his golden parachute, writes the Wall Street Journal. Teams of lawyers are negotiating an exit package that may exceed $160 million, reflecting 21...

Wall Street Watching Fed's High Wire Act

Rate cut expected in unusually tough decision this week

(Newser) - All eyes are on the Fed this week, with Wall Street expecting a quarter-point rate cut when the group meets Tuesday and Wednesday. But the decision is an usually tough one, the AP reports, with the tight rope between controlling inflation and keeping markets fluid more precarious than it has...

Existing-Home Sales Plummet Past Predictions

(Newser) - The housing market absorbed more bad news today. Existing-home sales dropped 8% in September, hitting their lowest level since at least 1999, as tighter credit standards kept buyers away. The 5.04 million annual rate was far below projections, bolstering predictions of another rate cut by the Fed next week....

Top Chicago Homebuilder Goes Bankrupt

Neumann becomes second largest builder to fall in subprime collapse

(Newser) - Neumann homes, a top Chicago homebuilder, will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Chicago Tribune reports, making it the second-largest builder felled by the dive in the housing market. The company has laid off all but 20 of its 110 workers. “I’m not overly optimistic about the...

Countrywide to Refinance Risky Home Loans

About 80,000 subprime borrowers will get lower rates from the $16B plan

(Newser) - Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, will refinance $16 billion worth of subprime home loans. The move will allow 80,000 customers with adjustable-rate mortgages to get lower rates, making it more likely that they'll keep their homes. Countrywide will make less money from the new arrangement, but fewer mortgages...

Bear Stearns, China's Citic Trade $1B Stakes

Partnership will develop products, services for Chinese and Asian markets

(Newser) - In a welcome boost after this year's devastating subprime losses, Bear Stearns today moved to secure a long-coveted slice of the Chinese market. Stearns and China’s Citic Securities Co. agreed  to invest $1 billion in each other, pooling their Asian resources to develop new products for the Chinese market,...

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