Financial Crisis Monitor

Our analysts study the financial crisis on a daily basis. Back in 2007 I warned our family, and friends with investments, that the market was too high at 12,500 and it could not be sustained. those who lost moeny on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG had no one to blame but themselves. [...]

The U.S. subprime crisis is being felt around the world, regardless of early reports to the contrary. It seems that many early reports were an attempt to buy time, downplaying the seriousness of subprime around the world while banks and investors bought and sold. Here is one take from the International Monetary Fund:
Japanese [...]

Another lender is singing the mortgage blues and more mortgage brokers are scrambling. Nationstar Mortgage, the subprime unit of Fortress Investment Group LLC said it is no longer accepting new loan applications from brokers, a signal the lender is winding down operations.
Nationstar’s decision to stop all wholesale originations became effective on Friday, according [...]

Decision One was a big middleman in the subprime industry. It originated loans through thousands of brokers and then sold those loans to firms that bundled them and sold them as mortgage-backed securities.
Decision One was “a huge buyer,” said Chris Freemott, president of All American Mortgage, a mortgage broker. “The subprime-mortgage market — as the [...]

Barclays FirstPlus portfolio mostly comprises second mortgages – loans secured against the borrower’s home, over and above a mortgage. In an environment of falling house prices, these loans effectively become unsecured borrowings – and are one of the segments of the market where bankers are becoming increasingly nervous.
Industry sources believe Seegers is minded to sell [...]