Hi there. It’s frighfully hard to sit down in front of a computer screen and try and say much of anything useful after spending four or five hours on the golf course. For those of you in more frigid climes I reluctantly will report to you that it was 75 degrees in Phoenix today with […]
Archive for December, 2008
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Holiday Posting
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
Posting might be a little light tomorrow. One of my brothers was fortunate enough to have been born on New Years Eve (there is always a party when that’s your birthday). This has precipitated, for about 25 years, an annual very large and somewhat liquid golf tournament. Therefore, I am out-of-pocket for the day. I will […]
Solving The Housing Crisis Via The Bankruptcy Courts
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
So how are you going to feel when your neighbor who paid about the same as you for your house and borrowed about the same amount as you did gets his mortgage chopped down by a bankruptcy court? That’s likely to be reality within a month or two. The WSJ has an article that argues […]
GMAC Wants To Lend You Some Of Your Own Money
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
If the shenanigans surrounding the GMAC conversion to a bank holding company haven’t gotten under your skin, then maybe this will. GMAC announced that it intends to significantly lower its lending standards in order to in its own words “… (get) back in the game.” GMAC said that it intended to lower its minimum FICO […]
Fannie Mae’s Bill Is Holding Up The IndyMac Sale
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
This is pretty rich with irony. Fannie Mae seems to be standing in the way of the FDIC’s sale of IndyMac to a group of private investors. As reported by Housing Wire, Fannie presented the FDIC with a bill for $1 billion shortly after it seized IndyMac. The bill was for representations and warranties violations […]
The IMF Prescription For Fiscal Stimulus
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
What follows is the Executive Summary of the IMF’s Staff Position Note on suggested cures for the current recession: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The current crisis calls for two main sets of policy measures. First, measures to repair thefinancial system. Second, measures to increase demand and restore confidence. While some of these measures overlap, the focus […]
Washington Acquires A Car Company
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 29th, 2008
By tomorrow morning there should be some clarification on this, but for the time being the GMAC debt swap/government investment/bank holding company status just gets curiouser and curiouser. The word tonight is that the government has committed $6 billion to GMAC in the form of a $5 billion preferred equity investment and a $1 billion […]
