Archive for March 27th, 2009

Quote Of The Day

Happiness? A good cigar, a good meal, a good cigar and a good woman — or a bad woman; it depends on how much happiness you can handle.                                                               Milton Berle  

Friday Failures

Looks like it’s just one this week. Here is the link. Omni National Bank, Atlanta, Georgia If anyone has any theories on why so many Georgia banks are failing, I would certainly like to hear from you.

Hard To See A Real Estate Bottom Based On This Data

HousingWire is out with some statistics that tell a continuing grim tale on foreclosures. Among the recent data sets: February delinquencies are at 8.37%. Non-agency jumbos showed the biggest delinquency gains. Foreclosure inventories showed the largest monthly increase in February since December 2007. The foreclosure rate increased 8.2% over January and 75% year-over-year to 2.23%. […]

House Bill Seeks To Eliminate YSP Among Other Things

Proving that there are multiple ways to regulate the financial services industry, a new measure introduced today in the House would impose significant new restrictions on the mortgage industry. Among the provisions: The elimination of yield spread premiums. YSP’s are one of those things that the public loves to hate until they come in handy. […]

The Banking Oligarchs: Simon Johnson On The U.S. Financial System

If you haven’t read Simon Johnson’s long piece in the Atlantic yet, do so. Johnson was the chief economist for the IMF and aslo happens to have a very fine writing style. He makes his case for breaking up the banks. Here’s a sample: This latest plan—which is likely to provide cheap loans to hedge funds […]