Archive for October, 2008
Friday, October 31st, 2008
Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue
to remain under pressure and that the government must look at new methods
to provide guarantees on mortgages.
Speaking via satellite at a conference on the mortgage breakdown at
the University of California at Berkeley, Bernanke urged the government ...
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Friday, October 31st, 2008
Our old friend Zillow, the Seattle-based company that
provides data on home values in select areas of the country, has just
released results of its most recent survey of homeowner perceptions of
value.
Zillow found that half of U.S. homeowners think that their homes are
essentially worth the same amount today ...
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Friday, October 31st, 2008
Economists say the personal income and spending
report from the U.S. Commerce Department supports the view that fourth-
quarter growth will be worse than the Q3 results published on Thursday.
Personal spending, which comprises more than 70% of GDP, fell 0.3% in
September, following two months of flat growth.
Read ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
San Francisco Federal Reserve President Janet Yellen
said the Fed could lower rates below 1%, and that they could
reach as low as zero amid a weak economy.
Speaking at an event hosted by the University of California at Berkley
and UCLA, Yellen said that loan rates would be substantially ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
New York Secretary of State Andrew Cuomo is going
after the big banks that originally signed on - although
not all were initially willing - to the Treasury Departments plan to
infuse funds into financial institutions in return for preferred stock
and common stock warrants. The subject? Executive compensation.
On Wednesday ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Mortgage interest rates have been seesawing like the
stock market over the last few weeks and this week they again took some
mega-jumps.
Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief
economist said in a press release, "Long-term mortgage rates followed
long-term Treasury bond yields higher this week, pushing fixed-rate
mortgages up ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
In an interview with CNBC, Edward Lazear, economic adviser to
the president, says the U.S. has potential for a strong rebound
in 2009 and that economic weakness could last just a few months.
Earlier on Thursday, the government reported Q3 GDP in the United
States fell an annualized 0.3%. In ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
U.S. Gross Domestic Product was slightly better than the market
consensus, but economists' reactions were far from optimistic following
the report. Most analysts, if not all, are expecting the fourth quarter
to be worse than Q3, with some revising their forecasts downwards on
Thursday morning.
The advance GDP report showed the ...
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Thursday, October 30th, 2008
The IMF has introduced a new lending facility worth up to $100
billion to aid developing countries stricken by the financial market
turmoil.
"Exceptional times call for an exceptional response," said IMF Managing
Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. "The Fund is responding quickly and
flexibly to requests for financing. We are offering some countries..."
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Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Economists say the unanimous FOMC decision to cut the Federal funds
target rate by 50 basis points came as no surprise. Many said the
statement is particularly dovish and points to further rate
cuts come December 16.
The accompanying statement said economic activity had decreased
markedly from a decline in consumer ...
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