subprime crisis

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Vulture Investors Circle Wall Street

Many hope to cash in on the chaos of the credit crunch

(Newser) - Like shoppers stalking deals at Filene’s Basement, savvy Wall Street vulture investors are swooping in to find deals among the carcasses of companies and investments felled by the subprime contagion, reports the New York Times. They're betting big—Blackstone Group just raised $10.9 billion from investors to buy...

UBS Girds for Battle With Group Led by Ex-President

Investors tell ailing Swiss banking giant its time to cut dead weight, sell businesses

(Newser) - UBS, one of the banks hardest hit by the subprime collapse with $37.7 billion in writedowns, is under attack from an investor group led by one of its former presidents, reports the Wall Street Journal. The group wants the Swiss banking giant to spin off its investment bank, blaming...

States Act Aggressively to Fight Foreclosures

Unwilling to wait for the federal wrangling, states make bold moves

(Newser) - State lawmakers aren’t sitting around waiting for Washington to solve the mortgage crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. Instead, many are taking aggressive steps to ease borrower pain, sometimes running afoul of lenders in the process. Illinois, Maryland, and Minnesota all have bills in the works to impose a...

Critics: Senate Plan Not Enough
Critics: Senate
Plan Not Enough 
Apr 3, 2008 11:55 AM CDT

Critics: Senate Plan Not Enough

Housing legislation doesn't do enough to help homeowners, they say

(Newser) - The Senate’s first major step toward trying to make sense of the US mortgage mess is a needed salve to businesses caught in the chaos, but it doesn’t go far enough to help homeowners, critics say. Lawmakers contend the plan is a start toward addressing a multitude of...

Steal the Pipes, Ditch the House

As metal prices soar and housing prices dives, thieves find value in copper

(Newser) - Rising metal prices have rendered some foreclosed homes worth less than their plumbing, and thieves are stripping the vacant abodes of copper, aluminum, and brass to fuel a lucrative overseas trade. Several states have hardened penalties for metal theft, but skyrocketing nonferrous metals prices have thieves risking steel cages for...

Housing Bill Clears Key Senate Hurdle

Package of relief measures garners bipartisan support

(Newser) - The Senate voted 94-1 to move a housing legislation package into formal consideration today, reports the New York Times. Banking committee chair Chris Dodd and ranking Republican Richard Shelby now have until noon tomorrow to work out a compromise acceptable to both parties. “Inaction is not an option,"...

'Tinker Bell Market' Fallout Wallops Taxpayers

Built on the fairy dust of borrowed money, Wall Street was doomed to fall

(Newser) - Although he doesn't foresee long-term catastrophe, Allan Sloan of Fortune sounds an alarm in today's Washington Post, saying he's "more nervous about the world financial system now than I've ever been in my 40 years of covering business and markets." He dissects "the collapse of a Tinker...

UBS Posts $12B Quarterly Loss; Chairman Steps Down
 UBS Posts $12B Quarterly Loss; Chairman Steps Down
Earnings Report
Apr 1, 2008 6:08 AM CDT

UBS Posts $12B Quarterly Loss; Chairman Steps Down

Swiss bank adds $19 billion in writedowns; chairman steps down

(Newser) - UBS announced a $12.1 billion first-quarter loss and another $19 billion in writedowns as fallout from the US subprime meltdown continued to haunt the Swiss banking giant, reports Bloomberg. Chairman Marcel Ospel, who oversaw the creation of the bank in 1998 will step down. UBS says it will ask...

Lehman Is Selling $3B in Shares
 Lehman Is Selling $3B in Shares 
Mar 31, 2008 7:25 PM CDT

Lehman Is Selling $3B in Shares

Firm seeks to calm fears of another Bear Stearns disaster

(Newser) - Lehman Brothers is selling $3 billion in new shares to allay fears after its stock dropped 42% this year, Bloomberg reports. "We still maintain that we don't need capital, but we've realized that perception is the dominant issue in today's markets,'' said CFO Erin Callan. Lehman fell up...

And to Your Right, You'll See Another Foreclosure...

Bus tours take prospectors, and the merely curious, through ruins of mortgage crisi

(Newser) - Looking for cheap real estate? Hop on a foreclosure bus tour, a trend sweeping the nation in the wake of the mortgage crisis, the AP reports. The excursions typically include experts who educate buyers while showing empty homes: some bargain beauties, some fixer-uppers. "We're kind of a seminar on...

Agents Use 'Cash for Keys' to Stem Owner Vandalism

Foreclosed properties bear marks of parting shots

(Newser) - Banks and mortgage companies are hoping a “cash for keys” policy will stem a growing problem for lenders taking possession of foreclosed homes: dispossessed homeowners trashing their houses on the way out the door. Cheaper and faster than eviction proceedings, the policy is "win-win for both parties,"...

Obama Plan: $30B Stimulus, More Regulation

Democrat blasts lax Bush oversight, McCain's laissez-faire approach

(Newser) - Barack Obama called today for stricter financial regulations and laid out a $30 billion stimulus plan, the Wall Street Journal reports, including measures aimed at the foreclosure crisis. The Democratic candidate said President Bush had “a generally scornful attitude toward oversight and enforcement,” and proposed expanding Fed powers...

Feds Must Ward Off Stagnation, Clinton Says

Says buying mortgages might be necessary to avoid prolonged skid

(Newser) - The government should step into the mortgage mess on a broader scale, Hillary Clinton told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, suggesting monetary policy alone can’t ignite a recovery and warning that procrastination could lead to stagnation similar to Japan’s weary economy. Clinton said the Federal Housing Administration should...

Bankrupt Lender's Audit Lapses 'Mind Boggling'

Bankrupt subprime lender, auditor ripped in report on business practices

(Newser) - Auditors at now-bankrupt New Century Financial—once one of the nation’s largest subprime lenders and one of the earliest to fail—were accused of “mind boggling” lapses in a Justice Department report on the debacle released yesterday. Partners at accounting firm KPMG are said to have ignored “...

Experts Deride McCain’s Mortgage Crisis Fix

Current woes not comparable to '01 factors that prompted GM to offer 0% financing

(Newser) - Economists, and rivals, are scoffing at John McCain’s ideas for countering the nation’s foreclosure crisis, taking aim at the suggestion that top lenders follow the post-9/11 example of General Motors—which offered 0% financing on new cars. But experts note that GM had its own interests in mind—...

No 'Reward' For Borrowers, Lenders: McCain

GOP candidate blasts risky mortgages, nixes government bailout

(Newser) - John McCain said today he opposes government action to bail out homeowners having trouble with their mortgages, the New York Times reports. McCain—who will receive Nancy Reagan's endorsement today—differentiated himself from both Democratic candidates, who have called for federal intervention, saying: “It is not the duty of...

Bad Credit News Means Good Tidings for Analysts

Demand for financial insight buoys Breaking Views, other sites

(Newser) - The Bear Stearns crisis was bad news for many, but it was good news—or at least good business—for financial analysts at London-based Breaking Views. The credit crunch is increasing demand for the company’s financial insights, offered online and, through various partnerships, in print. Breaking Views is seizing...

Boomers Move Back Home
 Boomers Move Back Home 
Mar 24, 2008 3:06 PM CDT

Boomers Move Back Home

Shaky economy has more children living with their parents—even at age 50

(Newser) - Young people have long fled recessionary job markets by moving back home, but the current crisis has a new demographic scurrying there: the middle-aged. "This is not like, 'OK, my son just graduated from college and needs to move back in' type of thing," says one financial planner,...

Clinton Calls for Blue-Ribbon Mortgage Panel

Emergency plan would enlist Greenspan, other big thinkers

(Newser) - Ex-Fed chief Alan Greenspan and other high-profile economic bigwigs should take the lead in deciding whether the government should buy homes affected by the housing crisis, Hillary Clinton says. "As it has in the past, this kind of temporary measure by the government could give our economy the boost...

Investors Urge Reluctant Fed to Buy Mortgage Debt

Critics say plan would put too much risk on taxpayers

(Newser) - The best way for the Fed to help reverse the sagging economy is for it to buy some of the $6 trillion in outstanding mortgage-backed securities that have Wall Street so nervous, investors say. The move would ease the credit crunch but put taxpayers at risk. It’s an option...

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