The Fed created another $50Bil or so last week...what's a few Billion, it doesn't seem like much...but when you stop and think a few key strokes on Ben's cash register equates to the combined enterprise value of Petro Canada and Suncor (roughly), it puts that kind of illegitimate "wealth" creation in perspective...sooner or later the shit will hit the fan...got gold?
- Rinx
Fed Assets Increase 2.3% on Buying of MBS, Treasuries (Update1)
Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet rose 2.3 percent as the central bank bought more U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities.
Fed assets gained $46.2 billion to $2.06 trillion in the week that ended yesterday, the central bank said today in Washington. Holdings of mortgage-backed securities jumped $66.6 billion to $609.5 billion, and the Fed’s portfolio of U.S. Treasury securities increased $7.1 billion to $736.1 billion.
U.S. central bankers kept the benchmark lending rate in a range of zero to 0.25 percent at their Aug. 12 meeting and extended a $300 billion Treasury purchase program until the end of October. The Fed said economic activity is “leveling out,” and conditions in financial markets have “improved further.”
Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has flooded the banking system with reserves, providing billions in financing and liquidity for banks, and the commercial paper, asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities markets. Fed officials are studying the tools needed to roll back monetary expansion.
Credit extended through the Fed’s Term Auction Facility, a mechanism to provide greater distribution of reserves to commercial banks, declined by $12.5 billion to $221.1 billion.
Discount-window lending to commercial banks stood at $29.9 billion yesterday versus $38 billion the previous week. Commercial paper held by the Fed under an emergency program begun in October fell to $49.5 billion from $53.8 billion
Friday, August 21, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Czars
It seems you can't swing a dead cat in Washington anymore without pelting a "czar" of some sort or another. They have a "car czar", "bank czar", "pay czar" among many others.
Used to be a czar was some disingenuous Russina oligarch from a century ago. Somehow Obama has resurrected the term, cleaned it up, and appointed modern day "czars" rulers of industry. Washington media seems to like the term, maybe this is the royalty they have always been envious of.
Wasn't too long ago entrepeneurs were celebrated leaders of American industry.
Elite government rule is a cancer to prosperity, is there a better reason to be short America?
- Rinx
Used to be a czar was some disingenuous Russina oligarch from a century ago. Somehow Obama has resurrected the term, cleaned it up, and appointed modern day "czars" rulers of industry. Washington media seems to like the term, maybe this is the royalty they have always been envious of.
Wasn't too long ago entrepeneurs were celebrated leaders of American industry.
Elite government rule is a cancer to prosperity, is there a better reason to be short America?
- Rinx
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Underwater’ Mortgages to Hit 48%
If these numbers are anywhere near correct, the US banking system will continue to bleed red ink...when this current stock market rally peters out, look out for another major leg down in the markets.
- Rinx
‘Underwater’ Mortgages to Hit 48%, Deutsche Bank Says
By Jody ShennAugust 5, 2009 15:32 EDTAug. 5 (Bloomberg) --
Almost half of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are likely to owe more than their properties are worth before the housing recession ends, Deutsche Bank AG said.
The percentage of “underwater” loans may rise to 48 percent, or 25 million homes, as prices drop through the first quarter of 2011, Karen Weaver and Ying Shen, analysts in New York at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a report today.
As of March 31, the share of homes mortgaged for more than their value was 26 percent, or about 14 million properties, according to Deutsche Bank. Further deterioration will depress consumer spending and boost defaults by borrowers who face unemployment, divorce, disability or other financial challenges, the securitization analysts said.
“Borrowers may also ‘ruthlessly’ or strategically default even without such life events,” they wrote.
Seven markets in states with the fastest appreciation during the five-year housing boom -- including Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; Merced and Modesto, California; and Las Vegas -- may find 90 percent of borrowers underwater, according to the report.
The share of borrowers owing more than 125 percent of their property’s value will increase to 28 percent from 13 percent, according to Weaver and Shen.Home prices will decline another 14 percent on average, the analysts wrote.
- Rinx
‘Underwater’ Mortgages to Hit 48%, Deutsche Bank Says
By Jody ShennAugust 5, 2009 15:32 EDTAug. 5 (Bloomberg) --
Almost half of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are likely to owe more than their properties are worth before the housing recession ends, Deutsche Bank AG said.
The percentage of “underwater” loans may rise to 48 percent, or 25 million homes, as prices drop through the first quarter of 2011, Karen Weaver and Ying Shen, analysts in New York at Deutsche Bank, wrote in a report today.
As of March 31, the share of homes mortgaged for more than their value was 26 percent, or about 14 million properties, according to Deutsche Bank. Further deterioration will depress consumer spending and boost defaults by borrowers who face unemployment, divorce, disability or other financial challenges, the securitization analysts said.
“Borrowers may also ‘ruthlessly’ or strategically default even without such life events,” they wrote.
Seven markets in states with the fastest appreciation during the five-year housing boom -- including Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; Merced and Modesto, California; and Las Vegas -- may find 90 percent of borrowers underwater, according to the report.
The share of borrowers owing more than 125 percent of their property’s value will increase to 28 percent from 13 percent, according to Weaver and Shen.Home prices will decline another 14 percent on average, the analysts wrote.
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