Judge orders review of city e-mails

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=12966

Nicholas Wilbur
Miner Staff Writer

Travin Pennington didn't walk out of the Bullhead City courtroom Thursday with any more e-mails than he walked in with, but both his and the city's attorneys seemed content regarding the judge's order.

Financials Gone Wild

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/BAC-CFC-GS-JPM-C-WB/index/a/13838


Fil Zucchi Aug 23, 2007 10:13 am

Are we seriously supposed to believe that the banks' discount-window escapade and the BAC, CFC "investment" are two separate events that just happened to take place the same day?

I did not think I’d find myself this jaded after nearly two months of vacation, but in light of Bank of America’s (BAC) $2 bln dollar “investment” in Countrywide Financial (CFC), the made-for-Wall Street TV special of yesterday’s backslapping “man-I-haven’t-seen-you-since-that-football-game-tailgate-12-years-ago, how-u-doin’ pal?!” get-together at the discount window by JP Morgan (JPM), BAC, Citi (C), and Wachovia (WB) has suddenly morphed into a wobbling home movie of four trick-or-treaters just happening to stumble upon Boom-Boom’s doorstep and collecting $2 bln of fresh “trading crack”.

Criticism doesn't end with Beecher

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=12942

8/22/2007 1:22:00 PM
Email this article • Print this article
Nicholas WilburMiner Staff Writer

It was as if Paul Beecher hadn't yet been fired. The tension in the packed Council Chamber was evidenced by expressions of shock on the faces of those in attendance as the mayor and several Council members went back and forth with their critics.

Rhodes says stakes replaced at well sites

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=12945&TM=53626.71

8/22/2007 1:28:00 PM
Nicholas WilburMiner Staff Writer

According to Rhodes Homes representatives and Acting City Manager Jack Kramer, the missing stakes and monuments that outline the city's well sites in Golden Valley have been replaced.Resident and local electrician Keith Walker told Council Aug. 6 that half of the surveying stakes marking the corners of the city's four one-acre parcels had been graded over.

Is WaMu the Next Countrywide?

By Philip van DoornTheStreet.com Ratings Bank Analyst8/22/2007 5:39 AM EDT

Countrywide Financial (CFC - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) isn't the only big bank threatened by the deepening real estate crisis.
An analysis of the largest 20 banks and thrifts by TheStreet.com Ratings shows that four institutions are under-reserved for possible credit losses, a red flag as the economy slows and mortgage defaults rise.
Perhaps more troubling, the numbers show that one of those institutions -- Washington Mutual (WM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) -- could join Countrywide in facing serious liquidity problems as worries about the housing and mortgage markets multiply.

http://www.thestreet.com/_htmlbtb/newsanalysis/ratings/10375529.html

There is a chart at the bottom of the 20 banks they analysed.

Arizona and Jim Rhodes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20343099/

Builder's north woes worry A.J.

By MARK FLATTEN TRIBUNE
East Valley Tribune
Updated: 3:49 a.m. MT Aug 19, 2007

Life in Arizona has gotten tough for developer Jim Rhodes. In recent weeks the Las Vegas homebuilder has lost a major lawsuit that will likely cost him several thousand acres he wanted near Kingman. He also failed to block efforts at the Arizona Corporation Commission to have him testify under oath as to why he kept a crooked ex-politician from Nevada on his payroll.

Subdivision by airport approved

http://www.kingmandailyminer.com/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=18&ArticleID=12936&TM=53626.71

8/21/2007 1:41:00 PM
Suzanne AdamsMiner Staff Writer

Pilots using the Kingman Airport may have to deal with a new subdivision at the end of the runway.The Board of Supervisors Monday overruled the County Planning and Zoning Commission and approved an amendment to the county's General Plan, which will allow the Statesboro subdivision to be built in the approach to one of the airport's runways. Supervisors Buster Johnson and Tom Sockwell voted for the development. Board Chairman Pete Byers voted against it.

San Diego County Foreclosures

Three articles about San Diego and foreclosures.

Ground Zero in San Diego's Mortgage Mess
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/20/news/02foreclosures082007.txt

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/20/housing/934family032207.txt

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/08/21/survival/699foreclosurebus082007.txt

More problems for Tucson's First Magnus

No paychecks, but assistance promised for First Magnus workers

Company officials put together $1 million in aid but said their accounts are frozen.

By Christie Smythe
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 08.21.2007

First Magnus Financial Corp. still is not sending out paychecks to its former employees.
But the Tucson-based mortgage lender announced it is creating an assistance fund of more than $1 million to ease the burden.
In a news release, the company said paychecks have been delayed because its accounts were frozen by investors that provided capital to First Magnus to make loans.

http://www.azstarnet.com/business/197349

Online comments: http://regulus2.azstarnet.com/comments/index.php?id=197349

Fed handing silver to loan rangers

By Al LewisDenver Post Staff Columnist
Article Last Updated: 08/20/2007 10:48:12 PM MDT

The subprime mortgage mess is "largely contained" - or at least that's what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. said in March.

And then, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke repeatedly told us our subprime woes would not spill into the broader U.S. economy.

Now, the Fed is sandbagging the levee. .....

So why is the Federal Reserve so busy managing our economy? Or is it simply bailing out a bunch of high rollers who made bad bets on subprime loans?

So what if Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and some of the biggest investors in the world are reeling from their own stupidity? Who cares if Countrywide and other major mortgage lenders go belly up because of their risky lending practices? And if you can't pay your mortgage or get a new one - well, geez, didn't you ever play Monopoly as a kid?

http://test.denverpost.com/business/ci_6674117

Capital One Closes Wholesale Mortgage Unit

Last Update: 4:30 PM ET Aug 20, 2007

Capital One Financial Corporation today announced that it will cease residential mortgage origination operations at its wholesale mortgage banking unit, GreenPoint Mortgage, effective immediately.......

As part of this decision, the company will close GreenPoint's California- based headquarters along with 31 locations across 19 states. The change will result in the elimination of approximately 1,900 positions with the vast majority of these positions being eliminated by the end of the year.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=PR&Date=20070820&ID=7348049

US lending standards "unbelievable".

From the UK:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/08/20/bcnswiss20.xml

Top Swiss banker attacks US lending standards as 'unbelievable' By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Yvette Essen
Last Updated: 8:29am BST 20/08/2007

Switzerland's top banker has warned of massive losses from the unfolding credit crisis, describing the collapse in US lending standards as "unbelievable".

Jean-Pierre Roth, president of the Swiss National Bank, said market turmoil was far from over as tremors from the sub-prime debacle continued to rock the world.

"We're certainly not at the end of the story. There are question marks surrounding the development of the American economy," he said. "Something unbelievable happened. People who had neither income nor capital got credit with very attractive conditions. Now reality is striking back," he said.

Throwing a Bone To A Starving Dog

Here is an article about what the Fed did last week..........

Throwing a Bone To A Starving Dog
by Lee Adler

There sure has been a lot of nonsensical gibberish flying around the financial infomercial media, and in the world of blogs and message boards since Friday. So let’s try to separate fact from fantasy.

We’ll start with something I agree with. I do believe that the Fed’s action had everything to do with Countrywide’s bank arm, the well publicized run by their customers, and the fact that they were forced to borrow apparently all of their $11 billion bank credit facility. This is a dangerous and volatile mix in the arena of the public confidence game that fiat money systems depend on. The Fed had to do “something” to give the world the impression that they were actually “doing” something.

What did they actually do? Not much.

http://wallstreetexaminer.com/?p=1550

Phoenix 55,000 homes listed

It's deal time with 55,000 homes listed

Aug. 17, 2007 05:44 PM

Home sales and building are down in metropolitan Phoenix, but there are other indicators to track where the housing market is headed.Here's a look at some.

• Home listings in the Valley climbed to almost 55,000 during the past few weeks. That's a new high. The number of houses that are marketed for a short sale to avoid foreclosure or are bank-owned is also up. That's good news for buyers looking for deals.

• About 85 percent of the Valley homes foreclosed on in July went back to the lender, according to the Information Market. That means fewer investors bidding on foreclosure properties on the courthouse steps. In many cases, more is owed on the home than what it's worth now.

http://www.azcentral.com/business/columns/articles/0817biz-catherine17-ON.html

Clock is Ticking on Las Vegas' Water Supply

Edward Lawrence, Reporter
Clock is Ticking on Las Vegas' Water Supply
Aug 17, 2007 03:43 PM MST

The news coming from the Southern Nevada Water Authority Thursday about the valley's future water supply is worrisome. Unless we act quickly, there will be no water for hundreds of thousands of Las Vegas Valley residents in just three years.

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=6943263

There is a video on the page also. And here is a link to a blog with comments from readers.

http://blogs.lasvegasnow.com/2007/04/nevadas_water_s.html

CNBC and China

This is really a stupid news clip from CNBC. A quote from the clip:

"Ya know, if China were to revalue it’s currency or China is to start making say, toys that don’t have lead in them or food that isn’t poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up too."

So just play with your lead toys and eat your poison food and everything will be fine.


http://www.thevanguardian.com/news.php?id=12

Mortgage Meltdown

Here is a guy who used the signs everyone had available to them and bet the assets of his hedge fund that the deteriorating housing market would get worse. So far his fund has doubled in value in a few months, while other funds have disappeared leaving investors out billions of dollars. There has been so much info available regarding the easy lending market that it shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that it has collapsed. Four page article......

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/19/business/mortgage.php?page=1

Missed signs led to mortgage meltdown

By Nelson Schwartz and Vikas Bajaj
Published: August 19, 2007

NEW YORK: All through last year, Jim Melcher saw the signs of a rapidly deteriorating American housing market - riskier mortgages, rising delinquencies and more homes falling into foreclosure. And with $100 million in assets at his hedge fund, Balestra Capital, he was in a position to do something about it.

**************

Bernanke and what he is doing towards the credit crunch. Video...

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid959009704?bclid=979307711&bctid=1137833094

This can't be good for Countrywide

I hope they don't mean this because I'm sure the credit crisis won't be over in 3 months.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_6643472

Countrywide's troubles deepen
BY GREGORY J. WILCOX, Staff Writer

CALABASAS - Countrywide Financial Corp.'s financial trouble deepened Thursday, forcing the nation's biggest mortgage lender to tap an $11.5 billion credit line to fund operations.

Paul J. Miller, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., said in a research report that Countrywide's survival depends on how long the mortgage crisis lasts.
"We do believe there is a scenario in which the current liquidity crises last for longer than three months and CFC is forced into bankruptcy," he wrote. "It will be ugly, but it can happen!"

Miller also predicted that if the crisis passes within a month, the company will be able to resume normal origination functions and its stock price will jump back into the $30 range.
If it persists for more than a month, he said, Countrywide might be forced to sell assets at a deep discount, putting "tremendous pressure" on its stock.

More Trouble for Countrywide

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-countrywide17aug17,1,5048775.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

THE MORTGAGE MELTDOWN

A rush to pull out cash

Worried about the stability of mortgage giant Countrywide Financial, depositors crowd branches. In Laguna Niguel, Bill Ashmore drove his Porsche Cayenne to the bank's office and waited half an hour to cash out $500,000. "It's got my wife totally freaked out," he said.

By E. Scott Reckard and Annette HaddadAugust 17, 2007

Anxious customers jammed the phone lines and website of Countrywide Bank and crowded its branch offices to pull out their savings because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank.

California Bay Area New-home sales dive 1/3 in June

Even the Bay Area of California, supposedly erosion proof, is getting a clue.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/17/BUC3RK0EM.DTL
,
New-home sales dive 1/3 in June
Economist says price drop will bring back demand
Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2007

"Prices went way ahead of themselves relative to the incomes of the consumer, and price increases could only be maintained with exotic financing," Krueger said. "Once that went away, you had a significant erosion of demand."
Statewide, the picture is similar.

Ultimately, though, steeper price reductions may be the answer.

"How does demand come back? When prices come down," Krueger said. "For the consumer, that potentially could be good - it could alleviate some of the affordability problems we suffer from so much in the Bay Area."