Double Dip in Housing, Could Double Dip Recession Be Next?

Double Dip in Housing, Could Double Dip Recession Be Next?

Excellent illustration of Buyer Power.


Forbes

Michael Lewis on "the seers who see 'debt' people" interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR

"Everybody [on Wall Street] was working with the same set of facts about subprime mortgage lending — about how subprime mortgage loans were turned into bonds and repackaged and turned into CDOs and so on and so forth," Lewis tells Terry Gross. "[And] the vast majority of the people in the markets took those facts and painted one kind of picture with it; it was a very pleasant picture. And a very small handful of people took the same facts and painted a completely different kind of picture with it. [I wanted to find out] 'What is it that enables [the people who bet against the market] to paint that picture?' and 'Why do these people look at the world differently?' "

Read an Excerpt 

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
By Michael Lewis
Hardcover, 288 pages
W. W. Norton & Co.
List price: $27.95

A Superb Selection of Crisis Visualizations

27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis

Posted Mar 13, 2009 from FlowingData

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again. If there's anything good that has come out of the financial crisis it's the slew of high-quality graphics to help us understand what's going on. Some visualizations attempt to explain it all while others focus on affected business. Others concentrate on how we, as citizens are affected. Some show those who are responsible. After you examine these 27 visualizations and infographics, no doubt you'll have a pretty good idea about what's going on."

http://flowingdata.com/2009/03/13/27-visualizations-and-infographics-to-understand-the-financial-crisis/

Times calls Foul in "Fair Game"

Fair Game

It’s Time for Swaps to Lose Their Swagger

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

New York Times Published: February 27, 2010

 

“USING these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is — is counterproductive, and I’m sure the S.E.C. will be looking into that.”

 

That’s what Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said last week when lawmakers asked him about credit default swaps during his Congressional testimony. Concerns are growing about such swaps — securities that offer insurance-like protection and helped tip over the American International Group in 2008 when it couldn’t pay mounting claims on the contracts.

Now, there are fears that the use of these swaps may also help propel entire countries — think Greece — to the precipice.

Read more of the latest, Here:


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/business/economy/28gret.html

Bear Stearns, AIG or what happens if you're left without a chair when the music stops

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/

"AIG is a collection of well-regulated insurance companies that are still making money today, and the holding company at the top that took the profits generated by the insurance company and speculated in the most irresponsible, unregulated way."

Barney Frank Chair, House Financial Services Committee (D-Mass.)

"All of a sudden AIG woke up and saw they had insurance liabilities that they had no idea they had. And all of a sudden the people said: "OK, I bought a credit default swap. The thing went bust, and pay me." That's what their problem was. It had nothing to do with Lehman. Nothing. AIG was in trouble months before Lehman went under."

Alan "Ace" Greenberg Former CEO, Bear Stearns