Items of Interest:
Bloomberg:
Banks Keep $35 Billion Markdown Off Income Statement -- Banks and securities firms, reeling from record losses resulting from the collapse of the mortgage securities market, are failing to acknowledge in their income statements at least $35 billion of additional writedowns included in their balance sheets, regulatory filings show...
Deal Book / NY Times:
For Banks, Subprime Hangover Lasts Beyond the Morning After -- Banks that had hoped to get over their subprime mortgage pain and move on are finding the hangover is lasting longer than expected as bonds of banks and insurers that have been crushed still may not be cheap enough to buy.
Reuters said in a report that the conventional wisdom last year was that companies like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, both under new leadership, would use the last quarter of 2007 as a so-called “kitchen sink” quarter, to report their worst write-downs and losses, and move on.
But that did not happen...
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Wall Street Journal:Fannie, Freddie Called Weak in Capital Base -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "a point of vulnerability for the financial system" because their capital is meager in relation to their mortgage assets and obligations, the companies' main regulator said...
Housing Doom blog:
Fannie Mae: Building The Underwater Mortgages Of Tomorrow
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- The Scars of Losing a Home - Robert Shiller, New York Times
- Credit is Scarce, but Not Capital - David Pauly, Bloomberg
- Bubbles, Not In The Abstract - Tim Duy, Economist's View
- New York's Office-Space Crisis - Sen. Charles Schumer, New York Post
- Will Our Kids Be Dumb and Broke? - M.P. Dunleavy, MSNMoney
