Archive for November, 2008

Debt Rattle, November 18 2008: He’ll Have To Go
John B. Trevor The Century Ahead 1921 Trevor family trip through western United States Ilargi: I’ll make way today for something my partner in crime Stoneleigh wrote a few days ago as a comment on Garth Turner’s site, GreaterFool.ca. Coincidentally, they’re supposed to meet today for the first time, somewhere in southern (?!) Ontario where Stoneleigh will sternly lecture the crowds on biogas and grid transmission. First, though, there’s this. Hank Paulson was in Congress again this morni

Mortgage payment insurance for homeowners
When times get tough and bills become harder to pay, people can sometimes start to wonder how they will keep up with a home loan, if they have one. There is no shortage of UK providers offering mortgage payment insurance, and most people will be offered it by their own home loan provider.

(AFX UK Focus) 2008-11-28 16:30 UPDATE 1-UBS slashes target on Bank of America by 48 pct (Interactive Investor)
(Changes source; recasts, adds analyst comments, background) Nov 28 (Reuters) - UBS slashed its price target on Bank of America Corp by 48 percent, citing tighter credit conditions, uncertainty over near-term prospects of the Merrill Lynch & Co deal and risk of additional writedowns. Tight credit conditions will continue into 2009 as banks focus on maintaining sufficient capital and liquidity …

PRESS RELEASE:Fitch Takes Rating Actions On UK Build Societies (Nasdaq)
Fitch Ratings-London-21 November 2008: Fitch Ratings has today taken various rating actions on nine UK building societies. The actions include downgrades of the Long-term Issuer Default ratings (IDR) of three building societies and the Short-term IDR of three building societies.

Mortgage lending feels the strain (BBC News)
The slump in mortgage lending by the UK’s biggest banks continued in October, a banking body says, with approvals down 52%.

Just Another Manic Monday
[IMG [Citibank]]$326Bn for Citigroup - Yippee! That was a real painful one to ride down and I was getting really concerned that I was wrong and the government was actually crazy enough to let C fail. We decided to stick with them and roll the adjustments (see Friday morning’s post) to bring our net down to $4 but that didn’t make us feel much better with the stock below that mark. On top of that, our decision mid-week to switch to UYGs as they fell below $4 should also work out well! Under th