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Countrywide Will Slash up to 12,000 Jobs

(Newser) - Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide announced today that it would cut up to 12,000 jobs–or some 20% of its total workforce–over the next three months. The Wall Street Journal reports that, as the subprime debacle rocks the housing market and the lending industry, Countrywide expects to issue 25%...

Plastic May Pose Next Big Threat to Economy

Experts expect credit card trouble to track mortgage woes

(Newser) - The subprime mortgage crisis may spark another financial disaster: bad credit card debt. When rates hit 50-year lows, many owners borrowed against their homes to pay off high-interest credit cards. Now, with rates increasing, many may not be able to pay down both their mortgages and their credit cards, the...

One Unrivaled Market Force: Vacation

Stocks calm down as bankers, investors bail for the beach

(Newser) - The FT leads with a prediction that market volatility will decrease over the next week for a simple reason: everyone's going on vacation. Major decisions by banks, hedge funds and mortgage lenders will be on hold as the financial world bails New York, London and Frankfurt for the end of...

Credit Crunch Continues, and So Do Ads

Lenders are still advertising cheap mortgages, but the loans aren't there

(Newser) - As the credit crunch transforms the financial landscape, one thing hasn't changed: lenders continue to offer loans that are too good to be true. The Washington Post writes that mortgage companies are still offering risky products to risky customers—even Countrywide, which barely avoided bankruptcy, is flogging cheap money with...

Fed Shaves Half- Point Off Discount Rate

Surprise cut boosts futures trading and Euro markets

(Newser) - In a surprise move, the Fed cut its discount rate, which it charges on direct loans to banks, from 6.25% to 5.75% this morning. The central bank acted to calm fears about uncertainty in the global markets surrounding the worsening credit crunch and underlying subprime-loan crisis. The federal...

Loan Giant Downgraded to 'Sell,' Faces Bankruptcy

Top US mortgage lender caught in the squeeze

(Newser) - Loan giant Countrywide saw its shares plummet 13% yesterday after the company experienced trouble borrowing money in the market for short-term debt. A Merrill Lynch analyst downgraded the stock from "buy" to "sell," sparking talk of possible bankruptcy, reports the LA Times. Before today's open, the company...

Smaller Lenders Feel the Credit Squeeze

Boutique banks on the edge as liquidity crisis wears on

(Newser) - As the subprime fallout continues and the credit squeeze tightens, thousands of smaller-scale mortgage banks find themselves in dire straits. The Wall Street Journal reports that small- and medium-sized lenders, even those with excellent credit quality, are suspending funding and laying off employees, which leaves giant corporations to grab more...

Biggest Buyers Hit Hard in Mortgage Fiasco

‘Jumbo’ loans dry up as subprime mess continues to spread

(Newser) - As the subprime mortgage mess spreads to homeowners beyond those with poor credit ratings, jumbo mortgages are under particular pressure, the New York Times reports. An investment banker recently purchasing a $1.5 million home saw the interest rate spike from 8% to 13% in just three days. The rate...

Euro Bank Injects $190B to Avoid Crash

ECB's largest-ever emergency cash injection aims to stave off crisis

(Newser) - The European Central Bank has released $190 billion in emergency funds in a desperate attempt to restore liquidity to the region's markets. The Financial Times reports that the ECB's emergency injection echoes moves by central banks in Japan, the US and Canada but is unprecedented in scale. The move rattled...

Mortgage Crisis Hits Affluent Buyers, Too

Even borrowers with excellent credit are now facing higher rates

(Newser) - Mortgage tremors have rippled so far across the home loan market that even buyers of high-priced homes with good credit records are now being squeezed, the Wall Street Journal reports. Rates have surged on loans above $417,000 for prime borrowers—to 7.34% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, up...

Battered Bear Tries to Act Bullish
Battered Bear Tries to Act Bullish
Aug 4, 2007 2:06 PM CDT

Battered Bear Tries to Act Bullish

Wall Street's anxieties force Bear Stearns to make major changes

(Newser) - The securities firm Bear Stearns will oust its stocks and bonds trading chief, the WSJ reports, and soften its emphasis on short-term trades. The extraordinary moves come in the wake of Friday's market sell-off, partly triggered by investor concern about Bear Stearns after the collapse of two of its mortgage-bond...

Banks Tighten Credit Squeeze
Banks Tighten Credit Squeeze
Aug 3, 2007 4:38 AM CDT

Banks Tighten Credit Squeeze

Lenders 'raising rates like crazy'

(Newser) - Lenders are cutting credit, tightening standards or raising interest rates to a broader range of borrowers beyond those with weak credit records who qualify for subprime loans, the Wall Street Journal reports. Panic is spreading to a category of mortgages between subprime and prime that often involves borrowers who don't...

House Votes to Overhaul Student Loans

Increases Pell money, slashes interest rates on federal loans

(Newser) - The House OKed a major shakeup of student loans yesterday, in a plan that will eliminate $19 billion in subsidies to lending companies and send the cash directly to students. The bill will increase funding for Pell grants and cut the interest rates on all federally-funded loans—assuming it survives...

New Flood of Foreclosures Looms
New Flood of Foreclosures Looms
Jul 10, 2007 5:24 AM CDT

New Flood of Foreclosures Looms

Adjustable borrowers face up to 35% spikes in mortgage payments

(Newser) - When adjustable-rate mortgages are increased this year, hundreds of thousands of subprime borrowers  could lose their homes, triggering a precipitous drop in the housing market, CNNMoney reports. The threat is the latest in the emerging subprime loan crisis. Heartland industrial areas, as well as once-hot markets in California, Nevada and...

Debt Market Booms, Risk Climbs
Debt Market Booms, Risk Climbs
Jun 26, 2007 4:11 PM CDT

Debt Market Booms, Risk Climbs

Concentrated debt in the CLO market sparks a junk bond flashback

(Newser) - The undergirding of the current buyout boom is a dicey financing method called collateralized loan obligations—giant pools of bank loans packaged together by Wall Street and sold off in slices to investors, spreading the risk of default. The Journal reports that the  CLO glut is ushering in an age...

Sallie Mae Chief Quits
Sallie Mae
Chief Quits
May 23, 2007 5:52 AM CDT

Sallie Mae Chief Quits

Equity firm pressured loan giant CEO to step down, ease buyout

(Newser) - The CEO of student loan giant Sallie Mae resigned unexpectedly yesterday in the midst of a $25 billion buyout by a private equity firm. The Wall Street Journal reports that Thomas J. Fitzpatrick was pressured out to stave off Congressional criticism of the buyout by J.C. Flowers and Co,...

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