Morgan Stanley Said to Freeze Home-Equity Credit Withdrawals

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Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm, told thousands of clients this week that they won’t be allowed to withdraw money on their home-equity credit lines, said a person familiar with the situation.
Most of the clients had properties that have lost value, according to the person, who declined to be identified because the [...]

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Shutdown UBS?

That is the call today by Senator Levin.
As if the banking industry needs anything else to be jittery about.
Are these folks up in DC that stupid?
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Federal regulators should consider revoking the US banking license of the giant Swiss Bank UBS because of its role in helping wealthy Americans evade billions of dollars in taxes, [...]

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Mae, Mac and Indy

These last couple weeks has been filled with more economic woes.
IndyMac has failed, mostly fueled by speculation of its demise which forced a run on the bank. Always a dangerous thing. Part of it, if not most of it was fueled by a letter written by Senator Chuck Shumer of NY on June 26th. Midday [...]

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California Congress woman setting the example

The recent foreclosure ‘crisis’ is getting out of hand. Not because of the numbers involved, that was to be expected as the market corrects itself, but with people that were perfectly willing to buy a home not long ago and are choosing to walk away from their responsibilities on the properties.
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Capitol Weekly reports that [...]

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Privatizing Social Security

This is not the first time, nor the last time that we will hear of this but I read it today and found it to be so disingenuous that I wanted to share it.
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“Let me be clear, privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George W. Bush proposed it, it’s a bad idea [...]

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Risk of Recovery, Part 1

Bull or bear the truth is everyone is trying to figure out where we go from here. As always, the small investor is probably just as lost as the talking heads are to sort things out. Has the recent runup in the market indicated a bottom or is it just a blip? One thing you [...]

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Where do we go from here?

Are we in recession? Are we going to be in recession? Does it make any difference? Does it make any difference to me? For most of us, only the last question is important. We are coming up on the end of earnings season and, all things considered, it wasn’t that bad. The Federal Reserve that [...]

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Go Amazon Go!

I hope they win and take it to the Supreme Court.
This could be EPIC either way.
If the courts decide to allow the, online retailers will take a slight hit in their sales and a huge boom for states around the country that will begin to institute the same policy, if the courts decide its unconstitutional [...]

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The T-Bill is BACK!

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The Bush administration, moving to cope with soaring budget deficits, says it is bringing back the one-year Treasury bill that it stopped issuing seven years ago when the budget was in surplus.
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The administration said Wednesday it would begin selling the one-year bill, also referred to as a 52-week bill, at an initial auction in [...]

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XP out the door? Not yet.

Microsofts newest Operating system (Vista) has been getting lukewarm responses from many. Myself included. I tried it our and it really didn’t flow right with me. Seemed so much more geared to aesthetics then operation. Making it all pretty but loosing the simplicity of the power of XP.
That may be the reason why Apple has [...]

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Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club limiting sales of rice in the US

Things are looking grim here folks
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sam’s Club warehouse division said on Wednesday that it is limiting sales of Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rices “due to recent supply and demand trends.”
The news comes a day after Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the largest U.S. [...]

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Mortgage Crisis Fix?

Now we turn to bills that are moving through congress to attempt to fix the mortgage ‘crisis’.
Congress returns to Washington, D.C., next week with one big thing on its mind: the economy — and how to deal with a crisis that extends from Main Street to Wall Street. The Bush administration is resisting promising money [...]

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Banking Crisis Fix?

Investment Houses Borrow Billions From Fed’s Emergency Lending ProgramWASHINGTON (AP) — Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the Federal Reserve’s unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans, the central bank reported Thursday.
The lending is part of a major effort by the Fed to help a financial system in danger of freezing.
Those large firms [...]

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Jim Rogers says “Abolish the FED”

The man has a great point for MOST of the video.
This bailout and the continuous printing of money is a very large problem.
Moving forward we are going to have to correct inflationary pressures by increasing rates substantially.
He also adds excellent points on Japan.
There is nothing wrong with a recession, they clean out issues in [...]

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Dollar plunge

Ben S. Bernanke’s interest-rate cuts have touched off a vicious circle of doom for the dollar.
The Federal Reserve reduced the rate on direct loans to commercial banks by a quarter-point to 3.25 percent before Asian financial markets opened today. It will likely lower its target rate for overnight loans between banks tomorrow to at least [...]

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New Economics Blog to check out.

Found a new Blog that would be of great interest to any frequent visitors.
James Phillip over at http://capitalhacker.com/ has a great site set up giving commentary on Economics and Technology.
We seem to share lots of the same views on the current “capitalistic” US economy.
One that caught my attention was:
The United States is being scared into [...]

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Bear Sterns fire sale

JPMorgan Chase said Sunday it will acquire rival Bear Stearns in a deal valued at $236.2 million — or $2 a share — a stunning collapse for one of the world’s largest and most venerable investment banks.
The last-minute buyout was aimed at averting a Bear Stearns bankruptcy and a spreading crisis of confidence in the [...]

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Bank Scrutinize Even Routine Transactions

Federal investigators have been looking into money transfers made by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who’s been tied to a prostitution ring. Bank officials noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and it triggered a money laundering investigation. Banks use software to spot patterns in routine transactions.
The Irony cannot get any better than this.
You need [...]

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Ending Africa’s commodity concerns

This could bring the much needed stability over food supplies in Africa that many have been praying for. I won’t hold my breath though, but its a step in the right direction.
Lisa Napoli: A different sort of commodity is always at issue in Africa. From South Africa, Terry FitzPatrick says this isn’t about growing grain, [...]

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Foreclosure ‘crisis’ is overblown

This has been my sentiment for some time now.
Along with

-Picture Courtesy of Michelle Malkin
A recent list of year-end mortgage foreclosure rates in 100 top metropolitan areas drew a lot of attention. Released by RealtyTrac, a company that compiles data on home foreclosures, the list showed the number of foreclosure filings in each metro area, the [...]

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