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Write-Offs: 02.19.08
Dealbreaker — $$$ Cheer up: cocaine prices are falling [Cityfile] $$$ Goldman Sachs Exec's Retirement Seen Tied To Succession [DJ via Clusterstock] $$$ Coping When a Close Co-Worker Is Laid Off [WSJ] $$$ Wilbur Ross: Obama Foreclosure Fix Not Enough [Housing Wire]

Aggressive Reductions of Principal in Mortgage Mods Reduces Borrower Recidivism
naked capitalism — ... the trouble). That also indicates the real obstacle is some combination of servicer greed (lack of financial incentives to do mods, costs of adding staff to do mods) and concerns about impact to bank balance sheet. Recall that AHS is third party. Most other big servicers are part of big banks. If the servicer starts offering mods, say, with 25% principal reductions, it would suggest that any similar loans held by the parent bank ought to be marked down to the same level. From HousingWire: [Wilbur] Ross has plenty of skin in the mortgage servicing game, as ...

Readings 02/20/09
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed — ... relative economic position worldwide (Asia Times Online ) Commodity Price Volatility and World Market Integration since 1700 (NBER) Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy(Credit Writedowns) Asia, Europe Find Their Supply Chains Yanked. Beware the Backlash. (WashingtonPost) An Entire Order Converted into What It Was Intended to End (LRB) Wilbur Ross: Obama Foreclosure Fix Not Enough (HousingWire) A 'fraud' bigger than Madoff (The Independent) Gas ...

Bailout the Shelter. Not the Investment.
EconomPic — ... introduced. If that's the case, here is my alternative... reduce the principal owed on these mortgages IF they are already taxpayer owned (i.e. a Fannie / Freddie mortgage - leave private loans out of taxpayers hands). If they want to blow $275 billion for 9 million people, then reduce the principal by that 20% per bailout amount. In other words, if prices are going to fall anyway, why prevent the inevitable? Renowned investor Wilbur Ross seems to echo these sentiments (Housing Wire via Naked Capitalism): “The price of housing needs to ...