From 50,000 Feet

The chairman of Countrywide, Angelo Mozillo, must be a frustrated high school English teacher.
Amid waves of foreclosures wrecking the financial fortunes of his customers, Mozilo zeroed in on the most important problem facing these soon-to-be ex-homeowners: Lack of originality.
Apparently clicking “reply” when he meant to hit “forward,” Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman Angelo Mozilo ignited an […]

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Dealmaker.com’s Bess Levin sees glee emanating from Wall Street regarding the fall of NY Gov. Elliot Spitzer:
Obviously, overall, Wall Street is happy about the news. One trader told (CNBC’s) Bob Pisani it means “there is a God.” But we want more individualized, firm-specific responses. Like, Merrill Lynch was one of (Spitzer’s) first targets. Are […]

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Michael Barr and Laura Tyson take their campaign for a New Deal-inspired plan to avert foreclosures to the Financial Times’ Economists’ Forum blog. Their plan, developed via the Center for American Progress, would have troubled mortgages auctioned off to FHA lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which would in turn restructure the loans so […]

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The banks who so helpfully loaned money to unqualified buyers are suddenly feeling house-poor themselves, says City Journal’s Nicole Gelinas in the Wall Street Journal.

(S)ome borrowers, even those who can theoretically afford to keep their homes, realize they owe much more than what comparable houses in the neighborhood are selling for — […]

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Let’s do a quick tour of what’s being said about Bank of America’s purchase of Countrywide.
The press release is always a good place to start. What do the principals want you to think? What are they willing to say in the face of all evidence to the contrary? First, the lede:
Bank […]

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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s idea for rescuing subprime borrowers from foreclosure was announced in a speech today:
The freeze would apply to adjustable-rate mortgages originated between Jan. 1, 2005, and July 31, 2007, which would reset between Jan. 1, 2008, and July 31, 2010. The program is designed to help those with two-year or three-year low […]

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From here, the news for U.S. banks can only get better, because right now looks like the worst.
An economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group is forecasting $250 to $500 billion in write-downs, in part because of their subprime mortgage exposure, but also because of a new accounting rule. I’ll let the folks […]

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In Monday’s Wall Street Journal, a page-one meditation on how the financial industry’s emphasis on quick profits in every unit, or else, has crushed a generation of top leaders, leaving both Citigroup, Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. without obvious successors to their two newly-cashiered CEOs.
So many worthy candidates carry the taint of having been […]

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You don’t want ACORN after you. They are relentless. They are the heir of Saul Alinsky, the most pragmatic and successful radical organizer of the 20th century.
ACORN’s been howling about subprime lenders — “predatory” lenders, “loan sharks” — for years. Now, even Alan Greenspan might have to tip his cap to […]

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