» Posted by Martin Weil on August 28, 2007

This LA Times article (registration required) paints a grim picture of what happens to a neighborhood with rising foreclosure rates. From swimming pools that breed mosquitoes in Northridge to squatters occupying mansions in Pacific Palisades, the problem is expected to get worse before it gets better.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 27, 2007

One of twenty patients acquire a secondary infection while hospitalized, infections that are increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics. Asking that hospital staff clean their hands before treating you, and asking visitors to clean their hands is the number one way patients can reduce infections during a hospital stay. The entire list of fifteen recommended steps for hospital patients can be found here.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 17, 2007

"Anxious customers jammed the phone lines and website of Countrywide Bank and crowded its branch offices to pull out their savings because of concerns about the financial problems of the mortgage lender that owns the bank.
...
At Countrywide Bank offices, in a scene rare since the U.S. savings-and-loan crisis ended in the early '90s, so many people showed up to take out some or all of their money that in some cases they had to leave their names."

LA Times (registration required)

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 14, 2007

and what it has been doing to calm the disruptions this summer in the credit markets. This article "Federal Reserve policy actions in August 2007" by a former research director of the NY Fed is not for everyone. But if you are one of those who are curious as to the workings of the US' central bank, this is for you. Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the pointer.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 13, 2007

"When an investment banker set out to buy a $1.5 million home on Long Island last month, his mortgage broker quoted an interest rate of 8 percent. Three days later, when the buyer said he would take the loan, the mortgage banker had bad news: the new rate was 13 percent....Jumbo mortgages are most important in areas with high home prices, most notably on the East and West coasts. "In California, it has shut down the purchase market," said Jeff Jaye, a mortgage broker in the Bay area. "It has shut down the refi market.""
NY Times (registration required)

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 13, 2007

Parents, and students, are stunned to discover that a single college term's worth of textbooks can run several hundred dollars. Along comes AbeBooks to the rescue. Other sources promising savings of 50% or more on textbooks include Cheapesttextbooks and Ebay's Half.com. Pointer from The Consumerist.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 12, 2007

"Major lenders are repossessing homes in Southern California much faster than they can sell them, a development that could set off a downward spiral of price cuts and more foreclosures. At some point -- maybe this fall, maybe in 2008 -- the lenders' inventories will grow so large that they will have no choice but to start aggressively cutting prices, many agents and analysts predict."
From the Los Angeles Times (registration required)

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 10, 2007

"This is an old-fashioned credit crunch,'" Chris Low, the chief economist at FTN Financial in New York, said in a report today. "This is not a small thing. A credit crunch, when the short-term credit markets seize up, is extraordinarily serious, almost always the precursor of a significant recession.'"

From a Bloomberg article on the spread of US mortgage and credit markets woes to the European banking system.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 07, 2007

The NY Times (registration required) has an excellent pictorial guide to what CDOs are, how they are made and to whom they are sold. Straightforward enough for the amateur to understand yet complete enough to satisfy even the professional.

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 03, 2007

"As the financial-liquidity police raid the credit-market brothel, even the piano player faces arrest. ...The credit bordello has enjoyed some wild times in the past few years, luring customers into the room at the back where the exotica are displayed. As the raid ensnares more and more of the regulars, newcomers are likely to become increasingly wary of the derivatives market's wares. And when the piano player is led off to jail, the music stops." Mark Gilbert from Bloomberg on the meltdown in the credit markets

» Posted by Martin Weil on August 01, 2007

"My favourite ticketing system was in Mumbai, India," Kim enthuses. "No one actually buys a ticket, but you can buy 'ticket insurance' from private entrepreneurs who work at the entrance of the station. The 'ticket insurance' is about half the price of a regular rail ticket. It gives you a guarantee that, in the extraordinary event that you are booked by a railways inspector for taking a free ride, your fine will be paid. A relative was once booked and the ticket insurer paid the fine exactly as promised."

From Marginal Revolution