House Prices Drop US/UK Housing Crash? Subprime Bubble

Since January of 2007, we at Doom have been working to draw attention to how the housing slump is risking our personal data. 
We first became aware of the problem when an auctioneer contacted us and told us that he was auctioning off the equipment of a defunct mortgage office.  Among the items he was auctioning off were the computers- with all of the data still on them!  In addition, there were files in the filing cabinets- and on the desks. The potential for identity theft is huge.
In March of 2007 we noted that it appeared that disgruntled employees from the troubled Silver State Mortgage company were stealing computers.  Again, there is a danger of identity theft.
Yesterday, from the Arizona Republic, we read of another case of carelessly handled personal information: [Thanks to M and L!]

Boxes containing loan applications, Social Security numbers and bank account information for residents of a […]

Original post by twist

Guardian Blog: GolemXIV comments on recent articles This blogger is on my favourites list - always insightful. Page takes 20secs to load up.
Everything written in this newspaper, by all the journalists and by the editorial writers is from the point of view that what HAS to happen is to get spending started again. Get money into the system. If the banks won’t do it by spending/loaning then lets get the consumer to do it by tax cuts ( which is just Bush’s stimulus checks by another name.)
Every word written here ignores utterly, never mentions at all, the possibility that the real problem is the outstanding cliff of bad debts. No one is willing to write a word about how that debt is what is stopping the financial sector from being able to do its job. No one wants to say that even big firms have to go bankrupt.

Original post by mrb

New Scientist: Prophesy of economic collapse ‘coming true’ Things may seem bad now - with fears of a world recession looming - but they could be set to get much worse.
A real-world analysis of a controversial prediction made 30 years ago concludes that economic growth cannot be sustained and we are on track for serious economic collapse this century.
In 1972, the seminal book Limits to Growth by a group called the Club of Rome claimed that exponential growth would eventually lead to economic and environmental collapse.
The group used computer models that assessed the interaction of rising populations, pollution, industrial production, resource consumption and food production.
Most economists rubbished the book and its recommendations have been ignored by governments, although a growing band of experts today continues to argue cont.

Original post by malct

CNBC: Financial Crisis Tab Already In The Trillions Try $4.28 trillion dollars. That’s $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*.
Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its’ a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and news releases. Strictly speaking, not every cent is a direct result of what’s called the financial crisis, but it is arguably related to it.
£££££££££££££££££
has anyone done this in the UK?

Original post by malct

bbc: Spain ‘to slide into recession’ Spain is likely to slip into recession in the fourth quarter and stay there into 2009, Bank of Spain head Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez has said.
His comments followed figures showing that the Spanish economy had contracted by 0.2% in the third quarter, the first shrinkage since 1993.
“The scenario for the next quarters is very similar to that of the third quarter,” Mr Ordonez said.
The eurozone officially entered recession last week.
CSFB analyst Giovanni Zanni said: “We have a slightly worse forecast for Spain than for the rest of the euro area.”

Original post by mark

cnn: The ‘Great Crash’ in the history books You are both too young to read this letter now. But in a decade or so, I suspect you’ll be hearing about the events of autumn 2008 in your history class. You might wonder what it felt like to live through a global crisis. And when you learn about the years just before the crash - the houses that magically doubled in value, the no-questions-asked mortgages - you’ll surely ask what all of us crazy old folks could have been thinking.

Original post by mark

ThisIsMoney: Interest-only mortgage borrowers forced to sell as property prices fall “Around 1.3m homeowners with an interest-only mortgage could be facing financial problems, research claims today.” These are mostly BTLs, who in the past bragged to have made a fortune but will soon lose a fortune “If the UK does become blighted with deflation, not only does it mean people hold on for lower prices on cars, houses and big ticket items, it also means mortgages will grow relative to wages and other prices” BTL = Buy To Debt

Original post by confused76

Tgraph: Becoming a landlord: Word on the street … but a new wave of “reluctant landlords” are spoiling the BTL party.

Original post by confused76

BBC: Bank hints at further rate cuts There could be more cuts in UK interest rates, according to the minutes from the Bank of England meeting at which rates were lowered from 4.5% to 3%.
The Bank’s nine-member committee voted unanimously for the cut on 6 November, but considered a bigger one.
The Bank’s own calculations showed that a cut to 2.5%, or even lower, would be needed to stop inflation falling too far below its target next year.

Original post by flintster1994

FT: M&S to hold 20%-off sale for one day Marks and Spencer is turning to a tactic it has not used since the business was in the doldrums in 2004, in a sign of its anxiety about the retail climate.
The retailer will on Thursday hold a one-day “20 per cent off” sale – its biggest pre-Christmas promotion for four years – to stimulate flagging revenue, according to people familiar with the retailer’s plans.

Original post by flintster1994