12 July 2008
News and Comments 7-12-08
Posted by Roy Bischoff under: Uncategorized .
5 Comments so far...
Matt Says:
12 July 2008 at 12:37 pm.
Tony Snow, Former White House Press Secretary and FOX News Anchor, Dies at 53
Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary and conservative pundit who bedeviled the press corps and charmed millions as a FOX News television and radio host, died Saturday after a long bout with cancer. He was 53.
A syndicated columnist, editor, TV anchor, radio show host and musician, Snow worked in nearly every medium in a career that spanned more than 30 years.
Matt Says:
12 July 2008 at 12:39 pm.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Turmoil Pose New Economic `Headwind’
By Matthew Benjamin and Craig Torres
July 12 (Bloomberg) — The slides in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest providers of U.S. mortgage financing, threaten to deepen the economic slowdown by curbing credit to a housing industry already in its worst recession in 25 years.
The two companies’ shares reached the lowest level in more than 17 years yesterday, making it tougher for them to raise capital at a time when they account for about 80 percent of mortgages packaged into bonds. A failure of the companies would likely send home loan rates higher, causing further declines in home sales and prices.
The dangers mean the Bush administration, which yesterday indicated a government takeover isn’t needed, must be ready to keep the companies afloat, investors said. Lawmakers aim to take up a housing bill next week to help buttress confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“There is no way the federal government is going to let either of those agencies die,” said Eric Hovde, chief executive officer of Hovde Capital Advisors LLC, which runs a $1 billion hedge fund. “You can’t take housing, which is the most important asset class in the country, and mortgages, which are the largest debt markets, and destroy them.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half the $12 trillion in U.S. home loans outstanding. Even if the government steps in with some type of rescue, mortgage rates may rise as much as half a percentage point as the cost of selling mortgage-backed securities rises, said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of mortgage research firm HSH Associates in Pompton Plains, New Jersey.
eadwind for the Economy’
“No matter how this turns out, you have to think” the mortgage market “is going to be under more strain,” said Brian Sack, a senior economist at Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in Washington who used to work at the Fed. “That is a headwind for the economy, and something the Fed will have to take into account” in considering when to raise interest rates.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke will deliver updated quarterly forecasts when he gives his semiannual testimony on the economy to Congress next week. Traders anticipate the central bank will raise rates this year to head off an acceleration in inflation spurred by oil and food costs.
The Fed, which opened lending to investment banks in March in the first extension of credit to nonbanks since the 1930s, is looking at options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with other agencies.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1awX5uIRoFA&refer=home
T. Fan Says:
12 July 2008 at 3:41 pm.
Hope things don’t head south on Monday. What a jittery time we are in. Nobody sneeze or it might start a panic.
Saddened Says:
12 July 2008 at 3:59 pm.
That is so sad about Tony Snow. I thought he was a genuinely nice guy. I’m sure he is in a better place but I’m sorry he had to suffer and feel bad for his family.
E.E. Says:
12 July 2008 at 8:41 pm.
U.S. could step up Iraq pullout in September: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Bush administration is considering withdrawing additional troops from Iraq beginning in September, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions, citing administration and military officials.
The withdrawal, which the Times said would constitute a marked reversal from the war’s darkest days of 2006-2007, stemmed partly from the need for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan to fight the rising insurgency by the Taliban and other fighters. U.S. and allied casualties there have outpaced those in Iraq in recent months.
No final decisions have been made, but at least one and as many as three of the 15 combat brigades now in Iraq could be withdrawn, or slated for withdrawal, by the end of the administration in January, the Times said, citing officials.
The White House declined to discuss the withdrawals, but spokesman Gordon Johndroe told the newspaper that while the president hoped to bring more troops home, he would await the recommendation in September of Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, the Times said.
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