You can cash in on CD rates at Washington Mutual

Every crisis brings opportunity, and today’s credit crunch is no exception.
Some banks are hurting so badly for funds that they are offering terrific deals to ordinary depositors.
Like Seattle-based bank Washington Mutual. It’s been one of the worst hit by the housing and mortgage collapse. It’s taken billions of dollars in losses and the shares have [...]

Freddie Mac Overhauls Underwriting System

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., or Freddie Mac, is overhauling its core loan underwriting system with an eye toward automating much of the manual programming required to respond to fluctuating market conditions.
McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac, which provides funds for residential mortgages, this fall plans to go live with the third generation of its Loan [...]

Banks borrow more from Fed’s

  Banks borrowed more over the past week from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms passed for the fourth straight week.
  A Fed report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged $18.47 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with a daily average of $17.51 billion in the previous week.
  For [...]

The final episode of the DNC

  Last night I was very happy to hear Sen. Obama give us some more ideas of what his plans are.  I do need to see his plan in detail and read it myself.  Sen. Obama has provin to be a very good speaker and I am very much interested in seeing him and McCain [...]

Lehman Brothers planning to cut more jobs

If America has any pity left for the Wall Street banker, it was directed Thursday at the bankers of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
Reports said battered Lehman is planning to cut 1,500 jobs. A spokesman for the investment bank declined comment but said a cut in that range would represent 5.7% of Lehman’s workforce as of [...]

The ECB may be tightening up

  NO ONE could accuse the European Central Bank of taking its lead from America. While policymakers there contemplate the salvation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the troubled government-sponsored mortgage firms, the ECB is set to tighten up its rules to ensure that what it offers to banks is strictly liquidity support, and nothing more. [...]

Market News

  The Preliminary 2nd Quarter reading for Gross Domestic Product was revised higher to 3.3%, far exceeding expectations of 2.7% and was much more than the 1.9% that was previously reported. Next month we will see the Final reading for the 2nd Quarter GDP – but for now, this number is surprisingly strong and has [...]

Episode Three of the Democratic Convention

  Last night Sen. Biden made some very large statments of what Sen. Obama will do.  I would very much like to believe him but I still have not heard how they plan to do this.  Maybe I have to high of expectations because it feels like I am at a high school prep rally. 
  [...]

Blue Chip index moving in a positive direction

U.S. stocks on Wednesday stepped higher as investors found reason for economic hope in a July rise in orders for U.S. durable goods, with a spike in the price of crude viewed as temporary in light of storm conditions in the Gulf of Mexico.
“When we think about some of the details of the durable-goods report, [...]

Gustav Storm Watch

Tropical Storm Gustav, downgraded at least temporarily from hurricane status, inched westward over Haiti Wednesday, dumping about a dozen inches of rain on the region.
Forecasters warned that it could regain hurricane strength by Thursday, and energy traders kept a watchful eye on its projected path toward the Gulf of Mexico.
“It’s still way too far out [...]