Last week, I offered to wager a friend that, “In the next three years, Fannie Mae will be engaged in a variety of business activities which are market sensitive. …” Old Doom friend Bill Maloni often has unique insight, but this time he’s brought us something special. He’...

Not surprisingly, this New York Times article, written in the paper's time honored method of recourse to authority, ignores the more serious social implications of the economic restructuring that it describes. The reporters, Peter Goodman and Jack Healy, walk up to the edge of the water by recognizi...

This week, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) provided their latest estimate of annual existing home sales for 2009 again revising down their 2009 total year sales forecast to 4.927 million units. As usual, the latest forecast comes with another dose of truly ridiculous spin. In an effort to...

David Moffett, featured in these motley pages some time ago, has deleted himself from Fred: WSJ Freddie Mac CEO Will Resign Freddie Mac's chief executive officer, David Moffett, announced his resignation from the U.S. government-backed mortgage company just six months after being installed in that p...

Today, I’d like to present part of my “Prime-Bomb� thesis in more detailed terms but first I should mention that this is easily my most bearish post yet… not for the faint of heart… If you are feeling really down already, best just to skip it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… First off, ...

A guy walks into the doctor's office and says, doc, I want liposuction. And the doctor has the guy's medical records and the records show that he has a heart condition and that there's a significant risk he won't make it through liposuction. The doc says, no problem, just give me $5,000. I'd be happ...

Today’s release of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices for December 2008 again confirms a worsening of deterioration seen in the nation’s housing markets with ALL of the 20 metro areas tracked reporting significant year-over-year declines and ALL metro areas showing large and even shocki...

The economy is a mess, and there’s been a lot of finger pointing as to who caused the problem.  Greed, lenders, speculators, the list goes on and on.  Paul Kedrosky of The Street has a persuasive argument as to who is to blame: [T]he housing market in the U.S. is so screwed up is tha...

President Obama has said he’s going to check out foreclosures first hand tomorrow in Mesa, Arizona.  President Barack Obama plans to get a firsthand look at Mesa’s sour real estate market before his speech on fixing the nation’s housing crisis Wednesday at Dobson High School. ...

President Obama is set to unveil his new "Foreclosure Prevention Program" in Phoenix on Wednesday.  While the details are not clear, there are a few proposals kicking around.  John Schoen of MSNBC outlined one proposal on Friday: The foreclosure prevention package is expected to ...