August 2008

As the one-year anniversary of the housing and credit crunch approaches, investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have nothing to celebrate. They won't see an end to the losses at these mortgage finance giants until after next year. Moreover, a report from the regulator of the two mortgage finance giants gives embarrassing new detail on how Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) were mindlessly gunning ... read more

Will the recent garage sale at Merrill Lynch trigger a new round of gut clenching writedowns at places like Citigroup and UBS? That's the talk on Wall Street, as Merrill Lynch (MER) recently unloaded $30.6 bn in collateralized debt obligations once rated Triple-A for just 22 cents on the dollar to Lone Star Capital. On closer look, the private equity fund in Dallas is saying these CDOs are ... read more