calculated risk

The subprime crisis certainly highlighted the need for American consumers to become more financially literate. But who defines financial literacy? And what makes someone an expert? Mike Konczal at Rortybomb asks these and other questions regarding financial literacy education — a subject TWI has also been looking into lately.
Did you know that since 2003, when [...]

Right now, that video of  47-year-old unemployed Susan Boyle of Scotland taking “Britain’s Got Talent” by surprise with her soaring voice continues spread throughout blogosophere, even landing on PBS’ otherwise very serious NewsHour last night. But in the housing world, there’s a different video star – Jim the Realtor. His oddly mesmerizing and frequently caustic [...]

Calculated Risk picks up today on an overlooked outrage we’ve been writing about for a while now — the way banks handle their inventories of foreclosed homes. We’ve pointed out that banks often let those houses sit, vacant and vandalized, or sell them at fire sale prices to speculators.
I’m hearing stories frequently of banks selling [...]

The stock market continued its cliff diving today, with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard and Poor’s 500 Index closing at their lowest levels in more than a decade — cementing worries about the deepening recession.
As Calculated Risk puts it, it’s time to party like it’s 1997.

Remember how Congress and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan refused to regulate subprime loans, and joined the mortgage industry in defending them as a way to extend the benefits of homeownership to all? Turns out it was all for nothing, really. New Census figures out today show home ownership rates returning to their levels [...]

Bowing to the banking industry, House Democrats yesterday weakened legislation empowering bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of primary mortgages to prevent foreclosures. The changes — which came during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee, headed by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) — would prevent future homeowners from going the bankruptcy route.

I hate to bring this up, given all the good feelings today, but as Washington celebrates, Wall Street had a record Inauguration Day slide, led by fears that banks are in terrible shape and getting worse, CNBC reports.
Financial shares alone fell to a 14-year low, Bloomberg added:
State Street Corp., the largest money manager for institutions, [...]

Financial bloggers are in mourning today for Tanta, at Calculated Risk, who died on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. As the tributes to her throughout the blogosphere make clear, her analysis of the mortgage crisis was closely followed and influential. She had spent 20 years in mortgage banking — she knew what she was talking about, [...]