Credit Crunch

Econ 101: Credit Crunch For Dummies

ABC News | SCOTT MAYEROWITZ | Posted 03.29.2008 | Business


Is your head spinning these days trying follow what is going on with the economy? Subprime. Collateralized Debt Obligations. Liquidity. Every day it...

Is The Fed Giving Wall Street A Free Ride?

BusinessWeek | Chris Farrell | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Booms and busts are inevitable in a capitalist system. Right now, the Federal Reserve and, belatedly, the U.S. Treasury, are out to avoid facing the t...

Everything You Wanted To Know About The Credit Crunch (But Were Afraid To Ask)

New York TImes | David Leonhardt | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Raise your hand if you don't quite understand this whole financial crisis. It has been going on for seven months now, and many people probably feel a...

Profits At Goldman, Lehman Slashed In Half

MarketWatch | Greg Morcroft | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Wall Street titans Lehman Bros. and Goldman Sachs, at the center of a credit storm swirling through the global financial markets, both said Tuesday th...

Fed Cuts Interest; Stocks Soar

AP | MARTIN CRUTSINGER | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a point Tuesday, capping its most aggressive two months of act...

A Note To the Employees Of Bear Stearns

Fortune's Stanley Bing | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


<i>Fortune</i>'s Stanley Bing

I'm sure your eyes goggled when you saw it too. JP Morgan paid a couple or three hundred million for a company worth incalculably more. It's stunning.

U.S. Economy Battles Host Of Financial Woes

New York Times | Vikas Bajaj | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Almost everything seems to be going wrong for the American economy at once. People are buying less, but most things are costing more. Mortgage rates a...

Ross Bets A Billion On Municipalities' Strength

New York Post | Paul Tharp | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Wilbur Ross - who's betting $1 billion that municipalities will beat their latest funding crisis - says politicians are trying to help but have it all...

Sales, Dollar Plunge; Oil Soars

AP | MARTIN CRUTSINGER | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — Oil hit a record high, the dollar sank again, and consumers stopped buying pretty much everything. Stocks kept gyrating, too, on T...

Frugal Consumers Swap Steak For Chicken

Reuters | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


At U.S. warehouse club stores, a growing number of shoppers are giving up steak for cheaper chicken. Coffee sales are soaring at McDonald's, while hig...

Fed Acts To Ease Strain On U.S. Economy

New York Times | Edmund L. Andrews | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Impelled to take extraordinary measures for the second time in less than a week, the Federal Reserve moved on Tuesday to subdue the deepening crisis i...

Recession 101: What Are the Signs?

ABC News | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Though the country is not yet officially in a recession, some economists argue the signs are pointing to one. A dismal job report released Friday add...

Merrill Lynch CEO Says Worst is Over

Reuters Via CNBC | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


U.S. bank Merrill Lynch will not need to return to the market again following the turbulence in credit markets that forced it to raise nearly $13 bill...

Fed: Economy Has Weakened

AP | JEANNINE AVERSA | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — The economy has weakened since the start of this year as shoppers turned even more cautious given the severe housing slump and pain...

Bernanke Calls for More Mortgage Relief

AP | JEANNINE AVERSA | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — Battling a dangerous wave of home foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called Tuesday for additional relief and urge...

Wall Street Gears For New Pain

Wall Street Journal | LINGLING WEI, RANDALL SMITH | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


After suffering a beating from their exposure to home loans, banks and securities firms are about to take their lumps from office towers, hotels and o...

Credit Crunch Worries Economists

AP | MARTIN CRUTSINGER | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — The cascading fallout from the subprime loan crisis, barely a cloud on the horizon a year ago, is now viewed by experts as the econ...

AIG Hammered By Credit Crunch

Wall Street Journal | Liam Pleven | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


The credit crunch hit American International Group Inc. with brute force, as the global insurer reported a $5.3 billion fourth-quarter loss largely be...

Is This The Worst Crisis Ever?

Eben Esterhuizen | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Eben Esterhuizen

A bear market is only possible if there is a consensus that a financial crisis is significantly worse than ever before. And that is why we are currently in a bear market.

US Home Foreclosures Soar in January

AP | ALEX VEIGA | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


LOS ANGELES — The number of homes facing foreclosure jumped 57 percent in January compared to a year ago, with lenders increasingly forced to ta...

Existing Home Sales Decline

AP | MARTIN CRUTSINGER | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


WASHINGTON — Sales of existing homes fell for the sixth straight month in January, dropping to the slowest sales pace on record. Median home pri...

KKR In Credit Crunch

New York Post | ZACHERY KOUWE | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Even the barbarians didn't think the credit crisis would last this long. A firm affiliated with leveraged buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.,...

Time To Buy A House?

Fortune's Stanley Bing | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


<i>Fortune</i>'s Stanley Bing

For those with a little bit of actual cash in the bank, this might be getting within shouting distance of the time to start looking at that house we could never afford.

Looking For Mr. Goodnews

Fortune's Stanley Bing | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


<i>Fortune</i>'s Stanley Bing

Inflation in China is very high. It's hard to figure how that will benefit us, but on a list of things that come under the rubric "grim satisfaction,"...

Consumer Spending Likely To Slow

Financial Times Via Yahoo | Chris Giles | Posted 03.28.2008 | Business


Consumer spending is likely to slow significantly because of tighter credit conditions, according to Tim Besley, an external member of the Bank of Eng...