Wysiwyg
Everyone wants money
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FBI Probes 14 Companies Over Home Loans
Tuesday January 29, 7:00 pm ET
By Alan Zibel, AP Business Writer
FBI Says 14 Companies Under Investigation for Possible Fraud in Connection With Subprime Loans
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI on Tuesday said it is investigating 14 companies for possible accounting fraud, insider trading or other violations in connection with home loans made to risky borrowers.
Agency officials did not identify the companies under investigation but said the wide-ranging probe, which began in spring 2007, involves companies across the financial services industry, from mortgage lenders to investment banks that bundle home loans into securities sold to investors.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is working in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the corporate-fraud probe, said Neil Power, chief of the FBI's economic crimes unit in Washington.
As the nation's housing crisis worsens, there has been a dramatic spike in the number of mortgage fraud cases under investigation. An agency spokesman said 1,210 such cases are open, up from roughly 800 a year ago.
The announcement comes weeks after authorities in New York and Connecticut said they are investigating whether Wall Street banks hid crucial information about high-risk loans bundled into securities sold to investors.
Power said the FBI is looking into the practices of so-called subprime lenders, as well as potential accounting fraud committed by financial firms that hold these loans on their books or securitize them and sell them to other investors.
Referring to certain unnamed bankrupt subprime lenders, Power said there are "some irregularities there that we're looking into," including the timing of stock sales by executives. Dozens of subprime lenders have filed for bankruptcy in the past year, most prominently New Century Financial Corp.
"We're looking at the executives to see if they were committing insider trading," Power said.
Power also said law enforcement officials are looking at whether homebuilders manipulated financial statements to inflate revenues.
An SEC spokesman declined to comment. The agency has said about three dozen investigations related to the mortgage market meltdown are ongoing.Defaults on subprime loans have risen over the past 12 months and are primarily responsible for the credit crunch that has disrupted global financial markets.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. all disclosed in regulatory filings Tuesday that they are cooperating with requests for information from various, but unspecified, regulatory and government agencies. Officials at the companies either declined to comment, or could not immediately be reached.
FBI officials also highlighted what they called a growing pattern of suspected mortgage loan fraud potentially committed when loans were made to shaky borrowers. They cited a surge in "suspicious activity reports" that banks are required to file with the government.
The number of those reports is projected to rise to 60,000 this year after hitting 48,000 last year, up from about 7,000 in 2003. "We're going to have to take a hard look at these things," said Assistant FBI Director Ken Kaiser.
Earlier this month, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo were looking whether banks properly disclosed the high risk of default on so-called "exception" loans -- considered even risker than subprime loans -- when selling those securities to investors.
In November, Cuomo said he issued subpoenas to government-sponsored mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in his investigation into what he claims are conflicts of interest in the mortgage industry. He said he wanted to know about billions of dollars of home loans they bought from banks, including the largest U.S. savings and loan, Washington Mutual Inc., and how appraisals were handled.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080129/subprime_mortgages_fbi.html
Thoughts ... not sure which way to go ... numbers gathering at the cliff (jump first or wait??) ... nervousness building ... what`s gonna happen ... profit cuts in U.S. ... rate cuts in U.S. ... big rebound over ... UP OR DOWN
<H2>Beer sales slide in Germany
</H2>30th January 2008, 8:30 WST
Germany and beer go together like Porsches and the autobahn, but health-conscious residents are eschewing the country’s traditional beverage in favour of juices and bottled water, sending suds sales slipping.
According to a government report released today, the amount of beer sold in Germany fell by 2.7 per cent in 2007 to 10.4 billion litres, a drop of 290 million litres from 2006.
The Federal Statistics Office said the drop in beer sales came as the demand for beer mixed with fruit juices, soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages rose 18.1 per cent from 2006 to 2007, with some 420 million litres quaffed by thirsty buyers.
Thoughts ... not sure which way to go ... numbers gathering at the cliff (jump first or wait??) ... nervousness building ... what`s gonna happen ... profit cuts in U.S. ... rate cuts in U.S. ... big rebound over ... UP OR DOWN
Wonder when the German Landesbanks start declaring that they are holding E80bn in bad debt...
Guten Morgen
..........Kauri
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The economy grew at a much slower pace in the last three months of the year, according to a government report Wednesday that came in well below Wall Street expectations.
The report raised fears of a recession and hopes for another significant interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, grew at an annual rate of 0.6%, adjusted for inflation, in the fourth quarter, according to the Commerce Department, down from 4.9% in the final reading of growth in the third quarter. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast GDP would slow to a 1.2%.
BERLIN (AFP) ”” Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan cast doubt on the ability of the central bank to prevent a US recession in an interview to appear on Thursday.
Greenspan told the German weekly Die Zeit that the Fed or political policies could "probably not" keep the world's biggest economy from sliding into recession, as financial markets widely expected the US central bank to cut its main lending rate.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j0OgenH_mfiBmi3nxIuaU0_-Lc-w
They might not have the ability to fight off a Recession, but they certainly have the power to debase the value of the USD and instigate high Inflation !
Indeed. Latest figures show US GDP was inflated 2.7% in the last quarter. Almost at the same level as the 3% interest rates on offer now.
The point of STAGFLATION initiation is within reach, folks.
Yeccchhh! *STAGFLATION* just doesn't sound nice, does it.
If everything is going up in price/ or costing more so to speak, what is stagflation
Can someone have a good take on this ?
Should it be a thread ? perhaps there is one
If everything is going up in price/ or costing more so to speak, what is stagflation
Can someone have a good take on this ?
Should it be a thread ?
perhaps there is one
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