Cycloptichorn wrote:
Not good
Cycloptichorn
Indeed. I think that with Freddie and Fannie and Lehman et al (and watch out for Wachovia), this could be rough weekend or for another week ahead.
realjohnboy wrote:Cycloptichorn wrote:
Not good
Cycloptichorn
Indeed. I think that with Freddie and Fannie and Lehman et al (and watch out for Wachovia), this could be rough weekend or for another week ahead.
I knew Whackovia wasn't doing that great, but I didn't realize that they were dragging as badly as they are. No surprise tho.
Cycloptichorn
Cycloptichorn wrote:http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/11/news/companies/indymac_close.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008071118
Quote:Banking regulators close IndyMac
The Office of Thrift Supervision shuts down mortgage lender IndyMac and transfers the operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Last Updated: July 11, 2008: 6:59 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- IndyMac Bank succumbed to the pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures on Friday when banking regulators seized the mortgage lender's assets.
The Office of Thrift Supervision said it transferred IndyMac's (IMB) operations to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation because it did not think it could meet its depositors' demands.
Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc., the holding company for IndyMac Bank, has been struggling to raise capital as the housing slump deepens.
A spokesman for the lender did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment.
The banking regulator said it closed IndyMac after customers began a run on the lender following the June 26 release of a letter by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., urging several bank regulatory agencies that they take steps to prevent IndyMac's collapse.
First Published: July 11, 2008: 6:44 PM EDT
Not good
Cycloptichorn
Had quite a huge savings at IndyMac bank, but closed out the account about two years ago; none too soon! WHEW!
It's only the beginning of humpty dumpty; more banks are going under, and the stock market is headed for new lows.
at yesterday's closing - selected YTD changes :
lehman : minus 73 %
wachovia : minus 65 %
bank of america : minus 45 %
citigroup : minus 44 %
wells fargo : minus 21 %
washington mutual : minus 61 %
general electric : 25 %
and it's spilled over into canada , where ALL of the banks are down 15- 40 % for the year !
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BUT , not all is lost , some businesses are doing very well , thank you !
Quote:Pawn shops feel good about the future as suffering consumers eye bargains
LAUREN SHEPHERD
Associated Press
July 11, 2008
NEW YORK -- Cash-strapped U.S. consumers desperate for deals are increasingly turning to pawn shops and payday lenders instead of the local mall and neighbourhood bank.
With credit drying up and gas and food prices rising, most retailers are seeing sales decline as shoppers cut back on discretionary spending. But for pawn shops, which offer used goods at low prices and allow consumers to sell their possessions for cash, consumers' pain has translated into big revenue and profit gains.
This week, Texas-based pawn shop operators Ezcorp Inc. and Cash America International Inc. both boosted their profit outlooks for the coming quarter. The companies also offer "payday loans," or short-term, high-interest cash advances to consumers on their paycheques. As more people struggle to cover the rising cost of gasoline and groceries, they are turning to payday lenders to help them bridge the days between paycheques.
Ezcorp lifted its outlook to 25 cents (U.S.) a share from 21 cents for its fiscal third quarter. Cash America raised its second-quarter profit outlook to a range of 62 to 64 cents a share from prior estimates of 51 to 54 cents a share.
Cash America said it was helped by more merchandise sales, strong revenue from its online cash advance service and better-than-expected revenue in its pawn lending business. Pawn shops offer loans in exchange for goods that can then be sold if the customer doesn't redeem them.
Roth analyst Elizabeth Pierce said the companies may have benefited from economic stimulus payments that began pouring into taxpayers' mailboxes and bank accounts at the end of April. "People who have a bit more may be looking at the cheapest alternative in terms of product," Ms. Pierce said in a note to clients.
High gold prices may also be spurring shoppers to pawn their jewellery for extra cash, she said. Gold closed at $942, up $13.40 yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are down somewhat from their record-high of $1,000 in March, but still up sharply from last year's $650 an ounce.
Robert Santos, manager of a pawn shop in New York called EZ Pawn, said more people have been coming in to the store recently for a cash infusion or to fatten their wallets, even if only for a short time.
"More people have been selling or pawning," he said, adding that many have come back to redeem their items once they no longer need the cash.
Roth's Ms. Pierce said that even if the economy strengthens, pawn shops may continue to be popular. With more shoppers venturing into pawn shops, she said, consumers are seeing that the stores aren't necessarily dodgy domains.
"If you need to replace something and you're looking for the cheapest alternative, you might be willing to put aside some of those preconceived notions about those businesses," she said.
Good to see that Wells Fargo is doing relatively well for banks. That's good, because our friend's son-in-law works for that bank.
c.i. wrote-
Quote:Good to see that Wells Fargo is doing relatively well for banks. That's good, because our friend's son-in-law works for that bank.
That's a rather subjective and emotional way of deciding what's good.
It's understandable obviously but hardly a feather in the cap of the science of economics.
spendius wrote:c.i. wrote-
Quote:Good to see that Wells Fargo is doing relatively well for banks. That's good, because our friend's son-in-law works for that bank.
That's a rather subjective and emotional way of deciding what's good.
It's understandable obviously but hardly a feather in the cap of the science of economics.
Yes, it's my subjectivity; get over it.
With almost everything, there's always an exception to the general trends about our economy - even in Silicon Valley.
BusinessWeek
In Silicon Valley, Real Estate Remains Strong
Thursday July 10, 8:08 am ET
By Prashant Gopal
Mountain Home Road in Silicon Valley's Woodside community is a pleasant, tree-lined street. At first glance it might seem like any other upscale suburb, until it becomes apparent that few of the homes are visible from the road. That's because this, and streets like it all over California's San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, are where Silicon Valley's most powerful people live -- and they like their privacy.
Silicon Valley's technology titans also try to keep a low profile when they put their mansions up for sale -- especially when the prices equal the value of many of the area's startups. The most expensive properties in America's technology capital are often sold privately and without the help of the multiple listing service.
But many of the homes themselves are decidedly high-profile. Take, for instance, Oracle (NasdaqGS:ORCL - News) Chief Executive Larry Ellison's 23-acre estate in Woodside, which he bought in 1995 for $12 million before spending more than $200 million to remake it into a 16th-century Japanese palace, complete with an authentic tea house and strolling garden.
Silicon Valley is dotted with similarly expansive mansions, often hidden behind gates or giant redwood trees. Residents of Atherton, the area's most exclusive community, include Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News); Charles Schwab, the founder of brokerage Charles Schwab (NasdaqGS:SCHW - News); and Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay (NasdaqGS:EBAY - News).
Foreclosure-Free Zone
Unlike other California markets that have been battered by foreclosures, real estate in Silicon Valley, part of the pricey San Francisco Bay area, has remained relatively strong and has been buoyed by the job growth in the technology sector and some of the highest salaries in the nation. The subprime problems that have vexed other parts of California have been relegated to parts of San Jose and to the outskirts of Silicon Valley. The towns with the best schools, including Palo Alto, Woodside, Los Altos Hills, and Cupertino also tend to have the most robust markets.
And luxury homes -- properties listed for more than $3.5 million -- might be holding up best because buyers who can afford these prices aren't concerned about interest-rate fluctuations or the credit crunch. This could change if the stock market continues to plunge and the nation falls into a deep recession, however.
"People here in Silicon Valley are so rich," says Los Gatos Realtor Susan Fagin. "When I first started in real estate 20 years ago, my dream was to get a doctor as a client. Now, all we want is a Google employee as a client."
A BusinessWeek.com survey of the most expensive listings in Silicon Valley included 14 ranging from a $10.75 million estate in Woodside to a $45 million manor in Los Altos Hills. The $45 million listing on Stonebrook Court includes a 30,000-square-foot mansion, built in 1914, which "played host to Presidents and kings, movie stars and celebrities," according to the property's online description. It has a grand ballroom that is adorned with "16th-century gilded Venetian ceiling paintings."
Asking Prices and "Gold"
The market has slowed since the credit crisis began last summer, says Dave Walsh, president of the Santa Clara County Assn. of Realtors and vice-president of Alain Pinel Realtors in San Jose. But multiple offers still come in for some listings, he says. "Most properties are not selling above asking price anymore," Walsh says. "Now they're getting asking price."
Median home prices in prime areas of Silicon Valley are "plus or minus 5%" compared to a year ago, according to Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. Commercial real estate is even stronger. Apartment rents climbed 5% to 10% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, he says. "Technology is doing well and that's a big positive," Rosen says.
Teardowns, which were popular during the housing boom in suburbs across the country, are a visible sign of Silicon Valley's busy market. Buyers are making offers on homes with the intention of knocking them down and replacing them with mansions.
Drive a bit outside downtown Los Gatos, just past the post office, and you'll find a 20-acre estate on sale for $13.5 million. The owners of the property are empty-nesters and are looking to move to a smaller property in town. The house itself is not large compared to other Silicon Valley mansions in this range. But in addition to the 8,200-square-foot main house, a caretaker's cottage, and a guest house, the compound also has 45 minutes' worth of hiking trails and a swimming pool large enough to paddle around in a kayak. And the real attraction: 17 acres of undeveloped land that are more or less as nature left them. A buyer could easily subdivide the sprawling property and put up a few more houses here.
"In any of these hillside communities, a parcel of land is like gold," says the listing's agent, Dennis Byron, who has been selling Silicon Valley real estate for 36 years. "Buildable pieces are valuable."
On the Down Low
Byron is careful not to reveal much about the sellers. Wealthy homeowners in Silicon Valley tend to value privacy.
Catherine Marcus, a realtor with Sotheby's International Realty in San Francisco, says one of her listings, a 5,200-square-foot home in Woodside, recently sold for $7 million and "never made it to the market."
"An agent called me and said, 'What do you have? I have a client that wants to buy,'" she says. "At that level, people are very picky. Yes, people think these people have all the money in the world and can afford anything. They also want everything in the world so you have to go and hunt it down."
See BusinessWeek.com's slide show to see the most expensive real estate listings in Silicon Valley.
c.i. quoted-
Quote:It has a grand ballroom that is adorned with "16th-century gilded Venetian ceiling paintings."
Anything to avoid 16th-century gilded slappers. I'll bet there's none of them.
There's artistic and there's "artistic" just like there is scientific and there is "scientific".
spendi, It's obvious you don't understand art or science.
Yeah--I know. I am working on it. My impression is that you are not.
There remains the possibility that Phil Gramm is correct in his labeling of "the whiners". However it was a stupid thing to say in support of Mccain winning an election.
dyslexia wrote:There remains the possibility that Phil Gramm is correct in his labeling of "the whiners"..
Really? Who are the whiners he was correct about?
Maybe dys is sheltered from whiners because he lives in New Mexico, and only read about it in his local newspaper.
I ain't touching that comment, ci. You are on your own with the dysman.
rjb, But dys is mostly all hat and no gun...
