Jun 05 Watch Fraud Charges Filed Against Countrywide Mortgage Chief The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil fraud charges against Angelo Mozilo, head of the Countrywide Financial mortgage firm, for misleading investors about the company's lending practices. Analysts assess the case's impact. Continue watching
May 27 A Final Thought on the Andrews-McArdle Affair Paul Solman: The blizzard of response to the Andrews/McArdle affair has thinned to a flurry, but flakes keep coming, affording me an opportunity to respond to the persistent inclemency and continue the multi-logue, a first for this page. Continue reading
May 22 Ed Andrews Responds to Criticism in the Blogosphere Paul Solman: Yesterday, free-market enthusiast Megan McArdle, who describes herself as “the tallest female econoblogger” but is more often identified in the blogosphere as a libertarian, devoted a post on theAtlantic.com to Ed Andrews, the… Continue reading
May 21 How One Economics Reporter Experienced His Own Mortgage Meltdown Paul Solman: Who knew? I’ve been reading Ed Andrews since he took over the New York Times patents column back in the late 1980s, and I followed him following the housing crisis. But until the… Continue reading
May 20 Watch Other News: Baghdad Car Bombing Kills at Least 41 Iraqis In other news, a car bombing in Baghdad killed at least 41 Iraqis, injuring 72 others. Also, Pakistan announced its capture of a major Taliban stronghold. Continue watching
May 12 Who Owns the Credit Card Companies? Question: Who owns the credit card companies? Once upon a time, Bank of America owned Visa, but I’m not sure if it’s been spun off. So, if the stress tests have shown that the banks are not as healthy as… Continue reading
May 06 Are Examiners Preventing Banks from Lending? Question: I am a commercial mortgage broker in California. I have had nearly every bank recently advise that their examiners are preventing them from lending. How can we get out of this mess if the examiners, in effect, prevent the… Continue reading
May 04 Watch Alleged Ponzi Scheme Swindled Immigrants in Los Angeles Amid growing complaints about Ponzi-type schemes in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal, a company in Los Angeles is alleged to have swindled investors out of millions. Special correspondent Jeffrey Kaye reports. Continue watching
Apr 20 Bank of America Posts Better-Than-Expected Earnings By PBS News Hour Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, reported that its income in the first quarter of 2009 more than tripled to $4.2 billion. Continue reading
Apr 16 Watch Foreclosures Rise in New Sign of Housing Market Trouble New government numbers show that home foreclosures increased 24 percent in the first quarter of this year as compared to the first quarter of 2008 as a voluntary foreclosure moratorium ended on March 31. Analysts discuss the data and the… Continue watching