Headlines...

NEW -> Contingent Buyer Assistance Program
<p>NIKKEI down 3.5%, HSI down 3.8%, ASX down 3.5%, Yen at 115.92. Oil and gold hanging in there.</p>

<p>I'm off to buy water and canned tuna...</p>
 
<p>The funny thing is that the dollar is rallying overall.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="http://quotes.ino.com/chart/intraday.gif?s=NYBOT_DX&t=l&w=15&a=2&v=w" /></p>
 
<p>oc,</p>

<p>From <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1561789420070815?src=081507_1907_INVESTING_comment_n_analysis">Reuters</a>:</p>

<p><em>For now, despite news last week that the largest French investment bank BNP Paribas froze around $2 billion in funds exposed to U.S. subprime mortgage debt, investors last week placed a net $10.9 billion in fresh money into U.S. equity funds, the largest weekly increase since EPFR Global started tracking the data five years ago.</em></p>

<p><em>Foreign flows into U.S.-domiciled equity funds were $11.3 billion, while a net $361 million left non-U.S.-domiciled U.S. funds, suggesting that U.S. investors were repatriating funds.</em></p>

<p>I think the entire financial world is getting ready to press the "reset" button, dragging their capital back to a safe haven to protect it as much as possible during the coming crash.</p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Or maybe I'm just paranoid.</p>
 
<p>Fidelity <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=afY3yBmTZKbQ&refer=news">takes a loss</a></p>

<p><em>Property funds, the best performers in 2006, slumped 16 percent since May 14, the most of any category tracked by research firm Morningstar Inc. in Chicago. The $5.9 billion Fidelity Real Estate Investment Portfolio, the largest among the group, fell 19.7 percent.</em></p>

<p>Nothing like a <strong>16 BILLION DOLLAR</strong> loss to get your day started.</p>
 
<p>Nikkei down 375, Kospi down 126, Hang Seng down 703, FTSE down 120 below 6000 first time since March and DAX down 140. Financials and anything that touches US financials are tanking. </p>

<p>US futures all calling for another ugly day. </p>

<p>Oil is down. </p>

<p>The Yen is down to 115.91. </p>
 
<p>Calculated Risk commenter post of the day: <em>"Containment was set on a brick of TNT and when it went off, everybody got containment all over themselves. Containment is now all over the upholstery, carpets, walls, and the fridge. We're gonna have to call the (undocumented) maids on this one" </em></p>
 
<p>Is there anybody left who still thinks this is a "subprime" problem? Including Ben Stein?</p>

<p>Here is the part of the puzzle I am confused with; it seems the remainding lenders are all going to agency approved paper. But Fannie and Freddie can only buy so much. OHFEO turned down their request to expand their limits, so who are the lenders planning on selling the paper to?</p>
 
<p>It seems to me that they'll be forced to keep that stuff for themselves. They're too thinly capitalized to do any more than just a token amount of non-agency. Hence the blank sections on their rate sheets.</p>

<p>Yeah, it really is that bad methinks. Sellers needed to hurry up and get their damn house sold while their buyers could still get a loan. Too late now. </p>
 
<p>Tanta on the magnitude of problems were CFC to go bankrupt:</p>

<p><em>"Not something you care to imagine.





They are too big to fail as a servicer. This has been allowed to happen, and it's a huge problem for the mortgage industry. Those of us who have been wringing our hands over the "800 pound gorilla" servicer for about ten years have been laughed at.





CFC services 1 out of every 10 mortgage loans in this country. First, you'd have to find somebody else with the capacity to absorb $1.43 trillion in servicing, and can do that fast and accurately on an "emergency substitute servicer" basis. Uh.





Second, you'd have to break that portfolio into Baby Bell chunks so that it could be absorbed by a bunch of substitute servicers. Uh.





So you'd just look for someone who can "invest" in CFC Servicing Inc. to keep the servicing platform going until we get a plan. Uh."</em></p>
 
And the hits keep on coming: <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/20156738">www.cnbc.com/id/20156738</a>





Reuters





Two key indicators in the struggling U.S. home construction sector fell to 10-year lows in July and the number of U.S. workers seeking jobless benefits rose, government reports said Thursday.

<p class="textBodyBlack">The housing numbers were worse than expected as home construction starts fell 6.1% in July and building permit activity, a sign of future construction plans, sank.</p>

<p class="textBodyBlack">The Commerce Department data was another snapshot of the deteriorating U.S. housing industry and weighed on financial markets, which are in turmoil over a tightening of credit and blow-ups in the subprime mortgage market.</p>

<p class="textBodyBlack"><strong>"It does look as if builders are throwing in the towel, especially in the South which is where the most difficult markets are," </strong>said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York.</p>

I wonder how Mr. Hovnanian is going to spin this. . .

<p class="textBodyBlack">


</p>
 
Eva, you're going to be even more shocked when you get there. . . simple lunch is going to cost you like 15 dollars a person. I though prices were high when I went and the yen was 128 to 1 back then.
 
Yeah . . . we were toying with going someplace frou frou like Nobu, but upon using the calculator and realizing that one will be opening in LA later this year, we figured we go more "everyday Japan" with the food. I'm looking forward to combing the back alleys, though.
 
I liked the noodle shops and the train bentos. . . 7-11s are great in Japan too (puts the US versions to shame). Not a big sushi fan though so did not get the "full" effect.
 
This just in...NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks fell sharply Thursday after investors were shaken by problems at Countrywide Financial Corp. that confirmed fears of widening credit problems and after the Federal Reserve injected $17 billion of liquidity into the banking system. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 130 points.
 
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