Layoffs at Countrywide made headlines yesterday, even as the company took out full-page newspaper ads to say everything's going to be OK. Meanwhile, Capitol One decided to quit the wholesale mortgage business. We asked Ben Steverman for a reality check.
Three large mortgage lenders -- Luminent, Thornburg and Countrywide -- reported steps they are taking in their attempts to recover from the liquidity crisis. Stacey Vanek-Smith has the details.
The Fed today cut the discount rate -- what banks pay to borrow from the Fed -- by half a percentage point. Banks use it only when they're in a bind. Like the one they've been in the past couple of weeks. Jill Barshay reports.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the head of the Federal Reserve bank in St. Louis had basically the same message today -- despite the market unease, there's no plan for government intervention. Bob Moon has more.
Some in Congress and the mortgage industry want the government to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy up bigger loans. So far, no deal. Stacey Vanek-Smith reports on how that's affecting potential homebuyers in some of the country's most expensive housing markets.
There are lots of bogeymen in the subprime crisis -- lenders, brokers, investors, even homeowners. And here's another one: credit rating agencies. Kim Clark of U.S. News and World Report explains their role.
Allan Sloan says subprime is too nice a word for the high-risk mortgages that were bundled then sliced and diced and served up to investors. He says maybe they'd have thought twice before buying into garbage mortgages... or maybe not.
With markets and investors in something of a state of panic, we turn to industry insiders King Penniman and Bill O'Grady to explain what's happening and who's ultimately responsible for this mess.
Some people have been "shorting" the companies that created and financed the subprime mortgage debacle. Steve Tripoli has been asking whether there's still time for a profitable bet against the architects of subprime.
At a news conference, President Bush made it clear what he thinks of a higher gas tax to fix the nation's infrastructure. He also fielded a larger-than-usual array of questions about the state of the U.S. economy.
