Category Credit crisis

Bloomberg A failure of U.S. mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be a catastrophe for the global financial system, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank. “If the U.S. government allows Fannie and Freddie…

Gross, founder of Pimco (they manage hundreds of billions in bonds) is one of those big dogs we blogged about yesterday. Secretary Paulson apparently thought he could play chicken with the bond market on bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie…

Some collection agencies are now buying debt for 4 cents on the dollar. So, if they get 12 cents on the dollar back, they’ve tripled their money. Collection agencies generally get a fixed percentage of whatever they collect, but with…

“I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter, but now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.” —…

So says former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff, adding that the US is halfway through the crisis with the worst yet to come. Financial stocks got clobbered today in the markets. Lehman Brothers in particular is wobbling badly and was…