The Oil Drum

188 comments on DrumBeat: August 28, 2007

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Leanan on August 28, 2007 - 9:18am

More economic news...

Credit card defaults keep rising, report says

American consumers are defaulting on their credit cards at a sharply higher rate compared to last year, in what could be another consequence of the recent subprime mortgage market crisis, according to a report published Tuesday.

In addition, late payments are also up, cardholders are showing signs they are less willing to pay and credit card companies have written off 30 percent more payments during the first half of this year versus a year ago, the Financial Times reported.

And CNN has this little snippet on their "breaking news" banner:

U.S. home prices in 20 cities sink 3.5 percent in June from year-ago period, Reuters reports. More soon.

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Leanan on August 28, 2007 - 3:36pm

Home prices: Steepest drop in 20 years; no recovery soon

U.S. home prices fell 3.2% in the second quarter, the steepest rate of decline since Standard & Poor's began its nationwide housing index in 1987, the group said Tuesday.

The decline in home prices around the nation shows no evidence of a market recovery anytime soon, one of the architects of the index said.

MacroMarkets Chief Economist Robert Shiller said the declining residential real estate market "shows no signs of slowing down."

The report came a day after the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes dropped for a fifth straight month in July while the number of unsold homes shot up to a record level.

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Samsara on August 28, 2007 - 11:31pm

More economic news...

Credit crisis to claim Wall Street casualties

Four US investment banks are about to give investors their first look at wounds inflicted by the sub-prime collapse

Analysts and investors believe that banks, led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, are preparing to unveil falls in fixed-income trading, debt securities and mortgage securities.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_...

The sub-prime mortgage-driven credit rout had not kicked in when the main Wall Street players delivered their second-quarter numbers.

The credit crisis is set to force Wall Street's top investment banks to take big asset writedowns and reveal credit crunch wounds to some of their key businesses when they brief investors on third-quarter results next month.