Southern California Real Estate: Still a Long Way Down

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Oracle: How will it weather a slowdown?

ORCL is trading at 23 times earnings, with a $101 billion market cap. The senior executive team has sold over $1.32 BILLION in stock over the previous 52 weeks, up from $428 million over a similar period last year, an increase of $888 million. The company has repurchased over $5 billion in stock [...]

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Wake up to the dangers of a deepening crisis

November 25, 2007 (Lawrence Summers) – Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the subprime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth. This is still a possible outcome but no longer the preponderant probability.Even if necessary changes in policy are [...]

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Global Coal Sales & Demand Booming

November 26, 2007 (Bloomberg) – South Africa’s Richards Bay Coal Terminal, the world’s biggest coal-export facility, expects a 30-fold surge in sales to India this year, increasing prices for European power producers competing for supplies. The terminal shipped 7.3 million metric tons to India in the first 10 months, compared with 300,000 tons for the whole [...]

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Credit Market Losses May Cost Economy $2 Trillion, Goldman Says

November 16, 2007 (Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the largest U.S. securities firm by market value, said the impact of the slump in credit markets on the economy could reach $2 trillion.
Losses related to record U.S. home foreclosures using a “back-of-the-envelope” calculation may be as high as $400 billion, Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman [...]

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Now this is what I call a beautiful short

 
Novastar Financial, Inc (NFI), is [soon was] a “speciality finance” company that deals heavily in the “origination, purchase, securitization, sale, investment in, and service of residential nonconforming loans and mortgage-backed securities.”  Today, the company announced a $600 million loss for the third-quarter, or $64.05 per share.  The stock reached a high of $127 earlier this year, and is now [...]

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Next Phase of the Crisis: The Great Ratings Debacle

November 12, 2007 (Money & Markets) – Evidence of an imminent U.S. recession is now piling up so high, even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke had to admit to a slowdown in his testimony to Congress last week…The housing crisis is gutting the home equity of millions of households, abruptly ending their ability to use it [...]

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“It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil, and we’ll use the next trillion in 30.” — Dan Yergin

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Bank’s Balance Sheets will hit Fan in January

November 8, 2007 (New York Post) – If you think banks have trouble now, just wait until they report financial results in January.That’s when the balance sheet will really hit the fan.
The problem involves a rule passed a couple of years ago that will put the banking industry’s outside auditors in peril if they sign [...]

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