To get started, let’s stipulate that the Great Housing Boom of the past decade was not a housing boom–it was a speculative debt-fueled bubble which happened to occur in the asset class known as real estate. As a speculative bubble, it shares the same characteristics as other speculative manias in tulips, stocks, toilet paper, etc.
“Lehman Brothers announced today that market conditions have necessitated a substantial reduction in its resources and capacity in the subprime space,” the firm said in a news release.
Lehman’s decision to shutter the lending unit, BNC Mortgage, makes it the latest casualty in the subprime mortgage meltdown that started earlier this year and rippled into the broader credit markets starting in late July.
First National Bank of Arizona has become the latest casualty in the mortgage collapse that is gripping U.S. lenders. The privately held bank has shuttered its wholesale mortgage lending division, according to mortgage brokers who have spoken with the lender.
Somewhere in the Hamptons a high-roller is cursing his cleaning lady and shaking his fists at the lawn guys. The American poor, who are usually tactful enough to remain invisible to the multi-millionaire class, suddenly leaped onto the scene and started smashing the global financial system. Incredibly enough, this may be the first case in history in which the downtrodden manage to bring down an unfair economic system without going to the trouble of a revolution.
Recent Forum Posts|
|
Inman News Market Watch
