NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Home Mortgage Investment Corp plans to close most operations on Friday and said nearly 7,000 employees will lose their jobs as the lender becomes one of the biggest casualties of the U.S. housing downturn.

Experts said it is likely the Melville, New York-based company will have to seek bankruptcy protection, and no later than Monday.

Read more…

"Ml-implode.com is currently under legal attack by a lender trying to drain their limited resources on legal fees with the hope of taking down the site. We believe the Implode-O-Meter is a valuable web resource and see this frivolous lawsuit as a threat to the right of freedom of speech and the right to free discussion forums and blogs on the internet. We strongly urge all of our readers to support Ml-implode.com in their legal battle, by publicizing their struggle and donating to their cause."

Read more.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Lerach Coughlin”) (http://www.lerachlaw.com/cases/americanhome/) today announced that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of the securities of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. (“American Home Mortgage” or the “Company”) (NYSE:AHM) between July 26, 2006 and July 27, 2007, inclusive (the “Class Period”), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).

Read more…

It is always risky to call an equity market peak and the beginning of a bear market in equities; so I will not try to do that. But leaving aside equity valuations, it increasingly looks like we are at the peak of a credit/debt cycle, in the US and globally.

Specifically, the crucial macro question that we should ask ourselves today is whether we are at the peak of a Minsky Credit Cycle. Or as the UBS economist George Magnus – an expert of financial instability - put it: “Have we reached a Minsky moment?”

Read more…