Bloomberg - "Wachovia Posts Loss, Plans $7 Billion Capital Raising" (4-14-08)

"Wachovia Corp., the fourth-largest U.S. bank, sold $7 billion of stock and cut the dividend after bad home loans in California triggered an unexpected first-quarter loss. The $393 million loss compared with profit of $2.3 billion a year earlier, Wachovia said in a statement today. Wachovia fell the most intraday since the 1987 crash in New York trading after the bank disclosed plans to sell shares at 14 percent less than last week's closing price and cut 500 investment banking jobs, mostly in New York and Charlotte. The stock ended the day down 8.1 percent."

Bloomberg - "Nothing Special With Treasuries as Fed Has Mortgages" (4-14-08)

"The dollar isn't the only casualty of the Federal Reserve's rescue of seized-up credit markets. Bond traders are finding there is nothing special about Treasuries anymore, now that the Fed accepts substitutes for government securities as collateral -- having concluded it wasn't enough to reduce the benchmark interest rate for overnight bank loans six times since September."

Times Online - "US Federal Reserve says that credit crisis is not over yet" (4-14-08)

"The credit crisis engulfing the banking system on both sides of the Atlantic has further to run, said the vice-chairman of the US Federal Reserve. As the US Treasury Secretary and central bankers gave warning that proposed financial reforms would not prevent a repeat of the biggest shock to the world economy since the Great Depression, Donald Kohn, of the Fed, said of the present trouble: 'It is not over yet.'"

CNN - "Majority not buying homes, poll shows" (4-14-08)

"A growing majority say they won't buy a home anytime soon, the latest sign of increasing pessimism about the nation's housing crisis, a poll showed Monday. In a vivid sketch of how the sputtering real estate market is causing distress throughout the country, the Associated Press-AOL Money & Finance poll found that more than a quarter of homeowners worry their home will lose value over the next two years."

Bloomberg - "Bernanke, Greenspan Agree Cash Arms Firms for Slump" (4-14-08)

"The U.S. economy has what Alan Greenspan calls one 'major advantage' as it falls into a recession: Businesses are in far better financial shape than they were entering the past two contractions. Corporations outside of financial services -- from Cisco Systems Inc. to Coca-Cola Co. -- have collectively socked away more than half a trillion dollars in cash. They have also reduced short-term debt and cut inventories to near record-low levels in relation to sales, leaving them better prepared than in the past to weather a contraction."

Bloomberg - "Auction Rate Collapse Brings Bondholders 12% After-Tax Return" (4-14-08)

"The collapse of the $330 billion auction-rate debt market, a disaster for issuers and stranded bondholders, has made it possible for investors to earn 10 percent or more on top-rated securities. Puerto Rico's tax-free AAA 2024 general obligation bonds are paying 12 percent, equivalent to an 18.5 percent yield on taxable issues. That compares with rates of 4.3 percent for 10-year U.S. Treasuries and 10.5 percent for corporate high- yield, high-risk debt, according to indexes compiled by Merrill Lynch & Co."

Bloomberg - "CEO Pay Helped Fuel Subprime Crisis, AFL-CIO Says" (4-14-08)

"Pay plans for chief executive officers helped create the subprime-mortgage crisis by encouraging companies to take on too much risk for short-term gains, the AFL-CIO said in an analysis."

Orange County Register - "Economic slowdown hits O.C. office marketEconomic slowdown hits O.C. office market" (4-14-08)

"Voit Commercial Brokerage says economic uncertainty hit the O.C. office market in the first quarter, with vacancies rising into double-digit territory while lease rates and construction declined."

Orange County Register - "O.C. 3rd in U.S. for least affordable rents" (4-14-08)

"The National Low Income Housing Coalition ranks Orange County as the third most expensive metropolitan area in the U.S. in terms of wages needed to afford the fair market rent. The coalition’s Out of Reach 2007-2008 report estimates that 58% of tenants here can’t afford rents based on their income."

Los Angeles Times - "Listing prices down $130K from peak" (4-14-08)

"Median listing prices in Greater Los Angeles fell another $5,000 in the past week, and have now declined $130,000 from their bubble peak, according to Housing Tracker's analysis of MLS listings."