NAHB - "July New-Home Sales Rebound Slightly From Weak June" (8-24-07)

"Sales of new single-family homes were up 2.8 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units as new-home sales rebounded from weak sales figures in June, the U.S. Commerce Department reported today. The July sales pace was 10.2 percent below a year earlier."

The Washington Post - "Why We Need a Housing Rescue" (8-24-07)

"During times of market turmoil, it helps to get down to basics. Goodness knows it's not easy to understand the maze of financial structures that appear to be unwinding. They were created by wizards of complexity: youthful financial engineers trained to exploit cheap money and leverage and who have, until the past few weeks, never known the sting of the market's lash."

Asia Times - "Central bank impotence and market liquidity" (8-24-07)

"After months of adamant official denial of any potential threat of the subprime mortgage meltdown spreading to the global financial system, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) last Friday, a mere 10 days after declaring market fundamentals as strong and inflation as its main concern, took radical steps to try to halt financial market contagion worldwide that had become undeniable."

Herald Tribune - "Many kinds of pain as housing woes hit all sectors" (8-24-07)

"Sun-soaked Southwest Florida is largely considered an enclave of wealth. Until the downturn in the housing market, its turbo-charged economy was seemingly stifled only by worker shortages and other symptoms of its growing pains. But the last year of suffering in the real estate market has slowly percolated to nearly every industry in the region."

Yahoo - "New-Home Sales Rise, Factory Orders Up" (8-24-07)

"Sales of new homes perked up, while factory orders took off in July, raising hopes that the economy can safely weather financial turmoil that has shaken Wall Street. The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales rose 2.8 percent in July, after falling 4 percent in June. The increase in July lifted sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units. A second report showed that orders to factories for big-ticket goods jumped 5.9 percent in July, the most in 10 months."

MSNBC - "What credit mess? Subprime offers roll on" (8-24-07)

"On AOL.com this week, the Internet-based loan company LendingTree offered 'Bad credit options' and a $425,000 loan for only $1,376 a month. And Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, declared, 'Bad Credit? Call Today. Refinance or Tap into Your Home's Equity' in an online ad from its Full Spectrum Lending Division. No-money-down mortgages and subprime loans that cater to people with spotty credit are quickly disappearing as lenders tighten their standards in response to a rise in foreclosures. But you wouldn't know that if you looked at the ads that some banks and loan companies have placed on the Internet and in newspapers, including this one, often right next to the very stories chronicling the meltdown in the mortgage industry. So what's with the mixed messages?"

Bloomberg - "It's Time to Meet Subprime Devil We Don't Know" (8-24-07)

"Ever since financial markets went into their summer swoon, economists, analysts and journalists have been trying to explain why a small number of defaults on a small number of home loans morphed into a global liquidity and credit squeeze. How on earth did the subprime mess come to this? It's not easy to comprehend or explain the linkages from loans to bonds to credit derivatives and back to loans (the unwillingness to make new ones of any kind!), which is why I'm taking another stab at it. This time around, I learned that the bigger threat is not what we know about these complex credit derivatives, but what we don't know."

Bloomberg - "New Home Sales in U.S. Probably Fell to 7-Year Low" (8-24-07)

"New home sales probably dropped to the lowest level in seven years in July, showing a deepening housing recession that will drag down U.S. economic growth. Purchases fell to an annual rate of 820,000 last month from 834,000 in June, according to the median forecast of 73 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the slowest pace of sales since June 2000."

Bloomberg - "Bear Stearns Ordered to Pay Former Broker $845,000" (8-24-07)

"Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-biggest U.S. securities firm, was ordered to pay a former managing director $845,000 after he accused the bank of soliciting his clients in violation of a severance agreement. regory Fisher claimed in an arbitration hearing this month that when he left Bear Stearns in April 2005, the firm told him it wouldn't seek business from his clients 'because of increased regulatory burdens imposed by the USA Patriot Act,' his lawyers said in a statement today. The clients were banks and brokerages in the Caribbean and Central America."

Bloomberg - "Subprime Scare Recalls Panic of 1907, Year of Crisis, Contagion" (8-24-07)

"'The Panic of 1907,' a vivid history of a crash 100 years ago, landed on my desk just before the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered the discount rate last week. The timing was right for a book that describes how panics arise -- and what it takes to arrest them. As a mountain of shaky mortgages subsided into a sinkhole this month, I had started counting Bloomberg stories in which market pros uttered the word 'panic.' My tally peaked at 63 the day before the Fed cut, then ticked down to 17 by this Wednesday as credit conditions eased."