Associated Press - "Dollar Continues to Plumb Depths" (11-23-07)

"The dollar plumbs new depths in thin trading Friday with record lows against the euro and a 12-year low against the yen on speculation that the American credit crisis will lead to another U.S. interest rate cut."

Bloomberg - "Greenspan Has No `Regrets' as Housing Slump Deepens" (11-23-07)

"Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he has 'no particular regrets' and that the deepening slump in the U.S. housing market isn't a result of his policies. 'Markets are becoming aware of the fact that the decline in house prices is not stopping,' Greenspan said today in Oslo. 'I have no particular regrets. The housing bubble is not a reflection of what we did, as it is a global phenomenon.'"

Bloomberg - "Freddie Mac Risks Larger Credit Losses, Moody's Says" (11-23-07)

"Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. mortgage-finance company, may report wider losses than it forecast as the slump in credit markets worsens, Moody's Investors Service said. Freddie Mac, which reported this week a record loss of $2.02 billion for the third quarter earlier this week, may have underestimated when it projected that 0.11 percent of the debt it guarantees will go bad in the next two years, Moody's analysts Brian Harris and Craig Emrick said in a report."

toledoblade.com - "GM will no longer prop up GMAC LLC" (11-23-07)

"The November 2006 agreement to sell 51 percent of GMAC to a group led by Cerberus Capital Management LP ended any need to fund GMAC beyond $1 billion, Randy Arickx, GM's executive director of investor relations, said this week. GM has lost a third of its market value since Nov. 1, when GMAC reported a $1.6 billion loss from subprime mortgages at its Residential Capital subsidiary."

tampabay.com - "Unsigned letter accuses agent of mortgage fraud" (11-23-07)

"An agent for Re/Max International, Polin was honored at the company's convention in Atlanta last March with the Chairman's Club Award. That put her in an elite group - fewer than 1,400 of Re/Max's 120,000 agents worldwide - who had gross commissions last year of at least $500,000. It was an impressive feat at a time when Florida home sales and prices were dropping dramatically. But now Polin, a member of the Re/Max Hall of Fame, is accused of owing at least some of her success to mortgage fraud."

Orange County Register Blog - "Option One gets $350 million in additional financing" (11-23-07)

"Option One Mortgage Corp. in Irvine got an additional $350 million in financing available to fund servicing advances through lender Greenwich Capital Financial Products Inc., according to an SEC filing by parent company H&R Block Inc. The amended agreement, signed Nov. 16, gives Option One access to $750 million to fund servicing advances, up from $400 million before."

Orange County Register Blog - "O.C. buyers rush to $417,000 mortgages" (11-23-07)

"DataQuick’s come up with a curious stat that shows what home shoppers must do to finance a home these days. The numbers show a stunning increase in use of loans for exactly $417,000 — the maximum size bought by government-sponsored mortgage packagers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac."

Los Angeles Times Blog - "Blaming 'Banks Gone Wild'" (11-23-07)

"Worthwhile reading this weekend: Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times headlined, 'Banks gone wild.' Krugman looks at the mortgage mess and sees, at its core, a failure of corporate governance. How else to explain that CEOs who damaged their companies with bad bets on mortgage-backed investments still made out like bandits?"

CNN - "Japan's banks take $2.1B mortgage hit" (11-23-07)

"Japanese financial institutions lost as much as $2.1 billion from investments related to risky U.S. housing loans in the first half of fiscal 2007, according to a government estimate published by Japanese newspapers Friday."