(Fortune Magazine) — Even if you flame out on Wall Street, you still get to keep the money. That’s one of the lessons we learn from the fall of Chuck Prince and Stan O’Neal, who have bitten the dust because Citigroup and Merrill Lynch had to take billions in losses on securities that were overvalued on their books. More…
(Fortune Magazine) — Two things stand out about the credit crisis cascading through Wall Street: It is both totally shocking and utterly predictable. Shocking, because a pack of the highest-paid executives on the planet, lauded as the best minds in business and backed by cadres of math whizzes and computer geeks, managed to lose tens of billions of dollars on exotic instruments built on the shaky foundation of subprime mortgages. More…
(Fortune) — Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can only make it through a prolonged credit crisis if they raise billions of dollars of new capital. That, in a nutshell, is what the plunging stock prices of both mortgage buyers are saying Tuesday. More…
In this desperate, desolate, strung-out housing slump, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of T-shirts. When it comes to selling houses, these are the days of no shame. There’s a clever Gilbert mom who outfitted her kids with “Buy my house” T-shirts; a townhouse in Goodyear comes with Cardinals tickets. Buyers can get their closing costs paid, of course, but also seats at the Super Bowl if they seal the deal before Christmas. One far-flung seller in the Valley’s nether regions is offering a new car, plus $1,000 in gas money for all that commuting. More…