a company cannot go bankrupt while it shows assets, they would have to go liquid first. When both of these companies went to file for bankruptcy their good standing accounts would have been bought up by more well-run companies.

This is a violation of human right, capitalism, and the constitution. I’ve heard this ‘too big to fail’ rhetoric before and it’s complete crap as always.

RP made me believe in the US again. This move by the federal government just put the last nail in the coffin…i’m getting the hell out of here as soon as i can.

Your lender should work with you on this one.

updated 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
CHICAGO – The 2002 bankruptcy of United Airlines parent company was big news at the time, and big news again on Monday when an investment newsletter mistakenly passed along an old news story about the Chapter 11 filing, thinking it was new.

United shares tanked before trading was halted and then recovered only a portion of that before ending the day down by a larger percentage than other airline stocks.

The trouble started with a Google search.

A staffer at investment newsletter Income Securities Advisors Inc. in Miami Lakes, Fla., entered the words “bankruptcy” and “2008” in the Internet search engine, according to President Richard Lehmann. ISA does this all the time, searching for overlooked information about companies in trouble, he said.

Lehmann said the top item returned in the Google search was a story about United’s bankruptcy filing that appeared on the South Florida Sun Sentinel Web site. The story referred to United’s filing on Monday morning. United had filed for Chapter 11 protection on Monday, Dec. 9, 2002. Lehmann said that date was not on the story.

At 10:43 a.m. the staffer posted a summary of the story from the Sun Sentinel site on the financial information service Bloomberg, Lehmann said. Bloomberg has its own journalists but also distributes information from third-party providers such as ISA, for which some subscribers pay extra. Lehmann said all Bloomberg users would have been able to see the headline, though.

After trading around $12 a share Monday morning, the stock of United parent company, UAL Corp., dropped at least as low as $4.62 about five minutes after the ISA article was posted on the Bloomberg terminal. The shares fell as low as $3 before Nasdaq halted trading just before 11:07 a.m. EDT.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26608735/

bah! they just redid my story for Bergen County home sales but quoted people on what was hapening. I have a chart! :)

“What is your real interest in assigning individuals a lesser share of the blame in this whole mess?”

I don’t know how other people go about solving problems, but I look at the cause of the problem to determine how to correct it. This isn’t 1st grade where 2 kids get sent to the principle’s office for fighting and they both get the same punishment.

“People who do dumb things- be they lenders, agents, bank employees or private individuals- deserve exactly the same measure of blame and the same consequences for their misadventures.”

The problem is there aren’t the same measure of consequences. Are banks expecting their employees to give back their exhorbitant compensation since it depleted their reserves when the true risk of their decisions was revealed? No, they sold off their bad mortgages to the GSE’s who are now being bailed out by the tax payers. On top of that the FED’s been feeding them even cheaper money.

Are borrowers being given the same type of consideration? No. Mostly they’re either losing their homes to foreclosure or toughing out their bad decisions. In some cases they are going back to their teaser rates as the banks decide it’s better to keep them as customers at their teaser rates, sometimes for an extended term, rather than having to try and sell the home themselves.

In my opinion, nobody should be bailed out. Not the homeowners, especially not the banks who caused the problem. The banks fought hard for deregulation but still expect the protection. Doesn’t fly for me. Like my dad used to say, as long as you live in my house and eat my food you live by my rules. When you move out and pay your own way, you can do what you want.

Before Fannie & Freddie were nationalized yesterday, I locked in a 30 yr fixed for a home I intend to close on in October. My rate lock agreement stipulates a $500 charge if I withdraw my application at this point. Interest rates have fallen enough to make paying the $500 a no-brainer; it’s well worth it.

While I can pay $500 and leave, I would prefer to work with my current lender. How much do lenders normally budge on this kind of thing? I’d even be willing to pay the $500 to lock to break the agreement and lock in the new rate.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-enhome0909,0,2282075.story

You should not have asked :(

Cruise lines change course to cut fuel
Altered itineraries will minimize distance, speed between ports

PORTLAND, Maine – When the 1,020-foot Explorer of the Seas cruises through North Atlantic waters next year, it’ll spend more time off the coast of New England and less time near Canadian shores, and it’s not because of better vistas.

Royal Caribbean International and other cruise lines have begun charting a new course in search of routes that eat up less fuel. Already one of the industry’s biggest costs, record fuel prices have cut heavily into the bottom line.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26608500/

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/080908/fannie_freddie_china.html?.v=3

” There was a vigorous reaction among Chinese Internet users.

A blogger on http://www.163.com said “a capitalist country is now acting to save the market and protect investors,” whereas China’s government had sat idly by during a 64 percent plunge in the Shanghai stock market since last October.

“How can Chinese stock investors not be sad? How can they not lose confidence?” the post said.

The main Shanghai index (^SSEC – News) shed 2 percent on Monday, touching a fresh 20-month low, despite a rally elsewhere in Asia triggered by the takeover of the two firms.

“Hope that China’s stock market will get government help like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, not just lip service,” a blogger named “Bang Ni” on sina.com.cn said.”

GG??

I can actually feel my brain melting.

“Yes, I believe you are missing something. I for one do not believe for a minute that what is driving the bailout has anything to do with housing. It is all about preventing foreign banks from losing faith in the federal govern.ent and thus refusing to continue financing our continuing budget shortfalls. This is all about keeping the federal government afloat.”

What is your real interest in assigning individuals a lesser share of the blame in this whole mess?

Should individual consumers be held harmless because of their ostensibly lower position in the food chain, or are you implying that in the future they need to be protected from themselves?

People who do dumb things- be they lenders, agents, bank employees or private individuals- deserve exactly the same measure of blame and the same consequences for their misadventures.

Apportioning uneven slices of the blame pie sounds a bit too much like threading the needle for my tastes.