Posted on 09/08/2007 6:57:05 AM PDT by fweingart
September 8, 2007 -- Sharply shrinking payrolls - with a surprise 12,000 jobs slashed at ailing home lender Countrywide - are raising new fears about Wall Street's dangerous roller-coaster ride. Stocks tumbled from the opening bell yesterday after the Labor Department unexpectedly reported the work force shrank in August. Instead of a gain of 110,000 jobs, as the experts expected, the report said there was a loss of 4,000 jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I'm as comforted by this statement as I am about the porous borders that have given us a trememdous surplus of AT LEAST 18 million illegal invaders. Of course they continue to do the jobs Americans don't care to do.
Overheard at Bank of America Boardroom: “Who’s the idiot that recommneded we buy a $ 2 billion stake in Countrywide?”/s/
If Countrywide goes down the tubes, that’ll be the third mortgage company I’ve had shot out from under me this year.
It’s getting really nasty out there.
If Countrywide misses a payment on that 7.25% convertible preferred stock that BA bought I’d be seriously concerned.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/45616-bank-of-america-s-countrywide-investment-time-will-tell
Why is it nasty? A mortgage company that relies on subprime loans and ever increasing interest rates, and overleverages its borrowers, deserves to get washed out. I say good riddance.
now we need to go after the ones selling carbon credits
If Countrywide goes down the tubes, does that mean I can stop paying them for my mortgage?
The liberal media hopes to bring about a depression by destroying America’s confidence. It will not work as long as we keep working hard.
LLS
On the contrary, I'd bet my last buck that Bank of America recognized that Countywide had grossly inflated employment costs, and bought in with the expectation of pressuring the company to make substantial cuts. BofA isn't clueless. Their investment in Countrywide will be a home run for them.
You are correct.
There will be a net gain of over 100,000 jobs next month , mark my words. But the liberal media will keep talking about this month’s “accurate” figures. It’s the government calculating this jobs report. How accurate can it be?
GAO is full of ‘toonite liars... almost as bad as “foggybottom”.
LLS
I agree for the most part, however be prepared to have it impact borrowing rates (upward) in the future and indirectly your pension or 401-k plan investments. It’s likely that a portion (very small hopefully)of your fund manager’s recommendation included an investment in sub-prime packaged mortgages in order to boost the yield on your investments. Worst still, Uncle Sam will attempt to bail out dumb borrowers, lenders and investors in this fraudulent and reckless mortgage disaster, especially in an upcoming election year. Stay tuned....
Sharply shrinking payrolls.....How’s that minimum wage raise thingy working, Gramma Nancy?
Nope.
BOA isn’t stupid, they paid cash for preferred, convertible stock. They win big financially no matter what happens, even if CFC goes under, and they don’t have to spend a penny to short their own stock.
I've never taken out a mortgage that wasn't sold at least once. And on the once occasion when I owned a mortgage on some land I sold, I was deluged with offers to buy it.
Don’t kid yourselves - the big banks have orchestrated this attack on Countrywide to take it down. They have hired all the best loan officers from the banks and taken away a big part of their market share. They don’t like it.
Ah the old confidence trick. Sorry, but that isn't what causes recessions, or depressions. What causes recessions and depressions is the necessary adjustment in response to gross malinvestment and market distortions. This is not a liberal position, but a conservative one.
And you cannot claim that this country is not way way overdue for major structural reform.
Working very hard, but hard at what? Paperwork for regulatory compliance, tax forms, trying to create the documentary trail to avoid more or less frivolous lawsuits, responding to frivolous lawsuits when they inevitably occur, meeting the inspection and licensing requirements for your car, etc. etc.
A large fraction of peoples days are spent doing things that are not the result of free market transactions between a willing buyer and a willing seller.
All of this CDO creation, maintentance and trading is merely another example, though one that had been hidden out of sight.
Once you have regulated all the small risk out of the market, what you are left with his a humongous structural risk, and that is what we are seeing.
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