Free Republic

US slump to prop up India as next offshoring hotspot 14 May, 2008, 0750 hrs IST,Chiranjoy Sen, TNN BANGALORE: Belt-tightening by global technology giants—a fallout of US economic slowdown—is likely to reinforce India as the most preferred offshoring destination. Top technology firms are actively moving part of their workforce from the US, UK and European markets to lower-cost destinations. They cite availability of local talent, better delivery and conducive enviroment as key offshoring reasons. While they may not admit it, firms would be looking at stepping the gas on offshoring to curb bloating costs and to lift margins. Networking and...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. financial industry has been shedding jobs at a record clip, and some analysts predict the pace will only accelerate over the next year-and-a-half as banks cut costs in the face of the housing market slump and the weak economy. Analysts at the financial research firm Celent LLC said in a report Tuesday that it expects the U.S. commercial banking industry -- essentially, all companies that lend or collect deposits -- to lose 200,000 of its 2 million jobs over the next 12 to 18 months. An annual loss of 200,000 jobs at the nation's...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Existing home sales sank 8 percent last month, to the lowest pace on record, according to the latest reading on the state of the battered real estate market released Wednesday. Sales of existing homes slowed to an annual pace of 5.04 million in September, compared with a revised 5.48 million sales pace in August, according to the National Association of Realtors. Last month's decline marks the largest since the current measure of existing home sales - which includes multiple-family dwellings - began in 1999. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast that sales would slow to a...

Fortune Magazine) -- Here I go. I am about to walk into one of the biggest sucker's games in the whole world of economics: declaring that the U.S. consumer is tapped out, so desperately in hock and troubled about the future that he finally just can't spend like it's 1999 anymore. And to be clear, that is what I'm declaring. Unless I can talk myself out of it by the end of the column. I must be nuts. One of the most reliable ways to look like a business dope over the past several years has been to announce that...

Most anybody in the mortgage business will tell you that August was a month that will live in infamy: The market was in turmoil, as doubts about the stability of subprime loans spread to other sectors of the mortgage world. How bad was it? A survey of mortgage brokers suggests that one in three consumers who recently signed purchase contracts canceled in August -- up from just 4 percent three years ago, according to the research firm that conducted the survey for Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade journal. The cancellation rate undoubtedly was fed by two scenarios playing out: Many...

LONDON – The fate of the world economy hinges on what happens to house prices in America and that may not be a good thing, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday. Speaking at the Reuters headquarters in London, the former Fed chair delivered a gloomy prognosis on the state of the global economy – U.S. house prices are likely to fall further and they could drag the rest of the world with them. * * * “The critical variable in this judgement is the price of homes in the United States,” said Greenspan, who ran the U.S....

Accredited Home Lenders (LEND - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) sued Lone Star in a bid to force the firm to complete its $400 million buyout of Accredited. San Diego-based Accredited said Lone Star indicated in a filing with regulators that it doesn't expect to complete its purchase of Accredited, based on the assumption that Accredited won't be able to satisfy conditions to the closing. Accredited said it believes all conditions to closing have been satisfied and said it sued "to hold Lone Star to its obligations, and to hold it fully responsible for any damages caused by its...

LONDON (Reuters) -- Big-money institutional investors have turned more risk averse than at any time since August last year, taking positions they typically do not reverse quickly, State Street data showed Friday. The U.S. financial services firm said its clients, who keep some $13.04 trillion with it as a custodian, have moved into what it called a "safety first" regime. More markets news... European stocks in the red for '07 European banks to inject more cash America's most dangerous jobs Video More video Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs International Bob Hormats gives his analysis of the global credit crunch. Play...

Aug. 9: Growing problems in the housing and mortgage markets are putting pressure on borrowers who are trying to sell before losing their homes. Some are even walking away from mortgages. NBC's Josh Mankiewicz reports. Full story

NEW YORK - The dream of owning a home is fading away for many Americans with less than stellar credit. On Tuesday HomeBanc Corp. said it will not issue any more loans, and Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. shut down a type of loan called “alt-A” for people with limited documentation or slight credit issues. That followed bankruptcies for two of the country’s biggest home lenders — American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. and New Century Financial Corp. — and tighter terms at most other lenders that are thus far surviving a shakeout in the industry. “Every day I hear about a...