This has been coming for some time … From the NY Times Dealbook: Capmark, Big Commercial Lender, May File for Bankruptcy The Capmark Financial Group, the big commercial real estate finance company cobbled together from pieces of GMAC, may file … Read More

From James Hagerty at the WSJ: Uncle Sam Adds 5% to Prices of Homes, Goldman Says Uncle Sam’s interventions in the housing market have pushed home prices 5% higher on a national average than they would have been otherwise, Goldman … Read More

This is the sixteenth of sixteen parts of a “book club” reading and discussion of Keith Ferrazzi and Tahl Raz’s Never Eat Alone , where this book on building a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends, and mentors is teased … Read More

An apropos name American United We are all failed now. by Soylent Green is People From the FDIC : American United Bank, Lawrenceville, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking & Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit … Read More

Randy Johnson, president of Independence Mortgage Co. in Newport Beach, author of “How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage” and a mortgage broker since 1983, answers questions… Louis in Irvine asks: Q. I am a married 74-year-old … Read More

From Tami Luhby at CNNMoney: 7,000 unemployed Americans lose their lifeline every day (ht Dirk) Another day, another 7,000 people run out of unemployment benefits. One month after the House passed a bill extending unemployment benefits, the issue is still … Read More

Kate Berry, a reporter for American Banker, writes: At the mortgage industry’s biggest gathering of the year, servicers went out of their way to lower expectations for the government’s loan modification program. A common refrain was that many of the … Read More

Fears of a full-fledged regional financial crisis across Eastern Europe have eased, calmed by a strong IMF presence, hefty external assistance to those in need, and a general improvement in global risk appetite. Nevertheless, the region is not out of … Read More

The Mortgage Bankers Association said today its loan demand index fell 13.7 percent last week vs. the week before, as rates rose slightly. Breaking the index into its components, refinance demand dropped 16.8 percent and purchase demand slipped 7.6 percent … Read More

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t have much of a desire to collect books. I keep a small pile of reference books around for information and inspiration, and I have a handful of books I’m sure I’ll re-read in the … Read More