Previous Merle Hazard hits include Inflation or Deflation? , H-E-D-G-E and Mark to Market …
Read more here – Merle Hazard: "Legal Tender"

From Zach Fox at SNL Financial: Analysts believe loan mod redefaults could hit 70% Diane Westerback, S&P’s managing director of global surveillance analytics, told SNL that the previously reported 30% to 40% redefault rates typically only count borrowers after two or three months of payments. A year after the modification,…

Here are two graphs from the Atlanta Fed weekly Financial Highlights released today (graph as of June 16th): Click on graph for larger image in new window. From the Atlanta Fed: After initially declining in early May, sovereign debt spreads have begun widening for peripheral euro-area countries. As of June…

Since we all need a laugh … The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c The Spilling Fields – BP Ad Campaign www.thedailyshow.com
Read more here – Daily Show: More Spilling Fields

From the Financial Times: FBI to target mortgage fraud The FBI is preparing to arrest hundreds of people across the US as early as next week for offences including encouraging borrowers to falsify income on mortgage applications, misleading home owners about foreclosure rescue programmes, and inflating home appraisals … The…

Since we all need a laugh – Jon Stewart has a suggestion for how to use a vacant McMansion … Here is the link at the Daily Show The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c The Spilling Fields – To Shell and Back www.thedailyshow.com
Read…

There were a few reports yesterday of a Hungarian official talking about a possible “default”, and saying the budget numbers had been “manipulated”. A couple of readers (from Hungary), sent me better translations – and the comments were clumsy, and not as scary. Today from Reuters: Hungary government says aims…

A break from the employment report … _______________________________ Update: a couple of Hungarian readers have told me the translation was out of context (ht Gabor, Greg). Here is a different translation: “It was prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany [previous prime minister of the now opposition Socialist Party] who talked about default.…

Just for fun … in 1926, economist George Taylor suggested the “Hemline Index”; he observed that hemlines moved with stock prices. And from the NY Times: A Long, Lean Backlash to the Mini . Here is the hot new look: Does that mean stocks are at a bottom, or that…

From the American Trucking Association: ATA Truck Tonnage Index Increased 0.9 Percent in April The American Trucking Associations’ advance seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased for the sixth time in the last seven months, gaining another 0.9 percent in April . This followed a 0.4 percent increase in…