The analysis and forecasts for the commodity and financial markets for 2008 are coming through thick and fast as the New Year approaches. It is time to delve through the several thousand articles published during 2007 for the opportunity to return to the ten most popular articles of the year. The Housing market dominated peoples […]

The subprime mortgage crisis is merely the tip of a very large iceberg. Beneath the surface lies not only a sea of tenuous loans to prime borrowers, but also an assortment of other liabilities backed by auto loans and credit card debit. Now that home equity extractions, ”zero percent auto financing” and “zero interest” credit card rollovers are […]

The unproductive public sector renowned for demanding unrealistic pay hikes whilst at the same time failing to deliver competitiveness and anticipated output, looks set to go to war against Gordon Browns government during 2008. Which is already expected to be the worst year for jobs in a decade.
Prime sectors of the public sector to assault […]

Mike Larson writes: The last 12 months have seen monumental shifts in the interest rate and real estate markets. And if I’m right about where things are headed, 2008 should be just as exciting, if not more.
Naturally, I can’t give away the entire store here. More precise forecasts and profitable recommendations are reserved for loyal […]

House prices fell by 0.5% in December, the second consecutive monthly decline
The average price of a UK property is £8,334 higher than a year ago
Rate cuts will help but are unlikely to re-ignite the housing market as in 2005

Headlines
December 2007
November 2007

Monthly index * Q1 ‘93 = 100

366.4

368.2

Monthly change*

-0.5%

-0.8%

Annual change

4.8%

6.9%

Average price

£182,080

£184,099

* seasonally adjusted
Commenting on the figures […]

• Almost one third of Nationwide’s survey of 30 towns and cities saw double-digit house price growth in 2007 • St Albans remains the most expensive town in the UK with an average house price of almost £350,000 • Belfast saw the fastest rate of house price growth in the UK – house prices rose […]

The UK economy is being hit hard by the ongoing credit crunch with its sizable financial sector under strain and the UK housing market finally showing signs of the long anticipated downturn after one of the biggest bull runs in history. These and much other bad news will undoubtedly hit the UK economy hard during […]

By: Chip_Hanlon
Stop it! Please just stop.
I saw it yet again yesterday: another commentator talked about how China ’s economy should keep chugging along through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing , particularly its appetite for commodities due to its infrastructure needs ahead of that event. Sometimes I hear it said that the trend might last […]

By: Christopher_Laird
The ECB just lent out an astounding half $Trillion worth of money to 390 banks in only one day this week. It was to combat the lending freeze in Europe where banks are refusing to lend to each other over concerns about the mortgage losses this year. The demand was so high it caused […]

By: Anthony_Cherniawski
The U.S. housing recession has worsened since the credit collapse in August. Because of it, economic growth will slow to an approximate 1% annualized rate in the fourth quarter, according to estimates given by economists to Bloomberg News . President George W. Bush said he’s concerned about the housing slump dragging on the economy […]

In this issue:

Pop Go the Bubbles
Lights for Myanmar, Water for Darfur
A Half A Trillion Here and There
Consumer Spending is Up? Wait, Is It Down?
The Presidential Race
Family, Christmas, and Home

Consumer spending was much stronger than thought in November, yet Circuit City Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and other retailers that warned […]

Britain’s fourth biggest insurer, Friends Provident froze its Property Fund on Thursday, thereby denying over 110,000 investors the ability to liquidate their investments. The property fund has an estimated value of more than £1.2 billion or $2.5 billions. The insurance company stated that investors will not be able to gain access to their funds for […]

Mike Larson writes: I spend my time analyzing and trading the markets now. But back in college, I double-majored in English and Journalism. So I’m familiar with many of the classics — those great works of literature that still have relevance to current events.
For instance, I can’t get Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient […]

By: Hans_Wagner
Reading the Fed’s Tea Leaves
The Federal Reserve has indicated they want to be more transparent with the markets, believing that it will be better for all market participants. Before the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on December 11, 2007 several of the members of the Fed spoke before various groups seeking to explain […]

Among those rational enough to perceive the looming economic downturn, a heated debate has arisen that centers on whether the slowdown will be accompanied by inflation or deflation.
Those in the deflation camp believe that money supply will collapse as a natural consequence of the implosion of the biggest credit bubble in U.S. history. As loans go bad, assets, which […]

Martin Weiss writes: So much is happening so fast — and so few pundits grasp its true significance — I decided to send you this special afternoon edition to give you a heads up.
Here are the latest developments:
First, all three of the major Wall Street rating agencies have just announced — or are on the […]

By: Gerard_Jackson
The problem with Terry McCrann’s economic opinions is not that they are terrible but that they are largely shared by the rest of our economic commentariat. For instance, McCrann cheerfully reports that over the year to October credit for business rapidly expanded. Now he did temper his enthusiasm with the observation that the trade […]

The worst is yet to come for the global banking system, which faces potential losses of more than half-trillion dollars from investments in toxic sub-prime US mortgage debt. “The problems in the financial sector remain with us,” said Bank of England chief Mervyn King on Nov 19 th . “A painful adjustment faces the global […]

By: Jim_Willie_CB
The hidden bond insurers used by Wall Street firms are in the news, especially ACA Capital and MBIA. Implications are huge, with monumental ripple effects. Financial press reporting of the bond insurers is woefully inadequate. Moodys and Fitch are giving analysis review to nine ‘AAA’ rated bond insurers to see if they have sufficient […]

“In past financial crises… the Fed has been able to wave its magic wand and make market turmoil disappear. But this time the magic isn’t working. Why not? Because the problem with the markets isn’t just a lack of liquidity — there’s also a fundamental problem of solvency.” Paul Krugman Stocks fell sharply last week […]

Concerted action by the worlds central banks is beginning to have an impact on the money market interbank rates. This resulted in a a sharp drop today in the Sterling LIBOR rate down from 6.38% last night to 6.20% today. Similar action by the US Fed and ECB has pushed Euro and US Dollar LIBOR […]

The Fed is getting ready to auction of $40 billion in repos this week. The stock market acted is if this was a special gif
t stuffed into its Christmas stocking last week, rebounding after a serious drop in the market the day before. This week in Outside the Box, Dr. John Hussman tells us why […]

Martin Weiss writes: Suddenly and without warning, price inflation — long ignored and forever understated — has burst onto the American scene with the force of a cat-5 hurricane.The November jump in the U.S. Producer Price Index has exceeded the largest single-month rises of the Bush 2000s … the Clinton ’90s … the Reagan ’80s […]

By: Axel_Merk
True leadership may have finally emerged to resolve the subprime crisis, although it was difficult to spot during a tumultuous week at the Federal Reserve (Fed). On Tuesday, December 11, 2007, the Fed cut interest rates by 0.25%. The Dow Jones index, disappointed in what was another effort by the Fed to claim to […]

Rightmove survey announced a 3.2% drop in UK House price asking prices in the month from Mid November to mid December. This was the sharpest decline since rightmove’s records began in 2002. The sharpest drop of 6.8% was in London with average house prices falling by a whopping £28,000 in one month.
Rightmove sited the implementation […]

By: Michael_Pento
Crying All the Way to the Bank - The Fed has angered many and pleased few in its ongoing effort to unclog the credit markets. They have lowered the Fed Funds rate a total of 100bps to 4.25% in the last three meetings and have also taken the Discount rate down to 4.75%. Most […]