addthis_url=”; addthis_title=”; addthis_pub=’edwardnh’;
Latest Major Bankruptcy News
2007 06 13 IndyMac Sued Over Investor Claims It Hid Loan Losses2008 06 30 IndyMac to Trim Operations, Not Shut Down, Perry Says2008 07 01 IndyMac Chief Financial Officer A. Scott Keys Resigns2008 07 07 IndyMac Cuts Half its Staff as Mortgage Losses Mount2008 07 08 IndyMac Falls After Regulators [...]

Money Week points out the scenario for Taylor Wimpey, the UK house builder resulting from the top-of-the-market merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey, now that shareholders have rejected its rights offer:
We’ve been saying you should avoid investing in house builders for quite a while now.
It looks like the City has come around to [...]

from Bloomberg News:
Ambac Financial Group Inc., the world’s second-biggest bond insurer, stopped trading on the New York Stock Exchange in a “subpenny halt” after its share price fell as low as $1.04.
Ambac declined 3 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $1.15 in over- the-counter trading at 1:39 p.m. in New York. Ambac, which was stripped of [...]

Wow! I’ve heard of multi-year lows, but a 53-year low. That’s painful.
Look, let’s not beat around the bush here. GM is in big trouble. They sell many products that people don’t want anymore (gas guzzlers), their growth engine is sputtering (GMAC) and they have enormous liabilities (retiree healthcare and pensions). [...]

I am hearing from multiple sources that the large property company Drac, based in Mallorca in Spain, has filed for bankruptcy. The company had 600 or 700 million euros of debt at the time of its bankruptcy, depending upon the source. Drac had constructed more than 2,000 apartment flats on the Island and [...]

Regional banks have not suffered the writedowns suffered by the major banks and investment banks due to their lack of derivatives exposure. But, loose lending standards are starting to bite. The LA Times has an excellent story out, which details how the community or regional banks will be affected by the housing slowdown. [...]

Argentina is on the brink again. Earlier today, I wrote about doubts regarding the country’s official inflation statistics. The official statistics showed 9.1% inflation when many believe inflation is running 25% and more.
Now, it emerges that the country is on the verge of a cataclysmic debt default. In 2001, Argentina had a [...]

On Monday, I asked, “which homebuilder will go bankrupt next?” The answer came on the very next day: Legend Homes, an Oregon-based homebuilder. The Oregonian newspaper reports:
“Legend Homes, one of Oregon’s largest home builders, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy today after its parent company made three ill-timed land investments in once hot housing markets.
David Oringdulph, [...]

My blog title comes from the title of an article, “Bank failures to surge in coming years” by MarketWatch on 23 May 2008. I highly recommend reading the full article. It mentions that only 3 banks have actually failed so far in 2008. But that number will go much higher as distress from [...]

From Bloomberg News in it’s entirety. This is a HUGE story. This means that Ambac and MBIA will go bust, no doubt. And there will be significant writedowns in Q2 and Q3. Expect to see a major financial institution fail (one that’s bigger than Bear) as a result of the writedowns [...]