CAROLINE BAUM - Election Year + $124 Crude Oil = Silly Solutions -  Bloomberg

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UK: Market for offloading bad debt balloons as banks free up capital - IHT

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InfoWorld launches drive to save Windows XP - Sign the petition at www.SaveXP.com today 

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Financial Market Tremors: Causes and Responses - Richard W. Fisher -  Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

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Foreclosure Bargains on the Block - Even in affluent communities, foreclosures often offer a chance to buy a luxury home for as much as 40% or more off the market value - Prashant Gopal -  BusinessWeek

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As Greenwich Goes..? Maybe Rich Aren’t Immune In Housing Crisis - Diana Olick - CNBC 

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PMI Gets Aggressive on Loan Modifications - The PMI Group, Inc. said late Friday that it had loosened its previous restrictions on loan modifications, in a clear effort to empower servicers to do more to keep troubled borrowers in their home…  - housingwire

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Find out if you are financially fit to buy a home - Tumbling prices raise concerns about getting into the real estate market now. Here’s how to judge if you are ready to buy. - Kathleen Connell - CS Monitor

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After subprime fiasco, risk models may weigh human behavior - Quantitative methods remain, but social sciences added to mix  - Marine Cole - thanks Ira Artman -  FinancialWeek

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Homeownership Rates Slipping, Vary By Region - Jonathan J. Miller - Matrix Miller-Samuel

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Reverse Mortgage FHA Modernization Update - John Yedinak - Reverse Mortgage Daily

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Credit lines are vanishing as property values plunge - VIVIEN LOU CHEN - Countrywide suspends almost all home-equity lines in Las Vegas - Bloomberg News - Charlotte Observer

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What if we’d been on the gold standard? - James Hamilton - If the U.S. had decided to go back on the gold standard in 2006, where would we be today? That’s a question my friend Randy Parker recently asked me. Here’s how we both would answer. - Econbrowser

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great idea - read this - Saving the Economy with IRA Funds - Stan Muse - seeking alpha

posted by Bill Coppedge