A Sad Forecast for American Home Holders – Once-huge mortgage lender sees bankruptcy payments of 5.9 cents for each unsecured dollar. – Stephen Taub – CFO.com 

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MBIA’s 2Q Dazzling Results: What Is ‘Adjusted Book Value,’ Anyway?  – A quick definition, mostly jargon-free  – Thomas Brown  – bankstocks.com

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Freddie Mac’s bond sale underscores severity of crisis – Freddie Mac paid a yield of 4.172%, 113 basis points over Treasuries, on a five-year debt issue to raise $3 billion. It is the highest risk premium that Freddie has paid, highlighting the severity of the U.S. housing crisis. – FT.com 

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FDIC:  Loan Modification Program for Distressed Indymac Mortgage Loans – details at FDIC 

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Get Ready to Reveal Credit-Swap Risks – FASB voted last week to require banks and other companies that sell credit derivatives to disclose more information to investors starting at the end of this calendar year. – Marie Leone – CFO.com 
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Permit Plummet Is Astonishing – Single-family permits in the Northeast, Midwest and West are already below their respective troughs in 1991, and the South is well on its way to a similar decline. In all regions, single-family permits have declined by 50% or more from peak levels – John Burns RE Consulting

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SEC Announces Successor to EDGAR Database - U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (8/19/2008)  – … The new system is called IDEA, short for Interactive Data Electronic Applications.  …

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NC Says “No” to Yield Spread Premiums – Originator Times

*** great – another law that will make less lenders willing to lend! – BC ***
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Credit Derivatives Market Moves Closer to Clearing Solution  – Will Acworth – riskcenter.com 

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A Partnership Solution for Investment Banks? – Steven Davidoff – The travails of Lehman Brothers and the demise of Bear Stearns have me thinking — would these Wall Street firms have ended up in their respective messes if investment banks never been permitted to go public?  After all, the concept is a relatively new one. -  Dealbook NYT

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Gross: GSE shares reflect gov’t bailout likely- CNBC – Reuters

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Citic Bank Has $1.18 Billion of Fannie, Freddie Debt – Luo Jun and Chia-Peck Wong – China Citic Bank Corp., the banking unit of the nation’s largest investment company, said it held $1.18 billion of home mortgages secured by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, making up all of its holdings backed by real-estate loans – Bloomberg 
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