Home Equity Lines Being Drawn Down at Unprecedented Rate – US borrowers appear to be hoarding cash and using home equity lines of credit (HELOCs)  to pay bills rather than dip into their savings, according to CreditSights.  HELOCs have been drawn down at an unprecedented rate in late September with total lending by banks rising by almost $40 billion in one week. – Research Recap

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Europe: Zero Rate World May Lie Ahead as King, Trichet Cut – Simon Kennedy and Craig Torres – Bloomberg

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Survey finds firms looking for more clarity on TARP – SIFMA and the American Securitization Forum helped conduct a survey that found a large percentage of financial firms are reluctant to participate in the Treasury Department’s rescue scheme because they say it lacks clarity. – SIFMA Press Release

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Toward a Durable Recovery – Remarks by Dennis P. Lockhart, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, to a conference in Palm Beach, Fla. Nov. 7, 2008.

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VIDEO:  The Changes Business Wants from Obama -  Corporate executives discuss measures—from finance and taxation to energy and tech—that would help U.S. companies survive and thrive  – By Jane Sasseen – BusinessWeek 

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interesting – Down and Out in Beverly Hills: Rolexes, Picassos Hit Pawnshops – Michael Janofsky  – Bloomberg

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has excellent discourse on bubbles and great depression – We Have a Debt to Discharge – David Merkel – There is a common error with contrarian investing.  It is not a question of identifying things that people believe that are wrong, but finding things that people rely on that are wrong.  Reliance is the critical component.  I don’t care about what people think if they don’t have any skin in the game. … – The Aleph Blog

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The Problem With Deleveraging – by John Mauldin – Thoughts from the Frontline Weekly Newsletter

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Bailout Update: Fed Balance Sheet Reaches $2 Trillion – By: DIANA GOLOBAY – The U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expanded to a record high this week, after continued efforts to shore up the financial system through large cash infusions helped push $2.058 trillion onto the Fed’s book through Nov. 5, compared to the $1.953 trillion on the Fed’s books one week earlier. The data came from an update on reserve balances on Thursday afternoon. See the data. Banks’ discount window borrowings from the Fed eased slightly, and overall borrowings from the…  – housingwire
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very interesting reading – Bank of England fires its biggest salvo – The Bank of England slashed its base rate. Then Alistair Darling strong-armed the bank bosses to pass it on. But will it be enough?  – David Smith – TimesOnline
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Banks consider working with Federal Reserve on financial rescue – (Omaha World-Herald (NE) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Nov. 9–Hod Kosman didn’t figure his bank, the Platte Valley Bank in Scottsbluff, would need rescuing by the federal government. It has plenty of capital and good loan demand from its healthy regional economy.  … In fact, Federal Reserve officials suggested Platte Valley Bank use a federal investment of between $4.5 million and $13 million to acquire another bank that is “a little bit under the weather,” Kosman said. … – TMCnet.com

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San Diego: Cap may make it harder to obtain mortgage – By Emmet Pierce – The cap on single-family home loans in San Diego County that can be purchased by government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be reduced in January from $697,500 to $546,250.  -  UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER