The Stock Market is Not the Economy - by Mike Cintolo - I’m going to start today’s post with a warning: Over the next three months, be prepared to see some of the worst economic data you’ve ever seen. … Now I’m going to continue this piece with another word of advice: You shouldn’t read too much into the coming economic data. … - The Iconoclast Investor
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HUD Publishes Special Pages About HECM For Purchase & New Loan Limits - John Yedinak - has commentary and links -   Reverse Mortgage Daily 

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1.  Support for AIG Removes Ratings Risk for Structured Finance -  Fitch Ratings says the high degree of support extended by the US government to AIG (NYSE: AIG) has removed the risk of adverse rating action on global structured finance transactions where AIG or one of its subsidiaries is a counterparty. - Research Recap

2.  Subprime RMBS Losses Smaller than Underlying Mortgages  - U.S. subprime residential mortgage-backed securities, or RMBS, originally rated “AAA” and issued from mid-2005 through mid-2007, will see much smaller write-downs than the $180 billion projected for the underlying mortgages, said Standard & Poor’s RatingsXpress Credit Research.  As a result, while RMBS investors will see significant losses — an estimated $85 billion – that is far less than the losses generated by the underlying collateral, S&P said, mainly due to they way RMBS are structured. - Research Recap 

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ASF: Buy Loans Out of Securitization Trusts - Paul Jackson - … mortgage market participants should probably pay much more attention to the ideas emanating from the American Securitization Forum. The reason: the group is suggesting that Treasury purhase individual loans out of securitization trusts as part of the Troubled Asset Relief… - housingwire http://www.housingwire.com/2008/11/14/asf-buy-loans-out-of-securitization-trusts/
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When Stabilization Isn’t Stimulus - Felix Salmon - … As I recall, the main criticism of the TARP was precisely that buying up toxic assets was a silly use of $700 billion, and that it would be much better to just inject that money directly into the banks in the form of preferred equity — which is exactly what Treasury ended up doing.  … - portfolio.com 

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The deflation debate continues - Tim Iacono - In what continues to be one of the biggest wastes of breath and digital ink in recent memory, the debate over “deflation” continued this week with Eric Janszen of iTulip contributing one of the more stinging attacks against the “deflationistas” in some time. -   themessthatgreenspanmade

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1.  FDIC Announces Non-GSE Loan-Mod Program - Tim Manni - The plan, which the FDIC estimates could modify 2.2 million non-GSE loans, would cost the government $24.4 billion which could come from the $700 billion financial-rescue plan. To read more specifics on the plan click here for HSH Blog 

2.  FDIC Details Plan To Alter Mortgages - Binyamin Appelbaum -  Treasury Opposes Using Bailout Funds For Proposal to Ease Monthly Payments - Officials at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. yesterday detailed a plan to prevent 1.5 million foreclosures in the next year …  The proposal, which has the support of leading congressional Democrats, would considerably expand the scope and force of the government’s efforts to stem foreclosures. Agency officials estimated the cost to the government at $24.4 billion.  … - Washington Post 

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Sex, Lies, and Subprime Mortgages - Mara Der Hovanesian - The sexual favors, whistleblower intimidation, and routine fraud behind the fiasco that has triggered the global financial crisis - It may seem like ancient history now, but not long ago the mortgage industry was turning ordinary people into millionaires … - BusinessWeek

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The Economy Gets a Margin Call - John Mauldin’s Weekly E-Letter - In this issue: The Economy Gets a Margin Call, Where Have All the Consumers Gone?, Why Is the Dollar Rising?, Can We Actually Muddle Through?, The Potential for a Large Stock Market Rally, Is GM too Big to Let Fail? 

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FDIC (and everyone else’s) Mortgage Mod Plans - MR Mortgage - … House prices are worth what people can afford to pay given current rates, loan programs, incomes, rents and overall economic conditions. It is very simple stuff. … I guaranty you that sometime in the future, it will dawn on them that re-underwriting every borrower in American and dropping principal balances to what folks can really afford to pay is the only way to ‘fix’ this market. …