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U.S. Mulls Widening Bailout to Insurers - DEBORAH SOLOMON and LESLIE SCISM - The Treasury Department is considering buying equity stakes in insurance companies, a sign of how the government’s $700 billion rescue program could turn into a piggy bank for a range of beleaguered industries….  MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., two of the nation’s largest publicly traded life insurers, and New York Life … considering -
Wall Street Journal
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GE to tap into Fed funding facility - STEPHEN SINGER - AP BusinessWeek

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Feds Hold Off Naming New Bank Investments - Lauren Tara LaCapra - The Street.com 

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Statement of Sheila C. Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Turmoil in the U.S. Credit Markets: Examining Recent Regulatory Responses to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate; delivered on October 23, 2008
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How Capitalism Will Save Us - Steve Forbes -  If sensible rescue efforts continue-and they will-the immediate crisis will quickly pass. - Forbes
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Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Neel Kashkari - Testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs - thanks Marty Rosenblatt - Treas.gov

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Statement of James B. Lockhart, III, Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency - Before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs On “Turmoil in the U.S. Credit Markets: Examining Recent Regulatory Responses”

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Testimony by Governor Duke on foreclosure prevention efforts and market stability - Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate -  FR Board

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U.S. MONTHLY HOUSE PRICE INDEX ESTIMATES 0.6 PERCENT PRICE DECLINE FROM JULY TO AUGUST - FHFA OFHEO
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In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we interview Ric Smith, CEO of Metairie Bank & Trust Company in Metairie, LA about the state of the local economy and American community banks.  by Christopher Whalen
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Fannie, Freddie Have `Explicit Guarantee,’ FHFA Says - Dawn Kopecki and Jody Shenn - The government seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the U.S. Treasury’s pledge of $200 billion in funding represents “explicit” federal support of the companies’ debt and mortgage-backed securities, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said.  - Bloomberg 
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Housing Busts and Household Mobility - Number 350 - Fernando Ferreira, Joseph Gyourko, and Joseph Tracy - Using two decades of American Housing Survey data from 1985 to 2005, we estimate the influence of negative home equity and rising mortgage interest rates on household mobility. We find that both factors lead to lower, not higher, mobility rates over time. - 31 pages NY Fed

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Pulte Homes Inc. Q3 2008 Earnings Call Transcript - seeking alpha

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The Coming Pink Slip Epidemic - Economic woe usually leads to layoffs in certain industries, but this time the pink slips will be widespread - Moira Herbst -  BusinessWeek

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A CFO Survey: Payroll Cuts Are Imminent - Our poll illustrates the hard choices finance chiefs will have to make in the coming year – and provides some candid advice for Secretary Paulson. - By Marie Leone 

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How Much Money Do Mortgage Associations Spend Lobbying? - John Yedinak - With election day right around the corner, I thought I’d pass along an interesting site I came across called Open Secrets.  According to its website, Open Secrets is a nonpartisan guide to see money’s influence on U.S. elections and how it impacts public policy.  Since most of us are paying for at least one … -  Reverse Mortgage Daily

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ALT-A:  The Risk Abatement Disaster is Coming - Once again wild swings in the markets have unleashed the bullish cries of bottom by the guestimating industry cheerleaders like Jim Cramer, the NAR, and similarly minded government ilk who believe we can all collectively wish our way out of this mess. But the proverbial writing has long been on the wall, and we have yet to measure the depth of the losses from this financial fiasco. … - Your Mortgage or Your Life

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Bear Stearns $30 bln mortgage portfolio falls 9 pct - … owned by Bear Stearns and now owned mainly by the US government plummeted 9.2 percent in the third quarter, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday. … - Reuters - guardian.co.uk
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Bad Times for Banks Mean Boom Times for Credit Unions - Barbara Kiviat - … “In good times, you’d say these guys are much too conservative,” says George Hofheimer, chief research officer of the credit-union-focused Filene Research Institute. “But in times like these, it’s just what the doctor ordered.” … - Time