World-News

usatoday.com — The number of homeowners stung by the rout in the U.S. housing market jumped last month as foreclosure filings grew more than 50 percent compared with June a year ago, according to recent data. Nationwide, 252,363 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice in June, up 53 percent from the same month last year, but down 3 percent from May. One in every 501 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing last month. Foreclosure filings increased from a year earlier in all but 11 states. Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida and Michigan continued to have the highest foreclosure rates.

http://ga3.org/ct/t120pgF1IEg1/



343,000 Lost Homes

money.cnn.com — The number of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure continued to soar in June, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. Lenders repossessed 71,563 homes in June. A year ago, just 26,369 homes were taken back. During the first six months of 2008, 343,159 Americans lost their homes, up 136 percent from 145,696 recorded during the same period in 2007.

http://ga3.org/ct/5720pgF1IEtV/



How McCain Adviser Phil Gramm Helped Create the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

i3.democracynow.org — In the midst the chaos of the 2000 election aftermath, Senator Phil Gramm slipped into a must-pass spending bill a 268-page bill that totally deregulated credit "swaps" — a market that's now about four times the size of Wall Street — and turned a large part of the economy into a secret casino where the stakes are high, rules are almost non-existent, and the high-rollers' gambling debts are paid by the rest of us.

http://www.ourfuture.org/progressive-opinion/how-mccain-adviser-phil-gramm-helped-create-subprime-mortgage-crisis

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Fannie, Freddie `Insolvent' After Losses, Poole Says

Fannie Mae shares tumbled 13 percent yesterday in New York to the lowest level in almost 14 years.

http://tinyurl.com/6k3ejk



Government mulls Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac takeover

The U.S. government may take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if their funding problems worsen, the New York Times said on Friday, causing shares of the mortgage finance companies to plunge.

http://tinyurl.com/6g74nq



Fannie, Freddie May Need to Lose $77 Billion First

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders, battered by losses of more than 80 percent this year, shouldn't bet on an imminent government bailout of the biggest U.S. mortgage finance companies.

http://tinyurl.com/58whmu



Crisis wipes $1 trillion from financial stocks

U.S. financial companies have lost more than $1 trillion in value this year, and yet another decline on Monday shows concerns aren't going away soon.

http://tinyurl.com/6ap85s



Bernanke, Paulson outline strategy to make working class pay for Wall Street crisis

In speeches delivered Tuesday, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson outlined the ruthless class policy being carried out to place the burden for the financial and housing crisis on the backs of working people.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/jul2008/bern-j10.shtml


From Information Clearing House

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Fears Rise on Trillion-Dollar Trouble for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Rob Lever reports for Agence France-Presse: "A downward spiral for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was unabated Thursday despite reassuring comments from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, as fears grew about the firms which underpin trillions of dollars in the housing system."

http://www.truthout.org/article/fears-rise-trillion-dollar-trouble-fannie-mae-freddie-mac



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