Alice's bubble wrap

No more BTL mortgages any more

Mortgage products available for buy to let borrowers have fallen by 93 per cent in the past year. What? Only 93 percent? I am surprised that there are still banks out there stupid enough to give out loans to even more stupid BTL investors.

UBS Private Banking Inflows Cease

Whatever happened to Swiss banking? Oh yes, they started speculating on US housing.

Who brought Bear Stearns down?

Another conspiracy theory: the fall began as $1.7 million of options.

The rich are really suffering

Something is wrong when the rich begin to ape the habits of the poor. I don't like it. I want the rich to act as if they really have money.

"The mood of frugality that has led US consumers to seek out discount retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco has increasingly spread to the affluent and wealthy, according to a survey of attitudes in some of America’s richest households. The research, based on interviews with 625 respondents who represent the wealthiest 10 per cent of US households, found that 80 per cent said they were looking closely at every spending category to see where they could save – up from 68 per cent in April."

Fed demands banks to hold more cash

Seems sensible; if only they had done this earlier.

The darker side of Freddie and Fannie

An editorial from the greatest newspaper in the world.

The bond vigilantes are coming back

As former Clinton advisor - James Carvell - once said “I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter. But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”

Radian Projecting 23% Claim Rate for Alt-A and Subprime

Alt-A is the new subprime.

Oil and the dollar

Is the dollar moving the price of oil? Econbrowser thinks not.

"In recent data, as much as 20% of oil price movements could be attributed to changes in the exchange rate, or at least to news developments that matter for both exchange rates and oil prices. But that also means that 80% of what we see happening to the price of oil is completely uncorrelated with whatever might be influencing the exchange rate."