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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (149798)	9/24/2008 11:50:36 AM
From: Les H	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

``I am betting on the Congress doing the right thing for the American public and passing this bill,'' Buffett said. The economy is ``everybody's problem,'' he said, likening it to ``a bathtub -- you can't have cold water in the front and hot water in the back.'' Berkshire is buying the stake in Goldman, Paulson's former firm, after three of the investment bank's biggest competitors went bankrupt or were forced into emergency sales. He has already agreed to spend at least $25 billion this year to acquire companies, finance buyouts and purchase securities for Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire. ``I certainly have a vote of confidence in Goldman and vote of confidence in Congress,'' said Buffett, who is investing in the firm after it lost 40 percent of its market value in the past year. Buffett, who last year complained that he couldn't find companies big enough to buy, said he's not a fan of cash. ``It's nice to have a lot of money, but you know, you don't want to keep it around forever,'' Buffett said. ``I prefer buying things. Otherwise, it's a little like saving sex for your old age.'' bloomberg.com

To: Les H who wrote (149798)	12/29/2008 5:08:50 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 306849

Credit losses in US may surpass $3 trillion By PTI New York:The world’s largest economy US is expected to witness credit losses of a whopping $3.1 trillion, as the country experiences worsening recessionary trends. “The total eventual credit losses in the United States are likely to be between $1.7 trillion and 2.2 trillion: at best, a rapid recovery would result in losses of $1.3 trillion; at worst, a protracted recession could see losses as high as $3.1 trillion,” global consultancy firm McKinsey said in a recent report. Currently, American financial institutions have incurred write-offs to the tune of one trillion dollars, related to the credit crisis. McKinsey also cautioned that credit losses could be much higher if another major asset area like “credit default swaps” collapses. “The losses will be greater if another major asset area (such as credit default swaps) collapses or if a misguided policy response exacerbates the problems, as it did in Japan during the 1990s. This range of possible losses represents 10 to 15% of US GDP,” the report noted. Last month, the country’s National Bureau of Economic Research said the US had entered into a recession in December 2007. According to the report, the present credit crisis would cut America’s real GDP by 3-7% from trend growth. “If the US economy were to follow the same path it did in the more severe crises, the total lost GDP could be two to three times greater than that estimate,” McKinsey noted.