This is just the beginning of the legal fun we'll have... Illinois (where we might have gone to school K-8th grade) is suing Countrywide and its CEO, citing deceptive marketing practices in the sale of mortgages, ultimately wreaking havoc on the state. Just cause we're board of making the same argument on this stuff over and over, we're going to skip making a point altogether. That being said, this seems a little crazy: "Ms. Madigan says she is asking that all Countrywide loans originated using "unfair and deceptive" practices be rescinded or modified in some way, even if Countrywide has to repurchase the loans." If that's successful, it pretty much compels every other state to follow suit.
Barclays to Raise $8.9 Billion to Shore Up Capital (Bloomberg)
Add it to your spreadsheet. You'll never guess that investors included Temasek (Singapore), Qatar, China and Japan.
Monet fetches record $80.5m (Reuters)
We'll try to save the art market analysis for Felix Salmon, but it doesn't look like he's commented on this one yet. Anyway, some painting of water lilies took in over $80 million, almost double what had been expected. Altogether, Christies' "meet the impressionists" night took in $284 million, over a quarter of a billion dollars. We don't really know what any of this means, but just in general hard not to see it as a continued healthy sign. Tomorrow morning, we can find some more hard analysis other than what's going on in our mind: "that's, um, a lot of money."
Approval Is Near for Bill to Help U.S. Homeowners (NYT)
Just in case Illinois can't single-handedly turn the housing crisis around, have no fear. Congress is on it. Here's the key chunk of what the bill looks like: "The centerpiece of the Senate package is a rescue-refinancing plan aimed at stemming the tide of more than 8,000 new foreclosures a day that lenders are filing across the country. The plan would allow distressed borrowers and their lenders to stem losses by allowing qualified owners to refinance into more affordable, 30-year fixed-rate loans with a federal guarantee. The legislation would also provide benefits for first-time buyers, who would receive a refundable tax credit of up to $8,000, or 10 percent of the value of a home, on purchases of unoccupied housing. "
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