‘Industry groups are fighting the bill, which was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in December.’

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“”We are not happy with 0.6 percent GDP growth,” Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told The Associated Press. “We now need the full Congress to move forward as soon as possible because consumers — the American people — are waiting for that check and that is going to help them.”” — Yes hurry up and print/borrow more money…

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Crazy news on a Draconian policy change at CW (this one’s for our subscribers; become one - $10/mo, no long term commitment).

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‘Companies plan to reduce output 0.4 percent in January from a month earlier and 2.2 percent in February, the ministry said. The last time companies forecast back-to-back declines was for February and March of 2005.’

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‘The collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market roiled credit markets and led to more than $133 billion of losses and writedowns at the world’s biggest financial institutions. ‘

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‘Though the big home-mortgage lender faced large and unpredictable losses on defaults, the more immediate danger was pressure from regulators, politicians and rating firms, these people say. That realization helped spur Countrywide co-founder and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo to call Bank of America in December and start talks that led to the Charlotte, N.C., bank’s $4 billion deal to acquire Countrywide, which was announced Jan. 11.’

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“Countrywide’s fourth-quarter earnings fell far short of Wall Street estimates, with a loss more than double what analysts predicted. But investors didn’t run away from the nation’s mortgage lender; instead, they sent Countrywide shares up 36 cents, or 6.5 percent, to close at $6.31.” — Don’t ask us, we don’t understand it.

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‘And almost half of the mortgage loans in the hands of Hispanics are subprime, making them especially vulnerable to the housing downturn.’

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By following new guidelines issued last month by a banking- industry group called the American Securitization Forum, Hewitt said servicers will be allowed to modify subprime mortgages where defaults are “reasonably foreseeable,” without jeopardizing the trusts’ off-balance-sheet treatment. Of course, you can’t make money out of nothing, so this just means the losses will bleed in over a long period of time where investors will be “surprised” by earnings shortfalls.

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“You have to be extremely cautious about the appearance, if not the reality, of a conflict of interest”

As an assistant state treasurer last year, Patrick F. Landers III negotiated terms of a $1.25 billion bond offering with Lehman Brothers that netted the investment bank millions of dollars in fees. via Boston.com

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