International Herald Tribune - Published: August 15, 2008

By Louise Story

“Live Richly.”

That catchy slogan, dreamed up by the Fallon Worldwide advertising agency, was pitched in 1999 to executives at Citicorp who were looking for a way to lure Americans to financial products like home equity loans. But some in the room did not like it. They worried the phrase would encourage people to live exorbitantly, says Stephen Cone, a top Citi marketer at the time.

Still, “Live Richly” won out. The advertising campaign, which cost some $1 billion from 2001 to 2006, urged people to lighten up about money, and helped persuade hundreds of thousands of Citi customers to take out home equity loans — that is, to borrow against their homes. As one of the ads proclaimed: “There’s got to be at least $25,000 hidden in your house. We can help you find it.”

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CNNMoney - Special Report Mortgage Meltdown, Last Updated: August 13, 2008: 5:27 PM EDT

Values have fallen so far in many cities that sale prices don’t cover what sellers originally paid. That means more hard times before markets recover.

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More homeowners than ever are selling at a loss, propelling the real estate market deeper into crisis.

In the 12 months that ended June 30, nearly 25% of all homes sold nationwide fetched less than sellers originally paid, according to real estate Web site Zillow.com.

While the nation’s double-digit decline in home prices has been well documented, the new report underscores the economic force of those price declines. Homeowners are walking away with much less in their pocket when they sell. And that affects more than the real estate market.

“It’s stunning what’s happening out there,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice president of data and analytics, who looked at statistics that date back to 1996. “The numbers are the worst we’ve seen and it’s not just the magnitude of the problem but the scope - so many markets are affected.”

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CNNMoney - Special Report Issue #1: America’s Money - This week on CNN, Last Updated: August 7, 2008: 6:29 PM EDT

NY strikes deal with Citigroup to buy back troubled securities from small investors and charities at 100% of their value. Merrill also offers clients their money back.

By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — If your bank contacts you about a bond-like investment you made some time ago, don’t ignore it. You could benefit from an unusual settlement that will allow you to get back 100% of your investment’s value.

Citigroup announced Thursday that by Nov. 5 it would buy back so-called auction-rate securities from individual investors, charities and businesses with assets of $10 million or less. Hours later, Merrill Lynch (ML) announced it too would buy back retail investors’ auction-rate securities at par. Some 30,000 retail customers hold a total of $12 billion of these securities.

“Our clients have been caught in an unprecedented liquidity crisis,” said John Thain, Merril’s chief executive officer. “We are solving it by giving them the option of selling their positions to us.”

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FORTUNE - Last Updated: August 4, 2008: 2:33 PM EDT

The star analyst tells Fortune magazine that housing woes will force banks to keep taking writedowns.

By Jon Birger, senior writer

NEW YORK (Fortune) — The credit crisis is far from over, star analyst Meredith Whitney tells Fortune magazine in its upcoming issue.

Whitney, who audaciously - and correctly - predicted last October that Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) would have to cut its dividend, tells the magazine that banks in general today are still facing much bigger credit losses than what they’ve reported so far.

The Oppenheimer & Co. analyst warned last year - and continues to warn today - that the “incestuous” relationship between the banks and the credit-rating agencies during the real estate bubble will have a long-lasting impact on banks’ ability to recover.

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CNNMoney - Last Updated: August 1, 2008: 8:45 PM EDT

By Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Federal regulators closed Florida’s First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named the receiver of the failed bank, entered into an agreement with Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank (STI, Fortune 500) to assume the insured deposits of First Priority.

All six branches of the Bradenton, Fla.-based bank will reopen on Monday as branches of SunTrust. First Priority depositors will automatically become depositors of SunTrust, the FDIC said.

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CNNMoney - Commentary  The Buzz , Last Updated: August 1, 2008: 10:43 AM EDT

Readers had lots to say about whether the economic slump is almost over or just beginning.

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — More bad news on the economic front today. GM reported a whopping $15.5 billion loss. And the economy lost 51,000 jobs in July.

And even though the number of job losses was lower than expected, the unemployment rate edged up to 5.7%, higher than forecasts.

So is the economy going to get significantly worse over the next few months, or are we actually closer to the end than the beginning of this…slump, downturn, recession or whatever you want to call it?

That’s the question I asked readers in yesterday’s column. And as usual, many of you responded with some interesting perspectives on the economy.

Most of the people disagreed with my take over the past few months….namely that the economy, while certainly in sorry shape, is heading toward an eventual recovery and that conditions are not as bad as some people make them out to be.

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BUSINESSWEEK - Technical Market Insight July 14, 2008, 3:08PM EST

S&P’s Mark Arbeter says there has not been enough panic in the market for major indexes to trace out a strong bottom

by Mark Arbeter From Standard & Poor’s Equity Research

The stock market continues to get punished by ever soaring crude oil prices and the continued meltdown in the financial sector. One of these factors, in isolation, would be enough to send stocks lower, but both at the same time is simply too much to bear. (Pun intended.) As I looked at my quote machine early on Friday, July 11, crude oil was up $5.00 per barrel to a record high, Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) were each indicated lower by 45%, and foreign markets were very weak. Can it get any worse?

With all this bad news, U.S. stock futures were down only about 1%. However, that might be the problem. The water torture decline since the May high has been fairly consistent in slope. The problem is the slope has not been very steep, and therefore, we have not seen enough fear and panic in the market for a strong bottom to be traced out. One only has to look at prior market bottoms and their steep downward slope to get a sense of what is missing at this juncture. With most of the major indices below earlier year chart support, we think we might have to see another capitulation or two before seeing at least a temporary bottom to the bear market.

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