Good morning. I am feeling good today; and I hope that you are, too.  Today’s theme song of the day is "Bam Bam" by Sister Nancy.  I have probably heard the song a thousand times…but it makes me dance every time I hear it.  It’s just that fresh.  As is standard policy, I’ll post a link in the comments - just make sure you delete it :) The other song is the RDM (Buena Vista Social Club) remix of Clocks — I included it because I am playing it as I type this morning, and I dig it.



cam

Here’s something: a camera was attached to an elephant’s trunk. Check out the photos:

trunk.cam

The Pennymac thing is quite interesting.  Many are speculating that it’s been created to handle the junk from the Bear Stearns deal –and the FED is going to fund it. Here is what BlackRock had to say about it:

BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) and Highfields Capital Management today announced that they have sponsored a new company that will acquire and restructure distressed residential mortgage loans in response to the ongoing dislocation in the U.S. mortgage market.

The new company, Private National Mortgage Acceptance Company, LLC (PennyMac), has been formed by BlackRock, Highfields, and a management team of mortgage industry veterans led by Stanford L. Kurland, PennyMac’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. PennyMac will raise capital from private investors, acquire loans from financial institutions seeking to reduce their mortgage exposures, and seek to create value for both borrowers and investors through distinctive loan servicing.

Mr. Kurland was President and Chief Operating Officer of Countrywide Financial Corporation until his departure in October 2006. The PennyMac management team also includes David Spector, Chief Investment Officer, who is former Co-Head of global residential mortgages for Morgan Stanley.

interfluidity.breaks.it.down

Forbes.link

marketwatch.link

Link.to.fed

bloomberg.link

I spent a few minutes at googletrends this morning; and I thought that you might be interested in the results.

Here are my trend plots:

The “Crisis” plot reminds me of 1984 (Orwell, not the year). It seems that we have a steady cyclical flow of crises:

 

It appears that “subprime” is the crisis du jour (note the corrolation between news and search trends):

 

 

“Securitization” is definitely a new search topic for many of us - but is certainly popular:

 

And I would be remiss if I did not include a trend for “foreclosure”: