Two brands of government intervention

In order to support the streamlined modification program announced on Nov. 11, 2008, Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) today issued a notice to its loan servicing organizations and retained foreclosure attorneys directing them to suspend foreclosure sales on occupied single-family properties as well as the completion of evictions from occupied single-family properties scheduled to occur from Nov. 26, 2008, until Jan. 9, 2009. read more ... more

… NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have … have relatively few of the most risky subprime loans at the center of the foreclosure … See original here: Fannie, Freddie halt foreclosures a2a_linkname="Fannie, Freddie halt foreclosures";a2a_linkurl="http://www.frenzymortgage.com/2008/11/21/fannie-freddie-halt-foreclosures/";... more

WASHINGTON -- Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season. ... ... more

Consternation across the water this week with the release of a report sponsored by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (who is, of course, very familiar indeed with the financial services industry) and New York senator Charles Schumer. The Big Apple is on the way out, the report warns: "if we do nothing, within ten years while we will remain a leading regional financial center; we will no longer be the financial capital of the world." The threat, the report says, comes mainly from... more

Reuters reports that an unknown player, possibly a US hedge fund, is attempting to corner aluminium on the London Metals Exchange. (Via Econbrowser .) The fund is reportedly sitting on about 650,000 tonnes of aluminium - 90% of the total LME stock. Volatility has risen as a result of the long position, and the next few weeks could see a lot of traders hurrying to hedge; but it’s worth remembering that most attempts to corner commodities end up going smash, and the huge alum... more

On Risk News yesterday, an update on the CME ’s credit event futures. The exchange has bowed to the CFTC and turned the product (still not released) into a bankruptcy future, rather than having it trigger on reschedulings or other less serious credit events. A surprised Felix Salmon at Economonitor opines: "Yikes!" by which he means to say that the new product could lead to trouble. It’s been hard enough for companies like GUS to get used to their creditors having... more

News of the awards is now up at Risk.net . Congratulations to all the winners. Space prevents me listing them all here, but the headline winner - House of the Year - was Merrill Lynch; not the largest derivatives house, but growing fast in what has been an increasingly difficult market. And the energy award went to JP Morgan, for their involvement in clearing up the collapse of Amaranth last summer. The full list of winners can be seen in the latest issue of Risk, now available to subscri... more