Economics Update

Economic schizophrenia, Consumer Confidence Falls, But Durable Orders Jump. Mr. Benanke is not sleeping well tonight.

Home ownership rate has biggest drop ever. A 1.1% drop in the percentage of occupied homes.

Everyone's favorite not-so-whiz kid, Jerome Kerviel, is claiming that his superiors at French Bank Societe Generale knew of his activities, but took no action because it pumped up its profit numbers.

The First Bank Failure of 2008, the Douglass National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri.

The FBI has initiated investigations of 14 firms regarding subprime irregularities. Kind of makes the FBI sound like Metamucil.

They did not identify the companies. But the probes reached across the industry to include developers, subprime lenders, companies that securitized loans and investment banks that held them, said Neil Power, head of the FBI's economic crimes unit.

Contrywide: $422 million Q4, and 1/3 of its sub-prime mortgages are delinquent. Well I got this prediction right.