Inhalt:

Changing ocean temperatures and currents will force thousands of species to migrate polewards, including cod, herring, plaice and prawns.

By 2050, US fishermen may see a 50% reduction in Atlantic cod populations.

Thirty-three nations in Africa, Asia and South America are highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change in fisheries, according to scientists from the World Fish Centre.

Of these, 19 were already classified by the United Nations as "least developed" because of their particularly poor socioenomic conditions.

"Economically, people in the tropics and subtropics likely will suffer most, because fish are so important in their diets and because they have limited capacity to develop other sources of income and food," said Edward Allison, director of policy, economics and social science at WorldFish.

Low stocks of foodstuff make the world's falling agriculture output particularly worrisome. The combined averaged of the ending stock levels of the major trading countries of Australia, Canada, United States, and the European Union have been declining steadily in the last few years:

2002-2005: 47.4 million tons
2007: 37.6 million tons
2008: 27.4 million tons

These inventory numbers are dangerously low, especially considering the horrifying possibility that China's 60 million tons of grain reserves doesn't actually exists .

Global food Catastrophe

The world is heading for a drop in agricultural production of 20 to 40 percent, depending on the severity and length of the current global droughts. Food producing nations are imposing food export restrictions. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries with food deficits, millions will starve.

"The rise is in line with the long-term trend," Kim Holmen, research director at the Norwegian Polar Institute, said of the measurements taken by a Stockholm University project on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard off north Norway.

Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from human activities, rose to 392 parts per million (ppm) in the atmosphere in Svalbard in December, a rise of 2-3 ppm from the same time a year earlier, he told Reuters.

Dee Boersma, of the University of Washington in Seattle, said that Punta Tombo penguins were now routinely swimming 25 miles farther on their foraging expeditions than they did a decade ago.

“That distance might not sound like much, but they also have to swim another 25 miles back, and they are swimming that extra 50 miles while their mates are back at the breeding grounds, sitting on a nest and starving,” she said.

The longer foraging trips have contributed to the colony's decline: penguin numbers have fallen by more than 20 per cent in the past 22 years, leaving only 200,000 breeding pairs today.

The purple finch was the biggest northward mover. Its wintering grounds are now more along the latitude of Milwaukee, Wis., instead of Springfield, Mo.

Bird ranges can expand and shift for many reasons, among them urban sprawl, deforestation and the supplemental diet provided by backyard feeders. But researchers say the only explanation for why so many birds over such a broad area are wintering in more northern locales is global warming.

This has resulted in restocking by Chinese steel mills, with 55 vessels now reported to be outside China ports waiting to unload cargoes.

The recovery could prove to be a shortlived one, as there is no evidence of an increase in demand for steel in China. A major downturn in iron ore imports continues in Japan and Europe as hefty steel production cuts are implemented.

The move is a rare positive development for operators of the world's fleet of 640 car carriers, which face sharp falls in traffic. At the same time, 70 new ships, mostly larger than their predecessors, are due for delivery this year alone.

Austria's finance minister Josef Pröll made frantic efforts last week to put together a €150bn rescue for the ex-Soviet bloc. Well he might. His banks have lent €230bn to the region, equal to 70pc of Austria's GDP.

"A failure rate of 10pc would lead to the collapse of the Austrian financial sector," reported Der Standard in Vienna. Unfortunately, that is about to happen.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says bad debts will top 10pc and may reach 20pc. The Vienna press said Bank Austria and its Italian owner Unicredit face a "monetary Stalingrad" in the East.

"This is the largest run on a currency in history," said Mr Jen.

They are five times more exposed to this latest bust than American or Japanese banks, and they are 50pc more leveraged (IMF data).

Spain is up to its neck in Latin America, which has belatedly joined the slump (Mexico's car output fell 51pc in January, and Brazil lost 650,000 jobs in one month). Britain and Switzerland are up to their necks in Asia.

Whether it takes months, or just weeks, the world is going to discover that Europe's financial system is sunk, and that there is no EU Federal Reserve yet ready to act as a lender of last resort or to flood the markets with emergency stimulus.

Hybridkapital steht bei einer Insolvenz an zweitletzter Stelle, nachrangiger werden nur noch Aktionäre eingestuft. Die Ansprüche von Hybrid-Investoren werden erst nach allen erstrangigen Gläubigern bedient.
[...]
Seit Regierungen etwa in Deutschland oder Großbritannien zum Jahresanfang stark in den Markt eingegriffen haben, sind die Preise regelrecht abgestürzt: So verlor eine Benchmark-Tier-1-Anleihe der Commerzbank im Volumen von 1 Mrd. Euro seit Jahresanfang rund 60 Prozent, eine Benchmark-Anleihe von ebenfalls 1 Mrd. Euro der Deutschen Bank gut 38 Prozent, und ein entsprechendes Papier der Postbank im Volumen von 500 Mio. Euro rund 23 Prozent. Tier-1-Anleihen sind die nachrangigste Form von Kapital. Ähnliche Abschläge müssen Hybrid-Anleihen etwa der Bank of America hinnehmen.

The defaults have affected more than $300bn worth of these collateralised debt obligations, which were built from bits of other asset backed securities (ABS) such as mortgage bonds, other CDOs and structured bonds, or derivatives of any of these, according to analysts at Wachovia and Morgan Stanley.

By their records, the first three years of the market saw less than 100 deals sold per year and less than 10 per cent of those have defaulted. The number of deals done rose to 133 in 2005, less than 20 per cent of which defaulted, and 89 in just the first half of 2006, about one-third of which have defaulted.

However, the real peak of the market saw 147 deals done in the second half of 2006 and 172 done in the first half of 2007 – of which 68 per cent and 76.2 per cent, respectively, have now defaulted.

The new fund could be set up within JWM Partners or in a new company, the paper said, citing the official.

The fund's launch remains some way off and could still fall apart, the paper said.

The decline in Pershing Square IV fund was about four times that of Target shares in January because Ackman made his bet using options rather than owning the underlying stock, which tumbled 9.6 percent. Ackman said he will personally add another $25 million to the fund, and employees and board members will put up more cash.

“While PSIV and Target stock have declined materially, we still believe our fundamental investment case for Target stock will ultimately be realized, although not within the original timeframe we had initially estimated,” he wrote in the letter dated Feb. 5.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., UBS AG, Merrill Lynch & Co. and ABN Amro Holding NV agreed to underwrite the $20.9 billion takeover of Houston-based Lyondell by Basell AF, a Rotterdam company controlled by Ukraine-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, in the second half of 2007. LyondellBasell Industries, the world’s biggest maker of polyolefins used in products ranging from bottle caps to auto parts, filed for bankruptcy last month as demand evaporated in the global recession.

The financing includes $8 billion of low-ranking loans still held by the banks that may be worthless, said three people with knowledge of the situation who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public. That would eclipse about $5 billion of potential losses from Tribune Co., the Chicago- based media firm that filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 8.

The large capital requirements of the shipbuilding industry and the lack of affordable finance have combined to “jeopardise the economic survival” of the European Union industry, said Brussels Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen.

Australia’s five biggest banks have almost A$870 million of loans at risk with Babcock, while overseas lenders including Royal Bank of Scotland Plc have almost A$2 billion on the line, according to estimates by UBS AG. Babcock had interest-bearing debt of A$9.6 billion when it last published accounts in August.

Since October of 2008, North China and the region between the Yellow River and Huai River have been plagued by a drought, for precipitation has been 80% to 95% less in 2009 compared to a normal year.

BOABC predicts that winter wheat production may drop to 100.1 million tonnes during the 2009-2010 season, a slip of 5.6 million tonnes or 5.4% on the year-on-year basis. But the market balance is not likely to be much affected. Year-end wheat inventory is estimated to be 52 million tonnes and the safety index may drop 1.8% on the year-on-year basis.

BOABC presumes that the Chinese government may take several measures to ensure wheat production and protect farmers' interests. The government could increase cash subsidies to farmers for drought relief. Also, wheat procurement prices could increase by 10% to 15%.

Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters described the drought as a phenomenon “rarely seen in history” as the Government declared a state of emergency.

The China Daily newspaper said that it was the worst drought since 1951 in the province, which is a major supplier of winter wheat. Major state-run newspapers carried reports of the drought on front pages and news broadcasts showed dry, cracked fields with crops withering in the earth.
[...]
One agriculture expert said that the drought could reduce annual production in major wheat-growing areas by 2 to 5 percent. Ma Wenfeng said: “The severest-hit regions of Henan and Anhui will see their wheat harvest down by about 20 percent.”

Mr Luo, speaking at the Global Association of Risk Management’s 10th Annual Risk Management Convention, said: “Except for US Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or UK bonds. US Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”

Mr Luo, whose English tends toward the colloquial, added: “We hate you guys. Once you start issuing $1 trillion-$2 trillion [$1,000bn-$2,000bn] . . .we know the dollar is going to depreciate, so we hate you guys but there is nothing much we can do.”

The country\\\'s steel exports dipped to 59.23 million tons last year, while the export value increased 43.8 percent year-on-year to $63.44 billion, Customs said on its website.

Steel exports dropped 40 percent year-on-year to 1.91 million tons in January and the import of iron ore reached 32.65 million tons, down 5 percent from December 2008.

Similarly, in Beijing's Korean section, perhaps half of the 200,000-300,000 inhabitants ― mainly workers (and their families) who are paid by Korean companies that produce goods in China for export ― reportedly have gone home.

The country's major power producers produced only 250.3 million megawatt hours of power in the month, said an official with China Electricity Council (CEC) yesterday, who declined to be named.

This is the fourth consecutive month that the country has seen a negative growth in power generation. CEC statistics showed that thermal power generation in October, November and December last year fell 5.3 percent, 16.6 percent and 12.4 percent respectively.

In some sense, it is hard to imagine a worse combination. China’s export are falling, making China understandably reluctant to allow its currency to appreciate. But China’s trade surplus is also rising … certainly in nominal terms and quite possibly in real terms. That isn’t good for the world.

At a time when the world is short demand, China seems to be subtracting from global demand not adding to it. The best solution: an absolutely enormous domestic stimulus in China.

I know I have written about this many times, but I want to say again what that means for the global imbalance. The world’s consumers are experiencing a sharp contraction in demand. That contraction has to be “shared out” among all of the world’s producers. The decline in Chinese exports means that Chinese producers are absorbing part of that contraction, but the bigger decline in its imports means that Chinese consumers are contributing an even greater amount to the contraction in demand. The result, with net Chinese consumption contracting by more than net Chinese production, is that non-Chinese producers must absorb more than 100% of the contraction in demand from non-Chinese consumers. It will be hard to convince them that this is fair.

The Atlantis's $20m inauguration celebration, where the world's A-list celebrities were treated to 1.7 tonnes of lobster and 1,000 bottles of Veuve Clicquot, was promoted as the world's biggest party.

For Palm residents, it was followed by an equally impressive hangover. The value of their villas and apartments on the Palm fell by as much as 60% in just a few months.

Officials put the number of vehicles at 11. "No one believes that. There are 11 cars abandoned just on my street," said Anne, 26, a fashion editor from London. "Over the past two months I've been getting an email a day from people trying to sell their stuff. 'New Jaguar – need to sell before the end of the week'."

The Indian embassy is reportedly anticipating an exodus with 20,000 seats on flights to India already "bulk-booked" for next month.

Buses come to pick up 250 workers every night from one dusty street on the edge of Sonapur, a labour camp on the edge of the desert.

The average price of villas in Dubai fell 30 percent and for apartments 20 percent from September to December, according to the survey, which for the first time captured actual real-estate transaction prices in Dubai. The number of advertised listings climbed 10 percent from November.

Der Auftragseingang im deutschen Maschinen- und Anlagenbau lag im Dezember 2008 um real 40 Prozent unter dem Ergebnis des Vorjahres. Das Inlandsgeschäft sank um 39 Prozent. Bei der Auslandsnachfrage gab es ein Minus von 41 Prozent im Vergleich zum Vorjahresniveau. In dem von kurzfristigen Schwankungen weniger beeinflussten Dreimonatsvergleich Oktober bis Dezember 2008 ergibt sich insgesamt ein Minus von 29 Prozent im Vorjahresvergleich. Das Inland verlor 28 Prozent, das Ausland ging um 30 Prozent zurück. „Das vierte Quartal 2008 ist damit das schlechteste Quartalsergebnis seit 1958", betonte der VDMA Präsident.

Der Konzern teilte am Mittwoch in München mit, dass er weitere staatliche Garantien in Höhe von 10 Mrd. Euro erhält. Der Sonderfonds Finanzmarktstabilisierung (Soffin) habe den zusätzlichen Garantierahmen bis zum 12. Juni gewährt. Damit hat die Hypo Real Estate insgesamt 102 Mrd. Euro an Kapitalhilfen und staatlichen Garantien erhalten.

WestLB in Zahlen
Finanzdaten 1. Januar bis 30. September 2008                           Veränderung
                                 1.1.-30.9.2008  1.1.-30.9.2007  absolut      in %
Erfolgszahlen in Mio 
Zinsüberschuss                              897             846       51         6
Kreditrisikovorsorge                       ­-345              -6     ­-339     >­-100
Zinsüberschuss nach Kreditrisikovorsorge    552             840     ­-288       ­-34
Provisionsüberschuss                        289             322      ­-33       ­-10
Handelsergebnis                             631            ­-494    1.125     > 100
Finanzanlageergebnis                         52             375     ­-323       ­-86
Verwaltungsaufwand                        1.040           1.167    ­ -127       ­-11
Saldo sonstige betriebliche
Aufwendungen und Erträge                    237              11      226     > 100
Restrukturierungsaufwendungen               117               0      117         -
Ergebnis vor Steuern                        604            ­-113      717     > 100
Ertragsteuern                               ­-72             ­-32    ­  -40     >-100
Konzernergebnis                             532            ­-145      677     > 100

                             30.9.2008        31.12.2007          Veränderung
                                                              absolut            in %
Bilanzzahlen in Mrd 
Bilanzsumme                      273,1             286,6        ­-13,5              -5
Eigenkapital                       5,0               4,5          0,5              12
Bankaufsichtsrechtliche Kapitalkennzahlen
nach SolvV (Vorjahr BIZ)
Kernkapital in Mrd                 5,8               5,5          0,3               5
Eigenmittel in Mrd                 9,5               8,9          0,6               7
Risikoaktiva in Mrd              107,8             104,3          3,5               3
Kernkapitalquote in %              5,4               5,6        ­    ­
Eigenmittelquote in %              8,8               8,6        ­    ­

                                             30.9.2008   31.12.2007          Veränderung
                                     Notes         Mio          Mio        Mio      in %
Barreserve                                         846        2.471  ­   -1.625       ­-66
Forderungen an Kreditinstitute        (12)      16.198       11.340      4.858        43
Forderungen an Kunden                 (13)     105.881       81.288     24.593        30
Wertberichtigungen auf Forderungen    (14)      ­-1.119      ­ -1.018      ­ -101        10
Forderungen aus Wertpapierpensionsgeschäften
(Reverse Repo-Geschäfte)                        40.682       42.539  ­   -1.857        -4
Handelsaktiva                         (15)      65.661       93.341 ­   -27.680       ­-30
Positive Marktwerte aus derivativen
Sicherungsinstrumenten                             201          308    ­   -107       ­-35
Aktivischer Ausgleichsposten für im Portfolio
gesicherte Finanzinstrumente                        18            -4        22     > 100
Freiwillig zum Fair Value bewertete Aktivbestände  
                                      (16)      26.233       31.577     ­-5.344       ­-17
Finanzanlagen                         (17)      12.603       21.913   ­  -9.310       ­-42
Sachanlagen                           (18)         483          502      ­  -19        -4
Immaterielle Vermögenswerte           (19)         157          145         12         8
Laufende Ertragsteueransprüche                     255        1.091     ­  -836       ­-77
Latente Ertragsteueransprüche                      250          212         38        18
Sonstige Aktiva                                    507          882     ­  -375       ­-43
Zur Veräußerung gehaltene Vermögenswerte (29)    4.251            0      4.251         ­
Summe Aktiva                                   273.107      286.587  ­   13.480         ­5

12. Forderungen an Kreditinstitute
                                   30.9.2008    31.12.2007
                                         Mio           Mio 
Inländische Kreditinstitute            5.293         3.879
Ausländische Kreditinstitute          10.905         7.461
Forderungen an Kreditinstitute        16.198        11.340
13. Forderungen an Kunden
                                   30.9.2008    31.12.2007
                                         Mio           Mio 
Firmenkunden                          96.449        67.636
Öffentliche Stellen                    5.703         6.053
Privatkunden                           3.729         7.599
Forderungen an Kunden                105.881        81.288

                                                       1 1.-­30.9.2008   1.1.-30.9.2007
                                                                  Mio              Mio 
Zahlungsmittelbestand zum Ende der Vorperiode                   2.471            1.070
Cashflow aus operativer Geschäftstätigkeit                       -403            2.704
Cashflow aus Investitionstätigkeit                               -846           -1.745
Cashflow aus Finanzierungstätigkeit                               244            ­ -651
Effekte aus der Veränderung des Konsolidierungskreises           -638                0
Effekte aus Wechselkursänderungen                                  18               -4
Zahlungsmittelbestand zum Ende der Periode                        846            1.374

WestLB Konzern
WestLB AG, Düsseldorf
Bank WestLB Vostok (ZAO), Moskau, Russland
Banque d'Orsay S.A., Paris, Frankreich
Basinghall Finance plc, London, Großbritannien
Clavis Securities plc, London, Großbritannien
GOD Grundstücksverwaltungsgesellschaft & Co. KG, Mainz
GOH Grundstücksverwaltungsgesellschaft & Co. KG, Mainz
Orsay Euribor Plus SICAV, Paris, Frankreich
Orsay Sécurité SICAV, Paris, Frankreich
readybank ag, Berlin
Weberbank Actiengesellschaft, Berlin
West Merchant Bank Ltd., London, Großbritannien
WestLB (Italia) Finanziaria S.p.A., Mailand, Italien
WestLB Asia Pacific Ltd., Singapur, Singapur
WestLB Asset Management (US) LLC, New York, USA
WestLB Bank Polska S.A., Warschau, Polen
WestLB Covered Bond Bank plc, Dublin, Irland
WestLB Europa Holding GmbH, Düsseldorf
WestLB Europe (UK) Holdings Ltd., London, Großbritannien
WestLB Finance Curaçao N.V., Willemstad, Niederländische Antillen
WestLB Fund Investments Ltd., London, Großbritannien
WestLB Hungaria Bank ZRt., Budapest, Ungarn
WestLB International S.A., Luxemburg, Luxemburg
WestLB Ireland plc, Dublin, Irland
WestLB Mellon Asset Management Holdings Ltd., London, Großbritannien
WestLB New York Capital Investment Ltd., Jersey, Britische Kanalinseln
WestLB Securities Inc., Dover/Delaware, USA
WestLB Securities Pacific Ltd., Hongkong, Volksrepublik China
WestLB UK Ltd., London, Großbritannien
WLB Funding S.A. de C.V., SOFOM, Mexiko-City, Mexiko
Banco WestLB do Brasil S.A., São Paulo, Brasilien Teilkonzern mit 2 Unternehmen
Westdeutsche ImmobilienBank AG (WestImmo), Mainz Teilkonzern mit 12 Unternehmen

Der Bestand an derivativen Finanzinstrumenten setzt sich wie folgt zusammen (Nominal-
werte):
                                                         30.9.2008          31.12.2007
                                                               Mio                 Mio 
Zinsbezogene Produkte                                    2.224.012           2.055.576
Währungsbezogene Produkte                                  288.082             287.361
Aktienkurs- und sonstige preisbezogene Produkte             86.424              89.853
Kreditderivate                                             135.956             152.897
Derivative Geschäfte                                     2.734.474           2.585.687

Output fell a seasonally adjusted 4.6 percent from November, the biggest decline since records for a reunified Germany began in January 1991, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said today. It was the fourth straight monthly drop and almost twice the 2.5 percent retreat forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey.
[...]
“We’ve experienced the sharpest contraction of industrial production in the fourth quarter since the 1960s and we can’t exclude that output will decline at the same speed in the first quarter,” said Lothar Hessler, an economist at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG in Duesseldorf, Germany. “It’s bitter and the forecasts for a return to growth at the end of the year are increasingly standing on shaky ground.”

Across 2008 as a whole, the Italian economy fell 0.9%, ISTAT said, the most pronounced decline recorded since 1993.The Italian economy officially fell into recession in the third quarter of 2008. And one more interesting detail, Italian GDP is now back at the same level it was in Q4 2005, and falling. This is pretty worrying, and even more so given there are quite a lot more people in Italy then there were in 2005.

* UniCredit says concludes capital increase

* UniCredit says 0.48 percent of rights offering subscribed for 14.3 million euros

* The offering closed on Jan. 23

If the bank does seek state aid, it could consider doing it in Austria, for example, he added.

Economic difficulties will cause more Canadian consumers to hold off paying their credit card bills, to be exacerbated by a rise in interest rates. Amex said beginning Feb. 11, interest rates on some American Express cards will go up 1 to 3 percent to 21.99 percent.

Meanwhile, credit card delinquencies rose from 5 to 10 percent in fall, which will translate into a 0.5 to 1 percent higher write-off rate, Daley said.

The drop in gross domestic product, the largest since quarterly annual records began in 1995, compares with a revised 5.2 percent drop in the third quarter.

The export of oil products also fell, by 10.7% year-on-year to 8.6 million metric tons.

The decreases were due to redirecting oil to the domestic market.

Both imports and exports are falling, but exports are falling faster. So despite the dramatic fall in sterling, which should have boosted UK competitiveness, we still can not shift sufficient exports to narrow our external deficit.

The number of applicants to the schools that form the elite of the state system has risen strongly this year in some local authorities contacted by the FT, in spite of a decline in the overall number of pupils applying. Several schools cite financial insecurity caused by the recession.

The most common price for the drug is £40 per gram. Home Office figures for 1998 show the average price was £77.

A gram of heroin can now be bought for as little as £25, with the average price somewhere between £40 and £50 per gram. In 1998, the average was £74.
[...]
According to DrugScope, a charity that provides research and advice on drugs policy, gram of cocaine can make between 10 and 20 lines for snorting, depending on its strength.

That means a line of cocaine can cost as little as £1, with an average price per line of between £2 and £4.

The average price of a pint of lager is around £2.75, although some pub chains have reacted to the credit crunch by cutting the price of a pint as low as 99p. A glass of wine typically costs £3.50.

Mr Balls said yesterday: "The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I'm sure, over 100 years, as it will turn out."

But it has never seen a 10-year stretch as bad as the one that ended last month.

Over the 10 years through January, an investor holding the stocks in the S.& P.’s 500-stock index, and reinvesting the dividends, would have lost about 5.1 percent a year after adjusting for inflation, as is shown in the accompanying chart.
[...]
For the current period, the total return was negative, at minus 2.6 percent a year, even before factoring in inflation.

"The numbers are further documentation of the gravity of the housing problem," says Nicolas Retsinas, head of Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. "This inventory is delaying any kind of housing recovery."

USDA projected 4.2 billion bushels of corn will be used to produce ethanol in 2009/10, an increase from 3.6 billion bushels forecasted for the current year.

Overall, ethanol is forecast to command about 33 percent of the corn crop compared to 30 percent in 2008/09.

Consumers have cut back sharply on food spending, shunning restaurants, opting for generic products over brand names, trading in lattes for home-brewed coffee and shopping for bargains. That is hurting sales and profits at many food processors, grocery chains and restaurants.

In 2008's fourth quarter, consumer spending on food fell at an inflation-adjusted 3.7% from the third quarter, according to data from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. That is the steepest decline in the 62 years the government has compiled the figure. The report is based on receipts from a sampling of food-oriented businesses across the country.

A sixth quarter of negative growth ties the prior record set when Harry Truman was president, running from the first quarter of 1951 to the second quarter of 1952.

"Next quarter, we're expecting a new record of seven quarters of negative growth," Silverblatt added.

As of the close of business Thursday, Silverblatt calculates S&P earnings per share, on a reported basis, at a loss of $10.44 for the quarter. If financials were taken out of the equation, that deficit would drop to $2.35 a share.

DebtX of Boston and First Financial Network of Oklahoma City, for instance, sell loans at auction to investors who typically pay 5 cents to 85 cents for each dollar of outstanding principal, according to Bliss A, Morris, First Financial’s president. It is unloading hundreds of houses across the country at bargain basement prices. In November, Lula Smith, 86, of Kansas City, Mo., bought a two-bedroom house across the street from her home for $4,000, one-tenth of its value two years ago.

The companies’ needs will depend largely on the direction of home prices, Lockhart said in an interview in Las Vegas yesterday. His comments followed statements from Fannie Mae in November and Freddie Mac Chairman John Koskinen last week that the government’s funding commitment through 2009 may fall short of what the companies need to make good on their obligations.

“There is no prospect for a profit on the assets,” Eisenbeis wrote in a report yesterday. “Losses are mounting.”

July 	3.12%
Aug. 	3.13%
Sept. 	3.18%
Oct. 	3.35%
Nov. 	3.28%
Dec. 	3.75%

Fitch expects charge-offs to approach 9% in the second half of 2009.

Based on my informal count, some 585 attorneys and staffers were laid off yesterday or today. And that is not counting however many people are hitting the street from Holland & Knight today (we are still waiting on a firm statement of official numbers), or however many 3Ls were essentially fired from Luce Forward today when their offers were rescinded.