Sunday Morning Gloom

Those Businesses that created the mortgage bubble are buying distressed mortgages at a steep discount from banks (40% off, then essentially selling the underlying homes back to the homeowner, giving the homeowner about an 11% discount off the original mortgage price. I'm confused. The New York Times story is here.

Société Générale has advised clients to be ready for a possible "global economic collapse" over the next two years, mapping a strategy of defensive investments to avoid wealth destruction.

Read about it, in the Telegraph, here.

Reuters reports:

Budget shortfalls pose a direct threat to millions of U.S. jobs, many in the private sector, as state and local governments lay off workers and cut spending on contracts and other business services, a think tank said on Thursday.

State and local governments will have to raise taxes and cut spending in the current and next two fiscal years to cover shortfalls totaling $469 billion, according to an Economic Policy Institute report.

Most telling: According to the New York Times "some down-and-out Mexican families are scraping together what they can to support their unemployed loved ones in the United States."

It's overcast outside; the sky looks like cement. I'm going back to bed.