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Standard & Poor’s slashed Spain’s credit rating to AA-, three steps beneath the highly desirable AAA, underscoring the challenges facing Europe’s major powers as they meet G20 counterparts over the eurozone debt crisis.  S&P, whose move mirrored that by fellow ratings agency Fitch, cited high unemployment, tightening credit and high private-sector debt.  Spanish 10-year government […]

Venerable Swedish automaker Saab is unable to pay its employees and is likely headed into bankruptcy.  Saab and Zeewolde, Netherlands-based owner Swedish Automobile NV, are in talks to raise cash, the company said.  Options include selling and leasing-back the factory in Trollhaettan, Sweden.  “There can however be no assurance that these discussions will be successful […]

Even though the rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has dipped below the five percent mark – to 4.95 percent —  new home sales slid by 12.6 percent in January. The mortgage rate declined five percent last week and was 5.05 percent just one year ago.  The slightly less popular 15-year fixed-rate mortgage also fell, […]

A financing vehicle that has been used in Europe since it was invented in Prussia in 1769 is finding its way to American shores as a replacement for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).  The vehicle is known as covered bonds, which is a securitized debt instrument backed by a pool of top-quality assets, primarily mortgages. What […]