NEW  YORK , September 30, 2008 — The New York Stock Exchange will implement new circuit-breaker collar trigger levels for fourth-quarter 2008 effective Wednesday, October 1, 2008.

Circuit-breaker points represent the thresholds at which trading is halted marketwide for single-day declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).   Circuit-breaker levels are set quarterly as 10, 20 and 30-percent of the DJIA average closing values of the previous month, rounded to the nearest 50 points.

In fourth-quarter 2008, the 10, 20 and 30-percent decline levels, respectively, in the DJIA will be as follows:

Level 1 Halt
A 1,100-point drop in the DJIA before 2 p.m. will halt trading for one hour; for 30 minutes if between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.; and have no effect if at 2:30 p.m. or later unless there is a level 2 halt.

Level 2 Halt
A 2,200-point drop in the DJIA before 1:00 p.m. will halt trading for two hours; for one hour if between 1:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m.; and for the remainder of the day if at 2:00 p.m. or later.

Level 3 Halt
A 3,350-point drop will halt trading for the remainder of the day regardless of when the decline occurs.

Background:
Circuit-breakers are calculated quarterly.  The percentage levels were first implemented in April 1998 and are adjusted on the first trading day of each quarter.  In 2008, those dates are Jan. 2, April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1.

Read more about it at http://www.nyse.com/press/1222772891771.html

NEW YORK (Fortune) — The economic storm pelting the U.S. economy is going to do plenty more damage to already flattened job and housing markets.

But as dark as the next three or four quarters could be, the U.S. economy appears to be undergoing a more lasting, and ultimately uplifting, shift.

Americans who for decades have spent an increasing share of their incomes and taken on more and more debt are now, for the first time in years, saving instead.

The personal savings rate, which measures the amount of disposable personal income that isn’t spent, ticked up to almost 3% in the second quarter of 2008, after almost four years below 1%.

While Americans still aren’t going to win any awards for thrift – consumers save more than 10% of their paychecks in creditor nations such as Germany and Japan, for instance – the return to saving carries big implications for U.S. economic health.

More saving is good over the long haul, because domestic savings create a pool of money from which companies can borrow to invest in new plants and equipment, creating the jobs that push living standards higher over time.

A growing domestic savings pool could also reduce America’s need to borrow money overseas – which would make the U.S. less beholden to foreign creditors who now supply us with hundreds of billions of dollars in financing every year.

Unfortunately, thrift will cost in the short run. Saving more means spending less – which translates into more hard times in retail and other consumer-driven businesses like the auto industry. The latest evidence of the shift came in Wednesday’s steeper-than-expected pullback in retail sales. They dropped 1.2% in September, in their first year-on-year decline in six years and only their third drop in the past 16 years. Economists had been looking for a 0.7% drop.

Given that two-thirds of economic activity is consumer spending, today’s thrift will exacerbate a general downturn and will weaken the impact of the massive interventions the government has made in the financial markets.

“The breadth of the decline shows a broad-based pullback in consumer spending that will not quickly turn around,” writes PNC economist Stuart Hoffman, “even with the arsenal of federal firepower now aimed at the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.”

Federal actions such as a $250 billion plan to buy preferred shares in banks, along with a public guarantee of bank deposits and bank debt, are aimed at unlocking credit markets and boosting economic activity. Policymakers have promised to get banks lending again, to restore economic growth that has clearly been ebbing even as government data chalked up modest gains in gross domestic product for the first half of the year.

“This plan is a means to an end,” Hoffman says of the Treasury’s agreement to make capital injections in banks such as Citi (C, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500). “The key concept is that reasonably prudent lending should be supported.”

But as the economy shows further signs of deceleration – factory production and industrial capacity utilization fell sharply in September, the Federal Reserve said Thursday – the question is who the banks will be lending to. Indeed, merely plying the banks with capital isn’t certain to get them lending in a world in which businesses and consumers are trying to reduce their leverage after a long run of credit expansion.

William Cline, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, notes that the decline of saving in the United States over the past two decades was accompanied by a sharp increase in the rate of bank lending, as consumers cashed in on the appreciating value of their houses.

Bank credit growth, after averaging around 6.5% in the 1990s, spiked to 12% in the four years ended in 2007, Cline says. Meanwhile the U.S. personal saving rate turned negative at the height of the housing bubble in 2005, down from around 7% in the early 1990s.

“We were already on course to have some return to saving,” says Cline, who is the author of the 2005 book, “The United States as a Debtor Nation.” With the credit crunch making consumer credit scarcer, he adds, and reduced house prices making Americans feel poorer, “We’re going to see some more pressure on household spending.”

For now, that will mean more pressure on companies that sell their goods to consumers. GM (GM, Fortune 500) and Ford (F, Fortune 500) have traded at multi-decade lows this month as U.S. auto sales slowed to a pace last seen in the early 1990s. Macy’s (M, Fortune 500) dropped 12% Wednesday after the department store chain cut its profit forecast, prompting ratings agency Moody’s to warn that further problems could prompt a costly credit downgrade.

The government interventions mean deleveraging can continue without the risk of an economic collapse, which is obviously “extremely positive” in the long run, says Ken Kamen, a financial adviser who is president of Mercadien Asset Management in Trenton, N.J. But that doesn’t mean the short run is going to be particularly enjoyable, as Wednesday’s 9% stock market decline suggests.

Kamen warns his clients that before they make any hasty decisions, they should decide how much stress they can tolerate in their portfolios.

“You don’t want to be resetting your financial future while the compass needle is spinning,” he says. “You may need to sell assets – but only to the point where you can sleep at night.”

Citic Pacific Ltd seems to be in a bad position. An executive working at Citic seemingly violated procedures by investing in the Australian Dollar, the Euro, and the Chinese yuan without proper approval. When the dollar surged against the Australian dollar and the Euro, Citic Pacific was exposed to unlimited losses due to their investing in major Hong Kong banks using a so-called “accumulator” position.

The company would face a loss of about HK$14.7 billion based on current forex levels; however, as it intends to mark the contracts to market on Dec. 31, the actual loss could be higher or lower. Citic Pacific had already realized losses of HK$807.7 million on the forex contracts as of Friday. Citic Pacific plans to realize all of the losses this year, so they won’t affect the company’s 2009 results.

Citic Pacific had been suspended from trade in Hong Kong on Monday and is expected to fall sharply when it resumes Tuesday.

Steps to Foreclosure

Foreclosure is the act of claiming the title or forcing the sale of real property in order to satisfy a defaulted mortgage loan. If you are falling helplessly behind on mortgage payments, avoiding foreclosure should be a top priority. It is important that you are aware of the mandatory steps that your lender must take before foreclosure can occur so that you can adequately prepare yourself for alternatives to foreclosure. This guide discusses those steps to foreclosure.

Notice of default

If you miss a mortgage payment, your mortgage lender will likely send you a letter reminding you that a payment was due. This letter may take a more serious tone than what other collections notices might take. Known as a notice of default, this letter will let you know how much you are behind, and what to do to restore your mortgage loan to a current status. If you receive a notice of delinquency, this is the same letter and should be treated with the same level of urgency.

Anytime you have difficulty making your mortgage payment, contact your lender to discuss it with them. It is important that they know that you are making arrangements to get caught up. A good faith effort on your part can frequently delay foreclosure proceedings and extra month or more depending upon your lender. Once you receive a notice of default, now is the time to take corrective action. If you know that you will not be able to afford the home, consider prepping the home for sale immediately. Selling a home may take longer than you have time. In addition, many buyers will hold out or demand greater discounts if they know the home is in foreclosure. Putting it on the market now will generally give you more options.

If you feel that you can afford the home but just need some help to get caught up, contact your lender to request assistance. A workout arrangement can frequently allow you to restore the loan to current status. Forbearance is a common remedy that can delay or temporarily reduce payments so that you can reestablish current payment status.

Notice of Acceleration

A notice of acceleration is required under most states’ laws to give you the opportunity to satisfy the loan balance in full to prevent foreclosure. Once you reach this stage, it may be too late to seek workout arrangements or other means for restoring the loan. This is official notice that the lender wants to terminate the mortgage loan. They are announcing that they intend to take ownership of your home unless you can pay the entire loan balance in full. This is a 30-day warning that you must pay the debt in full. In other words, you can bet that lender has committed to foreclosure by this point. If you make it to this point, you should take any steps to speed up the sale of the home, including price reductions. You may or may not receive a summons advising you of a court action taken by the lender to proceed with foreclosure as this is not required in all states. You commonly will receive no such summons if the foreclosure is based on a deed of trust.

If you have received a notice of acceleration and do not have a realistic opportunity to sell the home, you should take immediate action. If you think you can afford the regular payments on a permanent basis, it is probably worth the effort to make another plea to your lender for a workout. Be prepared to prove that you can reasonably afford to keep the home.

Notice of Sale

Your lender is required to send you a notice of sale once a time and date of the intended sale of your property is established. Once a notice of sale has been delivered, you only have up until that point to remedy the situation. The sale date is the date that you will no longer have any legal claim to that property. If you are able to sell the home on your own, you must close with the buyer before the foreclosure sale date. If you wish to file bankruptcy to prevent foreclosure, you must do so prior to the sale date. Once a sale has been announced, most lenders will no longer consider alternatives to foreclosure other than a sale that you initiate with a buyer. If you are able to find a buyer on your own, you must either convince the buyer to close prior to the sale date, or you must convince the lender to postpone the sale until after the closing date that your buyer requests. Otherwise, foreclosure can occur.

One last ditch effort that you can take is to offer the lender the deed in lieu of foreclosure. Although technically a foreclosure, the credit impact could be slightly less damaging since you are voluntarily giving up claim to the property. This really is a last resort since you are giving up your biggest investment.

Public Auction

If the property is sold at auction as a foreclosed property, your financial obligations may still not be over. Many foreclosed properties are bought by real estate speculators that pay substantially less than the property is worth. If the sale price is less than the loan balance, you may still receive notices after the sale alerting you to a deficiency that is still owed. Even though you lost the home, you could still owe money once auction fees and attorney fees are added to the remaining loan balance.

Remember the two rules to foreclosure:

1. Never wait and allow a lender to foreclose on your home.
2. Never wait and allow a lender to foreclose on your home!

You have other options that can allow you to avoid foreclosure if you act soon enough.

Wall Street Rallied Monday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 936 points, its biggest-ever point gain, and the biggest one-day percentage advance — 11 percent – since March, 1933.

The rally Monday came after the Treasury Department detailed some of its plans for infusing cash into struggling U.S. financial institutions and the Federal Reserve led a worldwide effort to increase the flow of dollars into worldwide banking systems.

The Treasury says its equity investments in financial institutions will target healthy banks with attractive terms.

The Monday rally started in Europe, with expanding government investment in ailing banks there. London’s FTSE 100 Index rallied more than 8 percent. The DAX Index in Germany gained 11.4 percent.

For the day, the Dow closed at 9387.61. The S&P500 Index rallied 104 points, or 11.6 percent.

The Nasdaq Composite Index finished the day up almost 195 points, or 11.8 percent.

The weekend of September 12 – 14 was one Glenview residents won’t soon forget. Approximately 9.50 inches of rain fell in the Village — the most rain falling in a single period in Chicago area since 1871. The storm and rain caused flash flooding, minor electrical outages (all 400 outages were restored quickly), and downed trees in several areas of town. Particularly vulnerable were residences in flood-prone areas and documented floodplains.

The Village’s storm water drainage systems reached capacity; most storm water detention basins exceeded capacity; the Techny Basin filled to capacity and experienced minor overflow, which affected neighborhoods adjacent to the West Fork of the Chicago Rivers’ North Branch.

As a result, several areas near the this part of the river (between Willow and Longvalley Road) were voluntarily evacuated. And, over the course of the event, ten road segments were temporarily closed.

What Did the Village Do?

Early Saturday morning, Village leadership mobilized the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) to coordinate all emergency responses. In short order, off duty personnel were recalled to assist and went to work:

• Public Works responded to calls throughout the Village, removing downed trees across roads or within detention basins, blockading impassable roads, raking out inlets, and providing sand bag stockpiling.
• A 24-hour call center — staffed by Village employees — was quickly established. From September 13-15, the Center received 962 calls. Most of these were related to flooded streets and basements.
• 9-1-1 received 610 calls between 7 a.m. September 13 and 7 a.m. September 15. Dispatch/Police Records also received 1,914 non-emergency calls.
• Between 7 a.m., September 13 and 7 a.m., September 15 Fire/EMS and Police responded to 344 calls.
• The Village made available 336 tons of sand for sandbagging at nine locations throughout Glenview. At Public Works, volunteers from Glenbrook South High School and the Park District helped to bag some sand; at other sites residents could bag their own. The goal was to get the sand out to neighborhoods as quickly as possible — and waiting until all the sand was bagged would have slowed things down considerably.
• Police Officers coordinated road closures and general community safety matters; Fire crews coordinated evacuation efforts and our emergency safety response.
• In cooperation with the Park District, an Emergency Shelter was opened at Park Center to supplement the regional Red Cross Center in Des Plaines. On September 13, more than 30 residents took advantage of the shelter. School District 34 arranged buses to assist residents choosing to evacuate.
• To keep residents informed, several communications links were established including the Village website, E-Glenview, Glenview Television, two door-to-door handouts, four Emergency Telephone Notification System (ETNS) announcements, and placement of “Flood Information” boxes throughout the Village.
• The Village worked with Groot to establish a flood debris pick-up schedule — including an extra Saturday pick up — at no additional cost to residents.

What Was Done to Control Flooding?

Flood control is primarily a regional matter. It is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD), which is responsible for maintenance of regional waterways and controls all locks, gates and pumps along this waterway.

On Tuesday, October 21 the Village will hold a special workshop on this issue at 7 p.m. at the Police Station, 2500 East Lake Avenue.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A plan announced today by Bank of America will be the most aggressive foreclosure prevention effort ever undertaken by a U.S. bank.

The program, scheduled to start in December, will be open to distressed borrowers who signed up with Countrywide Financial between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2007. Countrywide was acquired by Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) in July.

It came in a legal settlement that the company entered into with the attorney general offices of 11 states, who had sued Countrywide over predatory lending practices, but the company stated that borrowers in all 50 states will be eligible to participate in the program.

“The Countrywide settlement is a watershed moment for loan modification programs,” said Mark Pearce, North Carolina’s Deputy Commissioner of Banks and a member of the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group. “This is, by far, the best [program ever], even better than the FDIC program with IndyMac Bank.”

As part of the initiative, Bank of America will cut monthly housing payments, including mortgage, property taxes and insurance, to no more than 34% of gross income. The move is expected to help keep as many as 400,000 troubled borrowers in their homes.

The program targets holders of subprime adjustable rate mortgage (ARMs), subprime fixed rate loans and option ARMs, but prime and Alt-A borrowers, who did not document their income, will be eligible as well.

No other foreclosure prevention effort has aimed to keep borrowers’ house payments so low.

“[The program's] affordability is far better than any other program out there,” said Rick Simon, spokesman for Bank of America.

By contrast, the much heralded foreclosure-prevention initiative announced in August by the FDIC for customers of IndyMac Bank, the subprime lender that the agency took over in July, said it will keep borrower payments to no more than 38% of gross income.

“This is the biggest mandatory modification of loans in U.S. history,” said Jerry Brown, attorney general of California, the state with the largest number of borrowers who may benefit from the settlement. “Of course, we never saw such a big rip-off by any other company either.”

According to Simon, the Countrywide program will proactively screen all of its borrowers for eligibility, and then contact them directly to offer loan workouts. No prepayment penalties or modification fees will apply. But the program can’t help every Countrywide borrower. Some, because of illness, divorce, job loss and the like, simply won’t be able to afford any reasonable mortgage payment.

Simon added that Bank of America is training personnel and putting systems into place that it hopes will enable staff to deal with a large number of mortgages all at once.

The new program comes with a price tag of $8.4 billion, but Simon says that it will cost much less than foreclosing on homes en masse.

As the credit crisis continues, more and more lenders and mortgage servicers are coming to grips with the fact that preventing a foreclosure is usually cheaper than going through the repossession process and then reselling the property in a declining market.

Depending on each borrower’s circumstances, Bank of America might freeze or lower a loan’s interest rate or even cut the principal loan balance. The bank said it will also participate in the government’s Hope for Homeowners program, a provision of the housing rescue bill which went into effect Oct. 1 and makes FHA-insured loans available for delinquent borrowers.

The announcement of the program came on the heels of Friday’s approval of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, a measure which has been criticized for failing to address the foreclosure crisis head on.

The hope is that other lenders and servicers will follow Countrywide’s lead.

“Now that we’ve gotten this with Countrywide, I would expect that we’ll be talking with other major servicers to implement similar programs in the near future,” said North Carolina Deputy Commissioner of Banks Mark Pearce, who worked on this settlement.

But he and other members of the the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group have been pushing other lenders to do something this drastic for months, without much luck.

“So far, they have failed to show the leadership required to get it done,” said Pearce. “I hope, having the market leader do this will spur the other servicers to greater action.”

In changing times with a very volatile economic market, the impacts of the “bailout” prove that our national financial system has been tarnished but the hope for repair is the result of the country’s ability to stand up and fight through the turmoil. The economic repercussions of the “bailout” while, hopeful, may still not be enough to help our housing market recover from the immense distress we face as a nation. However, with the economy in such a difficult place, it seems that there is no other quick immediate solution to save what is left. The market is oversaturated with listing inventory and this “bailout” will hopefully deplete the mass housing for sale. In a buyer’s market, it is critical to move inventory quickly to stabilize the market conditions so that prices can equalize. The rescue plan will provide solutions for distressed home-owners and possibly even save the mass thousands out there who face foreclosure. Even so, the possibility of resolution from financial destruction is very real for the mass public so the immediate effects of the “bailout” may not impact the majority population who is suffering and losing their homes. It is hard to really predict the consequences of this emergency plan but the fact that our national governmental body has stepped in is a significant indicator that our country is in some pretty significant trouble. Our best bet is to listen closely, assess our personal situations and consult professionals who can direct and advise us to a better place. This economy and this market should correct itself and now with a helping hand should put us on the path to recovery. Who knows, this may be the case or this may just be the beginning. Regardless, our confidence should rest in our own decisions based on our own personal scenarios. While we depend on our country to do the right thing, the only final judge of that is ourselves.

Regard to our shifting market,

Helen Oliveri

The HOPE for Homeowners (H4H) program was created by Congress to help those at risk of default and foreclosure refinance into more affordable, sustainable loans. H4H is an additional mortgage option designed to keep borrowers in their homes.

The program is effective from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2011.

As many as 400,000 homeowners could avoid foreclosure through this program over the next three years. If you are having trouble making your mortgage payments, HOPE for Homeowners may be able to help you, by refinancing your loan into a new 30-year fixed rate loan with lower payments.

How the Program Works

There are four ways that a distressed homeowner could pursue participation in the HOPE for Homeowners program

1. Homeowners may contact their existing lender and/or a new lender to discuss how to qualify and their eligibility for this program.
   
2. Servicers working with troubled homeowners may determine that the best solution for avoiding foreclosure is to refinance the homeowner into a HOPE for Homeowners loan.
   
3. Originating lenders who are looking for ways to refinance potential customers out from under their high-cost loans and/or who are willing to work with servicers to assist distressed homeowners.
   
4. Counselors who are working with troubled homeowners and their lenders to reach a mutually agreeable solution for avoiding foreclosure.
   

It is envisioned that the primary way homeowners will initially participate in this program is through the servicing lender on their existing mortgage.  Servicers that do not have an underwriting component to their mortgage operations will partner with an FHA-approved lender that does.

Read more at:

http://www.inman.com/news/2008/10/2/hope-homeowners-program-launches

and

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page?_pageid=73,7601299&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL