The ground is shaking. The buildings are swaying. Now, you have to wonder how many of them will come tumbling down. I'm talking about the major financial institutions in this country. The tremors in the mortgage market that first started rumbling a year ago have escalated. And now they're ripping through the industry with the force of a 9.0 earthquake ... It's no longer just mortgages that are shaking the biggest banks, brokers, and insurance firms. Auto loans, credit cards, commercial real estate, credit derivatives, and construction and development loans are setting off their own temblors. Still ... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Are the Epicenter of this Crisis By far, the biggest problem out there right now is the government sponsored enterprises, or GSEs. For a while, Fannie ...

Source This morning we were pleased to welcome Janet Yellen, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, to our UCSD Economics Roundtable. She focused on three main challenges: the housing slump, financial market turmoil, and commodity prices, which she likened to the three witches from Macbeth. Her complete speech is available from the FRB SFO Here are some excerpts. Janet Yellen (photo courtesy of FRB SFO). Housing. Unfortunately, it appears to me that there are at least three reasons for thinking that housing prices have further to fall. First, the ratio of house prices to rents-- a kind of price-dividend ratio for housing-- still remains quite high by historical standards.... Second, inventories of unsold homes remain at elevated levels.... Third, the futures market for house prices predicts further declines in a number of metropolitan areas this year.... Financial markets. ...

Omega United Inc. dba SkyPostal Networks Inc. is one of the leading private mail networks in Latin America, handling commercial mail, periodicals and parcel post from European postal agencies, major publishers, international mailers and financial institutions. SkyPostal recently announced the completion of two financing projects totaling $13.2 million in new capital for the company. With the completion of these projects, SkyPostal plans to improve their private postal network.

The first of these recent financing announcements was the completion of a private placement financing totaling $10 million. Falcon Capital, a boutique investment banking firm based in London, acted as placement agent for the financing. The addition of this capital is anticipated to make a significant difference in the size and range of SkyPostal’s current mail delivery network throughout the Latin America-Caribbean region.

The second, and perhaps most important, announcement for SkyPostal is the conversion of

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Earlier this week, SkyPostal Networks, Inc. (OMGA.OB) announced the completion of $10 million of private placement financing. Falcon Capital, a London-based boutique investment banking firm, acted as placement agent for the financing.

Falcon Capital is an international group of consulting firms that provide a wide range of services to businesses. For small and medium-sized companies, Falcon provides business development and change management advice across a variety of industries in both established and emerging markets. Falcon serves over 1500 banks and financial institutions in over 70 countries across six continents.

In the last year, SkyPostal has been able to grow its customer-base along with the services it provides. The company’s first quarter 2008 sales results were reported at $2,440,801, which was a 40 percent increase over the same period in 2007. Improvements were also seen in total operating margin, which increased from 17 to 24 percent, and EBITDA,

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Omega United, Inc. dba SkyPostal Networks, Inc. (OTCBB:OMGA), an international mail distribution company specializing in hand delivery of commercial mail and periodicals to the Latin America-Caribbean region (LAC), announced it has completed arrangements for $10 million in private placement financing through Falcon Capital, an international group of consulting firms providing business development, change management advice and financing through their client base of more than 1,500 banks, institutions and private individuals.

This $10 million, added to the approximately $3.2 million equity conversion from common shares already completed, gives the company a capitalization of more than $13 million, which will enable SkyPostal to move ahead with its plans of improving and extending its mail delivery network in the Latin America-Caribbean region.

Utilizing its now totally debt-free balance sheet, SkyPostal is perfectly aligned to pursue beneficial acquisitions to solidify its market presence and improve and expand its service via deployment

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Big Banks are dying, WaMu (NYSE:WM) hit $6.05 and BofA (NYSE:BAC) hit $29.34 today. It's one thing for Crocs Inc (NASDAQ:CROX) to hit $9.03, but our U.S. financial institutions?  Good Lord. Other 52-week lows include (via 247WallSt.com): AMBAC (ABK) Sells off to $2.02 after downgrades. The 52-week high was $89.33. MBIA (MBI) Also hit by downgrades and drops to $4.78 from 52-week high of $68.98. Wachovia (WB) Flamed. Down to $18.22 from 52-week high of $54.54. Gatehouse (GHS) Newspapers still hit hard. Falls to $3.50 from 52-week high of $19.64. McClatchy (MNI) Another newspaper company sells off to $7.77 from 52-week high ...

The current financial services melt-down has had differing effects on different companies. Dealing with the realities of the situation has become the only way that most can move forward. Some are assessing their situation while others are moving to right the issues. If there is one thing that most can agree upon; it would be that admitting to losses, making the needed moves now and working to move forward are the only ways to get back toward solid results.

E*Trade Financial Corp., an online trading concern, works to facilitate the online trading of certain financial products. In a general sense, the company is a retail company that offers the “average” person an opportunity to trade stocks and buy mutual funds. As with many financial institutions and companies, E*Trade Financial has been going through a period of adjustment. It has, however, readjusted in a significant manner and appears to be moving forward

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Flush with cash from the sale of two data facilities and its content delivery network assets, Savvis Inc. (SVVS) is on track to complete a $315 million data center expansion. Philip Koen, chief executive at Savvis, said the company plans to complete construction of a new data center in London and expand similar existing facilities it has in New Jersey and Singapore by the end of the year.

Koen, speaking at an investors conference organized by investment bank Lehman Bros., said the new data centers coming online later this year are part of the expansion program Savvis began last year in efforts to grow its business. The company, which is based in Town & Country, MO, provides information technology infrastructure services — including data storage, Internet hosting and network services — to a wide array of clients, including financial institutions.

The addition of data centers is part of a reorganization that

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Lehman Brothers (LEH:NYSE) is one of the nation’s major investment banks. Lehman was founded in 1850 and has a rich history on Wall Street. However, Lehman’s stock price has been taking a beating this year as they have been painted with the same brush as Bear Stearns. There are rumors floating around Wall Street nearly every day about how Lehman is rapidly running out of liquidity and Lehman’s need to go to the Federal Reserve’s discount borrowing window on a regular basis.

All investment banks, including Lehman, are built on two items - liquidity and trust. When either of these items is lost, investment banks cease to exist and the best that be hoped for is similar to what happened to Bear Stearns-an arranged takeover by a stronger firm. Lehman’s efforts to raise fresh capital have caused the markets to fear that Lehman is going down the same path Bear Stearns

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First, AIG - the huge insurer just blew a massive tire, announcing a $8 billion writeoff - and another capital raise, which again dilutes current shareholders and means earnings PER share is going to be punished for years to come. But really it's all good - whats $8 billion among friends - and it's all priced in (oops, not so much, down 8% after hours, but maybe by tomorrow morning after CNBC announces it's a good thing it will be up). What I want you to do now is close your eyes and imagine Uncle Ben B as a short order cook. He is now ringing that bell over his head and shouting over to the other minion cooks - "got a fresh order, let's get up some more billions of US pesos pronto, print 'er up!" More paper currency ...