It is almost too easy, on a day like this, to paraphrase Shakespeare's old play about deceit and greed in the city of Helsinore. This time however it is not the venerable city of Helsinore which is under the spotlight but another old Danish city or more specifically the bank which carries its name. At this point the details are naturally quite scarce but what is clear is that Roskilde Bank has requested the central bank for a liquidity guarantee. Roskilde Bank A/S has announced to the OMX Nordic Exchange that in connection with the regular review of loans and guarantees in prepa-ration of the semi annual report, the management of the bank has found that write-downs have to be made on a significantly larger scale than what has previously been assumed. The amount and scope of the write-downs are not known at this point but will be made ...

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 ...