AG's Scratchin' Post

[Alex G]

Wanna Buy A Mortgage Bond?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/04/wanna_buy_a_mortgage_bond.html#more
April 29, 2010

For the first time since the wheels came off the housing market a few years back, somebody's selling a mortgage-backed bond that isn't backed by the U.S. government.

Not surprisingly, this bond -- which answers to the name "Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2010-H1" -- is made up of some very low-risk mortgages.

Basically, it's the opposite of some of the crazy mortgage-backed bonds sold during the boom (sorry, Toxie), which were full of loans to borrowers with weak credit and little or no home equity.

Calculated Risk points out a few of the key details on the new bond:

It includes 253 mortgages, with an total principal balance of about $238 million

The average loan-to-value ratio is 53%

Borrowers' weighted FICO score is 768

The bond was created by Citigroup and a real estate company called Redwood Trust.

For a little more news on the mortgage-bond front, check out this Bloomberg News story on a new set of indexes that will track the performance of mortgage-backed bonds issued in 2006 and 2007.

These indexes make the market for mortgages more transparent. They also make it easier for people to speculate on mortgages.

[Alex G]

Chevron demands "Crude" filmmaker hand over footage

Chevron Vs. Filmmaker

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/arts/27arts-CHEVRONVSFIL_BRF.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

A documentary filmmaker says he will fight a request by Chevron to turn over hundreds of hours of footage he shot for a documentary about pollution in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Chevron says the material may be useful in lawsuits accusing it of damaging the environment there. The filmmaker, Joe Berlinger, whose documentaries include “Paradise Lost” and “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster,” said he had been served with a request from Chevron for more than 600 hours of unused footage for his 2009 documentary “Crude.” The movie, seen in a scene above, chronicles Ecuadoreans who sued Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron, saying the companies’ practices at the Lago Agrio oil field resulted in the contamination of their drinking and bathing water. Mr. Berlinger, who is scheduled to appear in United States District Court in Manhattan on Friday, said Chevron’s request violated his First Amendment rights. If Chevron obtained his footage, he said, “It would have a serious chilling effect on these kinds of investigative films.” Randy M. Mastro, a lawyer representing Chevron, said the company “simply seeks here outtakes relating to the access this filmmaker was given to film the plaintiffs and their lawyers, government officials and supposedly independent experts’ meetings with the plaintiffs and their lawyers.”

[Alex G]

Oil Spill Estimates Raised Fivefold

VENICE, La.—The Coast Guard said it found a significant new oil leak from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday. Separately, crews conducted a test burn to prevent the oil from spreading further. ...

The US Coast Guard has said five times as much oil as previously thought is leaking from a well beneath where a rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

Rear Admiral Mary Landry said 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day were now thought to be gushing into the sea 50 miles (80km) off Louisiana's coast.

A third leak had also been discovered at the site, Adm Landry said.

Earlier, a Coast Guard crew set fire to part of the oil slick, in an attempt to save environmentally fragile wetlands.

The "controlled burn" of surface oil took place in an area about 30 miles (50km) east of the Mississippi river delta, officials said.

Weather forecasters have meanwhile warned that changing winds could drive the oil slick ashore by Friday night.