A Sacramento mortgage lender's vision

1. The New York-based Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence was at 38 in November, matching the lowest level since monthly data began in 1967.

2. In emergency action over the weekend, the Federal Reserve rescued  Citigroup, giving the bank government guarantees for troubled mortgages and toxic assets plus $20 billion in cash. This equates to the US taxpayer taking responsibility for over $306 billion in illiquid and highly dangerous Citigroup securities.

3. Global financial firms have reported about $969 billion in losses linked to the meltdown in the U.S. subprime mortgage market to date.

4. 10 Year bond yields dropped to 2.99 percent on Nov. 20, the lowest since Fed records on the figure started in 1962.

5. A report from S&P/Case-Shiller may show a record 16.9 percent drop in home prices in the 12 months ended Sept. 30.

6. A separate government report confirmed the decline in property values accelerated. Home prices fell 1.3 percent in September from the previous month, the biggest one-month drop since records began in 1991, FHA said today. The GDP report also showed consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, dropped at a revised 3.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter, more than the 3.1 percent decrease estimated by Commerce last month.

7. The Federal Reserve took two new steps to unfreeze credit today for homebuyers, consumers and small businesses, committing up to $800 billion. The central bank will purchase as much as $600 billion of debt issued or backed by government-chartered housing-finance companies, such as Fannie, Freddie and Ginne Mae.

8. According to preliminary data, the funding and liquidity crisis is spreading to the credit card and student loan markets.

9. Interest rates on U.S. commercial paper fell to the lowest in at least 12 years.

10. The U.S. dollar will be ``devalued'' as policy makers seek to weaken it, undermining the greenback's role as an international reserve currency, said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings in Singapore. Every action taken by the Federal Reserve has an immediate negative effect on the dollar.

citations here here and here, thanks to www.bloomberg.com