3 CEOs Made $460 Million - House Panel (EC Math blog #3)

Three chief executives with ties to the mortgage crisis were paid $460 million over the course of five years according to a congressiona repord given Thursday. The next day The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is set to examine CEO pay in light of huge decreases in the financial sector stemming form the mortgage crisis. The panel chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman will hear testimony from Charles Prince a former CEO of Citigroup Inc., Stanley O'Neal another former CEO of Merrill Lynch and Co. and Angelo Mozilo Chief executive of Counrtywide Financial Corp. the nation's biggest mortgage lender. The committee recently questioned each company about executive pay. Committee staffers checked company email, board minutes anf federal regulatory fillings according to a 23 paged memo made public Thursday. The memo states that all three companies combined lost a total of more than $20 billion dollars in the last quarters of last year (2007).

Oil Settles Above $105 on Weak Dollar (EC Math blog #2)

Oil futures have risen to another record close on Thursday.
The national average price for gas rose 0.7 cents over night to 3.185 according to the AAA and the Oil Price information service. Gas prices are expected to rise above last May's record of 3.277 a gallon. April gas futures inched up by 0.1 cent to settle at 9.742 per 1,000 cubic feet. Diesel prices jumped to 1.4 cents overnight to a new record national average of 3.71 a gallon

Home Equity Slips below 50% (EC Math blog #1)

For the first time on record since 1945 Americans' percentage of their equity in their homes has dropped below 50%. The percentage of home equity percentage was 49.6% in the second quarter of 2007. In the fourth quarter it fell to 47.9%. Even though house prices jumped earlier this decade because of a surge in cash-out refinances, home equity loans and lines of credit and an increase in 100% or more home financing home equity has steadily decreased. Economists assume that home equity will drop even further as declining home prices eat into the value of most Americans' single largest asset.