Financial Alchemy Is Not Working

Having spent a considerable part of the month of January working for my clients and much less time on the computer, I have some breathing room (prior to kickoff for SuperBowl 42) to go through some articles about the persistent financial situation in the US:

• An editorial column from the Gulf Times about the World's view of the US based financial alchemy model in this country and why it's not working.
• UBS faces government investigations that it misled investors about the success of its MBS division amid eroding values.
• The 4 horsemen of real estate inventory and what you're not hearing in the media. Link contains graphs of 4 markets and the growing inventory of homes for 2008.
• The Orange County Register's mortgage blog site and an article of how to survive the credit crunch.
• Diana Olick's blog from CNBC and the missing component to the housing crisis: Human Greed.