reality-based educator

Via Bonddad, Marketwatch reports that there have been lots of layoffs in the financial sector since the beginning of the month:

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Problems in the nation's housing markets have prompted many of the 20,957 job cuts announced by financial institutions since the beginning of the month, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Moreover, 11,040, or 53%, of those cuts have come since last Friday, the global outplacement consultancy reported on Tuesday.

...

According to Challenger's data, the financial industry has announced 87,962 cuts so far this year. That's 164% more than had been tallied up through the end of August in 2006, the firm said. Forty-one percent of the cuts this year were related to mortgage and subprime lending markets, the data showed.

"There are two big issues behind the cuts," CEO John A. Challenger said in a news release. "First, demand for new mortgages and home-equity loans and other forms of credit have fallen off dramatically. The other issue is the increasing rate of defaults and foreclosures, which is leaving the lending institutions unable to meet their own financial obligations."

If increasing defaults and foreclosures mean more layoffs, look out below...

BTW, I just learned on Kudlow and Company that the worst of the financial panic is over, Bernanke is a "rock star" who is on the markets' side and all we have to do now is sit back and wait for the rate cuts to come down the pike...

...how sweet it is!!! (snark)