just move the phones

Prospect has bought quite a number of production operations in the past year, clearly they are trying to position themselves for the other side. Since they get the businesses for nothing [or less even!], it will be interesting to follow their progress.

When you don't put any money down, you can afford to be patient.

Hey,

What are you doing here anyway; I thought we agreed you do the morning show, and I'm here at night....what gives Lady?

I'm guessing that Hope Prospect Mortgage doesn't just get it over with and declare failure because there is some sort of Vegas betting line on the over/under date.

goes all-in for Sept. 1, 2008

Johnston and Bergum must be experts at "It's not our fault, really!"

You would have to be a moron to believe these two after pulling this trick again.

Even if Prospect is a little premature, they certainly were much more patient than BoA.

I bet the pay that Prospect's CEO receives is a wee bit smaller than Lewis'...

I have written before about my one man leading indicator for lenders about to go down.

He was at IndyMac and then jumped ship a month ago to join Metrocities Mortgage.

Metrocities was acquired as part of the Prospect Mortgage in June 2007 as part of an investment strategy by Sterling Partners, a private equity fund group based in Chicago and Baltimore.

And where was this one man leading indicator before IndyMac? Why at American Home Mortgage of course.

I would offer that Prospect approached IndyMac after their share value went under a buck. IndyMac balked and was insulted by the offer. Then of course the saw the light and now hope to be born again...as what? Anyway, my theory is Prospect is waiting for Uncle Sam to come up with a bail-out that does not look too much like a pig and then re-prime the subprime and offer the new and improved version of securitization...what ever that will become.

Anyway. If Uncle Sam does not buy Prospect a pony they will be crying UNCLE when the one man leading indicator comes through again and Metrocities goes down.

IndyMac shareholders are probably praying they can get back to a buck or better to complete the run on the bank and cut their losses while they are marginally ahead.

Tom Lindemark--
I agree that the need for the service and the market itself will survive the downtown, and when the tide turns there will be a viable business. The only question I have about this garden is--are these businesses annuals or are they perennials? If the former, they die with the change of seasons and new plantings fill the beds next season. If the latter, then, yes, the nvestment makes sense (timing is another question, if so, of course).
Like the late Molly Ivins, I watched the Texas regional banking scene collapse in the 1980s. Everyone of the large bank holding companies in Houston and Dallas failed or was bought by an outsider (Cullen Frost out of San Antonio was the biggest local to survive as an independent). Some of them failed or were acquired repeatedly when the first knife catchers turned out to be early.

Certain in the 90s the Texans had banking needs, and those needs were met. But they were met by institutions that were headquartered in Charlotte, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

At least this transaction means a few more paychecks for the people working at Prospect while they look for paying jobs in another field.