These are my Delicious links for April 5th through April 9th:
- Digg support, Brazilian shortener, and all sorts of other awe.sm-ness « feed your blog to twitter – Announcement of the first third-party tool to officially support awe.sm 😀
- L.A. starts buying up foreclosed homes with federal aid – Los Angeles Times – This is the best use of federal bailout money I've heard yet: the city of Los Angeles is buying up foreclosed residential properties and turning them into low-income housing. This is toxic-asset relief (buying foreclosed properties puts a value on their mortgages) with real equity for the government and a social benefit. I hope more funding goes towards programs like this.
- The Banker Who Said No – Forbes.com – A fascinating profile of banker D. Andrew Beal, who runs Texas-based Beal Bank. Beal Bank is privately held and approaching $7 billion. But the most interesting part is how they got there: by essentially sitting out the market 2004-2007. Seeing the state of the lending market in 2004, Beal essentially put his bank into hibernation by suspending new loans, hoarding cash, laying off half his workforce, and working half-days. Over the next 3 years, he was mocked by mortgage brokers and scrutinized by regulators for sitting on the sidelines. But his intuition, conviction, and self-restraint have paid off in a big way as he is now using his cash stockpile to acquire assets at pennies on the dollar. IMHO, no publicly traded bank would have been able to pull this off even if they had wanted to.