The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter -- In the News

Citizen Media Law Project: Legal Resources for Citizen Journalists

CitizenMediaLaw - 2012-01-26
Bloggers and Shield Laws II: Now, You Can Worry: ``The Illinois court could — and should — have used the rationale in O'Grady and Mortgage Specialists to include the TechnoBuffalo blog in Illinois' reporters' shield law. Now, it will probably be left for an appellate court to do this...''

Honolulu Civil Beat - 2011-06-17
Fannie Mae Skirts Landmark Hawaii Foreclosure Law: ``While Fannie isn't doing anything illegal with the conversions, at least one mortgage expert thinks Hawaii homeowners will not tolerate the decision. "In Hawaii, this is not going to fly," Martin Andelman, operator of the mortgage blog "Mandelman Matters", told Civil Beat. "If you treated your spouse the way the servicers treat people, you'd get arrested. It's abuse. It's awful. We treat people in the criminal justice system better than servicers treat homeowners."''`

ctpost.com - 2010-09-23
More Brokers Going Under: ``According to the website Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, American Mortgage Specialists of Arizona shut down in April. The company's old website could not be accessed and the phone number was busy.''

:w

Nashua Telegraph - 2010-07-18
Banking officials filed complaints on mortgage firm's practices : ``Banking officials in 2002 threatened to reject The Mortgage Specialists' applications for license renewals at all of its New Hampshire branches and one in Massachusetts, saying the company's past conduct did not warrant the public's confidence... The Mortgage Specialists recently captured national attention as the plaintiff in a New Hampshire Supreme Court case with significant First Amendment implications. The company is suing Las Vegas-based website The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, seeking the name of an anonymous online commenter who criticized the company. The website is fighting back, arguing that it has the same rights as traditional media outlets to protect the identity of sources.''

boston.com - 2010-06-27
Commenters, publishers in legal wild west: ``With its ruling in The Mortgage Specialists v. Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, Inc., the case of a crusading website that tracks the tribulations of the mortgage industry, the New Hampshire Supreme Court placed a significant burden on the plaintiff, a mortgage company—requiring it to prove the elements of its claim before the speaker's identity could be disclosed. Even if that requirement is met, the court then has to ask itself whether the need for the speaker's identity truly outweighs the public interest in promoting anonymous speech.''

Nashua Telegraph - 2010-05-09
Website comment poster unknown: ``A New Hampshire mortgage company and a national website chronicling the housing market collapse have spent 18 months battling in court over the identity of an anonymous online commenter ¿ all for naught... Implode-O-Meter has no idea who posted the comment.''

Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press - 2010-04-06
State high court extends media protection to mortgage website : (This is more on the below from one of our amicus filers)

WBZ 38, New Hampshire (ABC) - 2010-04-06
NH Court Sides With Website In Free Speech Case: The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mortgage industry watchdog website is a news organization and should not have been ordered to remove a leaked document it published or to identify its source...

The Telegraph (Nashua, NH) - 2010-04-06
Court backs website on free speech: The court, for the first time in New Hampshire, set a precedent for how lower courts should treat cases involving the protection of anonymous online commenters. They instructed the courts to weigh claims of defamation against the backdrop of the media's right to protect its sources...

The Telegraph (Nashua) - 2009-12-21
Funny name aside, free press at stake: Along with its November 2008 story, Implode-O-Meter staff anonymously received and posted a confidential loan chart for 2007 that MSI had prepared for the New Hampshire Banking Department. Around the same time, a writer using the pseudonym “Brianbattersby” posted a comment on the site, accusing MSI President Michael Gill of past fraud.

The Volokh Conspiracy (blog) - 2009-12-02
Injunction Ordering Web Site To Remove Improperly Leaked Document: "This raises pretty serious First Amendment questions, as well as other questions. The Supreme Court held in Bartnicki v. Vopper that a speaker is entitled to publish speech on matters of public concern even when the speech consisted of a third party's illegal interception of a phone conversation (so long as the speaker isn't in cahoots with the illegal intercepter). I think the same should apply to illegally leaked information."

The Wall Street Journal - 2009-11-17
Ara Hovnanian: Suprisingly Upbeat at Home Builder Conference: Should Mr. Hovnanian's predictions hold up, public builders including Hovnanian should find themselves in a sweet spot: With minimal access to capital, private builders nationwide are shuttering at a "phenomenal" rate. "It's scary, the number of home builders that are closing their doors," Mr. Hovnanian says, referencing The Home Builder Implode-O-Meter, which monitors the trend.

PoynterOnline - 2009-11-05
New Hampshire Suit Challenges Mortgage Blogger's Use of Anonymous Sources: According to Sam Bayard, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard, and assistant director of the Citizen Media Law Project, the potential impact of any decision is the shortage of case law dealing with these issues in an online context. "As we are moving online and our journalism is going online," he said, "this could have a big impact."

New Hampshire Public Radio 2009-11-05
Fight Over Blog Comments Hits High Court: "Case could decide if bloggers have the same first amendment rights as traditional journalists and determine if media websites can protect the identities of those who post comments anonymously."

PR Web - 2009-10-20
United Law Group Applauds Governor Schwarzenegger's Veto of State Bar Fee Bill: This isn't the first time in recent history that the Bar's been accused of being overly-political and inefficient. In an article on ML-Implode.com, Martin Andelman quoted the Governor's letter to the Bar, which said that the concerns raised...

The Daily Sentinel (CO) - 2009-10-17
Mortgage broker gets new name, changes with the financial times: Certified Mortgage Solutions was a wholesale mortgage broker that worked with a variety of lenders, but that business model is quickly fading away, Barnard said, gesturing to computer screen set to ml-implode.com, and the front-page display declaring that 361 major lending institutions have "imploded" since late 2006.

National Mortgage Professional Magazine - 2009-07-28
Questions about the future of wholesale are growing: ...these questions are in the forefront of everyone's mind of anyone remotely associated with wholesale. This is especially the case if you are one of the many who have been (or were) regularly checking the now infamous Web site, the Implode-O-Meter (http://ml-implode.com).

The Business Ledger - Chicago - 2009-07-21
Prospects dim for mortgage brokers: Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase & Co. ended its wholesale lending while Citigroup reduced the number of brokers it deals with from 10,000 to 1,000. Additionally, according to the housing finance tracker, The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, since late 2006 nearly 350 major U.S. lending institutions have imploded.

Mortgage Technology News - June issue - 2009
What You Need To Know About Websites: When the Center for Public Integrity (www.publicintegrity.org) set out to do an analysis of 25 subprime lenders widely blamed for the meltdown, they turned to The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter as a primary source.

Public Citizen - 2009-06-23
New Hampshire Court Should Not Force Internet Site to Identify Anonymous Critic: WASHINGTON, D.C. - An Internet forum that follows the "imploding" banking and housing markets should not be required to identify a person who posted critical comments about a Plaistow, N.H., mortgage company, Public Citizen said in a brief filed today in the case. [Click here for a copy of the Brief (pdf).]

the reporters committee for freedom of the press - 2009-06-22
Reporters Committee asks court to apply reporter's privilege to Web site: In a friend-of-the-court brief filed jointly by the Reporters Committee and the Citizen Media Law Project in The Mortgage Specialists v. Implode Explode Heavy Industries, the organizations argued that news Web site Implode-O-Meter, which aggregates news coverage of the mortgage industry, should have the same First Amendment protections as traditional media. [Click here to read the Brief (pdf). See also: Harvard University: Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Citizen Media Law Project and MediaPost News]

The Wall Street Journal - 2009-06-17
Loan Redos Get Tangled in Thicket of Red Tape: Before long, Ms. Lawrie was hearing rumors that some lenders were scaling back. She began scanning a Web site called the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which tracks mortgage companies that may be running into trouble.

The Motley Fool - 2009-06-07
Slavery Isn't Dead--Financial Firms Hold the Chains: I coined the term 'mortgage rent' on the www.ml-implode.com website nearly 2 years ago, to identify people who are merely renting their homes from the mortgage lender. True, they can deduct their interest payments, but in reality, the payment is just rent. Without capital...

The Arizona Republic - 2009-06-02
Local experts find fault with HUD's buyer program: HUD's final decision also had its supporters, such as blogger Robin Medecke of the popular Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, ml-implode.com, who thinks it's important for buyers to invest some of their own cash in the transaction. "FHA (for once) has taken a step back and come forth with unusually well thought out... guidance," Medecke wrote.

The Washington Independent - 2009-05-21
First Time Home Buyer Program Ripe for Abuse: Aaron Krowne, founder of the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter, a website that tracks the mortgage industry and is leading a campaign in the blogosphere to block any reinstatement of the seller-funded down payment assistance program, said he doesn't have the same...

Domain Name Wire - 2009-05-11
Refinance.com Is Dark During Refinancing Boom: Homebridge did a brisk mortgage business handling more than 7,500 applications in 2006. But the company sputtered from there. Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter writes that the company was embroiled in several lawsuits. The company had difficulty meeting payroll last December, and in January lost its New York State license.

The Washington Independent - 2009-05-08
Risky Mortgage Program Resurfaces in Congress: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, an influential financial blog leading a blogosphere campaign against reinstating the downpayment program, explained that buyers qualified for FHA loans using grant letters from the charities as proof of downpayment.

Santa Cruz Sentinel - 2009-04-03
Lenders fold, big banks on hold and local economy takes a hit: During 2008, more than 100 lenders disappeared, with 29 closing in the fourth quarter, according to the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which tracks the industry. "It was fairly stunning to see the list of nonbank lenders that had gone out of business," said Andy Frokjer of Rabobank. "We were one of the few still making loans."

The Economist - 2009-03-19
Cranking up the outrage-o-meter: THIS crisis has brought a burst of creativity in the development of indicators of pain, from the subprime implode-o-meter to the downgrade-o-meter for structured securities. Perhaps it is time for the outrage-o-meter. Its needle would have jumped off the scale this week as...

Seeking Alpha - 2009-02-27
Spreading the Word About the Campaign to Stop 'FHA Subprime': The folks over at the Implode-O-Meter have launched a campaign to try to stop HR Bill 600 which seeks to reinstate "seller funded downpayment assistance," otherwise known as "FHA subprime," and I'm doing my part to help spread the word.

Los Angeles Times - 2008-12-26
Report: Private equity firm wins bidding for IndyMac: A private equity firm led by former Goldman Sachs & Co. executives is the likely buyer of IndyMac Bank, according to a report today on the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter website: The winner is New York-based Dune Capital Management... (also OC Register, Los Angeles Business Journal, San Jose Mercury News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune) - [We were the first to break this story].

Stockhouse - 2008-12-23
Themes for 2009 - Part 2 (Macro outlook): Cracks started to show in February of 2007, when subprime lenders started going under. Fremont General, New Century Mortgage, etc. The list began to grow. I remember being one of the first 100 visitors to the mortgage lender implode-o-meter website back in 2006. 37 million have since visited.

International Business Times - 2008-12-17
ML-Implode Blog Warns of "FHA Subprime": The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter ("ML-Implode"), a prominent blog and independent econo-journalism source has issued a statement warning of the consequences of a lending practice known as seller-funded downpayment assistance ("SFDPA") loans at the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

MoneyWeb - South Africa - 2008-11-21
Gill Marcus: Sober up South Africa: A series of online implode-o-metres in the US have tracked the number of collapses in the mortgage lending business (304), the banking industry (19 this year), hedge funds (95), and home building companies (53). According to Fitch Ratings, so far $296,7bn worth of American corporate bonds have been affected by ratings downgrades.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - 2008-11-07
Mortgage mess grew from greed, not fair-lending law: Of the roughly 300 failed institutions listed on the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter site, the vast majority were not chartered banks. Because they weren't deposit-taking banks, they didn't have to abide by CRA rules.

Reuters - 2008-11-03
Twisted sisters: That list includes the wholesale operations of Accredited Home Lenders Inc., Homecomings Financial LLC and Irwin Financial Corp., according to data compiled by the Web site Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter.

The Daily News (Memphis) - 2008-10-30
Memphis Branch Of Investors Group To Expand: In the past two years, nearly 300 lending operations have either eliminated some lending practices - chiefly subprime loans - or closed shop altogether, according to the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (ml-implode.com), a Web site run by Las Vegas-based Implode-Explode Heavy Industries Inc. (IEHI), which tracks the industry.

Condé Nast Portfolio.com -2008-10-22
How Originate-to-Distribute Brought Down Wachovia: Countrywide was a big company which was built for permanence. But cast your mind back to 2006, when the implode-o-meter was just getting started. Merit Financial closed in the spring; by December, much larger concerns like Ownit were closing.

NewsWeek.com -2008-10-01
Failout Fun: Another number that's steadily, ineluctably, unavoidably trudging upwards? That would be the number of failed banks. Thanks for that, Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter. [Ed. note: ineluctably - Impossible to avoid or evade; inevitable]

CNBC - 2008-09-29
Behind Wachovia's Fall: Wachovia is the latest bank to fall victim to the mortgage crisis, and Mark Hanson, managing director of the Field Check Group, shares his insight.

The Minnesota Independent - 2008-09-15
Subprime casualties: 283 lenders have collapsed since 2006, and more are to come: Since late 2006, a total of 283 lenders have imploded, according to the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter. The bloggers at Implode-o-Meter have been tracking the housing crisis and the fraud inherent in...

Seeking Alpha.com - 2008-09-15
How Good Are Online Financial Services at Marketing?: Curiously, the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter has more visits than the big lenders, and their traffic is up 161% from last year – what does that tell you about trust? (cool graph included)

The Sunday Tribune (Ireland) - 2008-08-17
Troubled European mortgage lenders set to face online Implode-O-Meter: A popular US website that tracks casualties among mortgage lenders and banks is planning to also track European mortgage providers who collapse as the credit crunch deepens. The site, Implode-O-Meter, lists chronologically the major American mortgage providers that have gone under, or imploded, in the last two years.

International Herald Tribune (NYT Global) - 2008-08-17
A sub subprime glossary for the mortgage scandal: Implode-O-Meter is a Web site that tracks "the housing finance breakdown: a saga of corruption, hypocrisy and government complicity."

CNBC - 2008-08-11
Cramer's Take on the Market: Mad Money's Jim Cramer pumps the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (10 minute video) on his live TV show.

TheStreet.com - 2008-08-08
Cramer: Look at the Facts on Financials: If you listen to the bank bears, everything's worse than it was four weeks ago. The losses are increasing, the auction-rate preferreds are now biting, the mortgage implode-a-meter now measures how many homebuilders are going under.

BusinessWeek - 2008-07-28
Is Your Bank Safe?: But even as banks try to reassure their customers, they are competing with increasingly vocal skeptics. Lists of troubled institutions continue to proliferate on the Internet. Aaron Krowne, a 28-year-old from Atlanta, started a series of blogs in 2006 called Implode-o-meters covering various industries, including hedge funds, mortgage lenders, and banks. [reprinted in Pakistan Daily Times]

The Washington Independent - 2008-07-25
Race and the Housing Crisis: Yes, there are plenty of failed lenders on the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter. But as Michael Hudson, who authored the Center for Responsible Lending's report on the failed bank IndyMac explained, you could be a minimum-wage grocery clerk during the housing boom and then...

Radio New Zealand - 2008-07-21
Interview with ML-Implode Founder Aaron Krowne (MP3 Audio): General interview on the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, the US housing market and economy, and housing in the rest of the "Anglosphere."

Orange County Register - 2008-07-21
Wachovia says bye-bye to mortgage brokers: The company, which reports earnings tomorrow, did not release a statement on the move, which was first mentioned on the Implode-O-Meter Web site this morning. Vecchiarello declined to comment on how many wholesale employees will be let go, or if ...

FOX Business News - 2008-07-17
Video: Commentary and Analysis: 9 minute streaming (video) with Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter founder Aaron Krowne commenting on June's permits and housing numbers, and Wells Fargo.

CNN.com - 2008-07-15
Confessions of a subprime lender: 3 bad loans: Although he escaped the worst of the mortgage meltdown, the company he founded did not; it folded in early 2007. You can find it memorialized on the Implode-O-Meter, an online list of mortgage lenders that have shut down since late 2006. Look for number 44.

The Street.com - 2008-07-09
Cramer: Feds Step Up to the Plate: The Star-Ledger did a nice article about the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter that singles me out for helping the Web site. I really want to extend thanks to my friend Matt Horrween, my forensic accountant, who had insisted for more than a year that I focus on it.

The Minnesota Independent - 2008-07-09
Housing Implode-o-Meter makes CEOs cry: Which mortgage lenders will implode next? Will Fannie and Freddie Mac survive the crash? How sick is Sallie Mae? The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter has been tracking the ailing and imploding lenders since late 2006. So far, 266 major U.S. lenders have imploded. Right now, 16 lenders, including IndyMac and Sallie Mae, are on the "Watch List" of lenders in serious poor health.

Los Angeles Times - 2008-07-07
Indymac now No. 265 on Implode-O-Meter site: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter website has been all over the Indymac story today, with numerous updates about the company's new plan to exit the mortgage lending business and slash 53% of its jobs. Here's a headline you won't see in tomorrow's papers: under the Implode-O-Meter's criteria, Indymac has now officially imploded. [Ed. note: Now this link is officially funny]

FOX Business News - 2008-07-08 - Live Interview
Video: Making Money off Mortgage Mess: 10 minute streaming (video) interview with Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter founder Aaron Krowne regarding the start of, and the addiction of the 'Meter.'

New York Times - 2008-07-08
Loan Pains Turned Site Into a Hit: As millions of homeowners fall behind on their mortgages, a fledging Web site called the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter is gleefully tallying the number of lenders that run into trouble too. On Monday, the count was 265 — and rising. [Reprinted at The Huffington Post, CNBC, the International Herald Tribune, and over 2,300 other web sites]

Content Matters - 2009-07-08
Implode-o-meter: a case study in alternative media dominating a niche: The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter is a great example in how the alternative media - blogs, aggregators and social media sites - can achieve a dominant position in a profitable market niche. Mainstream business media could have easily established a foothold in covering the credit crunch, but they're just not set up to do so.

Washington Post - 2008-06-14
Anatomy of a Meltdown: The Credit Crisis: By last summer, the atmosphere was motionless in his office. Each morning, Connelly visited a Web site called "the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter," which chronicled lenders that were going under. His day "went from talking to 10 people and doing eight transactions to talking to 10 people and doing one transaction," he recalled.

TMZ - 2008-06-21
Former Celtic Has No Pot of Gold to Pee In: Baker's nearly 10,000 sq. ft. Conn. home is going up on the auction blocks later this month for a decent $2.3 million, according to ml-implode.com.

Santa Cruz Sentinel - 2008-06-13
Santa Cruz Mortgage files for bankruptcy: By last August, huge numbers of risky loans nationwide were in default, banks reined in credit and many lenders collapsed. A total of 262 lenders have shut down since 2006, according to the Mortgage Implode-O-Meter, a Web site tracking the debacle.

Minneapolis - St. Paul Star Tribune - 2008-06-01
Tougher mortgage rules having the desired effect: That shift to regulated mortgages is forcing hundreds of mortgage companies across the country into insolvency, including many that have been documented on national blogs such as the Implode-o-Meter (ml-implode.com), which says it chronicles "the housing finance breakdown."

Orange County Register - 2008-05-31
Benefiting from the mortgage bust: Destruction has its upside. -- Carnage, mortgage industry carnage that is, has strongly benefited one company: Las Vegas-based Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, Inc., the parent of the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter Web site that keeps a running total of lenders gone bust.

Sydney Morning Herald - AU - 2008-05-31
Hey big lenders: ...the credit quality of Australian packaged mortgages has performed very strongly in contrast to the dreadful loans that were written and sold in the US. A US website, titled the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, says that 262 major US lending operations have "imploded" since late 2006.

Mortgage Banker's Association - 2008-05-06
"Staying Off of the Implode-O-Meter": May 2008 National Secondary Market Conference & Expo presentation by Tim Crandall, Senior Vice President, US Bank Home Mortgage (see pages 12-14).

Financial Times - UK - 2008-05-12
Value to unlock: At this year's meeting of the Mortgage Bankers Association in Boston last week, attendance was down by half and speakers delivered presentations with titles such as "How to stay off the implode-o-meter" - a reference to a website that has chronicled the demise of 256 US mortgage lenders since late 2006... [also reprinted in the Business Spectator, AU]

Orange County Register - 2008-05-07
Citigroup closing Orange, Irvine offices and cutting 1,860 jobs nationwide: The job cuts were first reported by the Web site Implode-O-Meter, which tracks mortgage industry consolidation. It quotes an anonymous source as saying as many as 3,000 jobs could be impacted.

Minyanville - 2008-04-21
The Moral Hazard Club: Whether this low quality lending practice was the fault of the borrower or the lender (or most likely a combination thereof), there was considerable lack of prudence by the lenders. Many mortgage companies (251 at last count, according to www.ml-implode.com) have been forced out of business.

The Kansas City Star - 2008-04-19
Overland Park-based mortgage broker files for bankruptcy: A Web site called Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter reported that an e-mail First National Mortgage Sources sent in January to its branch managers attributed its woes to "deteriorating mortgage and credit market conditions" that had "adversely affected our operations."

San Diego Union-Tribune - 2008-04-13
Weathering the storm: At the time of the buyout, a Web site tracking the industry's nationwide collapse, called "The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter," had counted more than 220 failures among major U.S. lenders.

Santa Cruz Sentinel - 2008-04-11
WaMu to close Santa Cruz home loan center: Washington Mutual's decision to exit wholesale lending made it No. 249 on the Mortgage Implode-O-Meter, a Web site that has been tracking the demise of mortgage lenders since late 2006.

Orange County Register - 2008-04-08
WaMu to cut 3,000 jobs nationwide, gets $7 billion infusion: The closing of its wholesale unit that deals with brokers, reported yesterday on the Implode-o-Meter and Housing Wire web sites, is yet another blow to mortgage brokers and possibly some consumers who are facing...

BusinessWeek - 2008-04-08
WaMu Ditches the Wholesale Mortgage Biz: ... may get a $5 billion cash infusion from private equity firm TPG as early as Apr. 8. That news, first reported in The Wall Street Journal, sent the stock up 29% on Apr. 7, to 13.15. The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a Web site that traffics in industry gossip, reports that exiting the wholesale business was a condition attached to the TPG investment.

Asia Times - 2008-03-29
Your number's up: But part of the reason why the Fed is doing all of this crazy stuff may perhaps be found at the famous "Mortgage-Lender Implode-O-Meter" website, which reports that "Since late 2006, 241 major US lending operations have 'imploded'."

London Daily Telegraph - 2008-03-23
Spectre of Depression haunts Federal Reserve: Just to put things into some sort of perspective, it is estimated that around half of the banks that existed in America in 1929 had disappeared by 1933 - 2,300 in 1931 alone. By contrast, the delightfully-named Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which purports to keep track of each US mortgage provider that "implodes", says that some 241 such institutions have hit the wall since late 2006.

The Memphis Daily News - 2008-03-24
Local Banks Ramp Up Lending Services: Since late 2006, when the first signs of subprime fallout appeared, 241 mortgage companies have gone under, according to The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (ml-implode.com), a Web site run by Las Vegas-based Implode-Explode Heavy Industries Inc. (IEHI), which tracks the industry.

CNNmoney.com - 2008-03-11
Congress Gets It Wrong Attacking Wall Street CEOs: New Century Financial Corp. will not live to see the next one. Innovative Mortgage Capital is out of ideas and cash. The list goes on. More than 230 lenders or loan divisions at bigger companies have been shuttered since late 2006, according to the "Implode-O-Meter" at ml.implode.com ... [This link is dead. Also available on MarketWatch]

Orange County Register - 2008-03-03
Best places to work list includes O.C. companies: The list of best places to work in California includes two Orange County companies, according to Employers Group, a California human resource management association. Three other Orange County companies were honored... However, according to The Mortgage Lender, MortgageIT has closed most of its offices. ...

The Wall Street Journal - 2008-02-15
Implode-o-Franchise: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter has new clones. Two new Web sites, the Bank Implode-o-Meter and Builder Implode-o-Meter launched early last week. ...

Business Edge - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS BREATHTAKING: Its central feature is the Implode-O-Meter, which keeps count of the casualties among mortgage lenders. As we enter the month of February, ...[This link is dead]

Seeking Alpha, NY, USA - 2008-02-13
Bond Insurers: The Monster in the Closet: For months the world's financial markets have been roiled by the subprime mortgage contagion. According [to] the implode-o-meter, 225 major U.S. lending operations have become insolvent, since the subprime crisis began. There has been a ...

Philadelphia Daily News - Philadelphia, PA, USA - 2008-02-08
SAFE AS HOUSES? NOT ANYMORE.: According to the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-meter (http://ml-implode.com), which tracks the financial casualties, 226 major lenders have gone bust since 2006 ...[This link is dead]

O'Reilly Radar - 2008-02-06
Jim Cramer, unplugged [MoneyTech]: Feb 6, 2008: "...the eventual demise of sell-side research at the hands of Google, and the indispensibility of the websites Implode-o-Meter and Seeking Alpha."

Barron's - 2008-02-05
UP AND DOWN WALL STREET DAILY: Feb 5, 2008" At ml-implode.com, a Web site that tracks the bust that followed the housing bubble, the Mortgage Lending Implode-O-Meter reads 225, representing the number...

Santa Rosa Press Democrat - 2008-02-03
Catching those lenders behind mortgage fallout: The bureau certainly has its hands full. According to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a Web site that chronicles developments in the mortgage crisis, 225 U.S. lenders have gone bye-bye since late 2006. Nabbing even a fraction of the mortgage captains -- those who ...

New York Times - 2008-02-03
FAIR GAME LENDERS WHO SOLD AND LEFT: - Feb 3, 2008: According to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a Web site that chronicles developments in the mortgage crisis, 225 United States lenders have gone bye-bye ...

International Herald Tribune - 2008-02-03
Lenders who cashed in and left, leaving losers behind: Investigators are looking for accounting fraud and possible insider trading at the companies, an FBI spokesman said. The bureau certainly has its hands full. According to Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a Web site that chronicles developments in the mortgage crisis, 225 U.S. lenders have gone bye-bye since late 2006.

Condé Nast Portfolio.com - 2008-01-30
F.B.I.'s Subprime Time: A website I adore called the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, says that 223 U.S. lending operations have "imploded" (gone out of business or suffered some major loss) since late 2006.

Seattle Times - 2008-01-24
Mortgage firm's demise stuns loan holder: So in these rocky financial times, that puts the responsibility on home-loan holders to follow the news. One Web site that can help is The Mortgage Lender at http://mi-implode.com.

Orange County Register - 2008-01-14
Mortgage Insider Blog Archive - Chevy Chase Bank closing OC...: ...at Implode-O-Meter that Bethesda, MD-based Chevy Chase Bank is closing its wholesale operation, including the western region ...

Memphis Daily News - 2008-01-14
YEAR OF THE TAILSPIN: Jan 14, 2008: Since late 2006, when the first signs of this trend appeared, 214 mortgage companies have gone under, according to The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter ...

Seeking Alpha - 2008-01-05
HOUSING MARKET TRACKER - DESPITE EFFORTS, SUBPRIME FALLOUT SPREADS: Feb 5, 2008: (Implode-O-Meter, Feb. 4th) Banks Reduce Bonuses Only Slightly. "The grim toll that the US mortgage crisis has taken on financial markets has been felt ..."

Smartmoney.com - 2007-12-31
Countrywide Takes Beating Amid Mortgage Crunch: Look at New Century, or any of the 209 other companies that wound up on the inauspicious Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which has diligently chronicled ...

E-Commerce Times - 2007-12-07
Lessons From 2007 E-Commerce Debacles: ...which saw more than 200 companies go out business in 2007, according to the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter -- has impacted several online suppliers.

HULIQ - Hickory, NC, USA - 2007-12-27
The Year 2007 In Review: The Mortgage Meltdown: According to the "Implode-O-Meter", since late 2006, two hundred and ten major US lending operations have either closed their doors completely, ...

Orlando Business Journal - Orlando, FL, USA - 2007-12-27
Year in Review: Nearly 200 mortgage firms nationwide closed their doors between late 2006 and early December of this year, says The Mortgage Implode-O-Meter Web site. ...

HoweStreet.com - 2008-01-04
November Jobs On Bizarro World: Those numbers are not reflected in Implode-O-Meter stats or in the birth/death model revisions. All things considered, the Birth Death revisions continue to ...[Also available at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis]

ABC News - 2007-11-14
Jackson's Neverland May Hit Auction Block: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a foreclosure tracking Web site, discovered the property listed on a Notice of Default report for Santa Barbara County. ...

United Press International (UPI) - 2007-11-12
Report: Jackson's Neverland in foreclosure: 12 (UPI) -- Legal documents obtained by the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-Meter Web site show Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in California is in foreclosure. ...

The Niche Report - Nov 2007
SPOTLIGHT ON ML-IMPLODE.COM (pdf): The Niche Report recently sat down with Aaron Krowne, the owner of ML-Implode.com. ML-Implode.com is a website that chronicles the "implosion" of mortgage lenders from the much publicized downturn in the market, and as of this printing, ...

Crikey (subscription) - Templestowe, Australia - 2007-11-13
ETrade teeters as subprime doom and gloom spreads: And here's two handy websites: The Mortgage Lender Implode-o-meter and the Hedge Fund Implode-o-meter. ML-implode discloses that 182 businesses, companies, ...

Edmonton Sun - Alberta, Canada - 2007-11-11
In case you were on Mars the past week...: Mortgage website "Implode-O-Meter" reports Jackson's property is listed on the Nov. 5, 2007 Foreclosure Detail Report for Santa Barbara County. ...[This link is dead.]

New York Post - New York, NY, USA - 2007-11-09
NEVERLAND NEVERMORE: JACKO IN FORECLOSURE: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter Web site reported yesterday that Jackson's 2700-acre property appeared in the Nov. 5, 2007, Foreclosure Detail Report ...

Economist - UK - 2007-11-08
Mortgage lenders Bricks and slaughter: The "implode-o-meter", a sardonic website tracking the damage done by America's housing slump, puts the number of lenders to have hit serious trouble since ...

Wall Street Examiner Radio - 2007-11-07
WallStRadio - Lee Adler: ... and Aaron Krowne of the Mortgage Lender Implode-o-meter discuss the true reality of the markets and the madness behind the financial infomercial media ...[This link is dead. Now available on Radio Free Wall Street]

E! Online - USA - 2007-11-07
Michael's Neverland Evermore: The document, ferreted out by the Web's Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, followed a FoxNews.com report that said Jackson had 90 days to make good on the ...[This link is dead.]

TopNews - Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India - 2007-11-07
Michael Jackson set to lose Neverland?: The Implode-O-meter has reportedly obtained the foreclosure and Notice of Default report for Santa Barbara County, which enlists Jackson's estate. ...

Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - 2007-11-07
Neverland in foreclosure report: Another website called The Implode-o-meter, which specialises in documenting US mortgage crisis, also carries reports and documents relating to the ...

E! Online - USA - 2007-11-07
Time to Grow Up, Peter Pan: Implode-o-Meter claims Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch has gone into foreclosure, as per a Notice of Default report for Santa Barbara County. ...

Rolling Stone - USA - 2007-11-07
Michael Jackson Closer to Losing Neverland, Britney Spears Ordered ...: Jackson was given ninety days starting October 22nd to repay the loan, but mortgage Web site the Implode-O-Meter reports Jackson's property is listed on the ...

Entertainment Weekly - USA - 2007-11-07
>Cyrus Gets CMT Reality Show: (Hollywood Reporter) Implode-o-meter: Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch has appeared in the Nov. 5 Foreclosure Detail Report for Santa Barbara county, ...

E! Online - - 2008-11-07
Canoodles 'n' Cover-ups: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, a Website covering the mortgage-lending crisis, posted the document Tuesday. The company listed as the contact for the apparently defaulted loan, the San Francisco-based Alliance Default Services, issued a "no comment" through its telephone operator... [Actually we were loath to include this as they think Fox News came first... WRONG! And then to use the word "allegedly" when it's a 'recorded' document??? Doh! Gimmee a break!]

Luxist - Santa Monica, CA, USA - 2007-11-07
Neverland Ranch Is In Foreclosure: The Implode-O-Meter has the November 5th, 2007 Foreclosure Detail Report for Santa Barbara county which shows that as of Ocotber 12, the King of Pop owes ...

TMZ.COM - 2007-11-06
Neverland in Foreclosure?: Rumors have been rampant for months that Michael Jackson's Neverland estate was about to be foreclosed upon, but now comes the first concrete evidence that Jacko's home is about to go back to the bank. Who's bad? The Implode-O-meter has obtained the foreclosure and Notice of Default report for ...

HoweStreet.com - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada - 2007-11-02
Jobs Report From Alternate Universe: ...and over 170 lenders have gone out of business or stopped writing loans since last December as per the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter. ...

Minyanville.com - New York, USA - 2007-11-02
Mortgage Lending Scorecard: The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter is noting an Urgent Policy Notification from Citigroup: Effective October 31st 2007, Citi Home Equity will discontinue ...

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 2007-10-05
Aapex Mortgage closes down: Brandon-based Aapex Mortgage, which - according to its Web site - does business as Apex Financial Group, "ceased operations" on Sept. 27. Roy Williams, president of the Brandon company, apparently told affiliates about the closure last week in an e-mail first published on the blog site The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter (ml-implode.com).

The Dallas Morning News - 2007-08-19
Web site tracks mortgage lenders' 'deaths': Want a front-row seat to the nation's unraveling mortgage business? Many are finding it just a few keystrokes away at ml-implode.com, where the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter carefully tracks the death of each mortgage lender. So far, the site's up to 128 lenders that have gone to the big escrow office in the sky.

The Motley Fool - 2007-06-14
Housing Collapse Squishes Bear: This just in: The housing bubble wasn't just making mad funny money for the likes of Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM), Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL), or lenders such as Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) and the 81 unsuccessful lenders listed on the mortgage "Implode-O-Meter."

MarketBeat Blog - The Wall Street Journal - 28007-04-03
The Man Behind the Implode-o-Meter: I read this site everyday before CNN News. ... We joke that we have to check the implode-o-meter before starting work for the day..and we do! ...

MACLEANS.ca - 2007-04-02
Imploding lenders and toxic loans: Analysts fear a flood of mortgage defaults - The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter website, www.ml-implode.com, isn't quite as funny as it sounds. It has no wacky YouTube-like videos, but 1.2 million viewers have checked it out since Dec. 31 anyway...

Salon.com - 2007-03-20
The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter: The Implode-O-Meter appears to be mainly an exercise in subprime woe schadenfreude by a digital librarian named Aaron Crowne. Crowne is taking pleasure in painstakingly documenting each new instance of pain for the mortgage lending industry (his current total number of imploded lenders...

BusinessWeek - 2007-02-14
A Sinking Sensation for Subprime Loans: Another subprime lender, ResMAE, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 13, bringing the total failures to 21 since December, according to www.ml-implode.com, reports Action Economics.

 

(link to this site as: ml-implode.com, lenderimplode.com, or mortgageimplode.com)