Comparing Headlines

Let's compare a few headlines.

From Yahoo!, we have : Wells Fargo shuts nonprime mortgage unit, cuts jobs.

Wells Fargo & Co., the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Thursday it will close its nonprime wholesale lending business, which processes and funds loans for third-party brokers, citing turmoil in the market for riskier home loans.

However, what does the New York Times report? Wells Fargo to Limit Subprime Lending

The mortgage division of Wells Fargo said Thursday that it planned to withdraw from the increasingly risky business of issuing home loans through brokers to borrowers with blemished credit records.

What is the difference between nonprime and subprime, you say?

Ah, ha. That's the crux in the argument, the ghost in the machine, the devil in the details.

Subprime is exactly what it means. Retards who couldn't fog a mirror, and should never have gotten a loan.

Nonprime is a larger category. It stands for retards who actually can fog a mirror, probably have good jobs, but should never have been given a loan that large in comparison to their incomes.

Once you understand this distinction, you should realize the collective chill that this will send through the market. Especially when you realize that the big players, WaMu and J.P.Morgan have done the same.

Of course, the journalists are not reading between the lines. They are too busy doing coke lines.