U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday (Wednesday) released a proposed housing program designed to prevent up to 9 million “at risk” Americans from losing their homes.

China Lifts Inflation Controls; Awful Year for India Rupee; 30-year Mortgage Rates Hit Record Low; First Recorded Decline in Online Holiday Shopping; UBS Offloads Bank of China Stake

Government bailouts for private banks are having a strange impact on bond markets, says Andrew Gordon. Fed guarantees have investors swapping traditionally safe government sponsored enterprise bonds for corporate bank bonds.

Thrift lender IndyMac (IMB) has become the fifth U.S. bank to go belly up this year. It’s one of the the largest U.S. bank failures ever. This from MarketWatch:

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a statement it will take over operations of IndyMac, which will open for business on Monday as IndyMac Federal Bank. The thrift – the fifth U.S. bank to fail so far this year — had total assets of $32.01 billion as of March 31.

Much of IndyMac’s business was built on Alt-A single family mortgages, which were often made to borrowers with poor credit.

Bill Bonner says the world as we know it is finished. We are entering a new era of inflation and dollar weakness, and it’s here to stay. Even T-bonds aren’t a safe haven anymore…

Everyone is perfectly happy to let capitalism do its stuff – as long as they like the results. But cometh a correction and all of a sudden the press is full of whining pundits and meddling politicians.

“We’re beginning to see the whole world financial situation as a U.S. problem. There is a lot going on…but the big story seems to be about America and Britain, to the extent it shared the Anglo-Saxon economic model…its money, its wealth and its place in the world…” says Bill Bonner.

“America’s triple-A credit rating may be in danger”, says Standard and Poor’s.

U.S. markets surge… The 5 reviews the winners and losers of the best start to Q2 in 70 years. M&A activity falls dramatically… Chris Mayer on how to alter your investment strategy. Gas prices still at record highs… striking truckers threaten to grind highways to a halt. IMF says 25% odds of a global recession, calls current U.S. crisis worst since Great Depression. Plus, the coming China boom that’s escaped the mainstream.