Here are the top five most read stories on the Bloomberg in the last day with selected excerpts (and my comments, if any, in italics).

As of 25-Sep-2007 at 9:44:50 (Beijing time):

1. Goldman Sees `Bottom’ as Besieged Wall Street Can’t Yet Concur

(Previously #2)

2. Fed Will Lower Rates Again Before January Trading History Shows

(Previously #1)

3. Fed’s Rate Cut May Give Little Relief to Homeowners

“Total mortgage originations fell 8.8 percent in the second quarter to $730 billion from a year earlier, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter. The number of subprime mortgages fell 66 percent to $56 billion, according to the newsletter.”

66%, just a tiny drop. ;-)

4. Jim Rogers Sees `Skyrocketing’ Prices for Commodities

“‘I wouldn’t buy [wheat] now,'’ Rogers said. ‘If you’re going to buy something, buy coffee or cotton or sugar. Wheat has been going straight up for about a year. I don’t like to jump on a moving bus.’”

I guess it depends on how fast the bus is moving. How has Jimmy’s commodity fund fared given the problems of negative “roll yield”? Anyone know?

5. Banks Reduce Backlog of Unsold Debt to $370 Billion

“Banks underwriting the financing for LBOs commit to raise the money and earn fees to compensate for the risk of having to take on any debt they can’t sell to a wider group of investors. They have to mark down the value of the debt and assume a loss if the price of high-yield loans falls below 100 percent.”

A simple explanatory paragraph which no economist could ever write — Matt Winkler smiles.