Banker: Worst housing slump since Depression

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News item: Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf dropped the ‘D’ word today: ‘We have not seen a nationwide decline in housing like this since the Great Depression,’ Stumpf said at a banking conference in New York.

(Aside: This is a pretty good talking point if you’re stuck in an argument with someone who maintains the current slump won’t be as bad as the early ‘90’s housing slump.)

More: Stumpf said the second-largest U.S. mortgage lender and fifth-largest U.S. bank was ‘not immune’ from the storm, but was well-positioned to ride it out, despite expectations for ‘elevated’ credit losses from home equity loans into 2008.

Another day-brightener from Reuters: ‘NovaStar Financial shares fell as much as 63% Thursday after the troubled sub-prime mortgage lender posted a $598-million third-quarter loss and said bankruptcy is possible.’

One more from CNBC.com: ‘Barclays, Britain’s third-largest bank, checked in with a $2.7-billion writedown between July and October that was actually less than expected.’

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Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times