Some recent events if you haven’t been keeping up:

• Light Crude closed above $100 today.
• The market is pricing in a 50 basis point rate cut by the Fed in March which will drop money market rates to around 3%.
• Widespread pessimism in the housing market and subprime mortgages.

This actually looks like a better time to invest money into Prosper then 2007. Your going to get similar rates on loans compared to last year and you get some extra wiggle room since money market yields are around 2% lower then last year. My gut is telling me delinquency rates will also improve for loans vested in 2008 vs 2007.

I’m currently sitting at my computer and CNBC is interviewing Renauld Laplanche from LendingClub about peer to peer lending. They also mentioned Prosper and Zopa in a text blurb at the bottom of the screen. Prosper should get themselves an interview on CNBC. :)

In other news “AIG said it would need to alter the way it values credit default swaps involving collateralized debt obligations. CDOs are funds that contain slices of bonds, some of which are backed by mortgages.” (link)

I found this picture particularly interesting to sum up the current environment.

We’ve updated our contact information to better address your requests. We’re still transitioning from our old email address, so please resend your emails to our new address if we don’t get back to you within a few days. Thanks, and keep the feedback coming.

Here are the highlights of what’s changed in this update:

• Added a Bid History tab to the Listing Profile page. You can use it to check out who has bid on a listing as well as their estimated ROI and portfolio age. This should give you an idea whether seasoned lenders are funding a listing or “newbie” lenders.
• Color coded certain table columns to make it easier to distinguish the values at a glance. One example of this is on the aforementioned Listing Bid History tab.
• Updated the requirements to make the Top Lenders By Estimated ROI list to 6 months. (micskill)
• Fixed a bug where loans with paid status were being counted as both current and paid in the barchart. (zcommodore/gassman)
• Added text describing how the Loan Map works. (NewHorizon)
• The Bid History chart will be hidden for lender profiles when you customize the profile since it’s not affected by the customization. (NewHorizon)
• Fixed wording on how loan fees are calculated on the FAQ page. (ira01)