Fire Sales and Margin Calls

From Housing Wire: UBS Rumored to Have Dumped $24 Billion in Alt-A RMBS

From the WSJ: Carlyle Capital Adds to Fears Of Forced Sales

Carlyle Capital Corp., a listed investment company managed by a unit of private-equity firm the Carlyle Group, added to worries about forced liquidations of residential mortgage-backed securities after failing to meet margin calls on its $21.7 billion portfolio Wednesday.
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The company leverages its $670 million equity 32 times to finance a $21.7 billion portfolio of residential mortgage-backed securities issued by U.S. housing agencies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. All of the securities are rated Triple-A and are considered to be implicitly guaranteed by the U.S. government.

Talk about leverage.