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Europe, Growing Concern Slovenia IsNext to Need Bailout - (www.nytimes.com) Only a few years ago, Bine Kordez was feted as Slovenia’s star
entrepreneur. After transforming a home-improvement chain, Merkur, into a
regional giant, he drew on easy credit from state-run banks to help orchestrate
a €400 million management buyout of the company, the largest in the country’s
history. The rewards of success included an imposing mountainside retreat and
frequent mention of his name as a possible future finance minister of this
small, idyllic Alpine country. Now, though, Mr. Kordez stands convicted of
forgery and abuse of office for financial dealings as Merkur struggled under a
mountain of debt. “My mistake and the mistake of the banks was to vastly
underestimate the risk,” Mr. Kordez, 56, said in a recent interview at his home
near the picturesque town of Bled, with a view of Slovenia’s highest peak. He
awaits a decision later this month on an appeal of his conviction, which could
send him to prison for five years.
Bankers
whisper: Spain's bailout bill could rise -
(www.reuters.com) Spain's bill to bail out its banks may yet rise,
some bankers and analysts fear, as a worsening economy hampers the
government's early attempts to sell off nationalized lenders and threatens the
"bad bank" housing their rotten property deals. Spanish banks say the worst is
behind them after steep losses last year and they are now recovering - a view
broadly shared by authorities such as the European Commission, backer of a 41
billion euro ($54 billion) rescue of ailing lenders. But while Madrid is on
schedule with demanded industry reforms and banks are better protected against
losses from a sunken real estate market, a growing number of bankers argue in
private that more state funds may still be needed to help sell rescued lenders
and keep "bad bank" Sareb ticking over. Sareb was used to clean the
balance sheets of state-rescued banks by taking on 50.7 billion euros worth of
foreclosed properties and troubled loans to real estate developers.
[
Tett] The cost of hand-to-mouth living - (www.ft.com)
“We see a pronounced difference between how people are shopping today
and before the recession,” the executive explained. “Consumers are living pay
check by pay check, and they tend to spend accordingly. Then you have 50
million people on food stamps and that has cycles too. So for our business it
has become critical to understand the cycle – when pay [and benefit] checks are
arriving.” Sadly, it does not yet seem possible for outsiders (or journalists)
to crunch the numbers across the entire economy. Large companies are very
secretive about their big-data projects (this particular company, which
produces many of America’s best-loved snacks, would not let me reveal its
name). And though economists monitor macro trends in retail spending, they have
not traditionally analysed micro spending swings.
Cheap
money bankrolls Wall Street's bet on housing - (www.reuters.com) Michael Marchillo, a plumber, has been trying and failing for months to
buy a bigger home for his family here in Sin City. He was pre-qualified by a
bank for a $130,000 mortgage, which a year ago would have landed a typical
three-bedroom home in the area. No more. Now, the 36-year-old says, it's hard
to compete with "greedy investors" who come to the table flush with
cash for quick deals. Marchillo is on to something. The once-beleaguered Las
Vegas housing market has
been on fire since investment firms led by Blackstone Group LP, Colony Capital
and American Homes 4 Rent began buying homes here some eight months ago, backed
by $8 billion in investor cash to spend nationally. These big investors and a
handful of others have bought at least 55,000 single-family homes across the
U.S. in the past year. In the Vegas area alone, they have accounted for at
least 10 percent of the homes sold since January 2012, according to a Reuters analysis
of housing transactions.
Developer
sentenced for $6.9 million investment fraud - (www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com)
Sacramento-area real estate developer David Romo, 42, of Folsom, is
being sent to federal prison for ten years for mail fraud related to a real
estate investment scheme that defrauded investors of more than $6.9 million. According
to U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, Mr. Romo ran a sophisticated real-estate
investment scheme involving numerous investments that obtained millions of
dollars through a series of clever misrepresentations to homeowners and
manipulations of the real-estate purchase process. Mr. Romo, using his companies
Sycamore Ventures LLC, Smarie Investments LLC, and Groupo Immobiliare LLC,
solicited individuals to fund various real estate developments, court records
show. But rather than using the investor money for the intended purpose, Mr.
Romo diverted the money to his own personal use and to pay unrelated, prior
business expenses, Mr. Wagner says.
Spanish
Registered Unemployment Declines in Sign of Recovery - (www.bloomberg.com)
Indonesia GDP Growth at Slowest in Over Two Years on Exports - (www.bloomberg.com)
Indonesia GDP Growth at Slowest in Over Two Years on Exports - (www.bloomberg.com)
