KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com
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House price drops exceed Great Depression - (www.reuters.com) Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow. Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month. It is a dubious milestone for the U.S. housing market which has failed to gain much traction despite a host of government programs to reduce delinquencies and encourage demand with temporary tax credits and lower interest rates. Many economists expect further price drops, even if there are some anecdotal signs of growing demand, such as in pending home sales data.
House sales languish in Las Vegas - (www.upack.com) At 14.3 percent, Nevada has the highest unemployment in the country. The latest housing report won't do the Silver State's jobless rate any favors. According to Local Market Monitor, a real estate analysis company founded in 1990, Las Vegas is the worst place to buy a house in the country due primarily to its high unemployment rate. Speaking to CNNMoney.com, Local Market Monitor's COO Carolyn Beggs said Las Vegas has a lot of jobs in the manufacturing and construction industries, but because those markets have been so volatile, it's hard for job seekers to land a stable position. Meanwhile, Las Vegas area homes are also one of the country's best buys.
Downturn's Ugly Trademark: Steep, Lasting Drop in Wages - (online.wsj.com) In California, former auto worker Maria Gregg was out of work five months last year before landing a new job—at a nearly 20% pay cut. In Massachusetts, Kevin Cronan, who lost his $150,000-a-year job as a money manager in early 2009, is now frothing cappuccinos at a Starbucks for $8.85 an hour. In Wisconsin, Dale Szabo, a former manufacturing manager with two master's degrees, has been searching years for a job comparable to the one he lost in 2003. He's now a school janitor. They are among the lucky. There are 14.5 million people on the unemployment rolls, including 6.4 million who have been jobless for more than six months. But the decline in their fortunes points to a signature outcome of the long downturn in the labor market. Even at times of high unemployment in the past, wages have been very slow to fall; economists describe them as "sticky." To an extent rarely seen in recessions since the Great Depression, wages for a swath of the labor force this time have taken a sharp and swift fall. Dale Szabo, who has two master's degrees, lost a job as a manufacturing manager in 2003. In late 2005 he took a job as a school janitor: 'I never dreamed I would be doing it. But I have to pay the bills.' The only other downturn since the Depression to see similarly large wage cuts was the 1981-82 recession. But the latest downturn is already eclipsing that one.
Young refuse to pay debts incurred by the old - (www.bloomberg.com) “You say you want a revolution,” the Beatles sang in a song that was released in the year that students across Europefamously took to the streets to protest against the established order. It may not quite be 1968 all over again. Even so, there is a whiff of youthful rebellion in the air. Young people across the region have been staging angry demonstrations in the last few months as government austerity measures take effect. The kids have a better case than their parents did. Even if they are doing so incoherently, the protesters are making a valid point: Europe’s young are being offered a rotten deal. What we are witnessing may well be the first shots in a long generational war. Whereas the last century was dominated by a battle between classes over how to divide up the economic pie, this one may be over how you divide it up between generations. The protests have been hard to ignore. Greek students took to the streets in October over harsh budget cuts. In the U.K., plans to triple university fees provoked riots. Demonstrators attempted to smash their way into the Treasury and attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, through central London.
Accounting Tweak Could Save Fed From Losses - (www.cnbc.com) Concerns that the Federal Reserve could suffer losses on its massive bond holdings may have driven the central bank to adopt a little-noticed accounting change with huge implications: it makes insolvency much less likely. The significant shift was tucked quietly into the Fed's weekly report on its balance sheet and phrased in such technical terms that it was not even reported by financial media when originally announced on Jan. 6. "Could the Fed go broke? The answer to this question was 'Yes,' but is now 'No,'" said Raymond Stone, managing director at Stone & McCarthy in Princeton, New Jersey. "An accounting methodology change at the central bank will allow the Fed to incur losses, even substantial losses, without eroding its capital." The change essentially allows the Fed to denote losses by the various regional reserve banks that make up the Fed system as a liability to the Treasury rather than a hit to its capital. It would then simply direct future profits from Fed operations toward that liability. "Any future losses the Fed may incur will now show up as a negative liability as opposed to a reduction in Fed capital, thereby making a negative capital situation technically impossible," said Brian Smedley, a rates strategist at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and a former New York Fed staffer.
OTHER STORIES:
Jobless claims top 600,000 in November - (www.economy.ocregister.com)
Job Openings in U.S. Fall by 80,000 to 3.25 Million - (www.bloomberg.com)
Corporate Communism Is Killing Us - (old but true - www.businessinsider.com)
Reclaim Democracy for the People! - (www.citizensamendment.org)
House prices fall for fourth straight month - (www.upack.com)
No U.S. housing inflation until 2012 - (www.wildly optimistic) - (www.financialpost.com)
ZipRealty closing 11 unprofitable offices - (www.thebusinessjournal.com)
The future belongs to the adaptable - (www.theautomaticearth.blogspot.com)
France's Sarkozy Brings Message on Dollar to US - (www.nytimes.com)
Japan Will Buy Euro-Region Bonds, Joining China in Assisting Irish Bailout - (www.bloomberg.com)
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