KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com
TOP STORIES:
Falling home values mean budget crunches for cities - (www.washingtonpost.com) The nation’s housing crisis is five years old, but for local governments across the country, the worst of the reckoning might only now be at hand. Because of the time it often takes for property assessments to reflect falling home values, the bust that began in 2007 has just begun to ravage tax revenues in communities from coast to coast. The problem is unlikely to subside soon. For instance, Baltimore collected $815 million in property taxes during the most recent fiscal year, according to Bill Voorhees, Baltimore’s director of revenue and tax analysis. Next year, the figure is predicted to shrink to $803.5 million. The following year, $773 million. The year after that, $735.7 million. The year after that, $729.4 million. Only in 2016 do city officials anticipate tax revenues increasing again. “I don’t see any quick fixes over the next four or five years, to be honest,” said Voorhees, noting that Baltimore already faces a budget deficit of more than $50 million next year. “Obviously, it means we have much lower revenues than we had in past. It’s creating gaps in our budget. . . .It’s a very large problem.”
Why Was The Wife Of Switzerland's Central Banker Trading Francs Days Before A Devaluation? - (www.businessinsider.com) The year begins with a scandal. Kashya, the wife of Philipp Hildebrand (head of the Swiss National Bank) sold Swiss Francs just a few days before the Swiss National Bank initiated exchange controls and devalued the Franc. The timing of the transactions was nearly perfect. The suggestion is that “pillow talk” between husband and wife lead to the trades. Don’t expect heads to roll over this transgression. There has been a complete review by Swiss authorities and the conclusion is that there were no insider trading violations by the wife. That’s not to say that trades did not happen. Apparently, Kashya Hildebrand bought ~$500,000 when she shorted the CHF. This relatively small transaction netted the Hildebrand family only ~$50,000 in less than one month.
Washington’s year of drama leaves little done regarding debt - (www.washingtonpost.com) Reid Ribble, a Wisconsin roofing contractor-turned-Republican lawmaker, has helped change the way Washington talks about the national debt. That’s not to say he has done much about the debt itself. Nearly a year ago, Ribble and other newly elected House Republicans came to Capitol Hill on a single-minded mission to shove the federal debt to the top of the congressional agenda. They succeeded. At every opportunity, they demanded cuts in spending, forcing a series of white-knuckle showdowns that have kept the government in a state of perpetual crisis. Washington nudged close to a public conversation about the kind of government taxpayers want and what they are willing to pay for it. Last week, however, Ribble went home for the holidays with little to show for all the political drama. The debt stood at $15.1 trillion, $1 trillion more than when he got to town. By the end of next year, projections show, it will grow by an additional $1 trillion. Ribble said he and his allies had cut spending for 2012 by only about $7 billion, a sliver so tiny Ribble could measure its impact in minutes.
S&P 500 Ends the Year Little Changed - (www.bloomberg.com) U.S. stocks fell, leaving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index virtually unchanged for the year, as concern over Europe’s debt crisis overshadowed optimism that the American economy will expand in 2012. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, paced declines among financial companies after Spain said its budget deficit will be larger than previously forecast. Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD)retreated 3.4 percent after Fitch Ratings downgraded its long-term default ratings. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) rose 0.7 percent as the price of gold climbed for the first time in more than a week. The S&P 500 fell 0.4 percent to 1,257.60 at 4 p.m. New York time.
Are We Witnessing A Quiet Putsch In Hungary? - (www.businessinsider.com) The IMF is not pleased. A putsch, as any dictionary will tell you, refers to the violent overthrow of a government. Hungary has not been subject to that kind of action per se, but rather a more insidious grab for power. Its new constitution goes into effect today, and while perfectly legal, marks the end of Hungary's flirtation with liberalism (meant in the classical sense of "liberty" and not the modern partisan sense). On December 30, the Hungarian parliament approved the latest measures ("base laws") to support the constitution and the centralization and consolidation of power that it entails. This latest measure is what has particularly annoyed the EU and the IMF.
New Stimulus Dovetails With Shift at Fed - (online.wsj.com)
The U.S. Gains Factory Jobs, but Workers Give Ground on Wages - (www.nytimes.com)
Pending home sales rise to 1.5 year high - (www.reuters.com)
Chicago Purchasing Managers Index Declined to 62.5 in December From 62.6 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Jobless Claims in U.S. Hit Three-Year Low in Past Month - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fed seeks to curb repo market risk - (www.ft.com)
Bernanke Drive for Openness May Include More Briefings - (www.bloomberg.com)
Obama to Choose Powell, Stein for Fed Board - (www.bloomberg.com)
Consumer Confidence Rose More Than Forecast - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Home Prices Fell More Than Forecast - (www.bloomberg.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment