Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Thursday June 28 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

WARNING: Goldman Sach’s Leading Indicators Signal Steep Market Crash Ahead - (www.investmentwatchblog.com) Goldman Sachs reports their Global Economic indicators show the world has reentered a contraction and a steep stock market crash lies ahead. Goldman Sachshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/mag-glass_10x10.gif Global Leading Indicator (GLI) show that the global economy has entered into a contraction phase “suggest this could be a much more severe downturn” than Wall Street is currently anticipating. Notably the GLI turned negative ahead of the Internet bubble bursting at the turn of the millennium and far in advance of the Financial Meltdown of 2008. The angle at which we entered this Contraction phase is worse than angle preceding last year’s crash ahead of the Debt Ceiling crisis crash almost on par with the angle at the bursting of the Internet bubble in 2000.

Fitch cuts 18 Spanish banks after sovereign downgrade - (www.reuters.com)  Fitch Ratings on Tuesday downgraded 18 Spanish banks less than a week after the agency cut the country's sovereign debt rating, underscoring the potential for lenders' assets to deteriorate further. Fitch, which already cut Santander and BBVA on Monday, cut the ratings for CaixaBank, Bankia, Banco Popular Espanol and others. "In particular, Spain is expected to remain in recession through the remainder of this year and 2013 compared to the previous expectation that the economy would benefit from a mild recovery in 2013," Fitch said in a statement. "The institutions affected by today's rating actions are purely domestic banks. Thus, their revenue generation capacity, risk profile, funding access and cost of funding are highly sensitive to the evolution of Spain's economy and its housing market."

Worry for Italy Quickly Replaces Relief for Spain - (www.nytimes.com) Concerns grew on Monday that Italy could be the next victim of Europe’s financial infection, leading nervous investors to sell Italian stocks and bonds and damping euphoria over a weekend deal to bail out Spain’s banks. Italian officials privately expressed concern that the 100 billion euros, or $125 billion, that Europe pledged to Spanish banks might not stop the troubles from spreading. Italy’s main stock index was Europe’s worst performer on Monday, a day when United States stocks were also dragged down and investors flocked yet again to the safe harbor of American and German government bonds. Even the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, a European technocrat who came to office after the euro crisis forced out Silvio Berlusconi last November, has begun to acknowledge the dangers posed to his country’s 1.56-trillion-euro economy ($1.95 trillion).

Union Thugs Abandon Obama - (www.washingtonexaminer.com) Two new and disturbing polls just out suggest that the road to reelection is getting tougher for President Obama. In the most significant, Gallup found that union member support for the president is weaker than it was on Election Day. While Obama took 67 of the union vote, according to 2008 election night polling by Peter Hart for the AFL-CIO, Gallup discovered that just 58 percent of union members back the president now. Some 35 percent support Mitt Romney, 5 percent more than Sen. John McCain won in 2008. Gallup said the union vote is a significant block for Obama, though, “their impact on the presidential race will be limited by their size -- just about 12% of employed voters are union members.”

The Difference Between A Manager At The Post Office And A Manager At Walmart – (www.businessinsider.com) What's the difference between a manager at the Post Office and a manager at Walmart?  Author and social entrepreneur Geoff Smart shared an interesting little anecdote in his new book "Leadocracy: Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government." When Smart was a graduate student, he had to observe two different leaders for a class project. He went to a Walmart and Post Office and compared the two. The first was a manager at a Post Office, and what Smart saw was a management catastrophe. He writes: "I noticed that the boss slouched in his chair with his shoulders slumped forward, and talked with a frown on his face. He pointed his finger at the other people in his meeting. The discussion he led was all about rules and compliance — the concerns of bureaucracy — for almost the entire meeting, combined with some unpleasant nagging of the workers. He talked down to them and insulted them. "The boss and the workers complained about customers and how much of a nuisance they were. There was no discussion of problems to be solved, results to be delivered, or accomplishments recently achieved. No mention of analyzing, allocating, or aligning people to achieve great results."





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