Monday, June 18, 2012

Tuesday June 19 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

"Jon Corzine is the smartest guy I know" - Joe Biden (Video) - (www.politicsandfinance.blogspot.com) After the bankrupting of MF Global, is the former head of Goldman Sachs, Senator and Governor from New Jersey and economic advisor to the Obama administration, still the smartest guy that Vice President Biden knows? If not, there is an opening for the position that could most likely be filled by a 10-year old! "...Way back in the transition period, before we were sworn in, when Barack Obama and I were literally sitting at a desk in a high rise in Chicago, beginning the plan on how we would try to get this economy out of a ditch, literally, the first guy I called was Jon Corzine. It's not a joke. It's not a joke. First of all, he's the smartest guy I know in terms of the economy and on finance, and I really mean that." Joe Biden

San Diego and San Jose Lead Way in Pension Cuts - (www.nytimes.com) While the eyes of the nation focused on Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker brushed back a recall attempt by critics of his move to strip most public-sector unions of their collective bargaining rights, a pair of less noticed local elections Tuesday in California could have more immediate ramifications for struggling state and local governments and for organized labor. Residents of San Diego and San Jose voted overwhelmingly to cut the pension benefits they give city workers. And they did so in a way governments traditionally avoid: moving to cut not just the benefits of future hires, but also those of current city workers, whose pensions generally have much stronger legal protections than those of private-sector workers.

Three top Fed members say new action to help economy may be needed - (www.washingtonpost.com) Three top members of the Federal Reserve said the central bank may have to take a fresh look at additional measures to stimulate economic growth amid a weakening in the U.S. economy and renewed threats from Europe. The Fed signaled earlier this year that it was pausing its four-year campaign to bolster the economy. But analysts now expect that the Fed will consider a new round of measures, given Europe’s deepening crisis and a spate of bad economic data in the United States — most notably, last week’s report that only 69,000 jobs were created in May. Speaking separately Wednesday, the three Fed officials — Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis P. Lockhart, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams and Fed governor Janet Yellen — all sounded the alarm about the economy’s direction in more dire terms than they’ve recently used, and all appeared more open to new action.

Americans Cling to Jobs as U.S. Workforce Dynamism Fades - (www.bloomberg.com) After 4 1/2 months of meetings, interviews and hand-holding, personnel recruiter William Rowethought he had sealed the deal.
The senior executive of a major corporation Rowe had been courting finally agreed to take a top post at a venture capital- backed technology firm in California. Then four days after giving notice, the executive, who is in his 40s, had second thoughts about leaving the security of his company and returned to his old job.  “He decided to go back to the mother ship” and not uproot his family to take a chance on joining a new firm, said Rowe, vice chairman of Pearson Partners International Inc., a search firm in Dallas. The deepest economic slump since the Great Depression has left its mark on both job seekers and job creators, making them more wary about taking risks in a slowly recovering labor market.

Spanish Borrowing Cost Tops 6% At 10-Year Bond Auction - (www.bloomberg.com) Spain sold 2.07 billion euros ($2.6 billion) of bonds, meeting its maximum target, as its 10-year borrowing costs rose. Spain sold its benchmark 10-year bond at an average yield of 6.044 percent, compared with 5.743 percent at the last sale on April 19 and 6.14 percent on the secondary market before the auction. It sold bonds maturing in October 2014 at an average yield of 4.335 percent and October 2016 securities at 5.353 percent. Demand for the benchmark debt was 3.29 times the amount sold, compared with 2.42 times in April. The bid-to-cover ratio for the 2014 securities was 4.26, compared with 3.28 on April 19, and rose to 2.56 for the 2016 debt from 2.46 the last time it was sold on April 4. It aimed to sell a maximum of 2 billion euros.







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