Monday, August 13, 2012

Tuesday August 14 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

Half of Recent College Grands Under/Un-employed - (www.cleveland.com) The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work. A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge. Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs -- waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example -- and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

Housing Bubbling Like 2008 on $4 Trillion Stimulus: Mortgages - (www.bloomberg.com) “I originally set my budget at HK$3 million,” or $390,000, Liu said by telephone. “Now that’s barely enough for a down payment.” Liu’s plight is shared by homebuyers as far away as Canada, Switzerland and Norway as a flood of money supplied by central banks globally to prop up the financial system finds its way into markets regarded as havens from economic turmoil and Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis, pushing down borrowing costs and driving up home values. The U.S. Federal Reserve has held interest rates near zero since 2008 to stimulate the world’s largest economy, forcing faster growing economies such as Hong Kong to adopt a loose monetary policy that fuels inflation. “The Fed’s trying to save the day, yet it’s creating a lot of distortions both at home and internationally,” Mickey Levy, chief economist at Bank of America Corp. in New York, said by phone. “The Fed is understating the magnitude of these distortions,” such as rising real estate prices and low bond yields, he said. Investors in search of higher returns are moving into appreciating real estate markets benefiting from strong economies and stable governments not burdened by high levels of debt.

Severe drought adds 76 counties to list of U.S. disaster areas - (www.washingtonpost.com) The nation’s worst drought in a half-century has spread, and 76 counties in six Midwestern states were declared disaster areas Wednesday as the Obama administration added them to the more than 1,300 counties already on the list. At least two-thirds of the area of the contiguous United States is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Drought Monitor. Hot, dry conditions have caused significant damage to corn, soybeans, pastures and rangeland from California to Upstate New York, a USDA statement said. Corn and soybean crop ratings have worsened for seven weeks in a row, and are the lowest recorded since 1988, the agency said. Fifty-five percent of the nation’s pastures and rangeland areas are rated poor or very poor.

The Men in Black Are Back in Athens to Check the Books - (www.bloomberg.com) The men in black are back in Athens. Greece is hosting members of the so-called Troika, representatives from the euro zone, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who are there to assess how far the country may have strayed from the terms of its bailout package. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will be talking with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso today, before sitting down with the Troika tomorrow. The objective is to convince creditors to release the next bundle of cash under the country’s rescue plan, largely with a further 11.5 billion euros of cuts for 2013 and 2014.

Signs of Deepening Downturn Multiply in Europe - (www.nytimes.com) The economies of Europe continue to weaken, with Britain reporting on Wednesday that its second recession in three years had deepened and several other reports showing business conditions were deteriorating in Germany. The weakness puts additional pressure on Spain and Italy, which are struggling to avoid the painful paths of Italy, Portugal and Greece to full-scale international bailouts for government financing. And it puts pressure on countries throughout the euro zone that could be asked to provide further financial assistance for their neighbors.






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