Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Thursday September 20 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

San Jose Cops Rush Disability Retirement Bids as Rules Tighten - (www.bloomberg.com) Police officers and firefighters in San Jose, California, are rushing to join a program that lets them claim disability and retire in their 30s and 40s -- and that allows them to get tax-free pensions while taking new jobs elsewhere. The benefit also allows retired police and fire employees in California’s third-largest city to change their pensions to claim the tax break. “It’s certainly double-dipping,” said Mayor Chuck Reed, 64. “Disability retirement should be for people who are seriously injured and can’t work. Those people obviously can still work and apparently weren’t seriously injured.”

The Untold Story Of How Clinton's Budget Destroyed The American Economy - (www.businessinsider.comHowever, in the New York PostCharlie Gasparino uses the occasion to remind everyone that the seeds of our current economic malaise were planted during the Clinton years. Basically, it was under Clinton that Fannie and Freddie really began blowing the housing bubble, issuing epic amounts of mortgage-backed debt. The story that Gasparino tells is basically: Liberal Bill Clinton thought he could use government to make everyone a homeowner and so naturally this ended in disaster. Gasparino specifically cites the controversial Community Reinvestment Act, a popular conservative bogeyman: How did they do this? Through rigorous enforcement of housing mandates such as the Community Reinvestment Act, and by prodding mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make loans to people with lower credit scores (and to buy loans that had been made by banks and, later, “innovators” like Countrywide). The Housing Department was Fannie and Freddie’s top regulator — and under Cuomo the mortgage giants were forced to start ramping up programs to issue more subprime loans to the riskiest of borrowers.

ECB Plan Said to Pledge Unlimited, Sterilized Bond-Buying - (www.bloomberg.com) European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s bond-buying proposal involves unlimited purchases of government debt that will be sterilized to assuage concerns about printing money, two central bank officials briefed on the plan said. Under the blueprint, which may be called “Monetary Outright Transactions,” the ECB would refrain from setting a public cap on yields, according to the people, and a third official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The plan will only focus on government bonds rather than a broader range of assets and will target short-dated maturities of up to about three years, two of the people said. The euro jumped half a cent on the report and traded at $1.2611 at 5:40 p.m. in Frankfurt. European stocks advanced. An ECB spokesman referred to an Aug. 20 statement in which the Frankfurt-based central bank said it was misleading to report on decisions that haven’t been taken yet.

Prisoners Fear Freedom in Crisis-Hit Europe - (www.cnbc.com) The cost of freedom under austerity is weighing on ex-prisoners who struggle with financial instability on release from jail and become more likely to re-offend, continuing a vicious circle of crime and punishment — just as prisons approach full capacity across Britain and the rest of Europe, charities told CNBC. According to reports from nationwide prison organizations, the majority of ex-offenders struggle to cope with debt, housing costs, unemployment, and austerity on release from prison. They told CNBC that these financial factors are borne out by the rate of recidivism — or relapse into crime — that has reached record highs in 2012 with 90 percent of prisoners already having previous convictions, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Deere Issues Record Debt as Profit Falters: Corporate Finance - (www.bloomberg.com) Deere & Co. is selling more debt than at any time in its history, exploiting demand from investors who are charging unprecedented low interest rates even as the world’s largest maker of farm equipment said it won’t be as profitable as forecast. A $1 billion offering from Deere’s finance unit of three- and five-year notes at its lowest coupons brings its 2012 issuance to $7.35 billion, exceeding the total in any previous year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Average yields on the company’s bonds fell even after Deere said net income in the year ending Oct. 31 will be $250 million less than a May estimate. Deere is boosting debt sales as it contends with slowing revenue in Asia and Latin America that threatens to undermine Chief Executive Officer Sam Allen’s goal of reaping at least half its revenue from outside the U.S. and Canada by 2018. Equity investors are paying the least for the Moline, Illinois- based tractor maker’s sales since November 2009.




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