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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.com) However, in the New York Post, Charlie 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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