Thursday, October 4, 2012

Friday October 5 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

Economics of Everyday Greek Life Is Eroding - (www.nytimes.com)  Gregoris Skouros stepped out of the sawed-off cargo container that hard times have forced him to make his home in on an agricultural plain near this tiny village, a two-hour drive south of Athens. When a visitor raised the issue on everyone’s minds — Greece’s future in the euro zone — Mr. Skouros pursed his lips for a long moment before speaking. “The problem has now gone beyond whether we remain in the euro or not,” said Mr. Skouros, 54. “The issue is, Can Greece be fixed?” That question has taken on new urgency as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras makes a renewed effort this week to assemble an austerity budget package that can persuade Greece’s creditors to release a 31.5 billion euro ($41.1 billion) loan installment for the country in October. 

Crony capitalism, American style - (www.economonitor.com) So far as corruption at the top goes, India is a piker. You cannot read a newspaper or serious blog without finding yet another example of US crony capitalism, aided and abetted by Washington. As we approach the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement’s origins, Washington remains steadfast in its refusal to do anything about Wall Street’s crimes. It’s a poster child for crony capitalism. Oh, sure, the Obama Administration has slapped the hands of the crooks a few times, by imposing inconsequential fines. Much ado was made of nothing last year when Washington forced state Attorney General to go along the $25 billion settlement that amounted to little more than a public relations move (here’s a sure bet: much of the pittance will not even be collected). As “the London Whale” proved, any good trader at the biggest banks can lose more money in a few hours than Washington will demand in fines for fraud that screwed the globe out of trillions of dollars of wealth and tens of millions of jobs. It’s as if we fined a bank robber ten bucks for stealing a thousand, then sent him on his merry way to hold up more banks.

Fed’s latest stimulus may have little impact on mortgage borrowers - (www.washingtonpost.com) The Federal Reserve took aim at the nation’s wobbly housing market last week with its biggest stimulus action in two years, but that firepower is doing little to lower mortgage rates or make home loans more available for Americans. Instead, banks are set to see a windfall since the Fed’s actions will immediately lower the cost of issuing loans. It may take months or longer for benefits to trickle down to consumers, analysts say. The emerging scenario highlights the limitations of the Fed’s ability to jump-start the housing market on demand: Rather than intervene directly with consumers, the Fed must rely on banks, brokers and other industry actors to offer borrowers better terms. Banks say they are keeping rates high right now because lowering them any further would overwhelm them with customers. They say that over time, as volume thins out, rates could come down to attract new borrowers.

American Airlines Plans to Lay Off Staff and Cut Flights - (www.cnbc.com) American Airlines said on Tuesday it has notified more than 11,000 workers they could lose their jobs as part of its bankruptcy reorganization, and said it was cutting flights by 1 to 2 percent for the rest of September and October. The U.S. carrier expects fewer than 40 percent of those it sent notices to, or 4,400 people, will actually be laid off in November and December, spokesman Bruce Hicks said. The layoff notices were required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employees to be informed 60 days before major layoffs or plant closures. "The notices will look worse than the actual layoffs,'' said Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the Transport Workers Union, which represents workers that received WARN Act notices. Horwitz said about 800 employees had agreed to leave American voluntarily, a move that will further reduce the number of expected layoffs.

American cancels flights as pilots call in sick - (money.cnn.com)  American Airlines has canceled more than 300 flights since Sunday and will cut back on the number of flights through the end of October, because pilots, unhappy with their labor contract, have started to call in sick, the airline said Wednesday. The pilot's union had new rules imposed on it by the bankruptcy court after 7,500 pilots last month overwhelmingly rejected the tentative deal that their union, the Allied Pilots Association, had reached with management. The new contract imposes more flying hours on pilots and allows American to have more flights flown by partner airlines instead of American flight crews. It also doesn't give them the equity stake in the airline or the profit sharing plan that were part of the tentative agreement the union rejected in August. American has also stopped making contributions to the pilots' pension plan and is considering freezing or terminating it.




No comments: