Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Wednesday October 24 Housing and Economic stories



TOP STORIES:

Snipers, Commandos to Welcome Merkel in Greece - (www.cnbc.com) Debt-swamped Greece braced for two days of strikes, protests and potential violence as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, long demonized for her tough-talking, austerity-minded approach to Europe’s deepening woes, prepared to visit the epicenter of the crisis, three years since it began here. To fend off potential attacks, at least 7,000 plainclothes police and hundreds more undercover agents have been mobilized from across the country to lock down the capital and erect steel fences around parliament. Snipers were already visibly stationed on the roof tops of government buildings in Athens; Commando Seals and Frogmen were also ordered on standby as helicopters began patrolling the Athenian skyline from Monday.

RECORD GAS PRICES - (money.cnn.com) Gas prices across California have soared to record highs, shooting up 50 cents a gallon in just the last week. But even as prices are expected to rise slightly higher in California before falling, the West Coat price spike is not likely to spread to other parts of the country, experts say. The average price of a gallon of regular gas in California hit $4.67 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. It stood at $4.17 on Oct. 1 but has risen every day since then. The worst was a 17-cent spike on Friday, followed the next day by a 13-cent increase. On Sunday, California environmental regulators, acting on a request from Gov. Jerry Brown, agreed to allow refineries to start making a cheaper, winter blend of gasoline as soon as possible -- a move that could solve shortages of the more expensive summer blend that sparked the price spike.

Greek Prime Minister warns 'the cash box is empty after November' - (www.telegraph.co.uk) Steffan Siebert, a spokesman for the German government, said: “The message that Germany can take to Greece ... is that we want to help Greece stabilise itself within the eurozone. We are doing that by massively contributing to the two aid packages that are supposed to help Greece come out of the crisis. The Greek government reacted immediately, hailing the visit as "very positive" for bilateral ties and an additional step towards solving the crisis.”

The muni bond market, mired in the past - (www.nytimes.com) In yet another attempt to pull this market into modern times, regulators put states, cities and municipal issuers on notice three years ago. No longer would they be allowed to stint on disclosing basic financial information — the kind that investors in, say, public corporations, have long relied on. With an expanded and accessible Web sitedesigned by regulators, municipal bond investors could finally find out what was going on. Or not. Some issuers of municipal bonds don’t seem to have gotten the message. More disturbing, regulators don’t seem to care. Consider the West Penn Allegheny Health System, a struggling hospital system in Pittsburgh that is one of the nation’s larger issuers of tax-exempt debt. It sold $750 million in revenue bonds in May 2007. West Penn has had its share of problems. It restated earnings in 2008, prompting an inquiry from the Securities and Exchange Commission. (The investigation is continuing but seems moribund.) The system’s financial standing is deteriorating. For the nine months that ended on March 31, the most recent figures available, West Penn Allegheny posted an operating loss of $88 million. Its cash is dwindling: it had enough to cover 50 days of operations in the most recent quarter.

California's Poorest Are Getting Crushed – (www.businessinsider.com) But the gas price nightmare may soon be over. The average California family uses about 100 gallons of gas a month, according to AAA's Michael Green. So with an average price of about $4.50 a gallon, that adds up to $450 they will spend on gas, starting from last week. "That hurts families," Green said. "They can't spend that money on something else, it's money can't save." Spending on restaurants and movies usually goes first, he said. And low-income families, who spend around 10 percent of their discretionary income on gas, will be hurt hardest. The $450 figure doesn't even include indirect costs families will pay as consumer items become more expensive to ship, Green added.



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