Thursday, January 31, 2013

Friday February 1 Housing and Economic stories


TOP STORIES:

In latest debt-ceiling move, Treasury to tap Thrift Savings Plan money - (www.washingtonpost.com) The Treasury Department said Tuesday it would begin tapping civil service retirement funds because Congress has not raised the federal debt ceiling, the latest reminder that time is running out before the government is at risk of defaulting on the national debt. The action will allow the government to spend $156 billion that otherwise would have been invested in the federal Thrift Savings Plan. As a result of that action and others the Treasury is taking, Congress has until between mid-February and early March to raise the $16.4 trillion debt limit. So long as the debt ceiling is raised on time, federal workers and retirees should not be affected.

MFI-Miami In Talks With Black Panthers To Help Battle Illegal Eviction By Taxpayer Owned Fannie Mae - (www.mfi-miami.com) Eviction Battle Over Inner-City Teacher Could Get Dicey For Bailed Out GSE: Steve Dibert, President of MFI-Miami, an internationally recognized leader in investigating mortgage fraud, announced that MFI-Miami is in talks with the Detroit Chapter of the New Black Panther Nation/New Marcus Garvey Movement to join the fight to keep Amy Plumb, an inner-city school teacher from Genesee County, Michigan from being evicted by Fannie Mae and their attorneys, Orlans Associates.  Orlans Associates is home to alleged multi-state robo-signer Marshall Isaacs. “I’m excited about the possibility that the New Black Panther Nation/New Marcus Garvey Movement will be joining us in this fight to keep Ms. Plumb in her home,” said MFI-Miami President Steve Dibert, “She’s been dealt a bad hand by the Michigan legal system that is clueless about the systemic breakdown and utter corruption of the U.S. financial system. I’m hoping their involvement will get Fannie Mae’s attention”
Ms. Plumb, a teacher who specializes in working with at-risk elementary school children in the heart of economically ravaged Flint, Michigan, is a victim of whatMFI-Miami believes to be an illegal foreclosure and eviction by taxpayer ownedFannie Mae and their taxpayer owned servicer, Citimortgage.

Secrets of the crisis revealed: What to expect from transcripts of 2007 Fed meetings - (www.washingtonpost.com) This is a big deal. It will be our first official glimpse into policymakers’ deliberations during the crisis, or at least its earliest phases. We will gain a better understanding of what the Fed knew and when it knew it. The release of 2006 transcripts last January was fascinating for the portrait painted of Fed officials failing to grasp the grave peril facing the economy; the 2007 transcripts should show us when and how that assessment changed—and how they came to take some early actions to combat it. Here is what to expect out of the transcripts, based on both minutes of the meetings and my reporting over the years with people who were in the room: A slide toward pessimism. Recall that 2007 was a year in which the U.S. economy largely held up—the recession didn’t begin until December. But it was also a year in which long-building fissures in the global financial system started to become evident. The start of the global financial crisis can be dated to Aug. 9, 2007, when the European Central Bank first intervened to prop up the continent’s banks. 

In French malaise, a broader source of risk - (www.washingtonpost.com) As France’s socialist government raised taxes on the wealthy and threatened to nationalize a steel plant last year, neighboring Spain reveled in the news that exports were rising and several auto plants would be expanded by their owners. It was a small sign of what could become a defining trend in the euro zone. The most troubled nations, including Spain, have slashed wage costs and overhauled labor and social rules in an effort to become more competitive. Now there is mounting pressure on France to do the same — or risk falling behind in Europe’s struggle for economic revival. The government of new President Francois Hollande has veered between promises of reform and sometimes fiery attacks on corporate interests and the rich, a fact that has worried public officials in Washington and elsewhere about the direction of the euro zone’s second-largest economy. “France is losing ground in a relative sense to these other countries,” said Edward Gardner, assistant head of the IMF’s Europe department. “The outlook remains very weak, not only because of external conditions [in the global economy], but also an internal lack of dynamism.”

Russia Says World Is Nearing Currency War as Europe Joins  - (www.bloomberg.com) The world is on the brink of a fresh “currency war,” Russia warned, as European policy makers joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising exchange rates. “Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow,” Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank, said at a conference today in Moscow. The alert from the country that chairs the Group of 20 came as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained of a “dangerously high” euro and officials in Norway and Sweden expressed exchange-rate concern. The push for weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The risk is as each country tries to boost exports, it hurts the competitiveness of other economies and provokes retaliation.




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