Pimco, BlackRock Seek to Bar California
Mortgage Seizures - (www.bloomberg.com) Pacific
Investment Management Co., BlackRock Inc. (BLK) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp.are seeking a court order blocking Richmond, California, and Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC from
seizing mortgages through eminent domain, saying the initiative would hurt
savers and retirees. The city’s plan is unconstitutional, according to
complaints filed yesterday by mortgage-bond trustees in federal court in San
Francisco. The trustees, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Deutsche Bank AG, were directed to
take the action by investors in the debt that also include Jeffrey
Gundlach’s
DoubleLine Capital LP, said John Ertman, a partner at Ropes & Gray LLP.
Bank of New York said
in a separate complaint the beneficiaries of trusts it oversees include pension
funds and mutual funds. “Mortgage Resolution Partners is threatening to
seriously harm average Americans, including public pension members, other
retirees and individual savers through a brazen scheme to abuse government
powers for its own profit,” Ertman said in an e-mailed statement on behalf of
investors.
Report:
Bundesbank sees new Greece bailout in 2014 - (www.boston.com) German
news weekly Der Spiegel reports that the country’s central bank believes
international creditors will have to agree a new bailout for Greece by early
next year. The move would come months after Germany’s Sept. 22 general
election. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative government has been at pains
to appear firm on Greece’s international bailout, which is unpopular with many
Germans. Der Spiegel reports Sunday that the Bundesbank told Germany’s Finance
Ministry and the International Monetary Fund that a recent 5.7 billion euros
($7.62 billion) payment to Greece was approved ‘‘due to political
constraints.’’
Analysis:
In Detroit, pensions prompt battle of the bean counters - (www.reuters.com) Before
Detroit filed for bankruptcy in July, a team of analysts working with emergency
manager Kevyn Orr met three times with labor unions but couldn't agree on a
critical number: whether Detroit's unfunded pension liability was five times
larger than previously believed. Weeks later, the bitter divide persists. Orr,
appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to fix Detroit's finances, insists
that his estimate of a $3.5 billion future shortfall for the city's two
retirement systems is correct. The pension funds themselves have only reported
a $644 million gap based on 2011 actuarial valuations. The debate is heated
because there is no one set way to measure an unfunded pension liability.
Assumptions about returns on investments, expected life spans of retirees,
smoothing investment gains and losses over time, and forecasted salary
increases all play into the calculations. "Everyone on our side suspects
that Orr weighted things to the negative as much as he could," said Bill
Wertheimer, an attorney for a group of current and retired Detroit city
workers, who filed a lawsuit in July seeking to block a bankruptcy because it
could lead to cuts in retirement benefits.
Detroit’s
Devotion to the Car Paved Way for Its Undoing - (www.bloomberg.com) In
the Detroit Historical
Museum, a Cadillac body is lowered again and again onto a chassis. Mannequins
represent workers. Nearby murals show bustling streetscapes that have long
since disappeared. Among the institution’s collection of about 65 classic cars
are a 1924 Hupmobile Roadster, a 1950 Packard Deluxe Eight and a 1963
pre-production Ford Mustang. Their future is now in doubt: The vehicles are
among assets that may be sold to pay creditors in the largest U.S. municipal
bankruptcy. Just as Detroit may not be able to keep the symbols of its proud
past, it also must overcome their legacy. The auto business, which by 1950 made
Detroit the fourth-largest U.S. city, also enabled its destruction and
depopulation. It created a place larger than San Francisco, Boston and
Manhattan combined that today is impossible to maintain. The car allowed jobs
to migrate out of the city itself, and even discouraged creation of a regional
transit system that would have let workers follow.
[Retuers] GM plans gradual pullout of S.Korea
as labor costs surge - (www.reuters.com) General
Motors Co. has begun gradually cutting its presence in South Korea after mounting labor costs and militant
unionism triggered a rethink of its reliance on the country for a fifth of its
global production, three individuals familiar with GM's thinking said. The U.S.
automaker's plan, which already appears to have been put into action with
recent decisions to shift production of newer models away from South Korea,
highlights complaints from both local and foreign carmakers about rapidly
rising wage costs in the world's seventh-largest exporting nation. "We
need to make sure we mitigate risk in (South Korea), not over the next 2-3
years but over time, not to become too dependent on one product source,"
said one of the sources who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of
the matter. "If something goes wrong in Korea, whether it is cost,
politics, or unions, it has an immediate impact."
No comments:
Post a Comment