Monday, November 18, 2013

Tuesday November 19 Housing and Economic stories


The Ten US Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand (and other interesting metrics) - (www.zerohedge.com) As the Detroit bankruptcy hearing heats up following news that the city's unsecured creditors, among them pensioners, are set to recover pennies on the dollar, 16 to be precise, the question of which are the next cities to follow in the footsteps of bankrupt Motown, becomes relevant once again. Courtesy of the WSJ, and the second part of its series on "U.S. Cities Grapple With Finances", here is a list of the US cities that when push comes to shove metaphorically, and when the money runs out literally, will have no choice but to knock on the door of the local regional bankruptcy court and submit that long-prepared bankruptcy petition. Specifically, here are the cities that have 10 days or less in cash on hand available. Because, unless one is the Fed, cash and lack thereof is all that matters. The list below ranks the top 10 cities in terms of days cash on hand. Needless to say, a city with a low number in this category (such as 0.0) may have trouble paying bills, bribes, lap dances and other core municipal outlays.

US swallowed $9.7 billion loss on General Motors rescue - (www.cnbc.com)  The U.S. government has booked a loss of $9.7 billion on the nearly $50 billion bailout of U.S. automaker General Motors, according to a quarterly report to Congress on Tuesday. In 2009, the U.S.Treasury extended $49.5 billion in loans to GM in exchange for $2.1 billion in preferred stock and a 60.8 percent equity stake. Treasury has since whittled down its stake in GM through a series of stock sales. Those sales have all taken place below the price Treasury needed to break even on its GM investment, resulting in the loss,according to Tuesday's report from the Special Inspector General overseeing the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Treasury has sold its preferred stock and reduced its equity stake to 7.3 percent. Treasury owns 101.3 million GM shares as of September 26, the most recent date available.

Obama blames 'bad apple' insurers - (www.cnbc.com) As officials scrambled to fix technical glitches, Obama blamed private insurers for dropped health coverage. President Barack Obama says "bad apple" insurance companies, not his signature health care law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks.As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable Care Act, Obama blamed private insurers for a separate problem that has critics questioning his honesty. The president has repeatedly promised that people who are happy with their health plans would not have to change coverage because of Obamacare. But the termination of individual policies has given his Republican opponents additional ammunition to criticize the program they have tried to stop since its inception in Obama's first term. Republicans' assertion that Obama had broken a major promise to the electorate is potentially more damaging than the glitch-ridden website rollout on Oct. 1.

Wealthy could lose big if Fed stops money flow - (www.cnbc.com) What the Federal Reserve giveth, the Federal Reserve could also taketh away. While the wealthy don't show any signs of worrying about the effects of tighter money, they should be, according to economist Marc Faber. Faber, who publishes The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday that the wealthy could lose up to half their wealth due to tighter monetary policy and an ensuing collapse in asset prices. He didn't offer a time frame for this to occur. But he said easy money from central banks—especially quantitative easing—has created global asset bubbles. High-end real estate and other favored assets of the wealthy will be hardest hit. "We are in a gigantic asset bubble around the world with prices of real estate having risen a lot," he said. "The high end is at record highs. In the Hamptons, in Mayfair, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and we have a high inflation overseas, so I think that one day this asset inflation will lead to deflationary collapse one way or the other."

Batista Repudiates Pimco-Led Creditors in OGX Bankruptcy - (www.bloomberg.com) OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA (OGXP3)’s bankruptcy protection filing in Latin America’s largest corporate default is dimming the prospect holders of the world’s worst-performing bonds will recoup their ill-fated investment in Eike Batista’s oil ambitions. OGX, which transformed Batista into Brazil’s richest man, submitted documents in a Rio de Janeiro court yesterday, culminating a 16-month decline that wiped out more than $30 billion of his fortune and left holders of $3.6 billion of the company’s bonds with losses of as much as 89 percent. OGX has total obligations of 11.2 billion reais ($5.1 billion). The move marks the latest chapter in Batista’s demise as poster child for Brazilian entrepreneurialism. First, the Rio businessman raised billions of dollars in equity markets to fund OGX’s drilling program and other commodities startups. He then tapped debt markets, gaining bond investors includingBlackRock Inc. (BLK) and Pacific Investment Management Co. When some of the deposits he’d valued at $1 trillion turned out to be duds, OGX lost 98 percent of its value and ran out of cash.





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