Record
U.S. Loan Brings N.Y. Tappan Zee Borrowing to $4 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com) New
York received a $1.6 billion loan from the federal government and will sell
$2.4 billion in bonds to build a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, one of the biggest public-works projects in
the U.S., Governor Andrew Cuomo said. The loan, the most ever issued
through the federal transportation-infrastructure program, may help keep tolls
on the bridge from almost tripling when it opens in four years, according to
Cuomo. The new $3.9 billion span is the largest project in the 63-year history
of the New York State Thruway Authority, which had its credit
rating cut
this week. “Because it’s a big project, we needed a big loan,” Cuomo said on
public radio today when he made the announcement. “I’m going to celebrate the
Tappan Zee loan and Halloween together. A lot of chocolate in the Cuomo house
tonight.”
Italy’s
Unemployment Soars to Record High on Recession - (www.bloomberg.com) Italy’s
jobless rate rose more than forecast in September to an all-time high as companies
failed to hire amid concerns about the persisting recession, the longest since
World War II. Unemployment (ITMUURS) increased to 12.5 percent from a revised
12.4 percent in August, the Rome-based national statistics office Istat said in
a preliminary report today. The September rate, the highest since the data
series began in the first quarter of 1977, was above the 12.3 percent median of
ten estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Italy’s economy
shrank in the third quarter, prolonging a record slump that began in 2011 and
signaling that the euro area’s recovery is bypassing its third-biggest economy,
Antonio Golini, the acting chairman of Istat, said this week. He also told an
Oct. 29 hearing in Parliament that the nation’s gross domestic product will fall 1.8 percent this year. That’s
more than the 1.4 percent contraction the statistics office forecast in May.
Only six signed
up for ObamaCare on first day - (www.nypost.com) Only
six people signed up for ObamaCare on the federal health insurance Web site
during its problem-plagued first day of operation, according to a shocking
report. Although the Obama administration said there were 4.7 million unique
visitors to the Web site on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, Health and Human Services
Department documents obtained by CBS News said only “six enrollments have occurred
so far” on the first day. On the second day, Oct. 2, enrollments were up to
“approximately 100” by the afternoon and a total of 248 by the end of the day,
CBS reported Thursday. The ObamaCare program needs to have tens of thousands of
people to sign up each day to meet its goal.
'World's
first' Bitcoin ATM opens in Canada - (www.smh.com.au) Three
young entrepreneurs have opened an ATM in Vancouver, Canada, calling it the
world's first ATM able to exchange bitcoins for any official currency. The
machine, delivered to Vancouver by US manufacturer Robocoin, stands against a
wall of a popular coffee shop, and resembles an ordinary cash ATM. However,
instead of cash transactions it swaps Canadian dollars for bitcoins, the virtual currency of the internet invented in 2008 by an anonymous computer
scientist known only by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
Customers lined up on Tuesday to use the ATM, then used their smartphones to
buy coffee and muffins at the Waves coffee shop. The ATM is the world's
first, said co-owner Mitchel Demeter, a local entrepreneur who started trading
in bitcoins several years ago, then earlier this year with two partners set up
Bitcoiniacs, a Vancouver storefront money exchange.
Hard
money a costly quick fix for property owners - (www.sfgate.com) Khoi
Senderowicz needed capital to rehab her run-down rental properties, but her
credit was shot from a foreclosure during the housing downturn. Spurned by
banks for a home-equity loan, she turned to "hard-money,"
high-interest, short-term loans secured by real estate and issued by
individuals or small private companies. She borrowed $200,000 as a second
mortgage against a duplex she owns in Oakland's Montclair neighborhood that has
substantial equity. "I feel like I can breathe again now," she
said. "I had been juggling with nothing." Her two-year loan came
with a hefty price tag: 12 percent interest - almost triple today's rates - and
four points, or $8,000. Senderowicz and other real estate investors say paying
a premium for hard money is worth it for super-quick access to funds. Hard
money, despite technically being loans, helped fuel the surge in all-cash
offers seen nationwide and in the Bay Area.
China
Money Rate Falls to One-Week Low After PBOC Cash Injection - (www.bloomberg.com)
Insight: Property hot spots renew easy-money bubble fears - (www.reuters.com)
Insight: Property hot spots renew easy-money bubble fears - (www.reuters.com)
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