Greek government prepares for another storm - (www.cnbc.com) Greek
finance minister Yannis Stournaras is on a push to gain confidence at home and
abroad. During a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels last night Stournaras tried to
convince his European peers of the Greek government's sincere efforts to get a
handle on its economy after nearly four years of emergency loans and six years
of recession. Klaus Regling, chief executive of the euro zone's emergency
bailout fund the European Financial Stability Facility, speaking at a press
conference in Brussels said the next tranche of aid for Greece would only be
released at the end of a review of the country's attempts to reform its economy
and spending by representatives of Greece's fellow euro countries, the European
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- the so-called Troika. During
the same press briefing, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the meeting of finance
ministers from the 17 euro countries known as the Eurogroup, said this will
only happen if there is some agreement on four areas: milestones that have been
discussed, the fiscal gap, structural reforms and if the Troika sees some
progress at the privatization program.
Most
Americans don't trust real estate agents, poll finds - (www.latimes.com) Some
67.5% of Americans polled do not trust real estate agents, according to an
online Google Consumer Surveys poll last month. We’re not sure why Choice Home
Warranty would conduct and publish such a poll, since you’d think real estate agents are
among their biggest clients. Nevertheless, the survey of 1,147 adults showed
more wariness among rural folks – 70.7% distrusted realty agents – than
city dwellers. By age, 18- to 24-year-olds were the most distrustful. Midwesterners
were the most trustful at 38.1%. Men and women scored about the same on the
trust-o-meter. Compared to a Gallup poll on honesty and ethics from a year ago,
the Choice Home Warranty findings put trust of real estate agents on about par
with bankers and chiropractors. Real estate agents, however, aren't as
disregarded as journalists. Only 24% of Gallup respondents ranked journalists’
honesty and ethics as very high.
Contra
Costa has suffered steepest home-price drop among large U.S. counties - (www.marketwatch.com) Among
the most populous U.S. counties, Contra Costa County in Northern California saw
the largest drop in home values in recent years, according to government data
released Thursday. Contra Costa County’s median property value during the
2010-to-2012 period was about $392,900, down $141,500, 0r 26%, from a median of
$534,400 over the 2007-to-2009 period, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Those results compare with a U.S. drop of
about $17,300, or 9%, to $174,600 over the same time period. Among the
country’s 50 counties with the largest populations, eight of the top 10 price
drops were in California counties. California, of course, is the most populous
U.S. state and home to numerous communities that were hit particularly hard
when the housing bubble burst. The two non-California counties in the top 10
were Miami–Dade County in Florida and Nevada’s Clark County, of which Las Vegas
is the county seat.
California's
unemployment benefits fund is mired in debt - (www.latimes.com) Late
payments, glitch-prone computers and swamped call centers aren't the only
problems bedeviling California's unemployment insurance program. The insurance
fund that pays state jobless benefits — run by the Employment Development
Department — owes nearly $10 billion to the federal government. That's because
the state has been paying far more in jobless benefits than it receives in
employer-paid taxes, and the feds make up the difference. "The whole
system is really whacked out right now and needs a fix," said Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills). "Every time you
peel off a layer of this EDD, there's an additional problem waiting to be
tackled." Hagman is vice chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee,
which last week held an oversight hearing into the EDD's operations.
The
return of rental fraud to the bay area - (www.sfgate.com) The
scam was brazen and damaging, and appears to have worked out just
as planned. A woman posted an ad on Craigslist last month offering to rent
bedrooms in a South San Francisco home. The price was reasonable - $450 a room
- and a pair of young couples attending school in the area toured the vacant
house with the woman, forked over $1,800 to secure two rooms on the top floor,
and moved in Nov. 1. Two weeks later, the couples' lives are
in shambles. The problem, a police investigation found, is that the
reddish five-bedroom home on the 100 block of Francisco Drive wasn't the
woman's to rent. When the real owners discovered people living there, they
ordered them out, leaving the swindled tenants with no place else to go.
Germany
Digs In Against Risk Sharing in EU Bank-Failure Plan - (www.bloomberg.com)
Leaked document spurs China reform hopes, lifts market - (www.reuters.com)
Leaked document spurs China reform hopes, lifts market - (www.reuters.com)
Moody’s
Lowers Ratings of Four U.S. Banks After Review - (www.bloomberg.com)
Wal-Mart Trims Forecast as Economy Restrains Shoppers - (www.bloomberg.com)
Wal-Mart Trims Forecast as Economy Restrains Shoppers - (www.bloomberg.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment