Argentine
Stores Mark Up Fridges to Wine After Peso Devaluation - (www.bloomberg.com) At
a Falabella store in downtown Buenos Aires, the price of a Whirlpool 80X1 model
refrigerator has risen to 27,499 pesos ($3,437) from 21,199 on Jan. 22. In a
Winery shop two blocks away, a bottle of Marcus Malbec now costs 226 pesos, 26
percent more than two days ago. Retailers in Argentina marked up prices as this week’s 15
percent devaluation of the peso against the dollar increased the cost of
imports and sparked expectations that inflation in South
America’s
second-biggest economy will accelerate. “The fridge is assembled in Argentina,
but all the components are imported,” Andre Viera, who sells appliances at the
Falabella outlet on Florida Street, said in an interview. “The lady who came in
on Wednesday and said she would be back to buy it on Saturday must be be
suicidal.”
Real
estate agents used Wayne home for sex - (www.northjersey.com) A
former president of the Passaic
County Board
of Realtors is accused in a lawsuit of steering potential buyers away from a
couple’s vacant Wayne home
so he could use it for "sexual escapades," which were captured on
hidden cameras. Update: N.J. agency to investigate
real estate agents alleged use of Wayne home as 'play pad'. Richard and Sandra Weiner of Denville have filed suit in state Superior Court
in Passaic County alleging
breach of trust and fiduciary duties against Coldwell Banker of Madison and Wayne residents, and Coldwell agents, Robert
Lindsay and Jeannemarie Phelan. The Weiners are seeking compensatory damages
for invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract,
trespass of land and other civil counts. "Defendants Coldwell and Lindsay
were engaged by the Weiners to market and sell their home in Wayne, New Jersey. Instead, Lindsay and Phelan,
through Lindsay’s illegal and dishonest acts, used the Weiners’ home as their
play pad to have sexual relations in the Weiners’ bedroom, among other places
in the home," the suit states.
Exclusive:Japan
government forecasts show Abe missing budget-balance promise - (www.reuters.com) Japanese
government calculations indicate that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cannot meet his
budget-balancing promise in coming years on the current course, suggesting he
may come under greater pressure from fiscal hawks for future tax increases. Forecasts
by the Finance Ministry, reviewed by Reuters on Friday, show that even in the
rosiest of four scenarios, the government will run a primary budget deficit -
which excludes debt service and income from debt sales - for the fiscal year to
March 2021. Under existing policy, Abe's government has promised to halve the
primary deficit by fiscal 2014/15 and bring it into balance five years later.
Finance Minister Taro Aso reaffirmed that goal on Friday at the opening of
Parliament. Private economists have long considered the government's
fiscal-reform goals to be ambitious, but the new forecasts represent the first
time that official figures have essentially confirmed that view.
Contagion
Spreads in Emerging Markets as Crises Grow - (www.bloomberg.com) The
worst selloff in emerging-market currencies in five years is beginning to
reveal the extent of the fallout from theFederal
Reserve’s
tapering of monetary stimulus, compounded by political and financial instability. The Turkish lira plunged to a record and
South Africa’s rand fell yesterday to a level weaker than 11 per dollar for the
first time since 2008. Argentine policy makers devalued the peso by reducing
support in the foreign-exchange market, allowing the currency to drop the most
in 12 years to an unprecedented low. Investors are losing confidence in some of
the biggest developing nations, extending the currency-market rout triggered
last year when the Fed first signaled it would scale back stimulus. While Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa were the engines of
global growth following the financial crisis in 2008, emerging
markets now
pose a threat to world financial stability.
Gundlach
Counting Rotting Homes Makes Subprime Bear - (www.bloomberg.com) “These
properties are rotting away,” Gundlach, 54, said last week on a conference call
with investors, about homes stuck in foreclosure pipelines, adding that it
could take six years to resolve defaulted loans made to the least creditworthy
borrowers before the real-estate crash. DoubleLine is giving up potentially
higher yields that last year attracted money managers including Western Asset
Management Co. along with hedge funds as 21 percent of foreclosed homes across
the U.S. are in limbo, vacated by former owners and not yet seized by lenders,
according to data company RealtyTrac. Those residences are a sign of an uneven
U.S. recovery, which has left blighted neighborhoods in cities from Los Angelesto Detroit and about 8 million borrowers still owing
more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. “The housing market is
softer than people think,” Gundlach said, pointing to a slowdown in mortgage
refinancing, the time it’s taking to liquidate defaulted loans and shares of homebuilders that
have dropped 14 percent since reaching a high in May. D.R. Horton Inc., the
largest builder by revenue, fell 1.9 percent to $21.54 at 9:43 a.m. in New York trading, extending its drop since May to
22 percent.
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