Fannie, Freddie cut housing-market forecasts
for 2014 - (www.marketwatch.com) On the heels of a choppy first quarter,
federally controlled mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have
cut their forecasts for the U.S. housing market’s performance in 2014. Doug
Duncan, Fannie’s FNMA chief economist, said Monday that he now expectsbuilders to start construction on 1.05 million
housing units this year, down 50,000 from Fannie’s forecast earlier this year.
He cited constraints on credit and labor. “We have downgraded our housing
forecast slightly due to a lackluster sales picture, but the recent loss of
momentum is likely a temporary one,” Duncan said.
The
Fed has Lost Control - Systemic Failure Flashing Warning Signals Now - (www.silverbearcafe.com) Money Velocity continues to fall rapidly in
both the US Economy and that of Canada, reaching 50-year lows in the United
States. The indication is failure in monetary policy, as hyper-inflation has
killed capital on an extensive basis. The capital destruction is in its fourth
year, probably having reached critical mass. Compared and contrasted with fast
rising money supply, the systemic failure is obvious to conclude. The exception
is to morons, Wall Street junkies, Big Bank criminal elite, and USGovt hacks. The
fast decline in Money Velocity means that it is not moving in the body
economic. The reason is simple. The blood system is contaminated with the
USDollar, a toxic currency with no backing in a hard asset. The new money is
toxic currency under phenomenal debasement by its own steward, the USFed
itself. They redouble their harmful policy instead of abandoning it.
Seventy-two
economists polled, and exactly zero see economy contracting this year - (www.marketwatch.com) If you’re comforted by the wisdom of crowds,
then it’s probably good news that a National Association for
Business Economics survey
of 72 economists didn’t find a single respondent who thinks the U.S. economy
will contract this year, the fourth-consecutive survey where that’s been the
case. Alternatively, it could be evidence of groupthink in either mentality or
forecasting model. The NABE polls its members quarterly, and most — like on
Wall Street — expect the economy to grow between 2.1% and 3% this year. Six
percent see the economy rising between 0.1% and 1%, 14% see it between 1.1% and
2%, 72% see it between 2.1% and 3%, and 8% see it growing between 3.1% and 4%.
Japan
to arm remote western island, risking more China tension - (www.reuters.com) Japan is
sending 100 soldiers and radar to its westernmost outpost, a tropical island
off Taiwan, in a deployment that risks angering China with
ties between Asia's biggest economies already hurt by a dispute over nearby
islands they both claim. Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera will break
ground on Saturday for a military lookout station on Yonaguni, which is home to
1,500 people and just 150 km (93 miles) from the disputed Japanese-held islands
claimed by China.
The mini-militarization of Yonaguni - now defended by two police officers - is
part of a longstanding plan to improve defense and surveillance in Japan's
far-flung frontier.
Special
Report: How the U.S. made its Putin problem worse - (www.reuters.com) In
September 2001, as the U.S. reeled from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, Vladimir Putin supported Washington's imminent
invasion of Afghanistan in
ways that would have been inconceivable during the Cold War. He agreed that
U.S. planes carrying humanitarian aid could fly through Russian air space. He
said the U.S. military could use airbases in former Soviet republics in Central
Asia. And he ordered his generals to brief their U.S. counterparts on their own
ill-fated 1980s occupation of Afghanistan.
During Putin's visit to President George W. Bush's Texas ranch two months
later, the U.S. leader, speaking at a local high school, declared his Russian
counterpart "a new style of leader, a reformer…, a man who's going to make
a huge difference in making the world more peaceful, by working closely with
the United States." For a moment, it seemed, the distrust and antipathy of
the Cold War were fading.
Americans Have Already Forgotten One Of The Biggest Lessons Of
The Financial Crisis - (www.businessinsider.com)
Chinese Court Seizes Japan Carrier Over Ships Lost in 1930s - (www.bloomberg.com)
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