Monday December 1 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Venezuela Is On Borrowed Time - (www.businessinsider.com)  As birthdays go, it could have been a happier one. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, celebrated his 52nd on November 23rd with a hand-picked crowd of supporters and public employees in a cramped square in the centre of Caracas. His birthday wish was to live (and presumably to govern) for another 50 years to see “Bolivarian socialism” come to fruition. In fact, time may be running out for the revolution. The price of Venezuelan oil, source of 96% of Venezuela’s foreign-exchange earnings, has dropped from $99 to $69 a barrel since June. The economy is in a deep recession and inflation is headed for triple-digit rates. Basic goods like flour and cooking oil are in short supply and queues to obtain them are common.

Oil Heads to Biggest Weekly Drop Since 2011 as OPEC Holds - (www.bloomberg.com) Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes fell to the lowest level in more than four years after OPEC failed to cut its output in response to a glut. Both grades capped the biggest monthly drops since 2008. OPEC will maintain its collective output target at 30 million barrels a day, Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said after discussions in Vienna yesterday. The group’s policy will ensure a crash in the U.S. shale industry, predicted Leonid Fedun, the vice president of Russia’s OAO Lukoil. “We have a situation where OPEC is prepared to live with low oil prices,” said Harry Tchilinguirian, BNP Paribas SA’s London-based head of commodity markets strategy. “OPEC is forfeiting its role as a swing supplier to balance the market, and is giving back the role to market mechanism.” Brent for January settlement fell $2.43, or 3.3 percent, to $70.15 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, the lowest close since May 2010. Prices are down 13 percent this week, the biggest weekly loss since May 2011. Brent has decreased 18 percent this month, the worst performance since October 2008 and is down 37 percent in 2014.

Oil Price Slump Kills Greenland Independence Hopes Amid Election - (www.bloomberg.com) Less than half a decade ago, Greenlanders were imagining the riches that would follow an oil bonanza as the price of crude approached $150 a barrel. That wealth was supposed to buy the island independence from Denmark. Yesterday, with oil trading at less than $75, well below levels that would make exploration off the world’s largest island profitable, Greenlanders cast their votes for a new home-rule government after the previous administration collapsed amid an expenses scandal. “People in Greenland always ponder how to achieve economic independence from Denmark,” Ulrik Pram Gad, a post doctoral political scientist at the University of Copenhagen, said in an interview. 

CEOs Could Be Getting Ready To Revolt Against Obamacare - (www.businessinsider.com) Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration's challenge to certain "workplace wellness" programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter. Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama's healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs. The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses.

Ferguson Protests Stall Shopping as 120-Mile March Set - (www.bloomberg.com) Police arrested 16 people in Ferguson, Missouri, as demonstrators across the U.S. shut down shopping malls and planned a 120-mile march to protest the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer. Police in riot gear moved in on a crowd of about 150 protesters in Ferguson around 10 p.m. yesterday, making arrests for disturbing the peace, according to the St. Louis County Police Department. One person was charged with assault on a police officer in a scuffle that left the officer injured, the department said. Only one of the protesters arrested was from the St. Louis area, police said. Groups from cities including New York and Chicago had traveled to demonstrate in front of the Ferguson police station after a grand jury declined to bring charges against the officer.

OTHER STORIES:

U.S. Stocks Decline as Slump in Energy Offsets Retailers - (www.bloomberg.com)
Ruble Drops to Record in Worst Month in Five Years as Bonds Fall - (www.bloomberg.com)
Brazil’s Real Declines on Outlook for Swaps Program as Oil Drops - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasury Gains Send Yields to Five-Week Low on Inflation Outlook - (www.bloomberg.com)

U.A.E. Backs OPEC Move to Halt Swing-Producer Role in Oil Market - (www.bloomberg.com)

Black Friday Online Sales Jump 22% as Jobs Spur Shopping - (www.bloomberg.com)

POLL: A New Low For Obamacare - (www.businessinsider.com)

House Republicans File Their Obamacare Lawsuit - (www.businessinsider.com)