KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday June 30 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:
Desperate Housewife - 42 yr old single mom combining offer for her home with shot of marrying her - (www.foxnews.com) - Single Mom Selling Home and Self Online. Deven Trabosh poses at her home in West Palm Beach, Fla. Trabosh listed the home -- and her love-- on Craigslist.

Bank of America's Parking Meter Play - (globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) - As B of A stock continues to fall apart since announcing the acquisition of Countrywide, they are resorting to new cash raising tricks. Reader Gary used his Bank of America credit card to pay $2 on a parking meter in Washington, DC. Bank of America treated it as a cash advance and slapped him with a $10 fee, as well as a higher APR. When Gary called to complain, he learned that it wasn't an error: Bank of America has started treating payments to parking meters as cash advances and may even treat all payments to government entities as cash advances. In the meantime, please remember that any cash or pseudo cash transactions might get you whacked for $10 or higher, plus interest.

- Cash Transactions
- Cash back at grocery stores or service stations on credit card purchases.
- Buying chips at a casino.
- Parking meters.
- Cash Advances.

If you are doing any of those things... Stop now. Banks are so greedy, and/or so desperate that not only are they charging ridiculous interest rates, they are willing to ding you with a $10 fee on a $2 transaction.

The Real Estate Nightmare I Found In Las Vegas - (www.ml-implode.com) - The Indy Mac performing loan sale that was reported to have been done at about 60% of asking price has fallen apart. Most of the bids at the 60% level were withdrawn after further due diligence. The actual prices the stuff went for is between 20% and 45%. By the way Indy Mac had current appraisals supporting their asking price. The Wall Street Wizards are proving to be particularly inept at working out real estate problems. Essentially, they don’t know anything about operating real estate. On top of that, many of the banks don’t have expertise so there seem to be a lot of bad decisions going down (much more about this later). Things are going downhill so fast that deals that were struck 3 months ago need to be restructured.
Congress makes same mistake: lending assuming prices will go up - (www.csmonitor.com) Congress hopes to pass a bill soon that aims to rescue enough at-risk homeowners to put a price floor under a collapsing housing market. In theory, everyone benefits. In practice, well, the rescue plan itself might end up needing a rescue, at taxpayers' expense. While those points may well be grounds for federal action, the bill that is likely to pass could end up committing the same mistake careless lenders and borrowers did in inflating the housing bubble: It assumes prices will soon rise and that the new government-backed loans to be negotiated in coming months won't go belly up. The bill, in other words, sets up Uncle Sam to try and catch a falling dagger. The heart of the measure would allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to $300 billion in new loans for at-risk borrowers, but only if lenders take a hit by volunteering to issue a new loan at 15 percent below the appraised value of the borrowers' homes. Sure, borrowers would need to meet strict criteria and show they have the income and credit record to accept the new, lower-interest mortgages. And they must actually be living in the home, which shoos away many speculators. (Studies show a majority of the foreclosures so far involved financial misrepresentations by the borrower.)
CEPR's Dean Baker - "It would be the height of foolishness to create a house price support program to try to sustain the bubble" - (www.ml-implode.com) " CEPR's Dean Baker - "It would be the height of foolishness to create a house price support program to try to sustain the bubble" "
Dow Jones: Worst June Since Depression - (www.bloomberg.com) U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong profit slump. General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, plunged the most in three years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised selling the stock and crude rose by $5 a barrel. Citigroup Inc. led the KBW Bank Index to an almost 10-year low as Goldman said the lender may report an $8.9 billion second-quarter charge and cut its dividend. Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, posted its biggest drop since 2001 on concern competition with Apple Inc.'s iPhone is reducing earnings.
Lawmakers' zeal versus speculators could backfire - (www.reuters.com) U.S. Congress is suddenly determined to bring rampant trading under control. But rather than looking at excess consumption and demand, Congress is entering the murky waters of trying to control soaring prices, mulling bills that could well backfire and drive funds to less transparent but more accommodative bourses offshore. In just one of a slew of bills, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed largely symbolic legislation on Thursday ordering regulators to "curb immediately" excessive speculation in commodity markets.
Global markets reel after first-half carnage - (http://www.ft.com/) Global equities were heading for their worst first-half performance in 26 years after a week in which oil surged to a record and there were renewed worries about the health of the financial system and global growth - 22:26
Credit-Card Debt Snaring More High-Income People - (www.cnbc.com)
Fed Worried About Its Own Risk During Bear Rescue - (www.cnbc.com)
As Bill Evolves, Mortgage Debt Is Snowballing - (www.nytimes.com) Congress’s rescue package for homeowners may only be able to touch a fraction of those in trouble, analysts say.
Public service work can wipe out student loans - (www.latimes.com) A new law will make it possible for student debt to be forgiven for people who choose public service jobs. >>
Senators warn Fed, SEC to halt expansion of oversight duties - (www.latimes.com) Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox were warned by two top senators not to proceed with a plan to take on more oversight of Wall Street until they consult with Congress.
Cramer: GM Should File for Bankruptcy - (www.thestreet.com)

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