Thursday March 5 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Congressman Won't Answer Simple Debt Questions - (www.youtube.com) Watch Congressman Pete Stark blow up when Jan Helfeld asks him why Stark believes, "the more we owe, the wealthier we are." This guy represents Pleasanton, Hayward, Fremont, and proves that he is an idiot. Yes, I said it. Pete Stark is a complete moron. He believes the more money a country owes, the wealthier it is. Yes, this is the quality of the people representing us.

Britain faces summer of rage - police - (www.guardian.co.uk) Fears raised that anger over economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets. Police are preparing for a "summer of rage" as victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions, the Guardian has learned. Britain's most senior police officer with responsibility for public order raised the spectre of a return of the riots of the 1980s, with people who have lost their jobs, homes or savings becoming "footsoldiers" in a wave of potentially violent mass protests. Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Metropolitan police's public order branch, told the Guardian that middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year. He said that banks, particularly those that still pay large bonuses despite receiving billions in taxpayer money, had become "viable targets". So too had the headquarters of multinational companies and other financial institutions in the City which are being blamed for the financial crisis. Hartshorn, who receives regular intelligence briefings on potential causes of civil unrest, said the mood at some demonstrations had changed recently, with activists increasingly "intent on coming on to the streets to create public disorder".

Bill Maher Interviews Ron Paul - (www.dailybail.com) Bailout Comedy Video HBO: Bill Maher interviews Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Great Interview. This is an excellent 7 minute clip from Real Time with Bill Maher from last night (February 20). Among his guests were Tina Brown, Maxine (batshit crazy) Watters and Texas Congressman Ron Paul by satellite. This video is Bill Maher with Congressman Paul. It's outstanding and well worth your time, funny and informative. Paul says he would cut federal spending drastically and legalize all drugs but not tax them. He advocates the dismantling of the Federal Reserve and wants to save $1 trillion annually by closing overseas military bases and bringing troops home. It's a shame his presidential candidacy never caught fire as his supporters hoped. The change Ron Paul would bring to this nation makes establishment politicians quake in fear. He would move quickly to dismantle 75% of the federal government. Can you imagine how much fun it would be to watch Washington attempt to deal wth a downsizing of this sort.

Hillary Clinton pleads with China to buy US Treasuries - (www.telegraph.co.uk) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has pleaded with China to continue buying US Treasury bonds amid mounting fears that Washington may struggle to finance bank bail-outs and ballooning deficits over the next two years. "It's a safe investment. The United States has a well-deserved financial reputation," she told Chinese television stations at the end of her diplomatic tour of Asia. "We are truly going to rise and fall together. Our economies are so intertwined, the Chinese know that to start exporting again to their biggest market the United States has to take some very drastic measures with this stimulus package, which means we have to incur more debt," she said. Chinese media reports say Mrs Clinton has offered emphatic assurances to premier Wen Jiabao and President Ju Jintao that the Obama administration intends to restore the health of US public accounts and safeguard the interests of bondholders once the economy has begun to recover. Asian investors have expressed concern over the flood of debt in the United States, fearing that it could tempt Washington to engineer a stealth default by allowing inflation to creep up. The Treasury says it needs to raise almost $500bn (£350bn) in debt in the first quarter alone. Estimates for 2009 reach as high as $2 trillion, a huge sum in a world starved of capital at a time almost all the major governments are launching fiscal rescue packages.

U.S. may take big stake in Citi as crisis rages - (uk.reuters.com) The U.S. government could end up owning as much as 40 percent of ailing financial giant Citigroup, according to media reports, underlining the depth of the crisis gripping the world economy. The Wall Street Journal said Citigroup had proposed converting into common equity a big chunk of the preferred shares the government bought last year in an attempt to stabilise what used to be America's most valuable bank. While Citi executives hope to limit the government's stake to closer to 25 percent, it could end up as high as 40 percent, the paper reported on its website. The preferred shares now amount to a 7.8 percent stake in the company. The Financial Times said Citi's aim was to keep the government's stake to no more than 40 percent, or at least below the 50 percent mark that would spell nationalisation -- something that is anathema to many U.S. politicians, executives and voters. "This gives you the sense that authorities' worries have intensified that problems relating to the U.S. economy may potentially spill over to the rest of the world," said Sailesh Jha, senior regional economist at Barclays Capital, in Singapore.

Desperate Brown plans £500billion bank gamble - (www.telegraph.co.uk) A £500 billion banking bail-out will be at the centre of a rescue package announced by Gordon Brown this week amid desperation over the Government’s failure to save the economy. The Prime Minister is to unveil a series of key measures that will see the Government insure the ‘toxic assets’ of major lenders and pump around £14 billion into the mortgage market through Northern Rock. Five months after Mr Brown’s first bank bail-out, there is a growing acceptance in Downing Street that it has not worked - beyond stopping the total collapse of the banks. Businesses are continuing to go bust and workers are losing their jobs as the financial crisis continues to deepen and banks refuse to start lending. The Government has drawn up a new rescue package that will start today with an announcement that Northern Rock, which was nationalised last year, will increase mortgage lending by up to £14 billion over the next two years. Ministers will this week also pave the way for “quantitative easing” – the so-called printing money option – with £150 billion being spent on buying bonds and gilts from banks. Gordon Brown to bar 100pc mortgages - (www.telegraph.co.uk) Gordon Brown is to prevent banks and building societies offering 100 per cent mortgages in an attempt to usher in a new era of "responsible lending". The Prime Minister and Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, will make the move in a tacit admission that the Government did not do enough to stem the wild lending policies that played a major role in creating the credit crisis. Although critics will claim that the Government is acting too late – few if any 100 per cent mortgages are available to home buyers now – ministers insist that action must be taken to stave off a future crisis. "This will be a symbol of a new era of responsible lending," a senior government source told The Sunday Telegraph. Mr Brown, who visits Berlin on Sunday for an economic summit with fellow European leaders, and Mr Darling have asked the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to review the rules that allow lenders to offer loans worth the entire value of a property – or even more.

Eastern European Bailout Proposed - (online.wsj.com) European leaders called for doubling the International Monetary Fund's war chest to $500 billion for bailing out financially stricken nations, amid new signs that Europe's former Communist east is sliding into a full-blown crisis. Europe's developing economies are facing their worst economic trauma since the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Capital is fleeing Europe's east, sending currencies sliding and threatening the region with deep declines in output and employment, and a deluge of debt defaults. Poland's industrial output in January fell at a painful 15% annual rate; its currency last week hit an all-time low against the Swiss franc. European leaders called for a doubling of IMF aid to ex-Communist countries, but didn't say where the funds would come from. From left to right are Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück arriving for a group photo. The spreading trouble could force more countries on Europe's periphery to seek help from the international community. The IMF already has bailed out four ex-Communist countries, as well as Iceland and Pakistan in recent months. Latvia's economy alone could shrink by as much as 10% this year, according to some estimates; its government fell on Friday. The brief proposal by European leaders, who met in Berlin Sunday, didn't say where funds to double the IMF's war chest would come from; the proposal also falls short of demands by the World Bank and some governments for Europe's wealthy West to go further to prop up the continent's vulnerable East. Until the past couple of weeks, the turmoil mainly hurt Eastern Europe's most financially overstretched countries, including Latvia and Hungary. But collapsing currencies and markets even in previously robust economies, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, show that investors are fleeing the whole region.

Miles of Idled Boxcars Frustrate Towns - (online.wsj.com) As Slumping Railroads Run Out of Parking, an Indiana Hamlet Is Divided by Wall of Cars. Folks here figured the mile-long stretch of a hundred-plus yellow rail cars, which divides this small town like a graffiti-covered wall, would leave soon after it arrived. That was a year ago. "They stayed and they stayed and they stayed," says Bruce Atkinson, a local resident. "Then more moved in." Tens of thousands of boxcars are sitting idle all over the country, parked indefinitely by railroads whose freight volumes have plummeted along with the economy. And residents of the communities stuck with these newly immobile objects, like the people of New Castle, are hopping mad about it. Rail cars, idled by the slump in shipping caused by the recession, have sat for months on tracks in New Castle, Ind. Residents complain the cars cast shadows over homes that sit as close as 10 feet from the tracks. Before February 2008, boxcars were a fleeting sight in this hamlet of 17,500 people 50 miles east of Indianapolis. For decades, no more than one or two trains a day traveled down the sleepy short-haul line that cuts through town. Then rail cars -- 20-foot-tall yellow behemoths covered with the sort of spray-painted artwork once associated with New York City subway cars -- started rolling in by the dozens and grinding to a halt. Now an elementary-school playground sits only feet from a line of rail cars covered with curse words. Someone with a paintball gun opened fire on one of the cars but missed, pelting a house instead. The looming cars have been blamed for casting shadows over homes that sit as close as 10 feet from the tracks. One woman says the lack of sunlight has turned her backyard into a mud pit. One of the more visible manifestations of the global recession is the idling of vehicles used to move everything from scrap metal produced in the U.S. to sneakers made in China. Ocean-shipping companies have taken scores of ships out of service, anchoring them in or near ports around the world. The parking lots of trucking companies are clogged with trailers that in better times were rolling on highways. People in New Castle, Ind., see a string of rail cars sitting unused in their town as a nuisance and an eyesore. Railroads, which have seen shipping volumes drop by double-digit percentages in recent months, face a particularly vexing problem. The nation's five largest railroads have put more than 30% of their boxcars -- 206,000 in all -- into storage, according to the Association of American Railroads. Placed end-to-end, the cars would stretch from New York to Salt Lake City.

Journal Register Files for Chapter 11 - (online.wsj.com) The weekend bankruptcy filings of Philadelphia's two major newspapers and Journal Register Co., publisher of the New Haven Register and 19 other dailies, marks the latest in a wave of companies crushed by corporate debt and is likely a sign of more pain to come. The operating arm of Philadelphia Media Holdings, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, sought bankruptcy protection Sunday, following on the heels of a Saturday filing by the Journal Register. Both companies were victims of debt taken on for acquisitions, which became a noose as advertising revenue shrivels across the newspaper industry.

Regulators: Commodity market Ponzi schemes on the rise - (wwwchicagotribune.com) Falling prices exposing alleged schemes, director of enforcement says. As prices for everything from oil to stocks to grains have fallen, allegations about Ponzi schemes in the commodity markets are booming. Federal regulators this year have charged eight commodity funds with defrauding investors, up from just two complaints at this point last year. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday that it had filed a complaint charging Brookshire Raw Materials Management in Barrington of operating a Ponzi scheme and shuttling $4.6 million in customer money to Canadian bank accounts. A complaint Thursday accused Hawaii-based Marvin Cooper of taking $1.4 million from his 125 investors—all of them deaf—to buy himself electronics equipment, flying lessons and a $1 million home. The financial crisis has played a role in exposing several of the alleged Ponzi schemes, which depend on an influx of new capital instead of investment profits to repay existing customers.



OTHER STORIES:

Philadelphia Publisher Files for Chapter 11 - (online.wsj.com) The owner of Philadelphia's two major daily newspapers filed for bankruptcy protection, capping a tumultuous experiment to bring local ownership to the city's dailies.
LDV pleads for help to save 850 jobs - (www.telegraph.co.uk) LDV, the UK white van manufacturer, has pleaded with the Government to provide an emergency bridging loan.
IMF emergency fund doubled to $500bn in global rescue effort - (www.guardian.co.uk) EU's senior leaders agree to increase in bid to prevent recession turning into fullscale depression

Elderly Emerge as a New Class of Workers - (online.wsj.com)
Older workers are up against workers half their age in a desperate scramble for employment.
Obama Pushes Firmer Budget Rules - (online.wsj.com)
U.A.E. to Help Dubai Ease Debt Load - (online.wsj.com)
Turkish Mogul Clashes With Premier - (online.wsj.com)
Coaches Among Big Earners at Colleges - (online.wsj.com)
U.S. Renews Hard Line on Venezuela - (online.wsj.com)
Agreement on Woes, Not Stimulus - (online.wsj.com)

Falling house prices are the solution, not the problem - (www.freedomblogging.com)
Let Housing Fall To Right Price - (blogs.reuters.com)
Unemployment Shows Housing has Farther to Fall - (www.chartingtheeconomy.com)
Landlords become tenants' slave! - (www.jonnyoblog.com)

Obama Punishes Responsible Parties - (www.chrismartenson.com)
Obama HURTS 100 Million to Help 9 Million - (www.watchingmarcitz.com)
Worth getting out of bed to pay my mortgage or not? - (www.newgeography.com)
The Housing Plan and the Stupidity Tax - (bitterbetterideas.blogspot.com)
Jumbo Loan Defaults Rise at Fast Pace as Rich Suffer - (www.bloomberg.com)
Even SF Bay Area's high-end house market hurting - (www.sfgate.com)
Santa Clara County Down More Than 40% - (extras.mnginteractive.com)
SF Bay Area may be in too deep for mortgage relief - (www.contracostatimes.com)
Lenders Leave Properties Derelict Without Penalties - (www.lenderoffender.com)
The Evolving Crisis and Japan's Experience - (www.freerepublic.com)
When Consumers Cut Back: A Lesson From Japan - (www.nytimes.com)
Would-Be Sellers Trapped in Their Own Homes - (www.nytimes.com)
Large Cloud Looming Over Commercial Real Estate - (www.redmol.com)
Court Enforces Request to Release TARP Details - (yourmortgageoryourlife.wordpress.com)