Wednesday May 27 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

 

Therapists Get an Earful About Career Anxiety – (www.nytimes.com) Because of the downturn, more mental health professionals are spending more time talking to people with job-related issues.  DENNIS PALUMBO, a Los Angeles-based psychotherapist who treats many artists and other creative types, says his patients previously tended to talk about problems like writer’s block, procrastination and fear of rejection. “Now it’s ageism, fear of job loss and anxiety surrounding the job search,” said Mr. Palumbo, who is also an author and a former screenwriter. “The problems have shifted from creative to structural concerns.” Amid high unemployment and layoffs, mental health professionals are seeing a marked increase in the time they spend talking about career-related issues with patients. Many people are seeking guidance from therapists about how to confront the storm that has hit the job market and toppled their lives. Sessions are often becoming a mosaic of traditional therapy, loosely defined as more process-oriented and focused on the past, and of coaching, which tends to be more goal- and behavior-oriented.  “In many of my sessions we role-play networking, how to talk about skills and accomplishments, and how to get a raise in this market,” says Robert C. Chope, a professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and president of the employment counseling division of the American Counseling Association. Peter Turkl, a clinical social worker and executive coach based in New York, says the method he uses to look at behavior patterns and ways to change them has come to the forefront in the last few months, as opposed to talking about relationships and issues lingering from the past. “Sometimes an entire session will just be devoted to coaching, and I’ll give my patient homework to deal with a particular obstacle,” he said.

 

Resuscitating ethanol - (www.marketwatch.com) Will the ethanol industry get a second chance? It sure could use one. After the initial rush to build plants, fueled by easy money and a federal mandate to ease the nation's dependence on foreign oil through the use of home-grown biofuels, the ethanol business is suddenly scrambling to protect troubled investments and keep itself a relevant part of U.S. energy policy.  Major headwinds for the industry surfaced a year ago, when a record-high spike in energy and corn prices sowed havoc in the market. Things went from bad to worse during the subsequent collapse of commodity prices, exacerbated by a deep recession and the drop in fuel demand. Many producers found themselves unable to pay their bills.  The past six months have been especially brutal for producers who just two years ago bet big on what appeared to be a rosy future. Several are now bankrupt, dozens of plants are shut, plans to build others are on hold, and investors -- including such luminaries as software magnate Bill Gates and hedge fund manager David Einhorn -- are smarting from losses.  The industry has a "black eye financially. It's been a poor performer," said Scott Brown, CEO of New Energy Capital, which sold its interest in an ethanol plant in 2007.  "Too much was built too fast. There still is too much capacity for the Renewable Fuel Standard," he added, referring to the federal blueprint for the industry.  It's but the latest in a long history of setbacks for ethanol. A distant predecessor of the fuel was heavily taxed to help pay for the Civil War. After World War II, demand dried up and commercial ethanol went into a 30-year hibernation. Only last year, however, ethanol producers laid claim to 23% of the nation's corn crop, attracting widespread blame for a spike in food prices.  President Barack Obama, as part of his overall energy plan, seeks to bring some relief to struggling ethanol producers, including refinancing. The Environmental Protection Agency also is considering a rule that, if approved, would raise the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline to 15% from 10%. Meanwhile, ethanol makers are looking to catch a break from lenders. Some banks and debt holders, reluctant to sell valuable agricultural or transportation properties at fire-sale prices, are sitting tight until ethanol's profit margins improve, bankers said. "We think the worst case scenario is that we have to wait for the Renewable Fuel Standard to ramp up to meet the existing capacity," said Jerry Peters of TD Bank North, a lender to ethanol makers. "It will be a six to 18-month period before all the capacity is absorbed."  Other bankers are weighing whether they want to try and sell plants at a substantial loss. Oil companies, private equity firms, and big agribusinesses are hunting for bargains.  Based on installed production capacity, lenders have somewhere between 80 cents and $1.50 per gallon invested in a plant, Peters said.

 

Firing state employees won't help revenue drop - (www.sfgate.com) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest grim budgets bring to mind assertions by opponents of Propositions 1A-1F that, in the words of gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, "We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem." Given that the state is facing a $21.3 billion hole, does not a $11.7 billion revenue drop count as a problem?  According to figures worked up by the state controller, that's the amount by which total "revenue receipts" have declined since April 2008. The three major sources of state revenue - income taxes, sales taxes and corporate taxes - fell by $12.4 billion, a 16.4 percent drop. The only revenue line that grew was "not otherwise classified." The state's Department of Finance is projecting a total revenue shortfall of more than $12 million by next month.  Presumably, these revenue numbers have something to do with California's version of the Great Recession, including an unemployment rate of 11.5 percent. One wonders how throwing thousands more public employees out of work - as Schwarzenegger is threatening and some opponents of the propositions are gleefully cheering for - will further prove that "we don't have a revenue problem."

 

Miami's vise: Florida banks face possible seizure - (www.marketwatch.com) Sunshine State's long-term allure may have delayed closure wave. BankUnited Financial, the largest lender based in Florida, warned earlier this week that it could be seized by regulators. Many smaller banks might face a similar gloomy fate as the real-estate crisis lingers in the Sunshine State -- but there is a ray of hope. When Florida's real-estate slump finally ends, the state could still be a very attractive place for banks to do business. Indeed, some experts say the long-term allure of the state may be the main reason so few Florida banks have failed so far -- and why a bidding war for BankUnited may still be brewing.  "We have many problem banks, and we may be losing our biggest," said Kenneth Thomas, a banking expert and economist based in Miami. "But when things get better, Florida will come back strong, and those who are positioned well in the banking sector will benefit."  A Florida recovery seems a long way off, though. 'We're starting to see pockets of improvement nationwide, but in Florida there's a huge amount of surplus property that's been built.' Karen Dorway, Bauer Financia. In Miami, homes are staying on the market for nearly 250 days on average, by far the slowest inventory turnover along the 10 major U.S. cities tracked by Altos Research. Miami has experienced the slowest market turnover every month since September 2007.  Bauer Financial, which tracks the health of U.S. banks, rated 58 Florida-based banks "problematic" or worse at the end of 2008.  BankUnited, based in Coral Gables, garnered Bauer's lowest rating. Miami-based Ocean Bank, one of the largest independent commercial banks in Florida, and Orion Bank, a big community bank in Naples, also got Bauer's lowest rating as of the end of last year.  On the regulatory front, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said May 8 that it's opening an office in Jacksonville with space for 500 temporary staff and contractors. The new location will help the regulator "manage receiverships and to liquidate assets from failed financial institutions primarily located in the eastern states," it said.  More than 5% of loans made by Florida banks were either delinquent or not accruing at the end of last year, according to the FDIC. That was up from 1.98% a year earlier.  Residential mortgages made up 145% of these banks' Tier 1 capital, while commercial-real-estate loans -- a bigger concern for regulators these days -- made up 449% of Tier 1 capital, according to the FDIC.  And Florida banks' commercial-real-estate exposure is larger than banks in other problem states such as California, Nevada and Arizona, FDIC data show.  Root of the problem: The main problem in Florida has been overbuilding: There are still too many new houses, condominiums and commercial-real-estate projects seeking buyers in the face of waning demand.

 

CALLING ALL LOAN MOD FIRMS: A Family in LA Needs Help NOW! – (www.ml-implode.com) - The family gave the con man their life savings of $12,000 back in August of 2008 to get the process started, and the family hasn’t heard from him since. Their home was foreclosed on and now they’ve been evicted.  They have young children and have been living on the street… sleeping outside… just steps from their foreclosed home.  Dear God. This family needs help now… like today.  And those in the legitimate loan modification industry are in the best position to help them.  Not only can everyone help financially, but someone needs to step up and help them with their bank, if possible.  Something has to be done about this, and the industry needs to step up and show that it does care… NOW!  TODAY! I spoke with Maggie Carnot, the Operations Supervisor at California Finance Group this morning.  She is helping the family in every way she can, and getting the District Attorney involved on Monday, but as we all know the DA can’t turn back the clock. Maggie and the California Finance Group has set up a fund at Bank of America… Account #0162567380.   You can wire funds or you can write a check and deposit it to that account.  PLEASE DO IT TODAY… RIGHT NOW! On Monday, CBS will be reporting how things are going for this family who was thrown into this tragic situation… and I really want to hear them say that the legitimate loan modification professionals of this country stepped up to help.  I realize we won’t be able to help everyone.  But we can help this family.  And we very much should… and NOW!

 

"Roubini is Dishonest"  - (ashizashiz.blogspot.com) - ...when I hear Barney Frank and Barack Obama and Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman and Nouriel Roubini promote increased governmental spending---trillions of dollars in deficit spending, thus exponentially increasing the common man's future debt burden---to try and loosen credit markets so that all of the people in debt “choose” to go deeper into debt, I simply see these men as I see the guy who sells the daggers upon which the Juliet’s of the world impale themselves. Dealers in death, no better.

 

 

 

OTHER STORIES:

 

Fed Up  - (www.ml-implode.com)  - The necessary first step to restoring economic stability in this country is to audit the Fed, to find out the multitude of secto...

Live Free or Die - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Indolence," in Machiavelli's word: There are stages to the enervation of free peoples. America, which held out against the tren...

Consumer price drop is biggest since '55  -(money.cnn.com)

Whatever You Call It, This Rally May Not Last - (www.nytimes.com)

SEC Chief Mary Schapiro: The Watchdog's New Teeth - (www.businessweek.com)

King’s Plan May Exceed 150 Billion Pounds, Morgan Stanley Says  - (www.bloomberg.com)

FTC: It's war on car warranty 'robocalls' -(money.cnn.com)

Big banks fire up lending -(money.cnn.com)

Insurer to Treasury: No thanks on TARP -(money.cnn.com)

Falling Gas Prices Deny Russia a Lever of Power - (www.nytimes.com)

China Has IPO Backlog Up to 400 Companies, Citic Says - (www.bloomberg.com)

Hot in recession: Cheaper wine, chocolate, Spam - (news.yahoo.com/s/ap)

 

When a Company Tries It, a ‘Say on Pay’ Works - (www.nytimes.com)

A car dealer survives | Hard times on dealer row  -(money.cnn.com)

Mortgage rescue: Still more hurdles -(money.cnn.com)

My Personal Credit Crisis  - (www.nytimes.com)

Hedge Fund Manager’s Farewell  - (www.nytimes.com)

 

Gas jumps 25 cents in 3 weeks -(money.cnn.com)

Why small businesses fail -(money.cnn.com)