Thursday March 18 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Calpers' Role in Some Deals Draws Scrutiny - (online.wsj.com) Calpers took a hit last year when its investment in Manhattan's Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complex collapsed. But Stuyvesant Town wasn't the huge pension fund's only foray into real-estate investments that involved ousting low-rent tenants. The California Public Employees' Retirement System has partnered with firms that have bought and converted rent-regulated buildings in East Palo Alto, Calif., and in other New York City neighborhoods, including Harlem and Manhattan's Upper East Side. Some deals have led to losses; at least one has paid off. But whatever the investment result, the conversion of low-rent properties to market-rent apartments—and ejection of some tenants in the process—is raising concerns within and beyond Calpers about its role in these deals. "These historical investments were made under previous investment leaders" and outside managers who handle Calpers real-estate investments, says Calpers spokesman Brad Pacheco. "Nevertheless, our current investment staff has this issue under study, and hopes to bring forward a policy discussion in the months ahead."

Latvian 'Robin Hood' hacker leaks bank details to TV - (news.bbc.co.uk) An alleged hacker has been hailed as a latter-day Robin Hood for leaking data about the finances of banks and state-owned firms to Latvian TV. Using the alias "Neo" - a reference to The Matrix films - the hacker claims he wants to expose those cashing in on the recession in Latvia. He is slowly passing details of leading Latvian firms via Twitter to the TV station and has its audiences hooked. The Latvian government and police are investigating the security breach. Data leaked so far includes pay details of managers from a Latvian bank that received a bail-out. It reveals that many did not take the salary cuts they promised. Other data shows that state-owned companies secretly awarded bonuses while publicly asking the government for help. 'Cult status': The anonymous hacker claims to be part of a group - called the Fourth Awakening People's Army - that downloaded more than seven million confidential tax documents from the State Revenue Service. He is thought to be based in Britain.

Berkeley fee protest turns rowdy - (www.sfgate.com) A late-night protest against fee hikes at UC Berkeley turned violent early this morning when a crowd of about 200 people lit trash can fires, smashed at least one store's windows, occupied a university building and clashed with police, officials said. At around 1:30 a.m., arguments turned tense between the protesters and Berkeley police who were monitoring the gathering, and within 20 minutes some in the crowd lit a large trash can on fire and shoved it toward officers, police said. That's when a full-out riot erupted, with officers pushing the crowd back so firefighters could get at the flaming can and protesters flinging bottles and at the police, authorities said. Members of the crowd lit more cans on fire. The crowds surged forward, police shoved them back with batons, and then the crowd would surge again, officials said. "The crowd got out of control, and rocks and bottles were thrown," said Berkeley police spokesman Officer Andrew Frankel. The crowd was finally quelled by 3:30 a.m., leaving debris and still-flaming trash cans all over Telegraph Avenue near the university's entrance.

Out of Work? U.S. Offers Lots of Lousy, Unsafe Jobs for Low Pay - (www.bloomberg.com) Bend, grab head, cut through stem, unbend, shake head, bag head, put bagged head on platform. Repeat -- hundreds of times. In this back-breaking way, a 31-member crew harvested 30,000 heads of Yuma, Arizona, iceberg lettuce one day in early 2008. It’s one of the stints Gabriel Thompson undertakes for “Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won’t Do.” He also clocks in at a poultry plant, a wholesale florist operation and as a restaurant delivery man. In “Catching Out: The Secret World of Day Laborers,” Dick J. Reavis looks at the labor hall, where workers go each morning in the hope of “catching out” a job ticket for a few hours of low-level, low-paying toil. The two journalists bring back from the margins reports of exploitation, injury, injustice and numbed resignation. It can be eye-opening to see what the body and mind will endure, yet it isn’t pleasant reading, not least because neither writer holds out much hope of better prospects. Thompson, who speaks Spanish and spent three years reporting on Latino immigrants before researching his book, targets industries that depend on their labor. The lettuce fields are staffed by Dole Food Co., which pays him $8.37 an hour and, he says, runs “a pretty fair program.”

U.S. Retail Credit Card Defaults Hit Near-Record Levels with No Relief in Sight - (www.insurancenewsnet.com) U.S. consumers defaulted on store-branded credit cards at near-record levels during the holiday shopping season, with 2010 likely to bring more of the same trend, according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch's December Retail Credit Card Index results show that more than one in every eight dollars of receivables was written off as uncollectable during the November collection period on an annualized basis. Taken with the recent delinquency trends and Fitch's expectation for unemployment, Fitch expects retail card chargeoffs to remain elevated throughout first half-2010. "We do not foresee any meaningful improvement in the retail card credit quality in the coming months," said Managing Director Michael Dean. "U.S. consumers remain under stress on a number of fronts, most notably on the employment front, and retail card chargeoffs will continue to reflect those pressures." Despite the elevated chargeoff and delinquency measures, Fitch expects retail card ABS ratings to remain stable throughout 2010. Excess spread remains robust, which coupled with loss coverage multiples and other structural protections will shield investors from potential downgrades or early amortization scenarios.

San Francisco Infested with Union Parasites and Pestilence; Outrage Over Transit Worker Pay - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) In San Francisco, greedy public unions finally overplayed their hand. It's happening all across the country actually, but every city, county, township thinks "It's different here". The news of the day for unions and their sympathizers is the public is finally fed up being raped by public unions. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Outrage grows over Muni operators' pay. The city's Muni operators are about to have one of those "uh-oh" moments. You know, that awkward instant when a group realizes that it overplayed its hand - badly. Even in San Francisco, a union town where labor issues are treated with kid gloves, politicians and transit riders are teeing off on the drivers like they stole rent money from little old ladies. "There is no question in my mind that they completely misread the public," Mayor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. "Either they step up or the people of San Francisco will." Friday, the Municipal Transportation Agency will vote on ways to balance its budget.

OTHER STORIES:

Duck! Watch out for falling house prices - (money.cnn.com)

Better to Wait Until House Buyer Tax Credit Expires? - (blogs.wsj.com)

A second trough for U.S. new house sales in January - (www.reedconstructiondata.com)

Bottomless New House Sales - (paper-money.blogspot.com)

Housing Woes To Continue, More Losses Coming - (www.huffingtonpost.com)

Most House Sales in CA Forced, Not Optional - (www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com)

Freddie Mac loses $7.8 billion, warns of foreclosure wave - (www.mercurynews.com)

New Mexico Realtor files Chap. 11 - (albuquerque.bizjournals.com)

Maguire sells O.C. office towers at half off - (lansner.freedomblogging.com)

Hong Kong raises luxury houses tax amid property bubble fears - (www.earthtimes.org)

Madoff Aide Bonventre Becomes Sixth Charged in Fraud - (www.bloomberg.com)

Our Plutocracy: A Sobering New Portrait - (www.toomuchonline.org)

Trauma of Job Loss Often Includes Health Problems - (www.nytimes.com)

Poll shows less fear on health care overhaul - (news.yahoo.com)

The Clapper - (www.sfgate.com)