KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Friday May 14 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

FDIC shuts down 7 banks in Illinois - (www.google.com/hostednews/ap) Regulators on Friday shut down seven banks in Illinois, putting the number of U.S. bank failures this year at 57. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over four banks in Chicago: New Century Bank, with $485.6 million in assets; Citizens Bank&Trust Company, with $77.3 million in assets; Broadway Bank, with $1.2 billion in assets; and Lincoln Park Savings Bank, with $199.9 million in assets. The FDIC also took over Amcore Bank of Rockford, which had $3.8 billion in assets; Peotone Bank and Trust Company in Peotone, with $130.2 million in assets; and Wheatland Bank of Naperville, with $437.2 million in assets. MB Financial Bank agreed to acquire the deposits of both Broadway Bank and New Century Bank. Republic Bank of Chicago agreed to assume Citizens' deposits, while Chicago-based Harris National Association agreed to acquire Amcore Bank's deposits. Northbrook Bank and Trust Company of NorthBrook agreed to acquire the deposits of Lincoln Park Savings Bank. First Midwest Bank of Itasca agreed to assume Peotone Bank and Trust's deposits. Wheaton Bank & Trust will acquire the deposits of Wheatland Bank. The failure of Broadway Bank is expected to cost the FDIC's deposit insurance fund $394.3 million. For the other banks, the estimated costs are: Amcore Bank, $220.3 million; New Century Bank, $125.3 million; Citizens Bank&Trust Company, $20.9 million; Lincoln Park Savings Bank, $48.4 million; Peotone Bank and Trust Company, $31.7 million; and Wheatland Bank, $133 million. Broadway Bank was owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat who is running for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat. The bank was heavy into real estate loans and lost $75 million last year.

State reps want to fight violence with National Guard's help - (www.chicagobreakingnews.com) Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago's streets. Chicago Democrats John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they want Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley andChicago Police Supt. Jody Weis to allow guardsmen to patrol streets and help quell violence. Weis said he did not support the idea because the military and police operate under different rules. "Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is," Fritchey said. "Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner." What he envisions, Fritchey said, is a "heightened presence on the streets," particularly on the roughly 9 percent of city blocks where most of the city's violent crimes occur. Weis previously identified those "hot spots" and said he plans to create a 100-person team made up of selected and volunteer police personnel to respond to crime there. If guardsmen were to assist police, they could comprise or contribute to that force, Fritchey said. So far this year, 113 people have been killed across Chicago, the same number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in the same period, Fritchey said.

Obama Friend's Bank Shut Down During U.S. Senate Bid - (www.businessweek.com) U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, the Democratic nominee seeking the seat once held by President Barack Obama in Illinois, vowed to press on with his campaign after regulators seized the bank his family owns. “My campaign for the United States Senate goes forward, with a renewed determination to turn Illinois’s economy around and to fix what’s broken in Washington, D.C.,” Giannoulias said. Broadway Bank had been operating since January under terms of a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. because of commercial real-estate loan losses. “Unlike the big Wall Street banks, there was no bailout for my father’s bank,” Giannoulias said, fighting back tears at a news conference at a Chicago hotel. “It is an incredibly sad and heartbreaking day for me and for my family.” The bank, whose profits helped finance and provide credibility to Giannoulias’s successful 2006 state treasurer bid, has shaped a contest for a seat Democrats have unexpectedly found themselves defending and one that will help determine whether Obama’s party keeps its Senate majority.

For nations living the good life, the party's over, IMF says - (www.washingtonpost.com) In the lingo of the International Monetary Fund, the future of the world hinges on "rebalancing and consolidation," antiseptic words that would not seem to raise a fuss. Who doesn't want more balance in their life? But the translation is a bit ruder, something on the order of: "Suck it up. The party's over." To keep the global economy on track, people in the United States and the rest of the developed world need to work longer before retiring, pay higher taxes and expect less from government. And the cheap imports lining the shelves of mega-chains such as Wal-Mart and Target? They need to be more expensive. That's the practical meaning of a series of policy papers and statements issued in recent days by IMF officials, who have a long history of stabilizing economies and solving global financial problems, as they plot a course to keep the world economy growing and reduce the risk of another "great recession." That message has been delivered subtly, woven into documents with titles such as "Resolving the Crisis Legacy and Meeting New Challenges to Financial Stability," and justified by concepts such as "raising retirement age in line with life expectancy," as IMF economic counselor Olivier Blanchard put it this week. But fully deciphered, it means a pretty serious reworking of expectations in the developed world: changes in labor rules, product prices, currency values and even the social contract between governments and an aging citizenry.

New austerity a precondition for Greek aid: Germany - (www.reuters.com) Greece must agree to tough new austerity measures before it receives any financial aid from the European Union and failure to do so would endanger such support, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told a newspaper. "The fact that neither the EU nor the German government have taken a decision (on providing aid) means that the response can be positive as well as negative," Schaeuble told the Sunday edition of Bild. "This depends entirely on whether Greece continues in the coming years with the strict savings course it has launched. I have made this clear to the Greek finance minister." Greece bowed to pressure from financial markets on Friday, making a formal request for the activation of a joint aid package from the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that is valued at up to 45 billion euros ($60.49 billion). The debt-saddled euro zone member has already announced billions of euros in austerity measures, including tax hikes and public sector wage cuts, but is talking with the EU and IMF about additional steps. Opposition to aid for Greece runs deep in Germany and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces a crucial regional election on May 9, has been at pains to stress that aid will only flow if Athens takes further steps to cut a budget deficit which soared to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year.

OTHER STORIES:

Parties Edge Closer on Financial Regulation Bill - (www.nytimes.com)

Wall Street reform faces moment of truth - (www.ft.com)

Do You Have Any Reforms in Size XL? - (www.nytimes.com)

Rating Agency Data Aided Wall Street in Mortgage Deals - (www.nytimes.com)

Derivatives Provisions Are Dividing Democrats - (online.wsj.com)

C.D.O. Days, S&M Nights at Derivatives Conference - (www.nytimes.com)

Confectioners push cocoa near to 33-year peak - (www.ft.com)

Ex-Moody's exec didn't know Paulson shorted Abacus - (www.reuters.com)

Rise in rubber inflates tyre prices - (www.ft.com)

IMF Speeds Up Greece Efforts - (online.wsj.com)

China’s Zhou to Keep ‘Relatively Easy’ Policies Amid Recovery - (www.bloomberg.com)