KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Saturday April 30 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

Lenny Dykstra Arrested For Bankruptcy Fraud – (www.businessinsider.com) Another low blow for Nails ;-) CNBC's Jane Wells reports that former MLB great and disgraced investor Lenny Dykstra has been arrested by the LAPD for bankruptcy fraud. Dykstra was apparently selling items from his home that had already been repossessed by the bank. He's also accused of selling or destroying about $400,00 worth property from house, including a $50,000 granite sink that he ripped out and installed in his new office. However, he was actually arrested last night for grand theft, after purchasing vehicles through "fraudulent means." He's being held on $500K bail.

Price of Tomatoes Has a Lot to Do With These Thefts - (www.nytimes.com) The high price of produce, especially for tomatoes after the deep winter freezes, has attracted more than heightened attention from consumers. A ring of sophisticated vegetable bandits was watching, too. Late last month, a gang of thieves stole six tractor-trailer loads of tomatoes and a truck full of cucumbers from Florida growers. They also stole a truckload of frozen meat. The total value of the illegal haul: about $300,000. The thieves disappeared with the shipments just after the price of Florida tomatoes skyrocketed after freezes that badly damaged crops in Mexico. That suddenly made Florida tomatoes a tempting target, on a par with flat-screen TVs or designer jeans, but with a big difference: tomatoes are perishable. “I’ve never experienced people targeting produce loads before,” said Shaun Leiker, an assistant manager at Allen Lund, a trucking broker in Oviedo, Fla., that was hit three times by the thieves. “It’s a little different than selling TVs off the back of your truck.”

No-tax-hike pledge creates Republican rift, potential roadblock to deficit deal - (www.washingtonpost.com) Republicans are feuding over whether to abandon the party’s long-held opposition to higher taxes in pursuit of a deficit-cutting deal with Democrats. The rift in the Republican ranks has surfaced in a bitter back-and-forth between two heroes of the conservative movement: Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on a compromise to reduce government borrowing, and Grover Norquist, author of the no-tax-increase pledge that has become a rite of passage for GOP candidates. At stake is a pillar of Republican orthodoxy that has for decades united every wing of the party in a quest to shrink government’s reach. As the battle over the federal deficit escalates in Washington, the two men are sparring over Coburn’s seemingly narrow proposal to eliminate a $5 billion annual tax break awarded to companies that blend ethanol into gasoline. But both sides say this cuts to the core of a quandary for the GOP: Will the cause of trimming deficits run aground on the conservative principle that the government must not increase the amount of money it takes in through taxes?

Moody’s Cuts Ireland Rating Two Levels, Outlook Negative - (www.bloomberg.com) Ireland’s credit rating was cut two levels by Moody’s Investors Service to the lowest investment grade as the government struggles to lower the budget deficit and restore economic growth. Moody’s reduced the rating to Baa3 from Baa1, leaving the country’s outlook on negative, according to an e-mailed statement today. That’s the same rating as Iceland, Tunisia,Romania and Brazil. Standard & Poor’s on April 1 cut Ireland’s rating one level to BBB+ with a stable outlook. Irish taxpayers may spend as much as 100 billion euros ($145 billion) trying to solve Europe’s worst banking crisis as the country draws funds from last year’s bailout. Ireland is trying to convince investors at home and abroad it has finally plugged the hole in its lenders after four failed attempts following the collapse of the country’s property boom in 2007.

Banks Near Deal With SEC - (online.wsj.com) U.S. securities regulators are in talks with several major Wall Street banks to settle fraud allegations related to mortgage-bond deals that helped unleash the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. The expected settlements, some of which could be reached as soon as next week, collectively mark the biggest attempt by enforcement agencies to hold Wall Street accountable for its role in the subprime mortgage bust. The cases highlight the aggressive tactics banks used to sell these securities to investors who suffered big losses. They also show how the banks' desire to keep the $1 trillion mortgage securities business going helped fuel the housing bubble. The Securities and Exchange Commission is aiming to reach a series of settlements with individual firms over the sales of the investments, rather than a big industry-wide deal, according to people familiar with the matter. The settlements are expected to vary significantly among banks—but few, if any, are expected to surpass the $550 million penalty that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. paid last year to settle allegations that it misled investors in a mortgage-bond investment called Abacus 2007-AC1. That penalty was the largest ever paid by a Wall Street firm to settle SEC charges. Goldman didn't admit or deny the allegations.