KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Friday May 13 Housing and Economic stories

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Friday May 13 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

SEIU Threat - (www.youtube.com) SEIU Spokesperson Threatening California Lawmakers with Union Retaliation. She basically says we got you Democrats into power and you need to give us something in return.

Running in the red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt - (www.washingtonpost.com) The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis. In January 2001, with the budget balanced and clear sailing ahead, the Congressional Budget Office forecast ever-larger annual surpluses indefinitely. The outlook was so rosy, the CBO said, that Washington would have enough money by the end of the decade to pay off everything it owed. Voices of caution were swept aside in the rush to take advantage of the apparent bounty. Political leaders chose to cut taxes, jack up spending and, for the first time in U.S. history, wage two wars solely with borrowed funds. “In the end, the floodgates opened,” said former senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), who chaired the Senate Budget Committee when the first tax-cut bill hit Capitol Hill in early 2001. Now, instead of tending a nest egg of more than $2 trillion, the federal government expects to owe more than $10 trillion to outside investors by the end of this year. The national debt is larger, as a percentage of the economy, than at any time in U.S. history except for the period shortly after World War II.

U.S. authorities close five more banks - (www.reuters.com) U.S. authorities closed five more banks on Friday, bringing the total of foreclosures in 2011 to 39. The group included two Georgia banks, two Florida banks and one Michigan bank. The largest, The Park Avenue Bank of Valdosta, Georgia, had total assets of $953.3 million and total deposits of $827.7 million at the end of 2010. It was acquired by Bank of the Ozarks of Little Rock, Arkansas. Bank of the Ozarks also acquired the banking operations of First Choice Community Bank of Dallas, Georgia, which had total assets of $308.5 million and deposits of $310 million at the end of 2010. Premier American Bank of Miami, Florida, acquired the banking operation of the two failed Florida banks.

Parties Seeking to Blame Each Other’s Policies for Gas Prices - (www.bloomberg.com) Congress returns next week to a flaring brawl over oil industry profits and tax breaks, with both parties hoping to capitalize on growing public ire at high gasoline prices. “When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right,” President Obama said in his weekly address on Saturday. But in the Republican response, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma countered: “For more than two years, his administration has knowingly increased energy prices by choking off new sources of traditional American energy and smothering our economy in new energy regulations. Last week, Mr. Obama touched off the latest flurry with a letter to Congressional leaders last week calling for the repeal of $4 billion a year in tax incentives for domestic oil and gas production, saying the industry was doing very well, thank you, and needed no help from the government.

Give Up the Bucks - (www.youtube.com) Listen to the idiot teacher asking "where is the money". A Tax Hike rally was held at the Illinois State Capitol Wednesday, April 21, 2010 to promote legislation which would raise the income tax. SEIU, IEA, IFT, AFSCME, AFL-CIO and other tax eaters participated. One Chicago Teachers Union member told us her true feelings about the situation.