KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Monday July 18 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

40 days 'till August 2nd - (www.zerohedge.com) Well now things are really getting downright exciting: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement regarding House consideration of a balanced budget amendment, H.J. Res. 1, sponsored by Congressman Bob Goodlatte: “We are being asked by the Obama Administration to approve a debt limit increase. While President Obama inherited a bad economy, his overspending and failure to enact pro-growth policies have made it worse and now our national debt is currently more than $14 trillion. House Republicans have made clear that we will not agree to raise the debt limit without real spending cuts and binding budget process reforms to ensure that we don’t continue to max out the credit card. One option to ensure that we begin to get our fiscal house in order is a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, and I expect to schedule such a measure for the House to consider during the week of July 25th. I have no doubt that my Republican colleagues will overwhelmingly support this common sense measure and I urge Democrats to as well in order to get our fiscal house in order." As a reminder, while in the US most states have mandatory balanced budgets, the same is not true for the Federal government (a fact that US bankers slaughter calves to daily, out of gratitude that they can plunder future generations' cash flows while converting the NPV into non-extradition islands in French Polynesia complete with thermoregulated gold and Chateau Lafite 1990 cellars).

Agency Failed to Refer Complaints About Freddie and Fannie - (www.nytimes.com) The federal agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the taxpayer-owned mortgage finance giants, failed to refer to criminal investigators and other authorities almost 100 complaints about possible foreclosure abuse and mortgage fraud at the companies over a recent two-year period, according to a report issued late Tuesday by the inspector general of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. While the report did not determine whether these and other complaints had merit, it said that the agency’s unresponsiveness to them was problematic. “Failure to recognize and quickly provide law enforcement authorities with information about allegations of fraud and other potential criminal conduct presents a significant risk for the agency,” the report said. The inspector general’s report is the third to assess the agency that acts as conservator for Fannie and Freddie, which have cost the taxpayer roughly $154 billion since they nearly collapsed in September 2008.

Ireland Finally Suggests "Haircut" To Bank Bondholders - (www.bloomberg.com) Ireland opened a new front in the drive to restructure debt on the euro area’s periphery, adding to the European Central Bank’s concerns as it tries to head off another wave of financial turmoil. Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan said yesterday that senior bondholders should share in the losses of Anglo Irish Bank Corp. and Irish Nationwide Building Society, reversing a policy of protecting owners of senior securities. The ECB is against imposing losses on investors. President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Feb. 7 that haircuts aren’t part of a plan to reduce Ireland’s debt load. Ireland’s about-face on bondholder involvement in its banking crisis comes as European lawmakers struggle to settle a dispute over how to avoid a Greek sovereign default. While German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said last week that Europe’s biggest economy insists on the participation of the private sector, his French counterpart Christine Lagarde has ruled out any action that constitutes a “credit event,” backing the ECB’s view. “Noonan must be kidding,” said Klaus Baader, an economist at Societe Generale in London. “It’s not so much money-saving as a way of Ireland trying to improve its bailout terms, just as the Eurogroup is focused on Greece.

Teachers Union Endorses Obama's Bid - (online.wsj.com) The nation's largest teachers union voted Monday to endorse President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election bid, despite teachers' widespread unhappiness with his education policies. The vote, which came during the annual convention of the National Education Association, was supported by 72 percent of the union's 9,000-member representative assembly. The assembly is the top decision making body for the union. The endorsement allows the union, which represents 3.2 million teachers, to start working to help re-elect Mr. Obama. The NEA has never endorsed a presidential candidate this early in the campaign cycle, instead waiting to make the decision during the election year. But union leaders, anticipating a tough re-election campaign, wanted to bolster support for the president early on.

Top Euro Leader Just Warned That Greek Sovereignty Will Now Be Massively Limited - (www.businessinsider.com) In an interview with a German magazine, he compared the coming privatizations to post-reunification East Germany. Them's the breaks. Take money from abroad, lose your freedom. Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker just gave an interview to German magazine Focus, in which he said, via Reuters: "The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited." He also likened the coming wave of Greek privatizations to that of East Germany, which had its own independent agency oversee the privatizations. So obviously Juncker was talking to German readers, who are upset at the bailout, and want to see a high punishment exacted for Greece getting so much taxpayer money.