KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Tuesday July 12 Housing and Economic stories

Monday, July 11, 2011

Tuesday July 12 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

The Actual Cost Of America's Wars Is $2.7 Trillion Higher Than Congress Will Admit - (www.businessinsider.com) The final bill will make you weep. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the US $3.7 trillion according to research from the Watson Institute at Brown University. This is astoundingly more than the $1 trillion figure named in 2010 by the CBO, which ignored significant portions of current and future military spending. The academic report looked at interest, Pentagon war appropriations, additions to the Pentagon and Homeland Security budgets, veterans' medical and disability, social costs to veterans and military families. It also evaluated the human, social and political costs of the war. Click here to see the findings from the study.

Greek protests turn violent as EU warns of default - (www.reuters.com) Prospects that Greece would pass an austerity package needed to avoid sovereign default improved on Tuesday when a key deputy added his support, even as street protests turned violent in Athens. In a boost to embattled Prime Minister George Papandreou, one of his three deputies from his ruling Socialist party backtracked and said he would support the five-year plan of budget cuts, tax rises and privatization, vital for Greece to win EU/IMF funds in July needed to pay its debts on time. "I have made the decision to vote for the plan because national interests are more important than our own dignity," Thomas Robopoulos told Reuters. That strengths the government position for the first vote due on Wednesday, which has unleashed furious objections on the streets of the capitol. Hooded youths threw stones, wielded sticks and set fire to garbage bins and a truck outside parliament as riot police fired tear gas to disperse them. Trade unions began a 48-hour strike against the EU/IMF-imposed measures.

The Greek finance ministry is literally on fire - (www.businessinsider.com) After the successful Greek austerity vote, the chaos in Athens continues. CNB has just reported that the Greek ministry of finance building is on fire. There's smoke and teargas everywhere in Syntagma square, outside of the Greek parliament. This realization -- that Greece faces a tremendous challenge right now -- may be behind the huge collapse we saw in Athens stocks right after the vote was passed.

Greece’s ‘Indignants’ Confront Politicians They Blame for Financial Plight - (www.bloomberg.com) His face covered in white powder to stop the tear gas from stinging, George Styliatis is into his second month of trying to topple Greece’s leadership. “We need this government to fall, we need a new constitution, a new Greece,” Styliatis, 41, an unemployed former ambulance driver, said as he mingled in central Athens during a general strike yesterday. “They wanted us divided, but at this time, as you see around us, all the people are here.” Nowhere in Europe are politicians facing the wrath of the people who put them in power more than in Greece. As Prime Minister George Papandreou tries to unite his party behind a package of cuts, increased taxes and asset sales, protesters are galvanizing their opposition to the politicians they blame for needing it in the first place. Lawmakers cast ballots today and tomorrow on the austerity measures, conditions for more foreign aid needed to prevent Greece from becoming the first European Union member to default on its debt.

French Greek Rollover Plan Depends Upon No Cut to Credit Rating to Default - (www.bloomberg.com) A proposal by French banks to roll over Greek debt depends on credit-rating firms not cutting Greece and existing or newly issued government securities to default, according to a draft of the plan. European banks and insurers are using the French proposal as a blueprint for discussions toward an agreement to meet politicians’ calls that they contribute to Greece’s second rescue in two years. Fitch Ratings will “very likely” deem Greece in default if the European Union goes ahead with a plan to get private investors to roll over their Greek bonds as part of the Greek rescue. “Fitch would very likely view such a scenario as a sovereign-default event and place the Greek sovereign rating into restricted default,” David Riley, Fitch’s London-based head of sovereign ratings, wrote in a letter in the Financial Times today. A spokesman for Standard & Poor’s declined to comment.