KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Friday September 30 Housing and Economic stories

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Friday September 30 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

ECB Coordinates With Federal Reserve in Lending Dollars to Euro-Area Banks - (www.bloomberg.com) The European Central Bank said it will lend dollars to euro-area banks in a series of three-month loans as the region’s debt crisis limits market access to the U.S. currency. The Frankfurt-based ECB said it will coordinate with the Federal Reserve and other central banks to conduct three separate dollar liquidity operations to ensure banks have enough of the currency through the end of the year. The three-month loans are in addition to the bank’s regular seven-day dollar offerings and will be fixed-rate tenders with full allotment, the ECB said in a statement today. They will be offered on Oct. 12, Nov. 9 and Dec. 7.

Mortgage-Default Filings Jump 33% in U.S. as Bank Foreclosure Logjam Eases - (www.bloomberg.com) Default notices sent to delinquent U.S. homeowners surged 33 percent in August from the previous month, a sign that lenders are speeding up the foreclosure process after almost a year of delays, RealtyTrac Inc. said. First-time default notices were filed on 78,880 properties, the most in nine months, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in areport. Total foreclosure filings, which also include auction and home-seizure notices, increased 7 percent from a four-year low in July to 228,098. One in 570 homes received a notice during August. On a year-over-year basis, foreclosure filings dropped for an 11th straight month after claims of “robo-signing,” or pushing through documents that weren’t verified, spurred an investigation by state attorneys general in October. The jump in default notices from July -- the biggest monthly gain in four years -- shows that banks’ paperwork delays are easing even as industry talks to settle the probe continue, RealtyTrac said.

Greece Needs to Default, Euro Exit Over Loan, Slovak Party Leader Says - (www.bloomberg.com) Greece should default on its debt and abandon the euro as further loans won’t solve its crisis, a Slovak lawmaker whose vote in parliament may decide whether the country backs a bailout package for the currency area said. The Freedom and Solidarity party, a member of Slovakia’s coalition government, will vote in parliament against the European bailout system, founder and parliamentary speaker Richard Sulik said in an interview. His party, known as the SaS, wants member states to “keep to the rules” guiding the euro and “start saving money.”

“The first step is, Greece has to go bankrupt,” he said at his office in the Slovak parliament in Bratislava. “There is no possibility that” Greece “not now, not in the future, not in 50 years, will” pay back “the loans. My personal opinion is it would be better for Greece to leave the eurozone.”

The FAA Is About To Run Out Of Money AGAIN Due To Senate Stalemate - (www.businessinsider.com) For the second time in as many months, the Federal Aviation Administration may temporarily furlough some 80,000 employees if Congress can't reach a deal to extend the agency's funding by Friday night. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has held up passage of the funding extension bill, which would appropriate additional money for the FAA and federal highway transit projects, citing an objection to one component of the transit side of the legislation. The House unanimously passed that bill Tuesday, and the Senate has until midnight on Friday to also pass it before funding for the FAA runs out. Complicating matters, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) accused Coburn of putting a hold on a $7 million FEMA emergency funding bill that, due to procedural rules, must be voted on before the Senate can move on to the FAA bill. Since the Senate passed a cloture motion on Tuesday to move ahead on the FEMA bill, they must tackle that bill first unless Reid punts on it, something he has so far refused to do.

Michigan to require BMI reports on kids - Health - Diet and nutrition ... - (www.msnbc.msn.com) Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder plans to direct doctors in his state to begin monitoring the body weight of their young patients and provide the data to a new state registry, in one of the most extensive government efforts to address the growing problem of pediatric obesity, the Associated Press has learned. The move would help track the state's growing obesity problem while opening the way for doctors to be more proactive in offering advice, Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The Republican governor will announce the initiative Wednesday as part of his proposal for improving Michigan residents' health. The body mass index statistics for patients under 18 would be reported to the Michigan Care Improvement Registry but the children's identity would remain anonymous. The state already requires doctors to report how many children are immunized.