KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Tuesday September 6 Housing and Economic stories

Monday, September 5, 2011

Tuesday September 6 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

Goldman Sachs VP Changed His Name To Lobby For Goldman - (www.thinkprogress.org) Issa’s demand to regulators is exactly what banks have been wishing for. Indeed, Goldman Sachs has spent millions this year trying to slow down the implementation of the new rules. In the letter, Issa explicitly mentions that the new derivative regulations might hurt brokers “such as Goldman Sachs.” Haller, as he is now known, went by the name Peter Simonyi until three years ago. Simonyiadopted his mother’s maiden name Haller in 2008 shortly after leaving Goldman Sachs as a vice president of the bank’s commodity compliance group. In a few short years, Haller went from being in charge of dealing with regulators for Goldman Sachs to working for Congress in a position where he made official demands from regulators overseeing his old firm. It’s not the first time Haller has worked the revolving door to help out Goldman Sachs. According to a report by the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, Haller — then known as Peter Simonyi — left the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2005 to work for Goldman Sachs, then quickly began lobbying his colleagues at the SEC on behalf of his new firm. At one point, Haller was requiring to issue a letter to the SEC stating that he did not violate ethics rules and the SEC agreed. A brief timeline of Haller’s work history underscores the ethical issues raised with Issa’s latest letter to bank regulators:

Existing house sales tumble "unexpectedly" in July - (www.cnn.com) Sales of existing homes fell unexpectedly in July, as strict lending and low appraisals prevented consumers from scooping up some of the cheapest houses since 1970. Sales of previously owned homes tumbled 3.5% last month to an annual rate of 4.67 million, down from 4.84 million in June, according to the National Association of Realtors. Economists had expected July sales to come in at a much higher rate of 4.87 million homes, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com. From the same month a year ago, sales are up 21%. Meanwhile, the national median home price in July was $174,000 -- down 4.4% from a year earlier.

American Idiots: How Washington is destroying the economy - (www.cnn.com) So why is today scarier than 2008-09? Because this time not only have we got troubled financial institutions to deal with, but we have serious, substantial countries facing possible default on their debts. Including, heaven help us, the U.S. Things were already bad because of fear and financial fragility afflicting Europe. But the problems took a quantum leap because of fallout from Standard & Poor's totally justifiable Aug. 5 downgrade of U.S. long-term debt. The U.S. economy was already listless enough, with gross domestic product barely growing -- and maybe even shrinking -- plus record long-term unemployment. (One telling statistic: The percentage of U.S. adults with jobs is down to 58.1%, from 64.7% in 2000, according to the St. Louis Fed. That, my friends, isn't good -- see chart below.) The fear, loathing, and political divisiveness are going to make things worse, not better.

Maxine Waters: "The Tea Party Can Go Straight To Hell" - (www.businessinsider.com) Embattled Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, is no fan of the tea party. At an event in Los Angeles, Waters, who criticized President Barack Obama last week for failing to do more about job creation, said she's prepared to fight in Congress for more jobs for her constituents. "I'm not afraid of anybody," she was quoted as saying by the local ABC affiliate. "This is a tough game. You can't be intimidated. You can't be frightened. And as far as I'm concerned, the 'tea party' can go straight to hell." Wach the video below (at about 1:45):

Social Security Fund Could Run Out By 2017 - (www.businessinsider.com) The trust fund that supports Social Security disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits unless Congress acts, according to new congressional estimates. About two decades after that, Social Security’s much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well. Driving the projected shortfalls are laid-off workers and aging baby boomers who are bombarding Social Security’s disability program with benefit claims, leaning heavily on the cash-strapped system. Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people lose their jobs and can’t find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.