Saturday November 26 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Hey, 99%, Check Out Michael Moore's Awesome Lakeshore Vacation Mansion In Michigan - (www.businessinsider.com) Shortly after firing up the troops at Occupy Wall Street a couple of weeks ago, populist film-maker Michael Moore vehemently denied to Piers Morgan that he's a member of the 1%. This assertion was justifiably ridiculed. (If he's not in the 1%, he's close. And there's nothing wrong with that. He has earned it.) And now Andrew Breitbart is rubbing Moore's face in it by posting some pictures of Moore's vacation mansion on Torch Lake, Michigan, which residents say is worth about $2 million. Moore's rags-to-riches story is an inspiring one, and his success should be celebrated. He makes great products that people love. He has created jobs. So it's too bad he feels he has to play down his success — and the capitalist system that made it possible — to maintain his street cred.

Jumbo mortgages may be next in line to default - (www.washingtonpost.com) Do you have a big mortgage and good credit scores but not much equity — maybe you’re even underwater? Do you see little chance that your home’s market value will improve much during the coming three to seven years? If you answered yes to both questions — and thousands of homeowners across the country could do so — new research suggests that you are in a category that lenders need to worry about most: prime jumbo borrowers who once were thought to be among the safest bets but who now are the most likely to opt for a strategic default and walk away from their homes. In a study released Oct. 31, the ratings agency Moody’s said that based on its analysis of mortgage-backed bond portfolios, homeowners with jumbos now constitute “greater strategic default risk” than any other type of borrowers, including subprime.

This 2006 Blog Post By Roubini Really Was Incredibly Prophetic - (www.businessinsider.com) Getting well-deserved praise. The key thing here is how spot-on his assessment of the pain points were. This paragraph nailed it: And unfortunately, the lack of serious economic reforms in Italy implies that there is a growing risk that Italy may end up like Argentina. This is not a foregone conclusion but, if Italy does not reform, an exit from EMU within 5 years is not totally unlikely. Indeed, like Argentina, Italy faces a growing competitiveness loss given an increasingly overvalued currency and the risk of falling exports and growing current account deficit. The growth slowdown will make the public deficit and debt worse and potentially unsustainable over time.

Hungary May Be Pushed to Junk Grade - (www.bloomberg.com) Hungary’s sovereign credit grade may be cut to junk this month afterStandard & Poor’s Ratings Services placed the country’s lowest investment grade on “CreditWatch with negative implications.” S&P is likely to make a decision this month on Hungary’s credit grade, currently at BBB-, the rating company said in a statement today. Fitch Ratings yesterday cut the outlook on Hungary’s lowest investment grade to negative from stable, joining S&P and Moody’s Investors Service. Hungary’s “unpredictable” policies, including the dismantling of checks on policies, levying of extraordinary industry taxes and forcing lenders to swallow exchange-rate losses on loans, are harming investment and growth at a time when the economic environment is deteriorating, S&P said.

Italy braces for new government, IMF warns Asia on euro - (www.reuters.com) In Tokyo, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned that if strains in Europe worsen, Asia would be negatively affected through trade and financial sector links. At a news conference after meeting Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi, she said: "...we touched on the economic situation in the euro zone, the way to address it, and the consequences that the euro zone crisis has and would have if it deteriorated further in the rest of the world, particularly in Asia." "I insisted with Minister Azumi that no country can be immune under the present circumstances, no matter how developed or how emerging or how far away it is. The countries are totally interconnected. That is what we see at IMF," she said. Her warning came after pressure from Washington for faster action from the currency bloc.

OTHER STORIES:

China’s Dagong May Cut U.S. Credit Rating Again If It Adopts QE3 Program - (www.bloomberg.com)

Italy Passes Budget Bill Paving Way for Berlusconi to Resign - (www.bloomberg.com)

Italy's Berlusconi to resign, end scandal-hit era - (www.reuters.com)

ECB bond buys will go as far as needed: Kranjec - (www.reuters.com)

Fed to conduct fourth round of stress tests on largest banks - (www.usatoday.com)

Whose Economy Has It Worst? - (online.wsj.com)

Europe’s Woes Pose New Peril to Recovery in the U.S. - (www.nytimes.com)