Sunday November 27 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Ala. county votes for largest municipal bankruptcy - (finance.yahoo.com) Leaders of Alabama's most populous county on Wednesday voted to declare an estimated $4.1 billion bankruptcy, the largest for a municipality in U.S. history. Two months after it seemed Jefferson County had struck a deal to settle the debt, the commissioners took the action. It came after spending about six hours over two days meeting with its lawyers to discuss legal options. Those options included a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing and a settlement with creditors on the county's $3.14 billion sewer debt. Jefferson County has been trying since 2008 to avoid filing bankruptcy over the debt, which resulted from a mix of outdated sewer pipes, the lagging economy, court rulings and public corruption. At the same time, it faces a separate shortfall of as much as $50 million in its operating budget because courts struck down a major local tax as unconstitutional.

Dear Committee: Mains street says look at pensions - (www.nytimes.com) THE so-called supercommittee in Congress has until Nov. 23 to find more than a trillion dollars of new savings in the federal budget. Here’s one idea: Stop reimbursing the costs of pensions and other retirement benefits at huge, and hugely profitable, defense contractors. Over 10 years, such a move could save an estimated $30 billion — the amount by which these pensions are collectively underfunded. (That figure could change, depending on pension performance.) True, that might seem like a drop in the bucket, given that the committee’s 12 members are trying to save $1.2 trillion over all. But examining this longstanding practice seems worthy in lean times. The government also promises to help defense companies shore up their pension funds when they become underfunded. Many of these funds have lost money in recent years in declining financial markets or on bad investments, so the bill for taxpayers has been growing.

UK banks face huge losses on Italian debt - (www.telegraph.co.uk) British banks could be among the hardest hit by the Eurozone financial crisis because they are exposed to tens of billions of pounds of Italian debt. The latest figures published by the UK’s four biggest banks show they hold a total of £42bn of Italian debt. Barclays has by far the largest overall holding at £25.7bn, of which just over £4bn is in the form of a direct exposure to the Italian government. Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland has the second largest total exposure at £9.7bn, though just £400m of this is to the Italian government debt after the bank sold off more than £2bn of the country’s bonds over the summer. Like RBS, HSBC has also in recent months moved to cut its holding of Italian debt and currently holds about £4.3bn, of which about £1.6bn would be directly at risk in the event the country becomes unable to meet its financial obligations to its creditors.

Geithner tells Europe to "move quickly" as instability hurts US and Asia - (www.telegraph.co.uk) Speaking at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hawaii this weekend, Mr Geithner said: "We are all directly affected by the crisis in Europe, but the economies gathered here are in a better position than most to take steps to strengthen growth in the face of these pressures from Europe." Mr Geithner added that the basic framework for the European recovery was good. “But we need to see it put in place with the speed that markets require and with the force that restores confidence," he said. "They’re moving ahead. We just need to see them move a little more quickly and with a little more force behind it.” Despite being thousands of miles away, Europe has been the main preoccupation at the meeting of Pacific Rim leaders in Honolulu.

Occupy Wall Street Intends To Shut Down The New York Stock Exchange - (www.businessinsider.com) To celebrate the movement's two-month birthday, Occupy Wall Street members are planning to shut down the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, November 17. Daniel Massey at Crain's reports the NYSE move is just one in a series of events he found on the groups Facebook page that went live on Friday, November 11. He writes that the page states, “Join Occupy Wall Street and 99%ers from across the country as we shut down the stock market by throwing a block party the 1% will never forget."

OTHER STORIES:

Jumbo mortgages may be next in line to default - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Savage recession looms as EC warns of slower growth in Europe - (www.telegraph.co.uk)

U.S. consumer confidence remains low despite economic gains, increase in spending - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Jobless claims fall to 390,000 - (www.bloomberg.com)

Fear of Contagion Rocks Markets - (www.nytimes.com)

Italian borrowing costs at breaking point - (www.reuters.com)