KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com
TOP STORIES:
Treasury Investigates Freddie Mac Investment - (www.nytimes.com) The Treasury Department is investigating a report that Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, bet against homeowners’ ability to refinance their loans even as it was making it more difficult for them to do so, Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said on Monday. The report came just as the Obama administration had been escalating its efforts to push Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ease conditions for homeowners, including those who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Last Friday, the Treasury announced that it would offer increased incentives to lenders to forgive portions of homeowner debt, saying pointedly that for the first time the incentives would be offered on loans held by Fannie and Freddie. But Fannie and Freddie, which said they would review the increased incentives, have long declined to allow debt reduction on the loans it holds or guarantees, saying that it would create unnecessary losses for taxpayers. The companies, which are financed by taxpayers, have also maintained barriers to refinancing, like risk-based fees for homeowners, even as mortgage interest rates have dropped below 4 percent.
Moody’s warns of refinancing challenge - (www.ft.com) US companies with the lowest credit ratings could struggle to refinance about $80bn of debt maturing in the coming years as sovereign debt problems potentially threaten their access to the capital markets and banks in both Europe and the US look at retreating from speculative lending, Moody’s Investors Service has warned in a new report. The largest debt issuers in this category are some of the big buy-outs struck at the height of the credit boom, including Clear Channel Communications, with more than $16bn of debt due through 2016, Texas Competitive Electric Holdings, formerly TXU, with almost $11bn and Caesars Entertainment, formerly Harrah’s, with close to $8bn.
Banks set to double crisis loans from ECB - (www.ft.com) European banks are preparing to tap the European Central Bank’s emergency funding scheme for up to twice as much as the ECB supplied in its debut €489bn auction last month, providing further evidence of the sector’s liquidity squeeze. Several of the eurozone’s biggest banks have told the Financial Times that they could well double or triple their request for funds in the ECB’s three-year money auction on February 29. “Banks are not going to be as shy second time round,” said the head of one eurozone bank at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. “We should have done more first time.” Three bank chief executives, all of whom asked to remain anonymous, said they were planning to increase their participation twofold or threefold.
Volcker Rule Stirs Up Opposition Overseas - (www.nytimes.com) Now, it is foreign governments fighting against bank regulations in the United States. In the halls of last week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here, Wall Street’s top bankers found a curious ally in their battle to end — or perhaps water down — the Volcker Rule, that part of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial regulation law that says that banks are not allowed to participate in “proprietary trading.” Translation: Banks can’t make risky bets with their own money. The idea, rooted in ending the too-big-to-fail phenomenon, is to separate the risky casino element of Wall Street from the utility role of helping finance the economy. Yet finance ministers from around the world lined up to whisper in the ear of Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary, who made the rounds in Davos on Thursday and Friday, about a specific element of the Volcker Rule that has them apoplectic: The rule says that United States banks — and possibly certain foreign banks that do business in America — would be restricted in trading foreign government bonds. Yet the rule, conveniently, provides an exemption for United States government securities. Every other country is out of luck.
Tracy Morgan's Mom Is Getting Foreclosed On And He Refuses To Pay Off Her Mortgage - (www.businessinsider.com) Tina Fey couldn't make this up. The Daily News reports that Tracy Morgan's mother is close to foreclosure but that her son has rebuffed her request to pay off her mortgage. Alicia Warden, Morgan's mother, says her son only offered a one-time payment of $2,000. Warden owes $25,000 on her home in northeast Ohio and says that unless she makes the minimum payment by February 23, the bank will foreclose on her home. Warden lost her job in February 2011 and not long after approached Morgan about paying off her mortgage. He initially agreed but then backed out when he accused her of giving an interview with the media. Warden denies this allegation.
Euro zone jobless hits highest level since birth of euro - (www.reuters.com)
China’s Premier Wen Says Property Curbs to Stay, Reiterates Fine-Tuning - (www.bloomberg.com)
Italy’s Jobless Rate Climbed to Eight-Year Highest in December Amid Cuts - (www.bloomberg.com)
Czechs to scrutinise EU treaty, cracks widen in govt - (www.reuters.com)
German Unemployment Fell More in January - (www.bloomberg.com)
Euro-Zone Data Point to Recession - (www.online.wsj.com)
Consumer Confidence in U.S. Unexpectedly Drops on Fuel Costs, Job Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Case Shiller Home-Price Index Falls 3.7% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Chicago Purchasing Managers Index Unexpectedly Declined to 60.2 in January - (www.bloomberg.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment