TOP
STORIES:
In latest debt-ceiling move, Treasury to tap Thrift Savings
Plan money - (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Treasury Department said Tuesday it would begin
tapping civil service retirement funds because Congress has not
raised the federal debt ceiling, the latest reminder that time is running out
before the government is at risk of defaulting on the national debt. The action
will allow the government to spend $156 billion that otherwise would have been
invested in the federal Thrift Savings Plan. As a result of that action and
others the Treasury is taking, Congress has until between mid-February and
early March to raise the $16.4 trillion debt limit. So long as the debt ceiling
is raised on time, federal workers and retirees should not be affected.
MFI-Miami
In Talks With Black Panthers To Help Battle Illegal Eviction By Taxpayer Owned
Fannie Mae - (www.mfi-miami.com) Eviction Battle Over Inner-City Teacher Could Get Dicey For Bailed Out
GSE: Steve Dibert, President of MFI-Miami, an
internationally recognized leader in investigating mortgage fraud, announced
that MFI-Miami is in talks with the Detroit Chapter of the New Black Panther
Nation/New Marcus Garvey Movement to join the fight to keep Amy Plumb, an
inner-city school teacher from Genesee County, Michigan from being evicted by Fannie Mae and their attorneys, Orlans
Associates. Orlans Associates is home to alleged multi-state
robo-signer Marshall Isaacs. “I’m
excited about the possibility that the New Black Panther Nation/New Marcus
Garvey Movement will be joining us in this fight to keep Ms. Plumb in her
home,” said MFI-Miami President
Steve Dibert, “She’s been dealt a bad hand by the Michigan legal system
that is clueless about the systemic breakdown and utter corruption of the U.S.
financial system. I’m hoping their involvement will get Fannie Mae’s attention”
Ms. Plumb, a teacher who specializes in
working with at-risk elementary school children in the heart of economically
ravaged Flint, Michigan, is a victim of whatMFI-Miami believes to
be an illegal foreclosure and eviction by taxpayer ownedFannie Mae and their taxpayer owned
servicer, Citimortgage.
Secrets of the crisis revealed: What to expect from transcripts
of 2007 Fed meetings - (www.washingtonpost.com)
This is a big deal. It will be our first official glimpse into
policymakers’ deliberations during the crisis, or at least its earliest phases.
We will gain a better understanding of what the Fed knew and when it knew it.
The release of 2006 transcripts last January was fascinating for the portrait
painted of Fed officials failing to grasp the grave peril facing the economy;
the 2007 transcripts should show us when and how that assessment changed—and
how they came to take some early actions to combat it. Here is what to expect
out of the transcripts, based on both minutes of the meetings and my reporting
over the years with people who were in the room: A slide toward pessimism. Recall
that 2007 was a year in which the U.S. economy largely held up—the recession
didn’t begin until December. But it was also a year in which long-building
fissures in the global financial system started to become evident. The start of
the global financial crisis can be dated to Aug. 9, 2007, when the European
Central Bank first intervened to prop up the continent’s banks.
In French malaise, a broader source of risk - (www.washingtonpost.com) As France’s socialist government raised taxes on the wealthy and
threatened to nationalize a steel plant last year, neighboring Spain reveled in
the news that exports were rising and several auto plants would be expanded by
their owners. It was a small sign of what could become a defining trend in the
euro zone. The most troubled nations, including Spain, have slashed wage costs
and overhauled labor and social rules in an effort to become more competitive. Now
there is mounting pressure on France to do the same — or risk falling behind in
Europe’s struggle for economic revival. The government of new President
Francois Hollande has veered between promises of reform and sometimes fiery
attacks on corporate interests and the rich, a fact that has worried public
officials in Washington and elsewhere about the direction of the euro zone’s
second-largest economy. “France is losing ground in a relative sense to these
other countries,” said Edward Gardner, assistant head of the IMF’s Europe
department. “The outlook remains very weak, not only because of external
conditions [in the global economy], but also an internal lack of dynamism.”
Russia
Says World Is Nearing Currency War as Europe Joins - (www.bloomberg.com)
The world is on the brink of a fresh “currency war,” Russia warned, as
European policy makers joined Japan in bemoaning the economic cost of rising
exchange rates. “Japan is weakening the yen and other countries may follow,” Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy chairman of
Russia’s central bank, said at a conference today in Moscow. The alert from the
country that chairs the Group of 20 came as Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker complained
of a “dangerously high” euro and officials in Norway and Sweden expressed exchange-rate concern. The push for
weaker currencies is being driven by a need to find new sources of economic
growth as monetary and fiscal policies run out of room. The risk is as each
country tries to boost exports, it hurts the competitiveness of other economies
and provokes retaliation.
