Irish
hope to be bankrupt by Christmas - (www.rt.com) With
one in five mortgage payments being overdue in Ireland and families across the
country having their homes repossessed, some of the debtors are hoping for
bankruptcy to do away with their endless fear of losing their properties. Julia
Godsill, a Dubliner, can hardly hold back her tears, when retelling her not
uncommon mortgage saga to RT’s Tesa Arcilla. When she bought her house the
Irish economy was still the “Celtic Tiger” enjoying its boom time. After the
credit crunch of 2008, Julia could only watch as her mortgage became too high
for her to be able to pay, while the value of her house itself went down. “I
ended up with a cash offer for 500,000. This was in 2011. And I was delighted.
But the banks refused to accept the offer because the mortgage was 800,000
climbing with arrears. They preferred to bring me to court, and repossess the
house instead.” The Central Bank of Ireland figures, released on November 28,
show Julia could be one of at least 141,520 homeowners in arrears on their
residential mortgage loans. That means roughly 20 percent of Irish mortgagees
are living in fear of losing their homes.
Fast food CEO: How govt regulation drove us
abroad -
(www.cnbc.com) Easier to open in Siberia than California: "Under
the current U.S. business climate, regulatory and tax restrictions tend to curb
otherwise dynamic entrepreneurial energy," Puzder said. "We'd love to
see more growth in domestic markets. Unfortunately, it's easier for our
franchisees to open a restaurant in Siberia than in California." In the
U.S., the company's Hardee's division is expanding in New York, New Jersey,
Chicago and South Florida. Meanwhile, the Carl's Jr. division is growing in
Texas and the Seattle area. Challenges
to U.S. expansion: Puzder named ethanol regulation, which
has resulted in higher beef costs, a rising minimum wage and higher labor costs
due to Obamacare as three obstacles that make doing business in the U.S. more
difficult than in the past. To help lessen the effect of these rising labor
costs and to attract a tech-savvy generation, CKE is turning to technology and
looking into options for mobile ordering as well as tablet ordering within its
restaurants.
Another
crooked realtor going down - (www.ocregister.com) State
regulators are seeking to revoke Orange County lender Dan Harkey’s real
estate licenses, accusing him of defrauding creditors and other “dishonest
dealing.” The accusation by the state Bureau of Real Estate could
drive Harkey out of business. It comes on the heels of a $12.5 million breach
of fiduciary duty judgment against him by investors and the bankruptcy of his
company, Point Center Financial. Harkey’s attorney, Jeffrey Benice, said
the state accusation is based on “patently false” allegations by Harkey
antagonists that have already been dismissed in court. “It’s beyond frivolous,”
Benice said Monday. “We expect that accusation to be dropped once the (state)
gets the evidence of the prior court proceedings.”
France to Beef Up Its Exit Tax - (www.nationalreview.com) The French government seems committed to taxing
itself beyond the point of no recovery. You’ve heard me talk about how over the
years, and in particular over the last four years, France has relied heavily on
tax increases in trying to contain its huge deficits. Everyone knows about how
President Hollande campaigned for andthen proposed a 75 percent tax rate on
personal income above €1 million. (Will Smith’s reaction on French TV to learning the
extent of the tax hike was very funny and worth watching if you haven’t
seen it.) However, Hollande’s aspirations were crushed by the Constitutional
Council, which declared the tax unconstitutional. That has not dissuaded the
president, who plans to revive the 75 percent tax rate next year. One
aspect of France’s confiscatory taxes that’s often overlooked by Americans
is that previous President Nicolas Sarkozy was almost as bad as Hollande when
it came to raising taxes. In fact, data compiled by taxpayers’ watch
groups and newspapers show that between 2007 and the end of 2012, taxpayers
were subjected to 205 separate increases in their tax burden, from
excise levees on televisions, tobacco, and diet sodas to multiple
increases in the capital taxes and a wealth-tax hike. Sarkozy is also
responsible for increasing the top marginal income tax rate from
40 to 41 percent in 2010, and again, to 45 percent, in 2012.
Special Report: Japan's homeless recruited for murky Fukushima clean-up - (www.reuters.com) Seiji Sasa hits the train station in this northern Japanese city before dawn most mornings to prowl for homeless men. He isn't a social worker. He's a recruiter. The men in Sendai Station are potential laborers that Sasa can dispatch to contractors in Japan's nuclear disaster zone for a bounty of $100 a head. "This is how labor recruiters like me come in every day," Sasa says, as he strides past men sleeping on cardboard and clutching at their coats against the early winter cold. It's also how Japan finds people willing to accept minimum wage for one of the most undesirable jobs in the industrialized world: working on the $35 billion, taxpayer-funded effort to clean up radioactive fallout across an area of northern Japan larger than Hong Kong.
Realtor/Socialite
Arrested for Stealing a Sweater! Even Your Clothes Aren't Safe! - (www.nypost.com)
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