KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Wednesday September 24 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

CNBC Viewership Plunges To 21 Year Lows - (www.zerohedge.com) t's over: whether due to the complete domination of centrally-planned markets by a few central banks, whether as a result of HFTs forcing out all human traders and investors, whether due to volatility plunging to record lows and complacency at record highs, whether viewers simply aren't impressed by the new young, female faces that are increasingly taking over the primetime financial TV slots, because people are tired of Cramer's endless "caffeine" high and endless attempts to justify a record disconnect between manipulated record high "markets" and a stagnant economy in which some 53 million workers are "freelancers", or simply because video game consoles don't watch TV, America's interest with finance and the stock market is over. Some observations: for the core 25-54 demo, CNBC's Business Day segment is down every month this year compared to last year, with August's 28,000 literally a step in the abyss compared to last year, as viewership plummeted by a near record 30% (with ad revenue following close behind). In fact, the last time CNBC was up in Business Day year to year was over two years ago, in July 2012. And the punchline: this was the lowest rated month in the core demographic since February 1993!

A worrying factor in Ukraine’s chaos: 15 nuclear reactors - (www.washingtonpost.com) As Ukraine looks like a country teetering on the edge of war, there's an important factor to keep an eye on: The country's 15 nuclear reactors. "There haven’t been many conflicts in states with nuclear power facilities in the past, so we're really entering unknown territory here," said Jeffrey Mankoff, Deputy Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Russia and Eurasia Program. NATO has already shown its concern, sending a small team of civilian experts to Ukraine in April to advise the government on the safety of its infrastructure. There is a historical component to the anxiety: In April 1986, a reactor of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Chernobyl exploded, causing the worst nuclear disaster in history, and a high rate of cancer among emergency workers and people living in the affected areas even today. Chernobyl happened in a time of peace: Today, Ukraine's reactors operate near a war zone.

Aso Signals Japan Prepared to Boost Stimulus for Growth - (www.bloomberg.com) The Abe administration gave its clearest signal yet of concern about damage to the economy from this year’s sales-taxincrease, with the finance minister saying that a back-up plan for stimulus will be prepared. “The economy is constantly changing and we need to prepare to be able to react immediately,” Taro Aso, who also serves as deputy prime minister, told reporters in Tokyo. “A supplementary budget is one method.” Japan’s two-decade battle against stagnation highlights the risks of falling prices for major economies as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi planned fresh easing to revive the euro area. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is weighing whether to increase the sales levy a second time to control debt as Japan struggles to rebound from the steepest contraction since the 2011 earthquake.

Draghi Sees Almost $1 Trillion Stimulus as QE Fight Waits - (www.bloomberg.com) Mario Draghi signaled at least 700 billion euros ($906 billion) of fresh aid for his moribund economy and left a fight with Germany over sovereign-bond purchases for another day. Pledging to “significantly steer” the European Central Bank’s balance sheet back toward the 2.7 trillion euros of early 2012 from 2 trillion euros now, the ECB president yesterday announced a final round of interest-rate cuts and a plan to buy privately owned securities. His mission: to revive inflation in the 18-nation euro area. Fully-fledged quantitative easing as deployed in the U.S. and Japan wasn’t enacted amid a split on the 24-member Governing Council, with Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann opposing the new stimulus and others seeking more. The latest round of measures pushed the euro below $1.30 for the first time since July 2013 and sent European bond yields negative.

Median Incomes Fell for All But Richest in 2010-13, Fed Says - (www.businessweek.com) Only the richest Americans enjoyed gains in income from the economic recovery during 2010-2013, as median earnings fell for all others, a report from the Federal Reserve showed. Median income adjusted for inflation rose 2 percent to $223,200 for the wealthiest 10 percent of households from 2010 to 2013, the Fed said yesterday from Washington in its Survey of Consumer Finances, taken every three years. The bottom 60 percent saw the biggest declines. Household wealth and incomes have become increasingly stratified during the recovery, thanks in part to gains in the stock and housing markets that have been boosted by the Fed’s unprecedented stimulus. The labor market has been slower to progress, with wages remaining stagnant for many workers. The Fed survey suggests much of the divide is driven by the changing nature of work in America.

OTHER STORIES:

Euro-Area Economy Stagnates on Slump in Investment - (www.bloomberg.com)

BOJ Keeps Record Easing as Kuroda Aims to Stoke Recovery - (www.bloomberg.com)
Poroshenko Flummoxes Investors With About-Face on Truce - (www.bloomberg.com)

'Mortgage crisis' is coming this winter: Bove - (www.cnbc.com)