Wednesday April 15 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Red-light cameras create red hot furor in Chicago – (www.usatoday.com) In the most contentious mayoral race Chicago has seen in decades, there has been plenty of debate about the city's crushing pension debt, declining credit rating and incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel's decision to shutter 50 schools with low enrollment. But another issue that is gnawing at Chicagoans keeps popping up: anger over red-light cameras. The angst in the nation's third-largest city, where a red-light camera violation will set you back $100, is hardly an anomaly. From South Florida to Southern California, the use of red-light cameras by law enforcement agencies has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in local and state politics. In Chicago, which has the most expansive use of red-light cameras in the country, the public outrage over red lights has been louder than most.

Calif. drought challenges state's businesses - (www.usatoday.com)  California's punishing drought — which led to the first mandatory statewide water restrictions in state history last week — will bring more pain to some businesses and prosperity to others if it doesn't let up soon. Now in its fourth year, the drought has already left a swath of losers — from farmers and ski areas to golf courses and wildlife — but also a few winners, as businesses and innovators find ways to adapt to what might be the future climate of California. "We're on a real collision course with a very dark reality," says Dave Puglia, senior vice president of the Western Growers Association in Irvine, Calif., a grower and packer trade group.

Oil Rout Squeezes Property Owners From Houston to North Dakota - (www.bloomberg.com)  More than $1 trillion in U.S. real estate debt from the last decade’s property boom is starting to come due as oil prices stagnate, squeezing property owners in cities and towns centered around the energy business. The 50 percent plunge in crude values since June is already dragging down property prices in Texas, according to Green Street Advisors LLC. Real estate investors are adjusting their underwriting across the state as they gird for contraction at energy companies, demanding higher yields on their investments, the property-research firm said. “It is going to be harder and more costly for borrowers in energy hubs to refinance loans in today’s environment, versus when oil was $100 a barrel,” Andy McCulloch, an analyst at Newport Beach, California-based Green Street, said in an e-mail. “Just how much harder or costly will depend.”

China Gets 2nd Onshore Default as Cloud Live Date Missed - (www.bloomberg.com) China’s corporate bond market may experience its second default after Internet company Cloud Live Technology Group Co. said it will miss payments, and Premier Li Keqiang said the nation will tolerate individual cases of financial risk. The big data provider, which shifted into that industry in July after corruption probes hurt its former restaurant business, will fail to meet an April 7 deadline to pay investors who had exercised an option to sell back notes, the company said in statements to the Shenzhen stock exchange on Monday. Failure to pay would constitute the second default on an onshore yuan debenture. President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft probe and the slowest economic growth since 1990 are stoking concern defaults may spread, a year after Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co. became the first company to default on onshore bonds. The China Securities Regulatory Commission had said last month that Cloud Live should urge its biggest shareholder and former chief to return from overseas to solve the repayment problem.

Revolving Debt Crashes Most In Four Years, As Student, Car Loans Go Exponential; Bank Lending Freezes - (www.zerohedge.com) There was only bad news in the just released Fed consumer credit report for the month of February. First, the "good credit", the one that consumer should load up on when they feel comfortable about the future, i.e., credit card, or revolving debt, continued its recent plunge, and in February crashed by $3.7 billion, following January's $1 billion plunge. This was the worst month for revolving credit since December 2010 and explains perfectly why the consumer has literally gone into hibernation - it has nothing to do with the weather, and everything to do with the unwillingness to "charge" purchases, which in turn is a clear glimpse into how the US consumer sees their financial and economic future.

OTHER STORIES:

Greece says ready to make IMF payment on April 9 - (www.reuters.com)
Exclusive: Greece tells creditors it will run out of cash on April 9 - (www.reuters.com)
Chinese bond defaults test Beijing appetite for market discipline - (www.ft.com)
Turkish March Inflation Accelerates Most in Month Since 2003 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Saudis airdrop arms to Aden defenders, Houthis pull back - (www.reuters.com)

In Greenspan Conundrum Redux, Odds Are on Bond Traders’ Side - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dudley Says Fed Tightening Pace Will Probably Be Shallow - (www.bloomberg.com)
Larry Summers: The Past Month May Go Down as a Turning Point for U.S. Economic Power - (www.bloomberg.com)
Strikes Proliferate in China as Working Class Awakens - (www.ap.org)