Friday November 13 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

FHFA Head Warns Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac May Need Another Taxpayer Bailout - (www.zerohedge.com) Yesterday, we learned that Fannie Mae recently rolled out a new program known as “Home Ready,” which would allow borrowers to obtain a 3% down-payment mortgage with no minimum cash contribution. Now we learn this... From MarketWatch:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are at risk of needing an injection of Treasury capital after the latter reported its first quarterly loss in four years, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Tuesday. FHFA Director Mel Watt issued a statement following mortgage-finance company Freddie Mac’s $475 million third-quarter loss, its first quarterly loss in four years. “Volatility in interest rates coupled with a capital buffer that will decline to zero in 2018 under the terms of the senior preferred stock purchase agreements with Treasury will likely make both Enterprises increasingly susceptible to the possibility of quarterly losses that could result in draws going forward,” Watt said. Freddie Mac said its loss was driven by interest rate changes that soured the value of derivatives it holds.

VW Emissions Crisis Spreads to More Cars - (www.bloomberg.com) Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller last week declared it was time to make the company “more fun to work for,” then on Saturday he headed to the Leipzig Opera Ball -- where he was photographed smiling in a tuxedo, with a bottle of champagne on the table and his arm around a former tennis star. That evening, the automaker said some gasoline cars and more diesels beyond the ones already under scrutiny had worse-than-reported emissions of carbon dioxide. The revelation, which came six weeks into the crisis, sent its stock down 9.5 percent Wednesday. VW’s supervisory board issued a sharply worded statement saying it was “deeply concerned” and would meet soon to consult on “further measures and consequences.” Because CO2 can’t be filtered out like diesel emissions, “in a way it’s a bigger issue,” Philippe Houchois, an analyst with UBS Group AG, said on Bloomberg TV. “It seems like the board itself is getting into a higher level of emergency.”

Vatican inspectors suspect key office used for money laundering - (www.cnbc.com) Vatican financial investigators suspect a department of the Holy See which oversees real estate and investments was used in the past for possible money laundering, insider trading and market manipulation, according to a report seen by Reuters. The information in the confidential document, which covers the period from 2000 to 2011, has been passed on to Italian and Swiss investigators for their checks because some activity tied to the accounts allegedly took place in these countries, a senior Vatican source said. While most of the media focus of the Vatican's murky finances has for decades centred on its official bank, the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), a department called the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See (APSA), acted as its own financial powerhouse.

Commodity Crash Is New Road Block for Clean Energy, Goldman Says - (www.bloomberg.com) The global crash of commodity prices and a looming increase in U.S. interest rates threaten to put a damper on the rapid rise of clean energy in the developing world, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s chief strategy officer told investors on Tuesday. Nations dependent on metals and mining for income rode China’s demand for commodities in recent years to build up their economies and envision big investments in wind and solar power. Now, with growth slowing in China and elsewhere, the same countries face declining revenue that may make environmental measures a tougher sell, Goldman’s Stephen Scherr said during a forum on green finance the company hosted in New York. “Where they were inclined for a host of different reasons to be more aggressive regulators of coal, they are probably less inclined to do that, in part because it has negative consequences" for the local economy, Scherr said. “Those countries are hell-bent on maintaining that middle-class and not losing it."

Pay $650K to park? Boston space may break record - (www.cnbc.com) Parking spots are the new penthouses. One of these coveted spaces in Boston's elite Beacon Hill neighborhood has come on the market for $650,000, according to The Bates Real Estate Report. If it goes for the asking price, it is believed that it would be the most expensive parking spot ever sold in the city. It would also be more expensive than half of the condominiums on the market in Boston, according to the Bates report. The listing follows a string of record-breaking parking spot asking prices in major cities, as space becomes scarce and the urban rich want safe homes for their Ferraris and Bentleys.

OTHER STORIES:

Vatican investigators suspect money laundering - (www.cnbc.com)

Barclays: Investors Are Way More Scared of China Than of Janet Yellen - (www.bloomberg.com)
China's Big Development Plan Has Xi's Fingerprints All Over It - (www.bloomberg.com)

Chinese Home Buying in Australia Is Easing, Credit Suisse Says - (www.bloomberg.com)

China's Economy Is Worse Than You Think - (www.bloomberg.com)
Stanley Druckenmiller: Here's how Fed 'bubble' will end - (www.cnbc.com)
Stanley Druckenmiller Offers a Bearish Warning - (www.nytimes.com)
It's Been a Rough Year for Analysts Forecasting Central-Bank Decisions - (www.bloomberg.com)
Asean Defense Chiefs Fail to Agree on Joint Declaration - (www.bloomberg.com)