Saturday February 28 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Housing Downturn Moves Into Phase II - (www.newgeography.com) The great housing turndown, which started as early as 2007, has entered a second and more difficult phase. We can trace this to Monday, September 15, 2008 just as October 29, 1929 – “Black Tuesday” – marked the start of the Great Depression. September 15 does not yet have a name and the name “Black Monday” has already been taken by the 1987 stock market crash. The 1987 crash looks in historical perspective like a slight downturn compared to what the world faces today. On September 15 – let’s call it “Meltdown Monday” – the housing downturn ended its Phase I and burst into financial markets leading to the most serious global recession since the Great Depression. Indeed, International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn now classifies it a depression. Phase I claimed its own share of victims; Phase II seems likely to hit many more. Phase II of the Housing Downturn: The Panic of 2008: By September 15, the “die had been cast.” The holders of mortgage debt could no longer sustain the losses that were occurring in the ground zero markets. This led to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and then to a financial sector that seems to be accelerating faster than the taxpayers can pick up the pieces. The ensuing “panic” – a 19th century synonym for a severe economic downturn – has led to millions of layoffs, decreases in demand across the economy and taxpayer financed bailouts around the world. Many have seen their retirement funds wiped out. Others have lost their jobs. American icons, such as General Motors and Bank of America have been relegated to begging on Washington’s K Street. Housing Downturn Broadens and Deepens: The panic has now brought about a new phase in the housing downturn – what I label Phase II. In Phase II, a deteriorating economy starts to kick the bottom out of the rest of the housing market. With evaporating confidence in the economy and the drying up of demand, house prices have begun a free-fall in virtually all markets, regardless of the extent to which their prices had bloated.

The Insolvency of the Fed - (www.mises.org) Yet, has the Fed really "run out of ammunition"? First of all: what is the Fed shooting at? It is trying to artificially stimulate the economy with its monetary policy, thereby it is also unwittingly shooting at the value of the currency. Through its monetary policy, the Fed is trying to bail out an insolvent and illiquid banking system to maintain an unsustainable structure of production. As long as the currency is not totally destroyed, the Fed will never run out of ammunition. In order to assess the ammunition left, one should have a look at the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve — especially at the assets the Fed can still obtain. The Fed's balance sheet also gives insights on the condition or quality of the dollar. Since the crisis broke out, the Fed has continuously weakened the quality of the dollar by weakening its balance sheet. In fact, the assets the Federal Reserve holds have deteriorated tremendously. These assets back the liability side of the balance sheet, which mainly represents the monetary base of the dollar. The assets of the Fed, thereby, hold up the value of the dollar. At the end of the day, it is these assets that the Fed can use to defend the dollar's value externally and internally. Thus, for example, it could sell its foreign exchange reserves to buy back dollars, reducing the amount of dollars outstanding. From the point of view of the buyer of the foreign exchange reserves, this transaction is a de facto redemption. In the first stage of the crisis that lasted until September 2008, the Federal Reserve did not increase its balance sheet. Instead, the Fed changed its balance sheet's structure. These changes are very important for the value of the currency. Imagine that the Fed announces tomorrow that is has sold all its gold and has bought Zimbabwean government bonds with the revenues. The Fed would explain this move by arguing that the stability of the Zimbabwean economy would be crucial for the US economy and the welfare of mankind. This action by itself would not change the quantity of money at all, which shows that concentrating exclusively on the quantity of money is not sufficient to evaluate the condition of a currency. Qualitative issues can be even more important than mere quantities. In fact, an asset swap from gold to Zimbabwean government bonds would mean a strong deterioration of the quality of the dollar

Walking away could save debtors a lot of money - (www.nytimes.com) In a speech in Phoenix, a signature real estate boomtown gone bust, President Obama will explain his plan to reduce foreclosures. And the key to understanding that plan will be remembering that there are two different groups of homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure. The first group is made up of people who cannot afford their mortgages and have fallen behind on their monthly payments. Many took out loans they were never going to be able to afford, while others have since lost their jobs. About three million households — and rising — fall into this category. Without help, they will lose their homes. The second group is far larger. It is made up of the more than 10 million households that can afford their monthly payments but whose houses are worth less than what is owed on their mortgages. In real estate parlance, they are underwater. If they want to stay in their homes, they will have no trouble doing so. But some may choose to walk away voluntarily, rather than continue to make payments on an investment that may never pay off. Scratch beneath the details of any housing bailout proposal, and the fundamental issue is whether it tries to help the second group or just the first. Mr. Obama has evidently decided to focus on the first group, based on the previews of his speech that aides have offered. In coming weeks, his administration will begin spending $50 billion to entice banks to reduce the monthly payments of people who otherwise couldn’t afford to stay in their houses. In effect, the government will split the losses on these mortgages with banks. The $50 billion will come from the money Congress has already allocated for the bailout of the financial system. It is likely to be aimed at people who need a significant, but not an enormous, amount of help to meet their mortgage payments. There are some big advantages to this approach. Bailing out all underwater homeowners would be tremendously expensive. All told, about $500 billion in mortgage debt is already underwater, and it’s impossible to know in advance who is likely to walk away. So the government would have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to help millions of people who don’t need help staying in their homes. But the Obama approach also brings risks. The administration is betting that few of those 10 million underwater homeowners will walk away. (A year from now, the number will about 15 million, Moody’s Economy.com projects.) If they begin to abandon their homes in large numbers, however, they will aggravate the housing bust and the financial crisis — and probably force the administration to come up with a new, much larger housing bailout down the road.

Banned by Zippy Realtors - (paper-money.blogspot.com) Somewhat funny story showing the power that realtors who control the MLS have. When the user replied to the site that the housing market was still very soft and sales were non-existent, they banned him from the site.

New foreclosure defense: Prove I owe you - (msnbc.msn.com) Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage. "I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left." In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others. More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure. Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy. "We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could."

It May Cost Taxpayers Less to Let GM Fail - (www.cnbc.com) Obama's housing plan is bound to rile the Republicans, says Joe Magyer, senior analyst at The Motley Fool. He also tells CNBC's Martin Soong & Amanda Drury that it may actually cost the U.S. taxpayers less, to allow GM to go bankrupt then the automaker alleges.

Venezuela Takes Over Local Stanford Bank - (www.cnbc.com) Venezuela took control of a local bank owned by Allen Stanford, who faces U.S. fraud charges, the finance minister said on Thursday, as the impact of the American case spread through Latin America.
"We have taken the decision to take over," Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said, adding that the government would seek to quickly sell the bank. In recent days, depositors had worried that the trouble at Stanford International Bank would hurt Stanford Bank Venezuela and had withdrawn cash from the small local bank even though the companies' assets are separate, industry officials and bank customers said. Industry officials have said the fall of one of the smallest retail banks in Venezuela, which only takes deposits and makes loans in local currency, was unlikely to cause much of a disturbance in the rest of the sector.

California budget deadlock broken - Assembly quickly follows Senate and OKs spending plan to end crisis. GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria changes his vote to end the impasse. In exchange, Democrats agree to his demand to rewrite election rules. The plan includes billions of dollars in tax increases. GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado's vote broke the deadlock. In exchange, Democrats agreed to his demand to rewrite election rules. Voting at dawn to end a three-month impasse, the California Legislature approved a deal that Democrats and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached with a GOP holdout to resolve the state's fiscal emergency. Under the arrangement, Sen. Abel Maldonado of Santa Maria provided the final Republican vote needed to pass a spending plan with billions of dollars in tax hikes. In exchange, Democrats agreed to rewrite election rules that Maldonado said had allowed the Capitol to become paralyzed by partisanship, leading the state to the brink of financial ruin.

Carmakers' latest loan requests spur suspicions - (www.latimes.com) Some say GM's and Chrysler's requests for additional loans amount to a high-stakes game of chicken. Pay a lot now, or much more later. That's the choice General Motors Corp. and Chrysler presented Washington this week as they requested $22 billion in additional bailout money -- and warned that the tab could be many times that should the companies go bankrupt. Despite historic sales declines, critics contend that the automakers' arguments are simply posturing to squeeze more money out of the government and to make billion-dollar cash infusions seem more palatable. The Detroit companies' stance amounts to a high-stakes game of chicken, critics said, as President Obama risks going too far to support a deeply troubled industry or not going far enough and letting them fail at possibly huge costs to the economy and the taxpayers. GM and Chrysler said in business plans submitted to the government Tuesday that a bankruptcy filing would be costly not only in monetary terms, but also in the possible loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs -- a prospect that would be devastating to an already ravaged economy.




OTHER STORIES:

Jobless Claims Hit Record High; Inflation Jumps - (www.cnbc.com)
Biggest Fear: Job Loss - (www.cnbc.com)
Philly Fed Index Slumps; Indicators Show Rebound - (www.cnbc.com)
Wrap Up: Selling the Mortgage Plan - (www.cnbc.com)
Sprint Loses Subscribers, but Results Beat Views - (www.cnbc.com)

Spain's Santander May Give Shares to Lehman Victims - (www.cnbc.com)
Investors Scramble for Safety as Markets Test Bottom - (www.cnbc.com)
Nationalization Loses Stigma - (www.cnbc.com)
Class Action Status Denied in Microsoft Vista Case - (www.cnbc.com)
War of Words: Starbucks vs. Britain - (www.cnbc.com)
Swiss Bank Secrecy Under Threat after UBS Tax Deal - (www.cnbc.com)
Bonus Cuts Hurting More Than Top Wall Streeters - (www.cnbc.com)

Saving the Housing Market By Speeding Up Foreclosures - (www.time.com)
Obama unveils plan to reward debtors at expense of savers - (biz.yahoo.com)
How Will Obama's Housing Plan Work? - (www.cbsnews.com)
Carlyle Group's Presentation on World Financial Crisis - (www.freshsupercool.com)
This Is Not the Bottom in Housing - (Charles Hugh Smith at www.oftwominds.com)
Lawmakers Look Loony After Passing Stimulus Package - (www.greatdepression2006)
American's Standard Of Living Permanently Harmed by Debt - (finance.yahoo.com)
Government Doubles Aid to Debt-Mongers Fannie and Freddie - (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Next Round of Real Estate Price Drops - (www.criticalmas.com)
Fed sees deepening economic pain this year - (msnbc.msn.com)
America's Emptiest Cities - (realestate.yahoo.com)
D-Day vet's tale parallels mortgage meltdown - (msnbc.msn.com)
Obama Plan on Housing Said to Push on Lenders - (www.nytimes.com)

U.S. housing starts, permits plumb record lows - (uk.reuters.com)
East SF Bay Prices continue to drop - (eastbayhousingbubble.blogspot.com)
Portland-area house sales slow to a trickle in January - (www.oregonlive.com)

Flipped Out - (www.jonnyoblog.com)
U.S. Mortgage Delinquency, Foreclosure Rates Table - (www.bloomberg.com)
Every Prevailing Economic Consensus Must End - (www.baselinescenario.com)
You will pay for the bailouts without complaint, right? - (media.point2.com)
Start New Banks To Keep TARP Money Away From Bad Banks - (online.wsj.com)
Companies turning to pay cuts to avoid more layoffs - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Price War Developing Between Beijing Housing Builders - (www.chinastakes.com)
Spending is not so sexy anymore - (www.dispatch.com)
Wealthy cities discovering they're not recession-proof - (www.latimes.com)
A Recession Even Letters Can't Describe - (www.watchingmarcitz.com)

Friday May 30 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Senate Doesn’t Want Borrowers Walking - (www.ml-implode.com) - Buried in the proposed legislation is something new and revolutionary, an effort to stop mortgage walk-aways. The Senate legislation addresses the walk away issue by saying that before borrowers can get FHA financing they must certify that they have not intentionally defaulted on any debt, not just their current mortgage. Lying about this issue can be considered perjury, and perjury can result in a jail sentence. No less important, if a homeowner has walked away from an FHA loan, then the borrower would have to repay the government for any loss on the property — potentially tens of thousands of dollars. In the same way that we should hold lenders to certain standards, borrowers also have an obligation to meet certain requirements. Sending back the keys — creating so-called "jingle mail" — is not fair and it’s not right. The Senate committee has the correct idea: Walking away from a mortgage should not be a free pass to new financing, especially financing insured by the federal government.
Foreclosure is rarely fair - [2008-05-29] - "My take is that foreclosure has traditionally not been "fair". Credit scores are not designed to be a measure of borrower’s honesty, but a measure of the risk involved in lending to a borrower. Typical reasons for foreclosures in the past included illness, job loss, death of a spouse- not "failed flips". Lenders have looked at these incidences of financial stress and determined that these problems, however undeserved, raise the risk of default, and credit scores have been gauged accordingly."
JPMorgan Chase Shareholders Approve Bear Stearns Buy - (www.ml-implode.com) - Bear Stearns is gone, but the brokerage firm's near collapse will live on as the moment it became impossible to ignore the mortgage mess.”
Signs of Worsening Credit Conditions - (www.ml-implode.com) - Two UK columnists looked at the credit markets, and neither liked what he saw. And they wrote it up more colorfully than most of their American counterparts would have.
Bad Omens for Banks? - (www.businessweek.com) - News from KeyCorp suggests U.S. banks' loan losses may worsen. Is the credit crisis hitting a second, even scarier phase? Nobody was expecting an easy year for U.S. banks, but many observers thought the bulk of the industry's credit troubles would come in the first quarter. Now, it seems the rest of the year may be even worse. Case in point: A May 28 announcement from KeyCorp (KEY). Mounting loan losses at the regional bank company suggest the banking industry's troubles with bad loans are just beginning
Fed's Fisher: Rate hikes could come sooner vs later - (www.reuters.com)
Credit default swaps on Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch debt have risen - (www.telegraph.co.uk) – Could this be a sign that phase 2 of the credit crisis has begun?
The Fading of the Mirage Economy - (www.washingtonpost.com) - Suddenly, it seems, we're getting hit from all directions.
Energy and food prices are soaring. The housing market continues to collapse. Government revenue is falling, and taxes are rising. Airlines are jacking up fares and fees while reducing service. Banks are pulling credit lines. Auto companies are cutting production once again. Even investment bankers are losing their jobs. The tendency is to see these as separate developments, each with its own causes and dynamic. Fundamentally, however, they are all part of the same story -- the story of the global economy purging itself of large and unsustainable imbalances that for a time allowed many Americans to think they were richer than they really were.
You think your condo rules are bad? - (www.sun-sentinel.com) Ann Zucker, a teacher who has the summer off, was looking forward to spending time relaxing at her Weston condo's pool. Sorry, Ann. Her condo documents make four separate buildings responsible for maintaining the pool, which was closed for repairs more than a year ago. The problem, she said, is that representatives of the four buildings can't agree on an acceptable plan. So, because of the rules, she and her neighbors won't be able to use the pool, for the second summer in a row.


Other Stories:

Bear Neared Collapse -- Twice - (online.wsj.com)
Lenders, Borrowers Discuss Bad Loans - (www.npr.org)Investors Putting Bad Loans Back To Lenders - (www.mrmortgage.ml-implode.com)
Foreclosures Disguised As Ordinary Houses For Sale - (patrick.net)
Realtors to Stop Blocking Discount Web Listings - (www.nytimes.com)
The Housing Capital Trap Snaps Shut - (Charles Hugh Smith at www.oftwominds.com)

Mortgage Rates Rise as Inflation Jitters Grow; Treasury Yields Jump Above 4 Percent - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Average mortgage rates rose to an eleven-week high, with rates on a traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.08 perc...
Consumer Satisfaction with HE/HELOC Origination Increases - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Despite an economy affected by a stagnant housing market, decreasing home values and upheaval among lenders, overall customer s...
The Giant Pool of Money - (www.thisamericanlife.org)
BK Judge Rules Stated Income HELOC Debt Dischargeable - (www.ml-implode.com) - Judge Leslie Tchaikovsky ruled that a National City HELOC that had been "foreclosed out" would be discharged in the debtors' Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Nat City had argued that the debt should be non-dischargeable because the debtors made material false representations (namely, lying about their income) on which Nat City relied when it made the loan. The court agreed that the debtors had in fact lied to the bank, but it held that the bank did not "reasonably rely" on the misrepresentations.
Settlement could drive down real estate commissions - (www.nytimes.com)
U.K. Home Values Drop Most on Record, Nationwide Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
How to Call the Bottom: Cash Flow! - (Mike Morgan)
SoCal values off 15.4%, worst in 43 years - (lansner.freedomblogging.com)March S&P/Case-Shiller Figures - (www.seekingalpha.com)California House Sale Price Medians by County and City - (www.dqnews.com)House Prices Across the Nation - (www.nytimes.com)
Merrill's David Rosenberg on Economy, Housing, Employment - (www.ml-implode.com)
Credit Derivatives Clearing House Planned For September - (www.ml-implode.com)
"Voldemort Mortgage" and Its "Magical Mystery Mortgage" - (www.ml-implode.com)
Tumbling prices dog US housing market - (www.guardian.co.uk)US and UK Housing Bear Market Trends - (www.marketoracle.co.uk)Treasuries Decline as Stocks Rise; U.S. GDP May Beat Estimates - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Economy Grows More Than Previously Estimated as Trade Deficit Shrinks - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose Last Week to 372,000 - (www.bloomberg.com)
Food prices to keep hitting wallet - (money.cnn.com)
Chemical Prices Jump, Fueling Fear of Inflation - (online.wsj.com)
Jobless claims up; continued claims at 4-year high - (www.reuters.com)
Topeka utility wants 15% rate hike - (www.kcstar.com)
Atlanta home prices drop another percent - (www.ajc.com)
Inflation's Little Parts - (www.nytimes.com)
Death and Taxes - (www.zoomorama.com)
As food prices spiral, farmers profit - (www.chicagotribune.com)

Study Casts Doubt on Key Rate - (online.wsj.com)
Investors increase bets on US rate rise - (www.ft.com)
Lessons From the Housing Bubble - (online.wsj.com)
Investors increase bets on US rate rise - (www.ft.com)
Banks launch central clearer for derivatives - (www.ft.com)
Natural gas shipments to U.S. in pause mode - (www.iht.com)
Another Firm Gets Tangled in ARS Web - (www.cfo.com)

Oil Exporters Can't Match Demand - (online.wsj.com)
KeyCorp plunge sparks fears for smaller lenders - (www.ft.com)
Industry's woes trickle down to regional banks - (www.latimes.com)
GM plans more restructuring measures - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Ford plans involuntary layoffs of salaried workers - (www.signonsandiego.com)
Sears Posts Net Loss as Consumers Slow Spending on Clothing - (www.bloomberg.com)
American Axle to cut 2,000 U.S. hourly jobs - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Honda intent on saving US jobs by switching models - (www.chicagotribune.com)
In Stock Plan, Employees See Stacked Deck - (www.nytimes.com)
It's Wall Street, Without the Cash - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Wall Street worries come home to roost in Greenwich - (www.latimes.com)
Dow and US inflation - (www.ft.com)
New ethanol plant bets on a better method than corn - (www.chron.com)

Wednesday April 30 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

U.S. Foreclosure Filings Double in First Quarter, Led by Nevada - (www.bloomberg.com) - California cities had six of the top 10 highest metropolitan area foreclosure rates. Stockton ranked first at one filing for every 30 households, almost seven times the national average. The city of more than 285,000 people claims to be California's 13th- largest. Riverside/San Bernardino was second in foreclosures at one for every 38 households. Bakersfield was fourth, Sacramento was fifth, San Diego was ninth and Oakland ranked tenth.
Vacant homes in U.S. set new record high - (www.dallasnews.com) - On Monday, the Census Bureau reported that the number of vacant homes for sale has hit a record high. The report shows that 2.9% of U.S. homes -- excluding rental properties -- were vacant and up for sale in the first quarter. That translates to about 2.28 million properties - the highest quarterly number on record since 1956.
Condo is Tower of Solitude - (www.tampabay.com) – Worth repeating this story. Condo owner has almost the entire hi-rise to himself.
Maintenance is slow. Not long ago, Johnny clogged the garbage chute with pizza boxes, and when no one showed up to fix the problem, he dragged a concrete block five flights up and dropped it in the chute. When that failed, he tried another. "It just exploded," he says. The pool isn't heated. Johnny suspects it's because there aren't enough residents to justify the bills. He did figure out how to activate the waterfall, which pours down from Disneyfied bluffs. Still, instead of mingling beauties on lounge chairs and late-night Red Bull-and-vodka parties, the only real action on pool deck is the occasional Realtor networking social. Yay.
S&P delivers blow to CDOs - (www.ft.com)
FHLB banks advances hit record high in 1st qtr - (www.reuters.com) - Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research), and the Federal Housing Administration have become favored vehicles of the Bush administration as it makes efforts to stem surging mortgage defaults, falling home prices and rising foreclosures
Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix house prices plummet by at least 20% - (money.cnn.com) GMAC Posts $589 Million Loss on Home Lending Woes - (www.bloomberg.com)
Countrywide Reports $893 Million Loss From Bad Loans - (www.bloomberg.com)
Foreclosed properties going for much less - (www.signonsandiego.com) – Foreclosed properties are often selling for $100K or more less so that brings down all home values.
Real estate guru may go to prision - (www.denverpost.com)
Middle class taps nest eggs to keep overpriced houses - (www.reuters.com)
A 27-year-old ponders walking away - (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
More on Catching the Bottom in Housing - (Charles Hugh Smith)
Buffett says recession may be worse than feared - (news.yahoo.com)


Other Stories:

Loan Industry Fighting Rules on Mortgages - (www.nytimes.com)
Rising Property Taxes Pinch Houseowners - (finance.yahoo.com)
Bringing a check to the table - (patrick.net)

Dollar's fall forces new standard of frugality - (www.sfgate.com)
'Tax rebate' checks: short-term benefits, long-term troubles - (www.csmonitor.com)
Expensive houses starting to show weakness - (www.nctimes.com)
Mortgage crisis hits prime borrowers in NH - (www.unionleader.com)

U.S. Stocks Decline as Consumer Confidence, Home Prices Fall - (www.bloomberg.com)
Dollar Rises to Three-Week High on Bets Fed Will Signal Pause - (www.bloomberg.com)
18.6 million houses empty because prices still too high - (www.bloomberg.com)
Why Not Let Markets Set Prices? - (www.europac.net)
Inflated Appraisals May Become a Crime of the Past - (www.efinancedirectory.com)
Builders say whatever gets them money - (patrick.net)
So many scams, so few watchdogs - (www.tampabay.com)
House Sales, Inventory Chart - (www.seekingalpha.com)
S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home-Price Index Fell 12.7% - (www.bloomberg.com)
Consumer Confidence in U.S. Fell to Five-Year Low - (www.bloomberg.com)
Truckers protest high gasoline prices - (www.ap.com)
Fed's Bailout Is Questioned By Ex-Staffer - (online.wsj.com)
Philadelphia Fed chief is hawkish on inflation - (www.philly.com)
Tip-dependent workers feeling the slump - (www.latimes.com)
Good credit, bad loans - (money.cnn.com)
Survey finds millionaires singing the recession blues, too - (www.rockymountainnews.com)
A Credit-Card Crackdown - (online.wsj.com)
Amid High Oil Prices, Danger Signs in Production - (www.nytimes.com)
Coal price hikes boost electric rates, more increases coming - (www.chicagotribune.com)

GM to cut production of light trucks, SUVs - (www.latimes.com)
Fuel costs force airlines to change strategy - (www.dallasnews.com)
Inside Citi, a Hedge-Fund Push Blows Up - (online.wsj.com)
Deutsche Bank Says It Had First Loss in Five Years - (www.bloomberg.com)
Gasoline costs force service firms to raise prices - (www.latimes.com)
Papers' circulation declines continue - (www.chicagotribune.com)

Germany's inflation dip brings relief for ECB - (www.ft.com)
Europe faces 'inflationary shock,' EU official says - (www.iht.com)
Soaring Rice Prices Send Asian Nations Scrambling - (online.wsj.com)
European Retail Sales Slumped in April, PMI Shows - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.K. Loan Approvals Reach Lowest Since at Least 1999 - (www.bloomberg.com)
India's central bank hikes cash reserve ratio to fight inflation - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)
As demand for rice climbs, international trade falls - (www.iht.com)

Panel to Look at Foreclosure Practices - (www.nytimes.com)
What the Fed Could Learn from Europe's Central Bank - (www.spiegel.de)
Southern California faces higher blackout risk this summer - (www.latimes.com)
Emptying the Breadbasket - (www.washingtonpost.com)
The Ethanol Cure's Side Effects - (www.washingtonpost.com)