Thursday May 10 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Inside the foreclosure factory, they're working overtime - (www.msnbc.msn.com) In a quiet office in downtown Charlotte, N.C., dozens of Wells Fargo’s foreclosure foot soldiers sit in cubicles cranking out documents the bank relies on to seize its share of the thousands of homes lost to foreclosure every week. They stare at computer screens and prepare sworn affidavits that are used by lenders in courts across the country to seize homes. Paid $30,700 to start, these legal process specialists, the title that goes with the job, swear an oath under penalty of perjury that they're corporate vice presidents. They're peppered with e-mails from managers to meet daily quotas of at least 10 or 11 files day. If they fall short, they face a verbal warning. Then written. Two written warnings could cost them the paycheck that supports a family. As more than one source for this story told msnbc.com, "I can't afford to lose this job." Pressured to meet daily production quotas, they are likely making mistakes that inadvertently could toss a family out of its home and onto the street, according to these workers.

MERS foreclosure issue headed to Oregon Supreme Court - (www.oregonlive.com) With Oregon's state and federal courts singing a variety of different tunes on the mortgage industry's controversial nationwide document-registration system, someone will finally ask the state Supreme Court to step in.  If the high court gives the system a thumbs down, it could throw a wrench into thousands of pending foreclosures in Oregon and potentially upend thousands more already completed. An order filed this week in the U.S. District Court in Portland said that court's chief judge will certify questions for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has to formally accept the questions, and it has the latitude to reject or even reword them. 

The California Exodus - (online.wsj.com)  'California is God's best moment," says Joel Kotkin. "It's the best place in the world to live." Or at least it used to be. Mr. Kotkin, one of the nation's premier demographers, left his native New York City in 1971 to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley. The state was a far-out paradise for hipsters who had grown up listening to the Mamas & the Papas' iconic "California Dreamin'" and the Beach Boys' "California Girls." But it also attracted young, ambitious people "who had a lot of dreams, wanted to build big companies." Think Intel, Apple and Hewlett-Packard. Now, however, the Golden State's fastest-growing entity is government and its biggest product is red tape. The first thing that comes to many American minds when you mention California isn't Hollywood or tanned girls on a beach, but Greece. Many progressives in California take that as a compliment since Greeks are ostensibly happier. But as Mr. Kotkin notes, Californians are increasingly pursuing happiness elsewhere.

Parody site puts Bank of America in your hands - (money.cnn.com)  What would Bank of America look like if it were owned by its customers? YourBofA.com, a parody site launched this week, lets the crowd take a stab at answering that question. Mimicking the real Bank of America site's look, it takes scathing aim at the bank's missteps and invites visitors to share their ideas about what a taxpayer-owned Bank of America should do. Several thousand contributors have already sent in suggestions. The site's creator is Yes Lab, an organization that helps activist groups launch what it calls "media-getting creative actions." America's second-largest bank was an obvious target, Yes Lab director Andy Bichlbaum says. "Bank of America is sort of the low-hanging fruit," Bichlbaum told CNNMoney.

Bank of America Faces Bad House-Equity Loans - (www.bloomberg.com) Bank of America Corp., whose home- equity mortgage portfolio exceeds its stock market value, probably will say about $2 billion of junior loans are bad assets tomorrow even as some borrowers are still paying on time. That’s what Barclays Capital estimates the bank will report in its first-quarter results, following decisions by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Citigroup Inc. (C) to reclassify $4.1 billion of junior liens as nonperforming. Regulators are pressing for the change on concern that falling home prices have wiped out collateral on many second mortgages, leaving them as unsecured debt. About 20 percent of the nation’s $845 billion of home-equity loans exceed the value of the properties when combined with primary mortgages, according to CoreLogic Inc., and about 36 percent of Bank of America’s were at least partly “underwater” at the end of last year, according to regulatory filings.

OTHER STORIES:

Swap may be the answer for some looking to move - (www.sfgate.com)

Do voters really flee high-tax states? - (www.washingtonpost.com)

One nation, ruled by money - (money.cnn.com)

Our House Shot Up $100,000 in Value in One Year - (www.anything.com)

20 fighters for internet freedom - (www.guardian.co.uk)

Fears Rise That Economic Recovery May Falter in the Spring - (www.nytimes.com) 

Wednesday May 9 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Debtors seethe, sue over collector tactics - (www.sacbee.com) Kristy Schwarm was introduced to collection agencies after she bounced an $83.41 check at a Mendocino County FoodMaxx. She soon started receiving menacing letters on district attorney and sheriff's department letterhead, warning her she was under criminal investigation and threatening her with arrest. In rural Fresno County, an 18-year-old student living with her parents became anxious and depressed and eventually dropped out of school after a Hanford-based collector kept calling at home and at work about a delinquent $3,509.18 hospital bill. "Her voice is stuck in my head, and it's ugly, ugly," said Margarita Guzman of Parlier, a town of about 13,000 southeast of Fresno. "She made me feel like I was this bad person and couldn't be responsible.

Short sales expected to flood the market - (money.cnn.com) Short sales are rising sharply, offering many struggling homeowners a better alternative to foreclosure in many of the nation's hardest hit states. In short sale deals, the sale price of the home is less than what the seller owes. Often, the bank that holds the mortgage takes so long to approve the sale that the deal falls through. But in recent months, the pace of short sales has increased, a trend that should gain momentum, according to RealtyTrac. In January, short sales rose 33% compared with 12 months earlier, the company reported. During the month, 32 states saw year-over-year percentage increases in short sales. Even more encouraging, short sale deals outnumbered foreclosures in 12 states, including some of the hardest hit like California, Arizona and Florida.

Italy Consumer Confidence Plunges to Record Low in April - (www.bloomberg.com) Italian consumer confidence plunged to the lowest in more than 15 years in April as Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity drive deepens the recession in Europe’s fourth-biggest economy. The confidence index declined to 89, the lowest since the series began in 1996, from a revised 96.3 in March, national statistics office Istat said in Rome today. Economists forecast a reading of 96.2, according to the median of 12 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

Behind a Chinese City's Growth, Heavy Debt - (online.wsj.com) The Chinese city of Chongqing accumulated tens of billions of dollars in liabilities during Bo Xilai's term as local Communist Party chief, as it juiced growth that helped launch the former high-flyer's campaign for a top political post. A Wall Street Journal analysis of Chinese rating-company reports shows that 10 major investment vehicles the city used to fuel its growth accumulated more than 346 billion yuan ($54 billion) in liabilities, as it recapitalized banks and built highways, bridges and other projects that boosted growth and helped attract global companies looking for an entry into China's booming inland markets. 

MF Customers Press J.P. Morgan for Funds - (online.wsj.com) Customers of MF Global Holdings Ltd. are pushing regulators to get tougher on J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -1.16%& Co. about money that went missing from accounts just before the firm’s collapse. The move comes as a bankruptcy trustee representing brokerage customers of MF Global has said he is conducting an investigation of J.P. Morgan and had entered “substantive discussions regarding the resolution of claims” against the Wall Street firm.

OTHER STORIES:

Euro-Region Debt Jumps to Highest in History of Single Currency - (www.bloomberg.com)

Draghi’s ECB Rejects Geithner-IMF Push for Measures - (www.bloomberg.com)

Bundesbank’s Weidmann Says What No EU Politician Wants to Hear - (www.bloomberg.com)

Agreement on a Global Firewall, but Little Beyond That - (www.nytimes.com)

Europe’s Austerity Backlash Gains Steam in Challenge to Merkel - (www.bloomberg.com)

Euro-Area Services, Manufacturing Contract More Than Estimated - (www.bloomberg.com)

Dutch Face Elections As Rutte Seeks Majority for Measures - (www.bloomberg.com)

Spain economy shrank 0.4 pct in Q1 -c.bank - (www.reuters.com)

China, Amid Uncertainty at Home and in Europe, Looks to Germany - (www.nytimes.com)

Yellen Revealing Twists With No Turns - (www.bloomberg.com)

A Forecast of What the Fed Will Do: Stand Pat - (online.wsj.com)

Aiming for Clarity, Fed Still Falls Short in Some Eyes - (www.nytimes.com)

Apple Rally Stalls on Concern Mobile Growth to Slow - (www.bloomberg.com) 

Tuesday May 8 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

More U.S. cities set to enter default danger zone - (www.reuters.com) America's swelling ranks of fallen municipal borrowers have been blamed in the past year on 'what-were-they-thinking' causes, be it a Taj Mahal sewer system in Alabama or an overpriced trash incinerator in Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg. But the next series of major cities and counties in danger of defaulting on their debt can hardly point to one single decision for their malaise. Whether it be Detroit, Miami or Providence, Rhode Island, their problems have a lot more to do with financial policies that put them on course to live well beyond their means. Municipal defaults have shot up since 2007 and are on pace for another high year in 2012, according to Richard Lehmann, publisher of the Distressed Securities Newsletter. Many failures will be due to local politicians' willingness to give unionized local government workers lucrative pensions and health care benefits when times were good. For others, the housing bust was enough to destroy their real estate tax base. They almost all share the failure to prepare for a rainy day.

Moms: I can't afford to work - (money.cnn.com) Ken note: Of course we know where this debate is going. The liberals now want us to bail out their underwater homes, pay for their child care, allow them to pay no federal income taxes, etc.

After factoring in the rising cost of child care, the daily commute and other work-related expenses, a growing number of mothers are figuring out that having a job just doesn't pay. "It comes down to a cost analysis and I have several clients that have taken the route of quitting," said Anna Behnam, a financial advisor at Ameriprise Financial in Rockville, Md. "Factor in taxes, transportation costs, clothing and lunch -- what is the true net that you bring home after salary?" Over the past few years, the debate over which lifestyle is more financially feasible -- working and paying for child care versus staying at home -- has come up more often among Behnam's clients than ever before. For most working parents, child care is by far the greatest expense. In 2010, the cost of putting two children in child care exceeded median annual rent payments in every state, according to a report by Child Care Aware of America.

Spain’s Surging Bad Loans Cast New Doubts on Bank Cleanup Plan - (www.bloomberg.com) Spain’s surging bad loans are spurring doubt on whether the government can persuade investors that it can clean up the country’s banks without further damaging public finances. Non-performing loans as a proportion of total lending jumped to 8.16 percent in February, the highest level since 1994, from less than 1 percent in 2007, according to Bank of Spain data published today. The ratio rose from 7.91 percent in January as 3.8 billion euros of loans soured in February, a 110 percent increase from the same month a year ago. That takes the total credit in the economy that the regulator lists as “doubtful” to 143.8 billion euros. Defaults are rising and credit is shrinking at a record pace as 24 percent unemployment corrodes the quality of loans built up in the country’s credit boom and saps the appetite of banks to make new ones. Doubts about the extent of Spain’s non- performing loans problem is hurting bank stocks and driving up the government’s borrowing costs on investor concern that the expense of propping up ailing lenders may add to the debt burden.

First Solar Latest Casualty in Renewable Energy Shakeout - (www.bloomberg.com) First Solar Inc. (FSLR)’s decision to fire 30 percent of its staff and reduce production shows that even the biggest solar panel makers aren’t immune from the shakeout that’s bankrupted at least eight companies on two continents in the past year. The largest thin-film solar producer said yesterday it will cut 2,000 jobs by the end of the year at a cost of as much as $370 million. It marks the biggest staff reduction for the industry since bankrupt Solyndra LLC, backed by U.S. government loans, dismissed its 1,100 employees on Aug. 31. Solar manufacturers, which expanded rapidly to meet double- digit demand growth in the past decade, are struggling with subsidy cuts in Europe and plunging natural-gas prices that make renewable energy less competitive. The largest producers in China say their profits will slump this year as shipments grow. “Oversupply has become a problem for the entire industry,” said Ben Schuman, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities LLC in Portland, Oregon. “China’s manufacturers have not demonstrated rational behavior.”

"Not if, but when" for Spanish bailout, experts believe - (www.reuters.com) Economic experts watching Spain don't know how much money will be needed or precisely when, but some are near certain that Madrid will eventually seek a multi-billion euro bailout for its banks, and perhaps even for the state itself. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has repeatedly said Spain doesn't need or want an international bailout, and the European Union, which along with the IMF has already rescued Greece, Ireland and Portugal, also dismisses such talk. But economists believe that Spanish banks will have to turn to the euro zone's rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), for help in covering losses caused by a property market crash which has yet to end.

OTHER STORIES:

Bank Credit Worst to Companies Since Crisis Peak - (www.bloomberg.com)

Spanish Banks Gorging on Sovereign Bonds Shifts Risk - (www.bloomberg.com)

Election Makes Saving Banks Swansong for Papademos: Euro Credit - (www.bloomberg.com)

Worst Yet to Come as Crisis Rescue Cash Ebbs, Deutsche Bank Says - (www.bloomberg.com)

Amid euro-slump, the IMF rethinks austerity - (www.washingtonpost.com)

China Home Prices Fall in More Than Half Cities Tracked - (www.bloomberg.com)

Posen Switches Vote as BOE Concerned on Inflation Risks - (www.bloomberg.com)

Home sales in Southern California climb, price declines slow - (www.latimes.com)

$4 gas reinforces trend toward lower U.S. fuel consumption - (www.washingtonpost.com)

Spain’s Wilting Economy Still Held in Franco’s Grip - (www.bloomberg.com)

Billionaires Make Killing Amid China Murder Tale - (www.bloomberg.com)

Monday May 7 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

You Are Free To Travel—If The IRS Lets You - (www.gonzalolira.blogspot.fr) A bill that nobody is paying any attention to is sailing through Congress: Senate Bill 1813. It passed the Senate by 74 to 22, and is expected to sail through the House as well. It’s an act “[t]o reauthorize Federal-aid highway and highway safety construction programs, and for other purposes.” It’s the “and for other purposes” part of the title that has me worried—specifically Section 40304: “Revocation or denial of passport in case of certain unpaid taxes.” This section would give the IRS the power to keep a U.S. citizen from traveling— —and it’s another example of Executive Power run amok. It’s another example of how the United States is turning into a police-state. The right to travel freely is sacrosanct—it’s not some privilege that the government bestows on us: It’s one of our basic freedoms as citizens. In point of fact, the countries that have limited their citizens’ ability to travel—the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, Cuba—were all rightfully called “police-states”: It’s one of their defining characteristics—the fact that they were keeping their citizens hostage.

Housing REpenetrates Alleged Bottom As NAHB Index Misses By Most In 22 Months - (www.zerohedge.com) It seems all that confident over-extrapolating of warm-weather-based foot-traffic into closed sales and a recovery in housing was, as we vociferously warned, simply wrong. There's no schadenfreude here as this was too obvious for anyone except the blinkered hopium peddlers as even the NAHB is forced to admit things aren't so rosy in home-sales-land "interest expressed by buyers in the past few months has yet to translate into expected sales activity". The NAHB Index fell for the first time in 7 months, dropped the most in 10 months and missed those glorious expectations by the most in 22 months - quite an impressive set of statistics.

Why You Should Fear the Commodities Bubble - (www.theatlantic.com) Investors have gone crazy for commodities, pouring money into everything from oil to copper. Just like the world's mania for tech stocks in the 1990s, this boom is headed for a bust. As playwright Arthur Miller once observed, "An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." Most of the illusions that defined the last decade -- the notion that global growth had moved to a permanently higher plane, the hope that the Fed (or any central bank) could iron out the highs and lows of the business cycle -- are indeed spent. Yet one idea still has the power to capture the imagination of the markets: that the inexorable rise of China and other big developing economies will continue to drive a "commodity supercycle," a prolonged upward rise in the prices of commodities ranging from oil to copper and silver, to textiles, to corn and soybeans. This conviction is the main reason for the optimism about the prospects of the many countries that live off commodity exports, from Brazil to Argentina, and Australia to Canada.

California’s Economic Split Pits West CA Against East CA - (www.nytimes.com) For decades, California has been seen nationally and by its own residents as a state divided into north and south, urbane tree-huggers versus car-obsessed beach hoppers. But the more meaningful division, it turns out, may be between east and west. Communities all along the state’s coastline have largely bounced back from the recession, some even prospering with high-tech and export businesses growing and tourism coming back. At the same time, communities from just an hour’s drive inland and stretching all the way to the Nevada and Arizona borders struggle with stubbornly high unemployment and a persistent housing crisis. And the same pattern holds the length of the state, from Oregon to the Mexican frontier.

Healthcare providers make it nearly impossible to find out prices in advance - (www.latimes.com) Comparison shopping for medical procedures can involve a web of billing codes and arcane terminology, despite efforts in California to simplify things. Californians are still struggling to get straight answers about the cost of common medical procedures despite state efforts aimed at lifting the veil on medical pricing. As consumers shoulder a larger share of their healthcare costs, the ability to comparison shop is key to keeping that care affordable. Medical costs borne by U.S. employees have more than doubled since 2002 to more than $8,000 a year, while the median household income has dropped 4%. Under a state law that took effect in 2006, hospitals must publish their average charges for the most common procedures on a state website. But relatively few take the extra step of listing prices on their own websites, where people are more likely to be looking for pricing information, according to healthcare experts.

OTHER STORIES:

Buffett Rule Debate Blocked by Republicans - (www.nytimes.com)

Home Prices Across The Northeast Are Still Declining - (www.businessinsider.com)

Corporate Corruption Is Why You Can't Do Your Taxes in Five Minutes - (www.republicreport.org)

Greenspan and Bernanke still don't believe monetary policy bears any blame - (www.economist.com)

Copyright law is merely practice for suppression of political speech on internet - (www.rt.com)

Friday May 4 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Standoff after eviction notice shooting; 2 dead - (www.sfgate.com) The suspect in the killing of a sheriff's deputy and locksmith during an eviction had a gas mask and was armed with several weapons, including a high-powered assault rifle, and other weapons when his body was found in the burnt ruins of an apartment building, police reported Saturday. "Investigators also found that the man was wearing a ballistic vest which strongly suggests that the man barricaded himself in the apartment and was preparing himself for an armed confrontation with police," said Modesto police spokesman Sgt. Brian Findlen. The shooting led to a day-long standoff that ended Thursday night when the four-unit apartment building caught fire. On Friday, authorities recovered a badly burned body that has not been positively identified. But they said the male is the suspect in the slayings.

Soros warns euro crisis could destroy the EU - (www.reuters.com) Billionaire George Soros warned on Monday that the euro crisis is growing deeper, tearing at the fabric of European Union cohesion, because policymakers are prescribing the wrong remedies. "I'm afraid that the euro crisis is getting worse. It's not over yet, and it is going in the wrong direction," Soros said in discussion with Denmark's economics minister hosted by the daily newspaper Politiken. "The euro is undermining the political cohesion of the European Union, and if it continues like that could even destroy the European Union," Soros said. "That is due to a misunderstanding of what the problem is."

Central bankers snub euro assets - (www.ft.com) Central bank reserve managers responsible for trillions of dollars of investments are shunning euro assets and questioning the currency’s haven status because of the region’s sovereign debt crisis, research has found. Among the most conservative of investors, central bankers keep much of their reserves in high quality euro and dollar denominated assets, such as government bonds. Although dollar assets, notably US Treasuries, have traditionally dominated their portfolios, eurozone government bonds had become more popular. However, a survey of reserve managers at 54 central banks responsible for portfolios worth $6tn, almost half the world’s total, signals that the sovereign debt crisis has sparked a reversal of that trend.

Spain Vows Argentina Trade War as Repsol Seeks $10.5 Billion - (www.bloomberg.com) Spain vowed to retaliate against Argentina’s exporters and energy supplies as Repsol YPF SA (REP) demanded $10.5 billion in compensation after the South American nation seized its YPF SA (YPFD) unit. Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau said today he will use all legal means to win full payment for losing the oil producer. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner deliberately deceived investors, executives and her own people with moves that distract voters from her nation’s economic problems, Brufau said. Repsol’s shares fell the most in seven months. “They are going to lead the country into chaos,” Brufau said at a press conference in Madrid. “A responsible country should plan based on reality and not how they would like things to be.”

More Help for the Wealthy - (www.nytimes.com) Taxes are never popular, especially in April of an election year. But the Republicans’ latest effort to tilt the tax code in favor of the wealthy, and starve the government of needed revenue, is particularly cynical. This week, the House Republican leadership is expected to bring up the “Small Business Tax Cut Act,” a bill to let most business owners deduct up to 20 percent of their business income in 2012 — a $46 billion tax cut. Despite the Mom-and-Pop label, it is designed so that nearly half of the tax cut would go to people with annual income over $1 million, and more than four-fifths would go to those making over $200,000, according to the Tax Policy Center.

OTHER STORIES:

European Car Sales Fall to 14-Year Low as Economy Stalls - (www.bloomberg.com)

Merkel Offers Spain No Respite as Debt Cuts Seen As Key - (www.bloomberg.com)

Japan Will Provide $60 Billion to Expand IMF’s Resources - (www.bloomberg.com)

U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Drop to Five-Month Low - (www.bloomberg.com)

Fed’s doves lose appetite for easing - (www.bloomberg.com)

Goldman Sachs Beats Analysts’ Estimates With 23% Profit Drop - (www.bloomberg.com)

Dimon Widens Gap With JPMorgan as Wall Street Pay Slides - (www.bloomberg.com)

Thursday May 3 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Spanish bailout 'impossible' for Eurozone - (www.telegraph.co.uk) The eurozone is not equipped to bail out Spain, the country's prime minister Mariano Rajoy has admitted, as global traders continued to punish the nation's stocks and bonds. Mr Rajoy said it was "not possible to rescue Spain" but insisted his country did not need a Greek-style international bail-out anyway. "To talk about a bail-out for Spain at the moment makes no sense," he told reporters. "Spain is not going to be rescued; it's not possible to rescue Spain, there's no intention to, it's not necessary and therefore it's not going to be rescued." Despite his comments, the Madrid bourse fell and the yields on the country's benchmark bonds remained stubbornly high. While other European markets soared on Thursday following strong gains in America, Spain's Ibex index lost 0.5pc. Politicians in Rome tried to counter the markets' view that Italy was in the same predicament as Spain.

"Historic districts" are just a way to prop up prices for the wealthy - (www.salon.com) New historic districts seem less interested in saving a neighborhood's character than driving up property values. If Amy Poehler’s peppy, can-do bureaucrat is the soul of “Parks and Recreation,” it’s easy to picture the star of a show about a historic preservation commission: a feisty, aging bohemian who long ago traded in her sitar for a shawl, defending her city’s charm from greedy developers who hate history as much as they love towers of glass. It’s the sort of character you might expect a Jane Jacobs devotee to follow in lockstep. But the people transforming today’s cities don’t forge their allegiances so predictably. Now, the developer who wants to demolish a row of historic houses to build a 50-story high-rise might be seen as the true urban savior — not the preservationist who wants to prevent him from doing so.

Turmoil in global markets as Spanish bank borrowing from ECB doubles - (www.telegraph.co.uk) Spanish bank borrowing from the European Central Bank doubled last month, revealing a dangerous dependence on emergency funding that on Friday triggered renewed turmoil in financial markets. The Bank of Spain disclosed the country's biggest institutions borrowed €316.3bn (£260.9bn) from the ECB in March, almost twice the €169.8bn in February. Traders dumped Spanish stocks and bought insurance against Madrid defaulting, convinced the data showed that the banks are now almost shut out of international credit markets. Spain's Ibex stock market plunged 3.6pc, with bank stocks leading the fall. The nation's benchmark 10-year bond yields soared past 6pc, heading deep into the danger zone that experts say is not sustainable without external support. Meanwhile, the cost of credit default swaps hit a record high of 500 basis points, meaning it costs £500,000 a year to insure £10m of Spanish debt over five years. This compares with around £70,000 for German debt.

President Obama's tax rate was 20.5%, lower than his secretary's - (www.latimes.com) As President Obama mounts an aggressive campaign on what he calls tax fairness, his own tax burden has fallen to the lowest of his time in the White House, lower than many who make far less — including his secretary. The president and first lady reported a joint adjusted gross income of $789,674 last year and paid $162,074 in federal taxes, or about 20.5%, according to the tax return released Friday by the White House. That income keeps the Obamas in the top 1% of taxpayers. The Obamas' overall tax rate is slightly lower than the average for people in the top tier — largely because he made significant donations to charity. Data compiled by the Tax Policy Center show the average income tax rate for those making more than $532,000 is 24%. Obama's rate was closer to the average for household earning more than $210,000 — 19.2%

Strip-Search Case Reflects Death of American Privacy - (www.bloomberg.com) To be the swing voter, you have to be willing to swing. In the last three weeks, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has shown how it’s done. First he wrote the majority opinion in a landmark 5-4 case establishing a constitutional right to an adequate lawyer in plea-bargaining negotiations. Liberals were enthused. Yet in his tough questioning during the Obamacare arguments, he shook up the conventional wisdom that mandatory coverage would be upheld comfortably. Liberals were not enthused. Then, as a coda, he wrote the majority opinion in a 5-4 case allowing jails to strip-search anyone being put into the general prison population -- even without suspicion, and even after the most trivial misdemeanor arrest. The same liberals who loved him in March are prepared to loathe him in April. Noah Feldman is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard and the author of five books, most recently "Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDRs Great Supreme Court Justices." What principle, if any, explains Kennedy’s vote in the strip-search case? Kennedy-watchers know that he is deeply sympathetic to arguments based on human dignity. His perception of dignity led him to vote to preserve the core of Roe v. Wade in 1992, and to write the two opinions that more or less created constitutional rights for gay people.

OTHER STORIES:

Europe's Economic Suicide - (www.nytimes.com)

Downgrades Loom for Banks - (online.wsj.com)

Spanish bond yields soar again - (www.money.cnn.com)

Profits Have Stalled. Has The Market? - (www.nytimes.com)

In Spain and Italy, Signs of a Lingering Crisis for Europe - (www.nytimes.com)

Freaky Friday the 13th: Risk returns to market - (money.cnn.com)

Wednesday May 2 Housing and Economic stories

KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com

TOP STORIES:

Check Out These Photos Of Federal Workers Living It Up In Las Vegas - (www.businessinsider.com) Room service and spa baths on the taxpayer dime. Jeffrey Neely, one of the embattled General Services Administration executives at the center of the agency's wasteful spending scandal, refused to testify in Congress today about a $822,751 Las Vegas training conference that he helped plan. Invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination, Neely declined to comment on the lavish conference, which featured a mind-reader, a clown, commemorative coin giveaways, and a strange award ceremony in which he mocked President Barack Obama. Neely was placed on administrative leave this month after a scathing report from the GSA's inspector general revealed the excesses at the conference, and is now facing a possible criminal investigation into his activities at the GSA, according to the Washington Post. ABC's Jake Tapper may have stumbled upon the reason behind Neely's silence. Earlier this afternoon, Tapper reported on a trove of photos from two of six pre-conference "planning trips" to Las Vegas on Neely's wife Deborah's Google Plus page. show the GSA executive living it up in a fancy suite at Las Vegas' M Resort Spa & Casino.

Coming Soon: ‘Taxmageddon’ - (www.nytimes.com) ON Jan. 1 of next year, the federal tax bill for a typical middle-class household — making in the neighborhood of $50,000 — is scheduled to rise by about $1,750. This increase, which would come from the expiration of both the Bush tax cuts and the Obama stimulus, would follow a decade of little to no income growth for many people. As a result, inflation-adjusted, after-tax income for the median household could fall next year to its 1998 level, in spite of the continuing economic recovery. The middle-class tax increase is just the beginning of budget changes set to take effect at the start of 2013. Poor families would see their taxes rise somewhat, too. Total federal taxes for top-earning families would rise by tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Spending cuts would also take effect, squeezing domestic programs — education, transportation, scientific research — and the military.

U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Fell in April to Three-Month Low- (www.bloomberg.com) Confidence among U.S. homebuilders fell in April to a three-month low, a sign the industry is still trying to gain its footing.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence decreased to 25 this month from 28 in March, the Washington-based group said today. Economists projected no change in the index, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Readings below 50 mean more respondents said conditions were poor. Borrowing costs close to all-time lows, population growth that may spur more demand for homes and cheaper properties are helping stabilize residential real estate. At the same time, the recovery may take time as the prospect of more foreclosed homes returning to the market competes with new construction.

Downgrades Loom for Banks - (online.wsj.com) European banks are bracing for a wave of ratings downgrades in coming weeks that could intensify pressure on the fragile industry and further undercut recent efforts to defuse the Continent's long-running financial crisis. Under pressure from banks, Moody's Investors Service said Friday that it is delaying until early May its highly anticipated decision on whether to downgrade the credit ratings of 114 banks in 16 European countries. Moody's announced the review in February, saying it was needed in light of the banks' weak conditions and the tough environment in which they're operating. It had planned to start unveiling the decisions this week.

Argentina Will Seize 51% of YPF Under Fernandez Proposal - (www.bloomberg.com) Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner seized control of YPF SA (YPFD), the nation’s largest crude producer, ousting Spanish owner Repsol YPF SA (REP) after a dispute over slumping oil output and investments. Argentina took over management of YPF with immediate effect, replacing Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Eskenazi with Planning Minister Julio De Vido, Fernandez said yesterday in a speech in Buenos Aires. The government will also send a bill to Congress to take a 51 percent stake in YPF, she said. The takeover follows more than two months of increasing government pressure on YPF after fuel imports doubled to $9.4 billion last year.

OTHER STORIES:

Generation of investors ‘may shun eurozone’ - (www.ft.com)

Euro-Area Trade Surplus Narrows More Than Estimated on Imports - (www.bloomberg.com)

ECB Becomes Campaign Issue as Hollande Slams Crisis Response - (www.bloomberg.com)

India’s Inflation Slows Less Than Economists Estimates- (www.bloomberg.com)

France faces revival of radical left - (www.ft.com)

Retail Sales in U.S. Increased More Than Forecast in March - (www.bloomberg.com)

Citigroup Misses Estimate on Accounting Cost; Trading Gains - (www.bloomberg.com)