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Sep 8, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
Wow, it never seems to end the level to which the American public is bilked on a regular basis that is. -Sean
They Left Fannie Mae, but We Got the Legal Bills
PRECISELY one year ago, we lucky taxpayers took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that contributed mightily to the wild and [...]
Wow, it never seems to end the level to which the American public is bilked on a regular basis that is. -Sean
They Left Fannie Mae, but We Got the Legal Bills
PRECISELY one year ago, we lucky taxpayers took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that contributed mightily to the wild and crazy home-loan-boom-turned-bust. In that rescue operation, the Treasury agreed to pony up as much as $200 billion to keep Fannie in the black, coughing up cash whenever its liabilities exceed its assets. According to the company’s most recent quarterly financial statement, the Treasury will, by Sept. 30, have handed over $45 billion to shore up the company’s net worth.
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Sep 8, 2009 | Comments Off | Sean Mills
Funny timing for the statistics to be released just in time for labor day and the long weekend. I was doing the unmentionable this last weekend and stopped by a local fast food restaurant to address the immediate needs of my 4 an 7 year old, please don’t tell their mom…I noted to myself that [...]
Funny timing for the statistics to be released just in time for labor day and the long weekend. I was doing the unmentionable this last weekend and stopped by a local fast food restaurant to address the immediate needs of my 4 an 7 year old, please don’t tell their mom…I noted to myself that the attendant at the drive up was not very good, she had to stop me repeattedly as I was going too fast and needless to say I repeated my order a good half dozen times before we were done at the speaker. As I drove up to the window I noticed the attendant was a caucassian women in her fortiesand running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Not to say I go to Der Weinershnitzel often but I do go enough to know she was out of her element and not the norm in the fast food industry. My experience in the last 6 months is this is more and more normal. People who would not have taken a job at this level are now shucking and jiving to make ends meet. The guy now flipping the sign advertising “Hawaiin Pork lunch specials” is probably your realtor, mortgage broker or support staff for one of the major players in this last economic meltdown. Enough of my crazed rantings on the economy in whole Mish scores another one with this insightful report on the current employment numbers. It is also nice to see the reference to the ture umeployment numbers, U6, in this article -Sean
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Sep 4, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
From Bloomberg.com,
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings rose 24 percent in August from the previous year to 119,874, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute and National Bankruptcy Research Center.
“Consumers continue to turn to bankruptcy as a shield from the sustained financial pressures of today’s economy,” said Samuel Gerdano, the executive director of the [...]
buy prescription drugs target=”_blank”>From Bloomberg.com,
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) — U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings rose 24 percent in August from the previous year to 119,874, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute and National Bankruptcy Research Center.
“Consumers continue to turn to bankruptcy as a shield from the sustained financial pressures of today’s economy,” said Samuel Gerdano, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute. “As a result, we expect consumer filings to top 1.4 million this year.”
While the August figure was an increase over the prior year, filings declined from July’s total of 126,434, the groups said in a statement.
The current wave of consumer bankruptcies has swept up celebrities such as actor Stephen Baldwin, former baseball player Lenny Dykstra and celebrity photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri.
Sep 4, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
The Wall Street Journal Online edition ran this article today. The Reluctant Landlords….shoot out on the west coast we are seeing a move toward real capital to exploit the deficiencies in low price and higher rents. There are even some flocking back into the buy low and flip model, I will wait this one out. [...]
The Wall Street Journal Online edition ran this article today. The Reluctant Landlords….shoot out on the west coast we are seeing a move toward real capital to exploit the deficiencies in low price and higher rents. There are even some flocking back into the buy low and flip model, I will wait this one out. A trend among the bigger real estate brokers is to harvest their top clients, form a vulture fund and go shopping. -Sean
With housing prices still in the dumps, many Americans are finding themselves in the uncomfortable position of landlord.
Some have been forced to relocate for a job and can’t sell their houses. Others have moved, but are holding on to their previous homes, hoping for prices to rebound before selling. Many are finding that rent checks don’t come close to covering their mortgage payments.
Hard data are scant on how many homeowners are renting out their homes, but anecdotal evidence suggests numbers are up. In one indication of the trend: More homeowners are converting their homeowners insurance to landlord policies that cover the additional risks of leasing out a home. Allstate Corp., Cialis Online buy the second largest home insurer in the U.S., reported a 27% increase in conversions in the first quarter from the previous year.
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Sep 4, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
This was from the California Association of Realtors (CAR) on the IRS’ creative thinking to find more efficient ways to track down the “cheaters”. I know this doesn’t apply to any of you out there. -Sean
IRS to mine payment data on mortgages
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will study whether it should make greater use of [...]
This was from the California Association of Realtors (CAR) on the IRS’ creative thinking to find more efficient ways to track down the “cheaters”. I know this doesn’t apply to any of you out there. -Sean
IRS to mine payment data on mortgages
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will study whether it should make greater use of data on mortgage-interest payments provided to it by banks. The program, which searches for inconsistencies between mortgage payments and income, is currently used to send notices to non-filers who it believes should have filed a return. It could be used to target for audits individuals who report less income than they paid in mortgage interest.
The move will expand a regional research project on mortgage interest to a nationwide level by December 2011. Initiatives such as these typically involve examination of a small number of tax returns to evaluate new enforcement strategies.
According to the Treasury inspector general, tens of thousands prescription drugs without a prescription of homeowners who paid more than $20,000 in mortgage interest in 2005, the latest tax data available when the Treasury inspector general’s office began its audit last year, either didn’t file a tax return or reported income that appears insufficient to cover their mortgage interest and basic living expenses.
To read the full story.
Sep 3, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
Nice to hear what most of are already thinking. What would be nicer was if the Feds could actually do something about it.-Sean
If bankers are feeling a little nervous Buy Drugs in the run-up to this month’s G-20 meeting of the global leaders in Pittsburgh, they only have themselves to blame.
Earlier this summer, bankers [...]
Nice to hear what most of are already thinking. What would be nicer was if the Feds could actually do something about it.-Sean
If bankers are feeling a little nervous Buy Drugs in the run-up to this month’s G-20 meeting of the global leaders in Pittsburgh, they only have themselves to blame.
Earlier this summer, bankers appeared to be doing a good job persuading politicians that a rapid return to business as normal was the best guarantee of an economic recovery — and the recouping of the huge sums of public money used to rescue the financial system. Central bankers and regulators feared that momentum for global financial reform was being lost.
But that was before bankers started awarding themselves giant, boom-style multiyear guaranteed pay packages, doubling and trebling their basic salaries and accruing billions of dollars for this year’s bonus pool.
The political backlash was predictable: European leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will be seeking global policies to clamp down on bankers’ pay that could yet lead to major changes to the industry.
Banks claim they are only paying their staff the market rate and that failure to do so would damage their businesses. But that misses the point: A system where banks that have received massive support from governments and central banks think it is sensible to prioritize paying outlandish compensation packages to their employees ahead of repaying government capital, rebuilding their equity to support new lending or even rewarding their long-suffering shareholders is not a free market but a racket.
Still, governments must keep their focus. Bonuses are a symptom not a cause of market failure. The real issue is the structure and scale of the banking industry: Banks deemed too big to fail need to be cut down to size or more closely regulated and governments need to decide what financial activities should come within the scope of their implicit guarantees. But these are issues best addressed via capital and liquidity regimes, rather than Mr. Sarkozy’s impractical proposals for new taxes and bonus limits.
This task cannot be left to regulators, whose mandate is to mitigate risk to the financial system not to change the system itself. On a purely risk-based assessment, for example, the Financial Stability Board might raise capital requirements for derivative trading while leaving those for liquid markets such as foreign exchange or commodities in tact — so that banks still have plenty of scope for gambling.
If G-20 leaders really want to change the culture and structure of the industry, they will need to give regulators a beefed-up mandate — or risk allowing the bankers off the hook once again.
Sep 3, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
The markets are all over the place in regards to investments and no one can seem to agree on if the current track being pursued by the Feds will return the desired effect for the economy. What is true is we need more production to boost our GDP, more jobs created or sustained and the [...]
The markets are all over the place in regards to investments and no one can seem to agree on if the current track being pursued by the Feds will return the desired effect for the economy. What is true is we need more production to boost our GDP, more jobs created or sustained and the real estate market to firm up. Can’t promise any of these items but there is some light at the end of the day, US job loss is slowing. -Sean
The pace of job losses slowed last month, a report released Wednesday showed, but the small improvement suggests a return to job growth could still be many months away.
Service-sector employment declined by 146,000 in August, while goods-producing jobs including construction and manufacturing fell by 152,000, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc., a payroll firm.
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Sep 1, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
Not much of a shock on this one either. -Sean
Source Article: Wall Street Journal
It is too early to contemplate an end to the Federal Reserve’s unconventional easing strategy, said William Dudley, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, in a television interview Monday.
“My own personal view is, I think it’s a little premature to [...]
Not much of a shock on this one either. -Sean
Source Article: Wall Street Journal
It is too early to contemplate an end to the Federal Reserve’s unconventional easing strategy, said William Dudley, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, in a television interview Monday.
“My own personal view is, I think it’s a little premature to be so confident that you want to pull all these things back right now,” Dudley Generic Drugs said in a CNBC interview.
The Fed has a plan to buy $1.25 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $200 billion of debt issued by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The central bank is about half-way through the purchases. The plans are designed to boost the economy because buying the mortgage debt has made it less expensive for consumers to buy homes.
Last week, two regional Fed presidents — Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, and James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed — said in separate speeches that the Fed may not have to buy all these securities because the economy is leveling out.
Julia Coronado, an analyst with BNP Paribas, said Dudley appeared to be trying to throw cold water on this idea. Dudley is one of the key architects of the Fed’s zero-interest rate program. He is likely speaking for the majority of members on the 12-member FOMC.
But the minority on the Fed leery of the new purchases has had an impact. They’ve kept the Fed from expanding its purchase plans further. Earlier in August, the Fed said it would conclude its purchases of $300 billion in U.S. government debt by the end of October.
Some economists think this may turn out to be a mistake.
Sep 1, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
From the NAR (National Association of Realtors), again the increase in sales is from first time buyers and investors. Please keep in mind which body of professionals the NAR represents and what their prime motivation is..to sell homes. It will be interesting to see how sales are affected at the end of the summer season [...]
From the NAR (National Association of Realtors), again the increase in sales is from first time buyers and investors. Please keep in mind which body of professionals the NAR represents and what their prime motivation is..to sell homes. It will be interesting to see how sales are affected at the end of the summer season and will Uncle Sam’s buyers incentive program ends this fall. Alt-A defaults and NODs are on the rise with the as we will see how this shakes out in the next months. -Sean
Washington, September 01, 2009
Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in July, increased 3.2 percent to 97.6 from a reading of 94.6 in June, and is 12.0 percent higher than July 2008 when it was 87.1. The index is at the highest level since June 2007 when it was 100.7.
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Aug 28, 2009 | No Comments | Sean Mills
Fed official is quoted as saying “If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart. During [...]
Fed official is quoted as saying “If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart. During this recession I have often warned to look at the true numbers as they relate to unemployment, the BLS U6 numbers and not the “official” U3 feel good numbers. Oh but remember even though he is a Fed Chief, it is his opinion and not that of the Fed. -Sean
Real US unemployment rate at 16 pct: Fed official
The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.
“If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart.
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