States Credit Rating Outlook Turns Negative
• Bloomberg.comHalf of U.S. states, including New York, New Jersey and California, are projecting budget deficits next fiscal year amid the worst housing slump in 16 years.
Contents Pages by Subject
Economy - Economics USA
Southern California Homes Sales at a 20 Year Record Low
• CalculatedRisk.blogspot.comLast month's median home price was 17.8 percent below the $505,000 peak reached last spring and summer.
Wage Freeze for Teachers and Wage Cuts for GM
• Michael Shedlock / MishBrace yourself California because that $14 billion deficit is likely to double or triple. If double another 10% budget cutback will be needed. If triple, an additional 20% in budget cuts will be needed.
Depression risk might force U.S. to buy assets
• Reuters.comFear that a hobbled banking sector may set off another Great Depression could force the U.S. government and Federal Reserve to take the unprecedented step of buying a broad range of assets, including stocks....
Europe's Philosophy of Failure
• Foreign Policy / Stefan TheilFrench and German students undergo a dangerous indoctrination. Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, they are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias.
Henry Paulson on Real Estate: "The worst is just beginning"
• CalculatedRisk.blogspot.comIn this video of today's news conference you will witness a Treasury Secretary who looks like he is standing on a bed of red hot coals.
Economics of Envy: Reality of Shrinking Middle Class
• MondorebThe middle class is shrinking: more are moving upwards.
Super-Sized Subsidies
• Goldwater InstituteThe local Super Bowl Host Committee shoveled out about $17 million for the weeklong Super Bowl party in Phoenix. Some are lobbying to have the legislature make taxpayers bear more of the expense of bringing the Super Bowl back to Phoenix in 2012.
GM posts $38.7 billion loss for 2007
• News.Yahoo.comThe Detroit-based automaker said it was offering a new round of buyouts to all 74,000 of its U.S. hourly workers who are represented by the United Auto Workers.
Credit Default Swap Tsunami Approaches
• Michael Shedlock / MishBy AIG's definition, housing must be at "depression levels". However, we are only in the third inning or so of housing declines. Six more innings are coming. What will AIG's swaps look like then.
Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans
• NY TimesThe credit crisis is no longer just a subprime mortgage problem. As home prices fall and banks tighten lending standards, people with good, or prime, credit histories are falling behind on their payments for home loans, auto loans and credit cards at
Inventory, Inventory, Inventory
• CalculatedRisk.blogspot.comSo not only is this the highest yearend inventory in history, but the December decline was less than normal (only 7.4%).
Banks Need Bailouts, But Where's The Money?
• Michael Shedlock / MishSo where is the money? It's not in the US. Paulson has resorted to begging sovereign wealth funds to bail out capital impaired US banks.
Home prices will drop for 2 more years, experts predict
• Newsday.com"We are way early in the curve in terms of the devastation to housing," said Manhattan appraiser Jonathan Miller, executive vice president at Radar Logic, a real estate data firm
Las Vegas Real Estate: January Median Sale Price -17.3%
• HousingDoom.comIn evaluating the nation’s 330 biggest metropolitan areas, SmartMoney magazine says the median price in Las Vegas should be closer to $198,000, down 31 percent from $286,000 in 2007’s second quarter.
Las Vegas Real Estate: January Median Sale Price -17.3%
• HousingDoom.comIn evaluating the nation’s 330 biggest metropolitan areas, SmartMoney magazine says the median price in Las Vegas should be closer to $198,000, down 31 percent from $286,000 in 2007’s second quarter.
Phoenix Real Estate: Lender-Owned Homes Now 19% of Homes Sales
• HousingDoom.comIt is being reported that 38% of sales in Las Vegas are "lender-owned", so Phoenix appears to still be in better shape. However, the foreclosure rate continues to grow in the Phoenix area.
Chavez threatens to halt oil sales to US
• APPresident Hugo Chavez threatened to cut off oil sales to the US if Exxon Mobil wins court judgments to seize billions of dollars in Venezuelan assets. "If you end up freezing [our assets], we're going to harm you," Chavez said. "Do
Will "Walk Aways" Increase Discretionary Spending?
• Michael Shedlock / Mish"So the bottom line is that what the payroll data have missed is the fact that over the past six months, 520,000 self-employed individuals have fallen by the wayside (more than were lost in the entire 2001 recession).
The Bush Financial Bust of 2008 - by Mike Whitney
• GlobalResearch.caThe problem for the FDIC is that it has never supervised a bank failure which exceeded 175,000 accounts. So the impending financial tsunami is likely to be a crash-course in crisis management.
The Ron Paul Rebate
• The PledgeSitting around wondering how to spend your "stimulus" check when it arrives? Here is an idea:
Congress Sends $168 Billion Economic Stimulus to Bush
• BloombergCongress passed and sent to President Bush a $168 billion economic stimulus package that he said is needed to help boost the slowing economy. The legislation would send tax rebate checks to more than 111 million households, [INFLATION]
Mortgage crisis fallout spreads to 'muni market'
• Christian Science MonitorInvestors are wary of insurance guarantees for some bonds issued by cities to fund capital projects. [So if cities default, what is the collateral? Shhhhh... hint: you're living in it.]
"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
• ReutersNEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain\'t what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
• ReutersNEW YORK (Reuters) - In the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
Freddie and Fannie about to get Squeezed?
• HousingDoom.comAmid the worst housing crisis in a generation, pressures are mounting for an expanded role by the two mortgage finance companies, even as lawmakers also call for a tightening of the reins on them....
Fannie and Freddie about to get squeezed?
• HousingDoom.comRaising the cap, they warned, to include so-called ‘jumbo’ mortgages just raises the potential for bigger losses.
"Euros Accepted" signs pop up in New York City
• ReutersIn the latest example that the U.S. dollar just ain't what it used to be, some shops in New York City have begun accepting euros and other foreign currency as payment for merchandise.
Foreclosures: The 100 Worst Hit Zip Codes
• Money.CNN.comSeven of the top 100 worst hit zip codes last December were in the gaming capital, according to statistics compiled for CNNMoney.com by RealtyTrac, which markets foreclosed properties online.
Celebrity Real Estate Losers
• Forbes.comEven Hollywood's rich and famous can't avoid the housing downturn that's sweeping the nation. In Los Angeles, only 4,430 homes were sold in December, down 48% from the previous year.
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