May 25, 2008

BUBBLETALK - Open thread to talk about the housing crash, mortgage meltdown, idiot realtors on commission and whatever else is on your mind

Have at it..

And vote early and vote often for HP at this REIC blog contest (current hilarious leaderboard here)

263 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   201 – 263 of 263
Anonymous said...

Report: California Congresswoman walked away from $578K mortgage.

Capitol Weekly reports that newly elected California Congresswoman Laura Richardson walked away from the mortgage on her $535,000 Sacramento home, letting the house slip into foreclosure and disrepair less than two years after she bought it with no money down.

"While being elevated to Congress in a 2007 special election, Richardson apparently stopped making payments on her new Sacramento home, and eventually walked away from it, leaving nearly $600,000 in unpaid loans and fees," the publication reports.

Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, declined to comment for the Capitol Weekly story, and her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from LA Land.

Capitol Weekly, citing tax records at the Sacramento County assessor's office, reports "... in January 2007, Richardson took out a mortgage for the entire sale price of the house -- $535,000. The mortgage amount was equal to the sale price of the home, meaning she was able to buy the house without a down payment, even though the housing market was beginning to turn. A March 19, 2008 notice of trustee's sale indicates that the unpaid balance of Richardson's loan, which is held by Washington Mutual, is more than $578,000 –$40,000 more than the original mortgage."

In addition to 100% financing on the home itself, the report quotes the woman who sold the house to Richardson as saying she also gave Richardson $15,000 toward closing costs.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/05/report-californ.html

Anonymous said...

Here are a bunch of folk who made some very silly mistakes

http://tinyurl.com/4jxh79

"I fully understand the consequences of what may happen. I am more upset with the loan we were given. It is not a loan that was set up for success. Complete failure is what should have been expected. Looking back, I am not sure why we qualified for the house."

You only understand now idiot/

Anonymous said...

The Boeing Co. will lay off 750 Southern California employees after losing a lucrative military satellite contract and seeing a dip in demand for the technology, the company said Wednesday.

The cuts involving engineers at plants in El Segundo and Seal Beach will take the staff of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the company's satellite division

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/
financialnews/D90Q9GH80.htm

Anonymous said...

American Airlines to slash thousands of jobs

The cutback ''is the right and necessary thing for American to do with oil at $US130'' a barrel, said Doug Runte, managing director at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut. The move will help American boost fares, he added.

http://business.smh.com.au/
american-airlines-to-slash-
thousands-of-jobs-20080522-2h0m.html

Anonymous said...

McGraw-Hill says it will cut 395 positions in its financial services and education segments. The cuts are aimed at lowering costs in the areas most affected by current market conditions.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/
2008/05/20/ap5029470.html

Anonymous said...

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is laying off hundreds of workers.

More than a third of those being laid off are scientists and engineers.

The lab will give pink slips Thursday to 330 career employees, and another 110 on Friday.

http://www.kcbs.com/Lawrence-
Livermore-Lab-Layoffs-Off-
Hundreds/2231422

Anonymous said...

Up to 700 jobs are at risk following Citigroup's decision to shut down its consumer finance and sub-prime lending operations after a strategic review.

http://www.efinancialnews.com/
tradingandtechnology/index/
content/2350701504

Anonymous said...

Bernanke's Fed: Fox in the Henhouse

Rather than trying to manage bubbles, Bernanke's band of merry men should start by not inflating them in the first place.

There was a good piece in Harper's a while back about bubbles. The logic was tortured if you dug too deeply, but the overriding message was true: We've been creating new bubbles by managing the last one.

The "solution" to the Tech Bubble was to slash interest rates to record low levels. That, in turn, cut the price of monthly mortgage payments and sent housing prices on an upward spiral.

As house prices inflated, speculators and short-term investors moved in, and banks pushed the envelope of funding those speculators to make a quick buck. The advent of so-called NINJA mortgages - No Income, No Jobs, (No) Assets - marked the apex of this trend.

When home prices inevitably peaked, the banking system locked up, and the Fed's response was to flood the market with an unprecedented amount of money. The growth in money supply over the past few quarters has been near historical highs.

Not surprisingly, this growth has fueled into a boom in inflation-sensitive commodities. Now, investors are piling into that market as well.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/
77782-bernanke-s-fed-fox-in-the-
henhouse

Anonymous said...

Oil smashed past 135 dollars a barrel for the first time Thursday, continuing its astonishing rise following unexpected drops in US crude and gasoline stocks in a tight market, dealers said.

In Asian morning trade, New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, rose to a high of 135.04 dollars a barrel

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
stories/afp_asiapacific_business/
view/349315/1/.html

Anonymous said...

Workers want pay rise to fight inflation

Many employees believe they will need a pay rise of five per cent this year to stay ahead of rising living costs, a new survey shows.

http://news.theage.com.au/national/
workers-want-pay-rise-to-fight-
inflation-20080521-2gqk.html

Anonymous said...

July rice futures jumped by as much as 2.24 percent in early electronic trade in Asia on Thursday, as soaring crude oil prices helped Chicago Board of Trade grains futures markets broadly extend gains.

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/
article.aspx?id=567388

Anonymous said...

Six months ago when HP was predicting $4 gas by End of Feb, 2008, everyone said not possible.

In Feb, 2008 when a report asked President Bush what did he think about the $4 per gas in the bay area and President Bush said I knew gas was high, but I did not know it was up to $4 per gallon.

Now many gas stations in Califorina are averaging $4 per gallon, so what about $6 by December is that possible.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/
thebigblog/archives/139390.asp?from=blog_last3

$6 gas could be less than two years away

A lot of numbers get thrown around when it comes to the future of the world's oil markets. But one prediction by an analyst the New York Times calls the "Oracle of Oil" is downright scary.

Arjun N. Murti of Goldman Sachs believes a price surge will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.

Anonymous said...

CA Senator Home Foreclosure:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080522/ap_on_re_us/congresswoman_s_house

Anonymous said...

The rebound is likely "just a bear-market rally based on the false conception that the authorities can handle all these crises," Soros said in remarks at the London School of Economics.
Soros highlighted arguments made in his new book, "The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means." In the book, Soros describes the current financial crisis as the worst since the Great Depression.
The current crisis follows the building of a 25-year "super bubble," an explosion of credit creation that accompanied increased deregulation of financial markets, Soros said. Authorities have been quick over that period to bail out markets during periods of distress, but are now overwhelmed by the fallout from the credit crunch.
Soros said he wasn't predicting a return to the Great Depression of the 1930s, but argued that the likely path for the U.S. economy lies between two extremes: In the best-case scenario, growth begins to revive by the end of 2008. In the worst-case scenario, the U.S. experience echoes Japan's long-running bout of subpar growth in the wake of its burst real-estate bubble and damage to the Japanese banking system.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/
story/george-soros-recent-market-
gains/story.aspx

Anonymous said...

Hong Kong property developers sharply lower on talk banks may raise rates

HSBC Plc and other lenders operating in the city did not follow the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in cutting interest rates last month.

It was the first time since the HKMA began easing borrowing costs in September that the banks did not match the de facto central bank's rate cut.

http://www.finanznachrichten.de/
nachrichten-2008-05/artikel-
10881074.asp

Anonymous said...

Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc , a struggling mortgage lender, said it lost $2.05 billion in 2007, largely because of mounting credit losses tied to higher delinquencies and defaults as the housing market slumped.

The loss totaled $27.10 per share, and compared with a loss of $75.3 million, or $1.18 per share, in 2006, Impac said late Tuesday.

Impac said it lost $1.65 billion from continuing operations in 2007, compared with an $8 million profit a year earlier.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/
wireStory?id=4897724

Anonymous said...

California Congresswoman loses house to foreclosure...

http://www.capitolweekly.net/article.php?_adctlid=v%7Cjq2q43wvsl855o%7Cx4qkjhxlldwn8k&issueId=x48gnuowgqsg6o&xid=x4ptlrmv0w0r6x

http://tinyurl.com/6m2kcq

Anonymous said...

Nice try Deepcgi but we know you're real deal.

You don't enjoy a finely tuned combustion engine but a finely tuned Cello as you play it in the darkness like Hannibal Lecter. Or perhaps tinkering with theories for improving the killing power of nuclear weapons.

You see, having demonstrated that you're not stupid then you must be evil.

It's one or the other with 'your kind'. Come clean and feel the heightened sense of self importance as a left wing sheeple.

Anonymous said...

Want to see a stop-motion video about a couple of mice who must second-guess their real-estate-purchase descision? I made this video last year. Please check it out and comment. Thanks.

Blemish and Pittance: The New Place

Anonymous said...

$6 gas could be less than two years away
Are you brain-dead renter morons getting squeezed by high gas prices? Look you f*cking dipshits, gasoline and food is less than 1% of my income. If gas goes up to $10 a gallon it will still be under 1%. So, I don't give a f*ck about gasoline and food prices. We "the elite" just don't care. Welcome back to modern day slavery, trailer trash morons and drooling imbeciles. This time the tables are turned, Blowfly on top and your ass in the grass!

Refuse to buy overpriced said...

ATTENTION BLOWFLY

What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?

Repent while you still can. Jesus is merciful.

Anonymous said...

Regression.

Sport your terms, show us why economics is the red headed step child of science.

Regression.

There's your term.

Anonymous said...

If it was only that simple, the Federal Reserve would had raise interst rate alrady.

http://www.businessspectator.com.
au/bs.nsf/Article/Hosing-down-
speculators-EVB6G?OpenDocument

Oil prices are up around 60 per cent since the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates in September.

Other commodity prices have also spiralled. That is damaging to global growth.

The Fed should raise rates sharply to shock the market, signal its determination to reverse the commodities price spiral, and squeeze speculators’ funding costs.

ponytail nights said...

Great (and funny) article about home "ownership" in Salon.com today. Link:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/05/23/home_improvement/

Anonymous said...

.


FROGS! FROGS!

IN CHINA!

"And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon (China?) and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like 'frogs';

14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God Almighty!

revelation 16



.

Paige Turner said...

Hillary just won't go away. Obama is clearly the people's choice and the better Democratic candidate. What's going on here? Does Hillary have inside information that Obama will soon be taken down?

Could Obama possibly be linked to Syrian-born immigrant, Tony Rezko, who is facing 24 total counts of wire and mail fraud, aiding and abetting a solicitation of bribery, money laundering and attempted extortion? Add in charges that included racketeering, bribery and tax fraud and we're talking about some serious charges here.

Reporter Evelyn Pringle thinks Obama is dirty and that this information will cause him to fall like a ton of bricks:

"Republicans have enough damaging information against Barack Obama to knock him off the ballot before the November election. Those at the top of the Democratic Party know this by now and voters need to recognize that if they nominate him they are throwing the election. Nothing else can explain why they would allow this disaster to happen."

"The investigation called "Operation Board Games" will lead to Obama's downfall and it will begin with what he claims was a "boneheaded" mistake in entering into real estate deal with the Syrian-born immigrant, Antoin 'Tony' Rezko, less than a month after Rezko received a $3.5 million loan from the Iraqi-born billionaire, Nadhmi Auchi, who ended up with Riverside Park, a $2.5 billion 62-acre development project in the Chicago Loop."

"Obama set his sights on a $2 million mansion the month after he was elected to the US Senate. It's now known that Rezko got involved in the house-buying endeavor early on, although his involvement would not known until November 2006, the month after Rezko’s indictment was unsealed in the Operation Board Games case."


This link is to chapter 4 of Curtain Time For Barack Obama. The 3 previous installments are listed at the top of the page.

Will Hillary drop this bombshell before the Democratic national convention and slip into the driver's seat? She's the queen of dirty tricks, so it wouldn't surprise me if she did.

V.L.

Anonymous said...

It's official, CA going bankrupt:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/24794835/for/cnbc/

one city at a time.

truth is, the bulk of their tax base is home/real estate taxes.

now that that's crumbling ... BINGO! ... BK!!

Anonymous said...

when the market is going up, we're all capitalists.

when the market is going down, we're all a bunch of commies crying for a bailout.

Anonymous said...

California markets top list for least affordable homes

Seven of the 10 least affordable housing markets in the nation during the first quarter are in California, according to a report released today by the National Association of Home Builders.

Los Angeles remained the least affordable housing market with a population above 500,000 for the 14th consecutive quarter in first-quarter 2008.

And Los Angeles was followed by New York City; San Francisco; Salinas; San Luis Obispo, Calif.; Napa, Calif.; Miami; Sana Ana, Calif.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; and Nassau, N.Y., as the least affordable metro areas in the nation, according to the index report.

Salinas, Calif., topped the list of smaller metro areas for the lowest affordability ranking.

http://www.inman.com/
InmanINF/trackmy/news/49959

Anonymous said...

When is 46% of monthly gross considered affordable.

There are two problems with this report.

1) At 10% down payment C.A.R. did not include PMI

Mortgage $1851
Tax $ 341
PMI $ 371
Insurance $ 38

2) With PMI the total payment would be around $2601/month so with monthly income of $5652 that about 46% of monthly gross.

http://www.car.org/
index.php?id=Mzg0ODk=

The minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home at $356,350 in California in the first quarter of 2008 was $67,830, based on an adjustable interest rate of 5.65 percent and assuming a 10 percent down payment.

First-time buyers typically purchase a home equal to 85 percent of the prevailing
median price.

The monthly payment including taxes and insurance was $2,260 for the first quarter of 2008.

Anonymous said...

The median price of a house in Santa Clara County has to drop another 36% to be considered affordable based on traditional calculation of monthly payment not to exceed 28% of monthly gross income.

C.A.R. used 46% of monthly gross as a basis of their calculation,
so that means given the same conditions if C.A.R. would have used the standard 28% of monthly gross for the median house price of Santa Clara County then the median house price has to drop to around $393,000 from $663,000.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/
stories/2008/05/19/daily32.html

The percentage of households that could afford to buy an entry-level home in California rose to 44 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with 26 percent for the same period a year ago, according to a report released Tuesday by the California Association of Realtors.

In Santa Clara County the affordability index was 31 percent, up from 27 percent in the year-ago quarter. With a $663,000 entry-level price, the minimum qualifying income was $126,200.

Anonymous said...

How does the Dow Theory work

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/
local/nj/20080520_Jevic_
Transportation_shutting_down.html

"When you are a carrier, you see the recession coming before anyone else," he said. "Customers are shipping less."

The trucking firm Jevic Transportation Inc., of Delanco, announced yesterday that it was ceasing operations after 27 years, a victim of high diesel and insurance costs as well as the tightened economy.

"For many motor carriers, fuel is now equal to labor as the highest expense," she said. "The trucking industry spent $112 billion on fuel in 2007, and we're on pace to spend $141.5 billion in 2008."

Since Jan. 1, 2007, diesel fuel prices have risen from $2.67 a gallon to $4.52 yesterday, according to AAA.

The 1,500-employee national firm, with about 1,000 in Burlington County, making it one of the county's largest employers, said it would deliver all freight already within its system before closing entirely.

Peter A. Robinson, director of marketing and corporate communications, said the company had been feeling pressure from the economic downturn for months and had been reducing positions for some time.

Anonymous said...

Truckers battle high fuel costs

In the trucking world six mpg is “fairly” fuel efficient, Rouse says.

“Fuel costs are our number one concern,” said WTA president Mike Hatton of ABF Freight in Cheyenne. “It affects us all, not just truckers.

“The nation's economy is down and there's less freight to haul,” he added. “Because fuel costs are so high, we're making less money on each load.”

He added that many people underestimate the importance of the trucking industry to the nation's economy.

“If America's trucks stop rolling, America's economy stops,” Hatton said. “In a state as remote as Wyoming trucks haul everything people need and use.

The increase in fuel costs has resulted in increased prices for just about every piece of merchandise on store shelves, Hatton said.

“When it costs more to get the products to the store, the price of those products is going to go up,” Hatton said.

To recoup some of the increase in fuel prices, many trucking companies have started implementing fuel surcharges as high as 18 percent, Hatton said.

These are charges in addition to shipping costs that go directly to pay for fuel.

Other companies have increased their shipping charges.

http://www.codyenterprise.com/
articles/2008/05/22/news/news3.txt

Anonymous said...

California City finally throws in the towel and declares bankruptcy;
http://tinyurl.com/5ncncd

"The city of Vallejo filed for bankruptcy protection today after administrators and leaders were unable to sufficiently trim a nearly $17-million shortfall."

The Bay Area city, with a population of about 120,000, had been bracing for the possibility since February as tax revenues fell and employee costs remained high. Eighty percent of the city's budget goes to police and firefighters, far above the norm for most California cities."

Anonymous said...

How long does the word ``temporary'' mean? The accountant who wants to stay employed knows the right answer: ``How long do you want it to mean?''

That new twist on an old joke goes a long way toward explaining Freddie Mac's net loss last quarter of $151 million, which was smaller than analysts' estimates. In reality, Freddie is gushing much more red ink than that. Yet hardly any of it is showing up on the company's income statement.

That's mainly because the government-chartered mortgage financier has deemed $32.4 billion of paper losses from mortgage- related securities as ``temporary.'' Freddie's big sister, Fannie Mae, is in a similar, though less extreme, position with $9.3 billion of such losses.

To ordinary folks, temporary means something of limited duration. Under the accounting rules, the word means almost nothing.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=20601039&sid=
aLklP1rkra7w

Anonymous said...

Too young to retire, too old to get a new job. That's how many older workers are feeling these days.

While it's not easy to land a job in this weak economy, older workers are in a particularly tough spot.

Corporate downsizings are hitting this group hard, with many companies looking to shed the higher-paid positions these employees often occupy.

But older workers are increasingly getting the corporate ax these days. Among the unemployed age 55 to 64, nearly 42% had been fired or laid off, up from 32.2% a year ago, according to federal statistics for April.

The figures are even grimmer for those age 65 and older, with 23.5% getting laid off, up from 10.4% in 2007. These older workers saw the largest percentage point increases of any age group during that time period.

It took those age 55 and older an average of 21.1 weeks to land a new job in 2007, about five weeks longer than their younger counterparts, according to AARP.

During the recession of the early 1990s, older workers were hit hard by mass layoffs. Concerned this is happening again

http://www.wtol.com/global/
story.asp?s=8371897

Anonymous said...

Sky-high oil prices are causing pain at the pump, but bills for air conditioning this summer and heating next winter -- combined with rising food costs -- promise to squeeze U.S. consumers even more.

With gas at $4.00 a gallon, households already have less to spend on a new grill at Home Depot; a vacation at Walt Disney's Disney World; a new TV from Best Buy; or a new "hog" from Harley-Davidson.

And there are no signs things will get better soon for the consumer, long the driving force of U.S. economic growth.

"For the areas of the economy that rely on heating oil, high fuel prices are going to be another blow to the consumer this winter," said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the LA County Economic Development Corp.

"The hotter states will feel the pinch during the summer months but in the mid-America states where you get hot summers and cold winters, it's going to be very uncomfortable," he said.

"This is going to eat into the disposable income of American consumers -- supposing they have any left."

Oil prices, now $130 a barrel, have risen six-fold since 2002. On Wednesday, heating oil reached a record high above $3.90 a gallon and the price is expected to stay high.

Heating oil, which cost $3.29 a gallon in January, will likely cost $3.83 in December, according to the government's Energy Information Administration.

Those costs come at a time of rising food prices, forcing people to spend more on basics as wages fail to keep up. The effects on the economy could be profound.

"The American consumer will continue to pay for fuel, food and heat," said University of Maryland economist Peter Morici.

"But they will give everything else up," he said. "That's going to make it harder to sell the average consumer a television, a suit, or even a meal at a restaurant."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/
business/feedarticle/7534910

Anonymous said...

Well, I am glad Hillary said she will stay in the race in case Obama gets shot.
Maybe it will make him and everyone else realize what a distinct possiblility this is.

I can't make myself care about him, because I think whoever he names as his running mate will be the next president by February 2009.
Hopefully he will insist that the security around him be stepped up, and quit walking around like Martin Luther King on the balcony who I think knew a bullet was waiting for him that night.

Maybe it is a tragic part of the black mentality that getting shot is just fact of life.Kennedy all over again. Just can't stand to see it.

Almost hope he doesn't get the nomination and goes safely back to the senate.

Anonymous said...

Agagagagagag! Check out BloodSuckerBlog and the $450K house (sold by Swann last June to some idiot) thats now a short sale for $310K (May 08).

A 30% haircut!

Some poor sap trusted Swanny the realtwhore and lost $140K!

Paige Turner said...

RE: Well, I am glad Hillary said she will stay in the race in case Obama gets shot. Maybe it will make him and everyone else realize what a distinct possibility this is.
Posted May 24, 2008 1:47 PM


This news left me dumbfounded. Hillary just came right out and said what everybody has been thinking.

When asked why she continues to stay in the presidential race after she has obviously fallen into second place, she indicated that her big opportunity for the Democratic nomination may very well come in June. After all, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968, so she still has a pretty good shot at the nomination -- no pun intended.

This isn't the first time that Hillary has mentioned that an assassination may clear the way for her. However, with the June 5 anniversary of Bobby Kennedy's death only two weeks away, it makes you question her campaign strategy.

Here's a LINK to the assassination story.

And here's a LINK to the Clinton Death List which -- so far-- includes over 50 people.

V.L.

Anonymous said...

trulia is not bad, but you should check out redfin for actual homes for sale keith.

Anonymous said...

Keith, why aren't you part of this?

http://fhamortgagecenter.com/contest

Anonymous said...

Hey Keith,

I have to keep everybody posted about the Riverside area.

What I am witnessing out here is the beginning of a destruction of this local housing market. The banks are on the brink of unleashing a tsunami of REOS on this market. The inventory is at an all time high and the pressure for steep reductions has just begun. Currently there are 442 available homes on MLS between the range of $200,000 - $79,0000. This is a number that is rapidly increasing and has absolutely no end in sight. If I had to give an ultra conservative guess, I would say that an average 3 bed 2 bath 1300 s.f. home lists for $199,999 right now. Its really probably around 189,999 but I don't want to scare anybody around here.

Realtors are still trying to play their games around here and are only looking out for themselves by saying how great everything is.

The huge problem with all this is that the REO'S that are about to hit are mostly from around Christmas time. That was along time ago and they have held back as long as they could with these homes. The thing I dont see are homes that have been affected since FEBRUARY. As you guys know, alot has happened since that time and there is bound to be an 80 ft tidal wave that will smash us around September. I still believe med price in Riverside will plunge to around $150,000 by Dec.-Feb.


ICEMAN

Anonymous said...

$7 a gallon in the United States within two years. Would you bet against it?

Some of the possibilities are downright chilling. Will there be any U.S. auto manufacturers left? No, unless they get really smart, really soon.

How about domestic airlines? If they fold, it's not good for hub cities or, for that matter, convention cities. It won't bode well for states with major national tourist attractions, but we're OK there; we don't have any.

The tree-huggers, who were riffing on a piece by MSN MoneyBlog's Charley Blaine, speculate that it will be curtains for snowmobiles, 100-horsepower powerboats, off-road vehicles and regional "destination" shopping centers. This will not interrupt my life in any appreciable way, but some people aren't going to like it.

http://www.courant.com/news/
opinion/editorials/hc-plccondon
0525.artmay25,0,5559397.column

Anonymous said...

Annual inflation in Saudi Arabia accelerated to at least a 27-year high of 10.5 percent in April from 9.6 percent the previous month, fuelled by rents and food prices in the world's largest oil exporter.
I Am: Looking for:

The cost of living index for the largest Arab economy was 115.2 points on April 30 compared with 104.3 points a year earlier, government data showed on Saturday.

The rental index -- which includes rents, fuel and water -- surged 16.9 percent, with rents soaring 20.4 percent, while food and beverages cost surged 16 percent, according to the data.

Like most of its neighbours in the world's biggest oil-exporting region, Saudi Arabia pegs its riyal currency to the dollar, which has fallen to record lows against the euro and a basket of major currencies this year.

Domestic factors, such as rents, play a role in stoking inflation, but the main driver is the currency situation, said Mary Nicola, Middle East economist for Standard Chartered bank in Dubai.

"Now that food prices are rising globally and Saudi is a net importer of food, that's having a negative impact on it," Nicola said.

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/
rtrs/20080524/tbs-saudi-inflation
-955c2a1.html

Anonymous said...

Euro: Headed Back to 1.60?

The Euro staged a dramatic recovery against the US dollar this past week as hawkish comments from the European Central Bank fueled speculation that a rate hike may be around the corner.

Earlier this week, German business confidence for the month of May showed a surprising improvement.

We expect the labour market in Germany to continue to improve because the employment component of the manufacturing PMI report actually accelerated this month.

http://www.ameinfo.com/157851.html

Anonymous said...

Great (and funny) article about home "ownership" in Salon.com today. Link:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/05/23/home


Could you post the correct link next time!

Anonymous said...

Real estate professionals say that, when trying to sell your home in a buyers' market, the two most important factors, after location, are price and condition.

Buyers know real estate prices ran up far too much during the last several years of the real estate boom, and just because you may have paid too much for your home doesn't mean buyers think they should have to pay to bail you out.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2008/05/22/business/realestate/
main4118194.shtml

Anonymous said...

Too many homes for sale, combined with inflation, has created a landscape that's difficult for everyone.

Sellers can't sell because they can't find buyers.

Builders can't build because there are already too many homes for sale.

Buyers won't budge despite lowered home prices, because bread and gas have suddenly eaten mortgage money.

the faltering economy is the main factor. Lowered home prices and attractive interest rates aren't the carrots they could have been, now that food and fuel prices have skyrocketed and may continue escalating.

"The bleak part, and the hard part to really know and to try to predict, is the inflation. That is what is killing the housing market right now.

"We're in this kind of panic mode" where people are not comfortable making big moves, said David Murphy, publisher of SalesTraq of New Mexico, a subscription-only database on new housing.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/
.site/news/StockNews/1611314/

Anonymous said...

Credit card companies and banks are worried that people are drowning in debt and will fall behind on payments. With home values declining and banks wary of handing out loans, outlets for escaping overwhelming debt are limited.

Consumers are finding themselves caught. Card companies are getting tougher, sometimes canceling unused cards or raising rates seemingly for no good reason. And 30 percent of banks said in a recent Federal Reserve survey that they had tightened standards on consumer loans.

"The rules have changed," said Gerri Detweiler, author of the "Ultimate Credit Handbook" and analyst for Credit.com.

And delinquencies on consumer credit are rising. According to the American Bankers Association the level of delinquencies — or people behind on payments —recently was the highest in almost 16 years.

To try to fend off higher rates and other consequences, analysts say, consumers cannot afford to continue lax financial practices. Looking like a bad risk can keep people from obtaining affordable loans on homes

http://www.courant.com/business/
hc-ymfinances0525.artmay25,0,
5530514.story

Anonymous said...

"It's not right that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being eliminated, that entire industrial sectors in the real economy are being wiped out by financial bets even though the sectors are actually in good health."

Buffett complained about the lack of effective controls.

"That's the problem," he said. "You can't steer it, you can't regulate it anymore. You can't get the genie back in the bottle."



I wish I knew what this meant. I don't understand the stock market.
Could anybody explain? Is an unregulated stock market also responsible loss of jobs, inflation, etc...?

Devestment said...

http://tinyurl.com/3nt6j8

Anonymous said...

Seems weird to see a video of a F1 tornado in Southern California the past several tornadoes happened in Northern California.

This one happened May 22, 2008

http://www.mahalo.com/
California_Tornadoes_2008

Historical tornado in California

F-1 tornado in South San Francisco
Mar 22, 2003

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/
stormcenter/2005-03-22-SanFran-
tornado_x.htm

F2 Tornado in Sunnyvale and Los Altos, CA Tornadoes May 4, 1998

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/
geosciences/StormChasing/
Cases/Sunnyvale/Sunnyvale.html

More California Tornado

http://tornado.sfsu.edu/
geosciences/StormChasing/
CAsevere.html

Miss Goldbug said...

What is our government thinking??


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/25/REAR10P05Q.DTL

Anonymous said...

Man convicted of a multimillion dollar hedge fund fraud commits suicide in jail

Kirk Wright was to be sentenced Aug. 26 after a federal jury found him guilty of mail fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.

The charges stemmed from the 2006 collapse of his Atlanta-based hedge fund company, International Management Associates.

Authorities say Wright took in $150 million from thousands of clients and used false documents to make them believe their investments were doing well, when he actually was losing money in the market.

Wright faced as much as 710 years in prison and a fine of up to $16 million. He already had been hit with a $20 million judgment as part of a civil lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/25/
financial/f135958D52.DTL

Anonymous said...

Call tech support, quick! Apparently, the subprime crisis is just a big computer glitch.

Improper computer model coding caused Moody’s Investors Service to give triple-A ratings to billions of dollars of derivative financial products in error, according to the Financial Times.

Regulators say that incorrect ratings of complex structured debt products lie at the heart of the current financial crisis. While other coding errors have occurred, this one is the most significant thus far.

The incorrectly rated CPDOs offered assurances of low-risk and high returns. Some promised to pay as much as 200 basis points above the “risk-free” rate at which banks lend to each other — even though comparable European prime mortgage-backed products were typically paying less than 20 basis points.

Moody’s announced it is “conducting a thorough review” of the ratings.

Big institutional investors lost as much as 60 percent when they bailed on those investments after they tanked.

Standard and Poor’s was the first major rating agency to give CPDOs triple-A status. Because most institutional investors review ratings from two agencies before investing, the Moody’s ratings became critical to those investment decisions.

http://www.texasborderbusiness.com/
Article/991837

Anonymous said...

Will the big three make 150 MPG SUV.

http://www.afstrinity.com/video.htm

Anonymous said...

Another vinyl siding, shit box mcmansion takes out 6 firefighters in D.C area...

http://tinyurl.com/4shlxz

Anonymous said...

Spanish producer prices climbed at a faster pace of 7.2% annually in April, the National Institute of Statistics announced Monday.

In March, producer price inflation was 6.9%. Compared to prior month, producer prices rose 0.8%, down from 0.9% in March.

http://news.ino.com/headlines/
?newsid=52620080071

Anonymous said...

Singapore’s annual inflation rate rose to a new 26—year high of 7.5 percent in April as food, housing and transportation costs soared and is now a risk to the economy, the government said on Friday.

Food prices alone rose 8.5 percent, transportation and communication were 7.0 percent higher and housing costs became 11.8 percent more expensive, the statistics department said.

It said April’s inflation rate is the highest since February 1982, when it stood at 9.0 percent.

http://beta.ph.news.yahoo.com/cna/
20080524/tap-349581-231650b.html

Anonymous said...

For a while houses $5 million and up have been immune to the housing bust. However, home-price erosion has finally hit the $5 million-plus market.

Luxury homes have drop 10 to 15 percent in the last two quarters, and will drop more.

Houses have been sitting on the market longer and sometimes over one year.

Layoffs in financial sectors, worry about the stock markets, and lack of trade up is causing the downturn in the luxury home market in the past two quarters.

http://online.barrons.com/
public/main

Anonymous said...

I am not the sharpest tool in the shed. If pressed, I can prove that assertion. ;)

That being said, let's look at what is going on -

Right about now is when the adjustable rate mortgage part of the housing crisis is beginning to unfold.

Rates on all those loans are going up, up up and at the same time that food and fuel prices are going up. On top of that refinancing is hard to come by these days. Employment will dry up, exacerbating the problem.

If all that is correct then the outlook for the foreseeable is grim indeed.

America is way past broke. We have had another round of ridiculous Republican debt building. We are involved in 2 wars that are being financed off the books. Where in the world is the government going to get the money to bail out the housing gamblers?

When the Fed pumps money into desperate financial institutions that does not translate into easy credit for those who are looking to refinance, does it? If not, then the dominoes are still poised to fall.

What is going to stop this disaster?

Anonymous said...

Keep voting!!

Only down 142 votes.

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