Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
Sun Sep 9, 2012, 11:19 PM Sep 2012

STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 10 September 2012

[font size=3]STOCK MARKET WATCH, Monday, 10 September 2012[font color=black][/font]


SMW for 7 September 2012

AT THE CLOSING BELL ON 6 September 2012
[center][font color=green]
Dow Jones 13,306.64 +14.64 (0.11%)
S&P 500 1,437.92 +5.80 (0.40%)
Nasdaq 3,136.42 +0.61 (0.02%)



[font color=red]10 Year 1.67% +0.06 (3.73%)
30 Year 2.82% +0.07 (2.55%) [font color=black]


[center]
[/font]


[HR width=85%]


[font size=2]Market Conditions During Trading Hours[/font]
[center]


[/center]



[font size=2]Euro, Yen, Loonie, Silver and Gold[center]

[/center]


[center]

[/center]


[HR width=95%]


[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Market Data and News:[/font][/font]
[center]
Economic Calendar
Marketwatch Data
Bloomberg Economic News
Yahoo Finance
Google Finance
Bank Tracker
Credit Union Tracker
Daily Job Cuts
[/center]





[font color=black][font size=2]Handy Links - Government Issues:[/font][/font]
[center]
LegitGov
Open Government
Earmark Database
USA spending.gov
[/center]




[div]
[font color=red]Partial List of Financial Sector Officials Convicted since 1/20/09 [/font][font color=red]
2/2/12 David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, Credit Suisse, plead guilty to conspiracy involving valuation of MBS
3/6/12 Allen Stanford, former Caribbean billionaire and general schmuck, convicted on 13 of 14 counts in $2.2B Ponzi scheme, faces 20+ years in prison
6/4/12 Matthew Kluger, lawyer, sentenced to 12 years in prison, along with co-conspirator stock trader Garrett Bauer (9 years) and co-conspirator Kenneth Robinson (not yet sentenced) for 17 year insider trading scheme.
6/14/12 Allen Stanford sentenced to 110 years without parole.
6/15/12 Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs director, found guilty of insider trading. Could face a decade in prison when sentenced later this year.
6/22/12 Timothy S. Durham, 49, former CEO of Fair Financial Company, convicted of one count conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of securities fraud.
6/22/12 James F. Cochran, 56, former chairman of the board of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and six counts of wire fraud.
6/22/12 Rick D. Snow, 48, former CFO of Fair, convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, one count of securities fraud, and three counts of wire fraud.
7/13/12 Russell Wassendorf Sr., CEO of collapsed brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group Inc. arrested and charged with lying to regulators after admitting to authorities he embezzled "millions of dollars" and forged bank statements for "nearly twenty years."
8/22/12 Doug Whitman, Whitman Capital LLC hedge fund founder, convicted of insider trading following a trial in which he spent more than two days on the stand telling jurors he was innocent




[HR width=95%]


[center]
[HR width=95%]
[font size=3][font color=red]This thread contains opinions and observations. Individuals may post their experiences, inferences and opinions on this thread. However, it should not be construed as advice. It is unethical (and probably illegal) for financial recommendations to be given here.[/font][/font][/font color=red][font color=black]


38 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 10 September 2012 (Original Post) Tansy_Gold Sep 2012 OP
Good Toon! Demeter Sep 2012 #1
The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney Demeter Sep 2012 #11
JPMorgan, Citi rethink executive compensation Demeter Sep 2012 #2
Especially.... AnneD Sep 2012 #20
GM's Volt - The ugly math of low sales, high costs Demeter Sep 2012 #3
What Krugman & Stiglitz Can Tell Us Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson Demeter Sep 2012 #4
Why Spending/GDP is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Metric For Judging Obama's Performance Demeter Sep 2012 #5
BMW Never-Too-Old Assembly Insures Against Lost Engineers Demeter Sep 2012 #6
We have the same problem in Nursing.... AnneD Sep 2012 #22
Universal Health Care Shouldn’t Be Reduced, Lancet Says Demeter Sep 2012 #7
Another Jobs Disappointment Demeter Sep 2012 #8
The BLS Jobs Report Covering August 2012: Some Sound and Fury but Mostly Nothing Demeter Sep 2012 #9
Spinning Bad Financial News Into Good By Paul Craig Roberts Demeter Sep 2012 #21
Rumpelstiltskin... AnneD Sep 2012 #23
Canada proves the decline of unions is not inevitable Dean Baker Demeter Sep 2012 #10
Can Corporations Be Made to Fit Democratic Theory and Vision? Demeter Sep 2012 #12
Zuckerberg won't sell his Facebook stock for a year Demeter Sep 2012 #13
Europe to Investigate Chinese Exports of Solar Panels Demeter Sep 2012 #14
DRAGHI: Europe Plan Faces Threat in Germany Demeter Sep 2012 #15
Carthaginian terms for Italy and Spain threaten Draghi bond plan Ghost Dog Sep 2012 #16
US Futures with a case of the Mondays Roland99 Sep 2012 #17
U.S. to Become Minority AIG Shareholder With $18 Bln Sale Demeter Sep 2012 #18
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT: Treasury launches $18 billion AIG stock offering Demeter Sep 2012 #19
Debt crisis: German court may delay euro ruling Roland99 Sep 2012 #24
Don't you just wish you had real politics in the USA, Roland Ghost Dog Sep 2012 #30
If only.... Roland99 Sep 2012 #31
FHFA Announces First Winning Bidder in REO Pilot Initiative Roland99 Sep 2012 #25
Let the Games Begin--the Slaughter, the Shearing, the Freezing of Markets Demeter Sep 2012 #28
Fannie Mae Sale of Florida Foreclosures Gets 96% of Value Roland99 Sep 2012 #34
The property next door Tansy_Gold Sep 2012 #35
You COULD Try Negotiating with Chase Demeter Sep 2012 #36
It's not in livable condition. Tansy_Gold Sep 2012 #38
More Fed Easing Won’t Push Banks to Lend: Bair Roland99 Sep 2012 #26
Video: David Stockman was 'allowed' on CNBC this morning DemReadingDU Sep 2012 #27
Stockman probably has the facts Demeter Sep 2012 #29
Consumer Credit in U.S. Unexpectedly Falls $3.28 Billion in July Roland99 Sep 2012 #32
'Underwater Mortgage' Refis Get Fresh Push in Congress Roland99 Sep 2012 #33
Looks like the Fairies read the Blueprints Upside Down Demeter Sep 2012 #37
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
2. JPMorgan, Citi rethink executive compensation
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:34 AM
Sep 2012
http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-citi-rethink-executive-compensation-wsj-045606140--sector.html

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co is considering smaller bonuses for CEO James Dimon and other executives while Citigroup Inc is also rethinking executive pay structure, both eager to placate investors after management miscues this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank, has lost at least $5.8 billion in failed derivative trades. It may cut 2012 bonuses but is also grappling with how to do that without drastically reducing executives' take-home pay, the Journal reported, citing people close to the institution.

It also said Citigroup's board is set to decide how to revise next-year's compensation plan to elicit support among investors. In April, shareholders rejected the management's pay structure in a non-binding vote.

A number of U.S. banks are wrestling with executive pay amid a soft financial-industry performance, weak economic growth and widespread cost-cutting.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH DRASTICALLY REDUCING EXECUTIVES' TAKE-HOME PAY? SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE...THEY SHOULD BE HAPPY TO HAVE A JOB AT ALL.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
20. Especially....
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:15 AM
Sep 2012

Jamie Dimon. If I had my druthers, his new job would be pounding rocks while wearing an orange jumpsuit.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
3. GM's Volt - The ugly math of low sales, high costs
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:43 AM
Sep 2012
http://news.yahoo.com/insight-gms-volt-ugly-math-low-sales-high-041323264--finance.html


...Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. (HOW MUCH AFTER REMOVING THE EXECUTIVE BONUSES?--DEMETER) Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher. There are some Americans paying just $5,050 to drive around for two years in a vehicle that cost as much as $89,000 to produce. (HMMM...THAT MIGHT BE WORTH IT, FOR PAPER ROUTE...$100/WK IS STILL HIGH, THOUGH...FOR A $300/WK ROUTE) And while the loss per vehicle will shrink as more are built and sold, GM is still years away from making money on the Volt, which will soon face new competitors from Ford, Honda and others.

GM's basic problem is that "the Volt is over-engineered and over-priced," said Dennis Virag, president of the Michigan-based Automotive Consulting Group. And in a sign that there may be a wider market problem, Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi have been struggling to sell their electric and hybrid vehicles, though Toyota's Prius range has been in increasing demand.

GM's quandary is how to increase sales volume so that it can spread its estimated $1.2-billion investment in the Volt over more vehicles while reducing manufacturing and component costs - which will be difficult to bring down until sales increase. But the Volt's steep $39,995 base price and its complex technology — the car uses expensive lithium-polymer batteries, sophisticated electronics and an electric motor combined with a gasoline engine — have kept many prospective buyers away from Chevy showrooms. Some are put off by the technical challenges of ownership, mainly related to charging the battery. Plug-in hybrids such as the Volt still take hours to fully charge the batteries - a process that can been speeded up a bit with the installation of a $2,000 commercial-grade charger in the garage.



...Production costs typically include such items as parts, material, labor and the cost to run the factory, according to manufacturing expert Ron Harbour, who heads the North American Automotive Practice at Michigan-based consultant Oliver Wyman....Toyota said it now makes a profit on the Prius, which was introduced in the United States in 2000 and is now in its third generation. Sales of the Prius hybrid, which comes in four different versions priced as low as $19,745, have almost doubled so far this year to 164,408. Other such vehicles haven't done nearly as well. Nissan's pure-electric Leaf, which debuted at the same time as the Volt and retails for $36,050, has sold just 4,228 this year, while the Honda Insight, which has the lowest starting price of any hybrid in the U.S. at $19,290, has sales this year of only 4,801. The Mitsubishi i, an even smaller electric car priced from $29,975, is in even worse shape, with only 403 sales.

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
4. What Krugman & Stiglitz Can Tell Us Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:49 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/sep/27/what-krugman-stiglitz-can-tell-us/?pagination=false

End This Depression Now!

by Paul Krugman
Norton, 259 pp., $24.95


The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future
by Joseph E. Stiglitz
Norton, 414 pp., $27.95

Washington is stuck in neutral. Worse than neutral; it is in reverse. As the last elements of the 2009 stimulus phase out, the initial flood of federal aid has slowed to a trickle. If no agreement is reached before early next year, the trickle will become a huge backward flow, as President Obama’s payroll tax cut and all the Bush tax cuts expire while automatic spending cuts agreed to in previous legislative sessions kick in. Already, Republican leaders are threatening to replay last year’s standoff over the debt ceiling. Meanwhile, state and local governments—prohibited from running sustained deficits, increasingly dominated by anti-spending forces—continue to cut aid to those out of work and slash programs that invest in the nation’s future while laying off teachers and other public workers. Without those layoffs, the current unemployment rate would probably be around 7 percent.

Against this backdrop, no book could be more timely than Paul Krugman’s End This Depression Now! Since the crisis began, Krugman has argued with consistency and increasing frustration that the United States has become caught not in a normal recession, but in a “liquidity trap.” Since interest rates are already at rock bottom, normal measures, such as easy credit, won’t work, and expanded government expenditures must play a central part in boosting anemic demand. Otherwise, the efforts of private citizens to pay down debts laid bare by the financial crisis will continue to hold the economy back.

To Krugman, this is all the more regrettable because it is almost wholly preventable. We know what to do, he argues: increase public spending and make it clear that monetary expansion will continue until the economy fully recovers. Krugman advocates greater federal aid to state and local governments, as well as an aggressive effort to relieve private mortgage debts. He also argues that the Fed has been too timid in setting higher inflation targets to restore expectations of growth. “Unfortunately,” Krugman writes,

we’re not using the knowledge we have, because too many people who matter—politicians, public officials, and the broader class of writers and talkers who define the conventional wisdom—have, for a variety of reasons, chosen to forget the lessons of history and the conclusions of several generations’ worth of economic analysis, replacing that hard-won knowledge with ideologically and politically convenient prejudices.
MORE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...In this indictment, Krugman is joined by another Nobel laureate economist, Joseph Stiglitz, whose claims are much more sweeping than his. In an argument that dovetails with those of Occupy Wall Street protesters, Stiglitz insists that the huge and growing divide between the richest 1 percent and “the 99 percent” is not just one concern among many, but the defining characteristic of a thoroughly sick economy. We may be the richest nation in the world, but poverty is higher and social mobility between generations lower than in other rich nations. In other respects, our model is bloated: we release far more carbon dioxide and use far more water on a per capita basis; and we spend far more on health care, while leaving tens of millions uninsured and achieving health outcomes that are mediocre at best.

The reason, according to Stiglitz, is that the vaunted American market is broken. And the reason for that, he argues, is that our economy is being overwhelmed by politically engineered market advantages—special deals that Stiglitz labels with a term familiar to economists: “rent-seeking.” By this, he means economic returns above normal market levels that are derived from favorable political treatment. In the most powerful parts of The Price of Inequality, Stiglitz chronicles the blatant tax and spending giveaways to big agriculture, big energy, and countless other sectors. Yet he also pointedly argues that much of the rent-seeking that plagues our economy takes a more subtle form, also familiar to economists: “negative externalities,” or costs that economic producers impose on society for which they don’t pay.

The spectacular profits of the energy industry, for example, rely heavily on the failure of regulation to incorporate fully the social and economic costs associated with environmental degradation, including climate change. Similarly, the increasingly aggressive activities of Wall Street—whether in the marketing of unsound mortgages, the use of excessive leverage, or the irresponsible use of derivatives—create huge risks for the economy as a whole. Yet these risks are largely not taken into account in the prices paid in financial markets. Without effective regulation, the costs are borne by all of us—most acutely by the struggling millions who have been pushed out of jobs.

Weeding out these and other forms of rent-seeking would thus promote both efficiency and equity, and Stiglitz provides a broad list of reform ideas, ranging from strict regulation of financial markets to more effective anti-trust laws. Yet he is most passionate about the need for political reform. Either those at the top will realize that things must change, or, he suggests, the kinds of popular revolts sweeping Middle Eastern nations will come to the United States. “In important ways,” he writes,

our own country has become like one of these disturbed places, serving the interests of a tiny elite. We have a big advantage—we live in a democracy—but it’s a democracy that has increasingly not reflected the interests of large fractions of the population.
MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
5. Why Spending/GDP is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Metric For Judging Obama's Performance
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:52 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.angrybearblog.com/2012/09/why-spendinggdp-is-terrible-horrible-no.html

A post like this really shouldn't be necessary, but part of the right wing canard that Obama has been a profligate spender is based on spending as a percentage of GDP.

It looks like this - Graph 1.

TO SEE GRAPHS AND FOLLOW ARGUMENTS, SEE LINK. I CANNOT REPRODUCE THEM OR LINK. CONCLUSIONS:

A few simple observations:
- The spending increase during the recent recession was modest by any standard, and dwarfed by earlier surges.
- That increase, coupled with the most severe GDP decline since the other Great Depression gave our beloved ratio a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad double whammy.
- GDP growth during this recovery is only marginally better than it was during the 2001-2 low, and far below Clinton era levels.
- Clinton was the most consistently frugal president of the post WW II era - until now.
- Since the recession was declared over, B. Hoover Obama has been miserly.

MORE

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
6. BMW Never-Too-Old Assembly Insures Against Lost Engineers
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:02 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/bmw-never-too-old-assembly-insures-against-lost-engineers.html

Five years ago, managers at Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) realized that with Germany’s graying population the average age of their workers would jump from 41 to 46 by 2017. So they decided to make it happen sooner. In 2007, the luxury automaker set up an experimental assembly line with older employees to see whether they could keep pace. The production line in Dingolfing, 50 miles northeast of BMW’s Munich base, features hoists to spare aging backs, adjustable-height work benches, and wooden floors instead of rubber to help hips swivel during repetitive tasks.

The verdict: Not only could they keep up, the older workers did a better job than younger staffers on another line at the same factory. Today, many of the changes are being implemented at plants across the company...Like BMW, Germany’s other automakers are grappling with an aging workforce. With the country also facing a shortage of qualified engineers, many in the industry have decided that it's best to keep good workers on the job as long as possible by adapting factories to their needs.... there’s little substitute for the experience gained by years on the assembly line. (IN OTHER NEWS --FLASH-- WATER IS WET)...With the changes, the department’s productivity jumped by 40 percent between 2005 and 2010, and it now has 96 percent of the output of a totally healthy team, according to its head, Hartmut Bartsch. The “ultimate goal,” Bartsch said, is to ensure that even those confined to wheelchairs can do the most demanding jobs.

Audi has also grouped older workers together with young recruits to aid the transfer of the “implicit knowledge” that is central to many car-making processes, said Dietmar Frassek, an Audi project manager for human resources policy. In Audi’s tooling department it can take a decade to hone the senses well enough to be able to run a hand over a metal surface and detect minute flaws.




Daimler AG (DAI), where staff will average 47 years old by 2020 versus 43 in 2010, is in a dispute with unions over age-related issues. The company is asking for contractual changes in return for factoring age into a system of classifying the physical demands of various jobs. Daimler is seeking concessions on pay and future consultation in return for minimizing or eliminating the toughest procedures, said Erich Klemm, the head of the Daimler’s works council...While Klemm acknowledges it would cost a “few hundred thousand euros” to modify 10 workstations, he insists the change would save Daimler money in reduced sick leave. “It’s in the company’s interest,” he said.

AnneD

(15,774 posts)
22. We have the same problem in Nursing....
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:32 AM
Sep 2012

This is why I left hospital floor Nursing. We basically have to be able to lift our body weight, and generally it is a dead weight lift. They preach to us all day long about body mechanics but they continue to ignore the physics. There are never enough mechanical lifts to go around, they take forever to operate, never enough help when you are lifting (1:8 Nurse to patient ratio so everyone is super busy). I

When I left floor Nursing, I was one of a few classmates what had not had a major musculoskeletal injury. I credit that to weightlifting and frequent chiropractic care. I went into School Nursing-as a way to extend my career. I enjoyed picking up extra work but had to give it up because the hospitals have still not seen the light. Floor Nursing is still a young person's game.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
7. Universal Health Care Shouldn’t Be Reduced, Lancet Says
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:21 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-06/universal-health-care-shouldn-t-be-reduced-lancet-says.html

Expansion of government-subsidized medical care improves health and should be maintained in times of economic crisis, according to a survey of research.

Programs such as Medicare for senior citizens and Medicaid for the poor in the U.S. and similar programs in other countries led to increased use of preventive, inpatient and outpatient services and better health status for previously uninsured populations, Peter Smith and Rodrigo Moreno-Serra of Imperial College London wrote in The Lancet medical journal today.

...“The available evidence has shown that when Medicaid and Medicare were expanded, the beneficiaries saw an improvement in health status and suffered less financially,” Moreno-Serra said in a phone interview. “If countries rely more and more on private spending, this will be detrimental to health outcomes and financial security.”

IF ONLY WE HAD UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE, BUT NO, WE HAVE OBAMACARE...TO PROTECT INSURANCE COMPANIES, NOT PEOPLE!
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
8. Another Jobs Disappointment
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:25 AM
Sep 2012
http://economistsview.typepad.com/timduy/2012/09/another-jobs-dissappointment.html

...I think there is little doubt that this report is not in the "substantial and sustainable" category, which thus points to additional Fed action next month. Nonfarm payrolls posted a 96k gain for the month, well below consensus expectations and the low-end of my 110k-290k range (198k midpoint). The numbers for the previous two months were revised downwards. And while the 12-month trend remained virtually unchanged, the 6-month trend is weaker than last summer:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b33869e2017c31b606d8970b-500wi


And while I am sure it will not dissuade fears that inflation is just around the corner, hourly wages actually slipped a penny for both all employees and production/non-supervisory workers. The latter category, for which we have a longer time series, continues to plumb the depths of wage growth:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b33869e2017c31b60d77970b-500wi

Also note that the index of aggregate weekly hours has largely leveled off this year, in contrast with steady growth in 2011:

http://economistsview.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b33869e2017744939c8a970d-500wi

MUCH MORE AT LINK
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
9. The BLS Jobs Report Covering August 2012: Some Sound and Fury but Mostly Nothing
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:35 AM
Sep 2012

...The big number is that unemployment dropped two-tenths of a percent from 8.3% to 8.1%. However, the illusory nature of this drop can be seen in the fact that the number of jobs increased only 96,000. Essentially, what happened is that the unemployment rate declined, not because people found jobs but because the BLS defined them out of the labor force. Both of these numbers are seasonally adjusted....In revisions of jobs numbers from the previous two months, June was revised down 19,000 from 64,000 to 45,000. It had originally been reported at 80,000, already a weak number, in the July report. The good, not great, number of 163,000 for July was decreased by 22,000 to 141,000. So a downward adjustment of 41,000 overall.

Before beginning, I should note that I look at both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted data. The official numbers the most cited are seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment is a smoothing of the data flattening out the hills and valleys of employment and jobs over the course of the year. However, employment and jobs (which are not the same thing and come from two different surveys) are seasonal. So if you want to know who actually is employed and what jobs are doing, you need to look at the unadjusted numbers. With that, the potential labor force as represented by the non-institutional population over 16 (which is never seasonally adjusted) or NIP increased 212,000 from 243.354 million to 243.566 million. Multiplying this by the employment-population ratio (58.3% seasonally adjusted) gives us 124,000 an estimate of the number of jobs needed to keep up with population growth in August. So you can see immediately that the 96,000 jobs reported created in August (seasonally adjusted) did not even keep up with population growth.

Looking at the Household data (people), in August, the labor force (employed + those defined as unemployed, no job but looked for one in the 4 weeks before the survey was conducted), declined 368,000 from 155.013 million to 154.645 million (seasonally adjusted). This is a strongly negative number. Last year in 2011, for example, the labor force grew 316,000 July-August (seasonally adjusted); in 2010, it grew 325,000. This negativity is magnified in the unadjusted number. Unadjusted, the labor force contracted 1.271 million from 156.526 million to 155.255 million, compared to seasonal contractions of 468,000 in 2011 and 592,000 in 2010. These declines are directly reflected in the participation rate (which is the ratio of actual labor force to the potential labor force or NIP). Seasonally adjusted, the participation rate declined two-tenths of a percent to 63.5% and cliff dived four-tenths of a percent to 63.7% unadjusted. In August, the number of employed seasonally adjusted decreased 119,000 from 142.220 million to 142.101 million versus increases of 304,000 in 2011 and 199,000 in 2010. Unadjusted, employment decreased 568,000 versus drops of 49,000 in 2011 and 115,000 in 2010. As we already know from the fall in the U-3 or official unemployment rate, the number of unemployed decreased in August 250,000 from 12.794 million to 12.544 million, seasonally adjusted.

Unadjusted, the number of unemployed fell off 704,000...Now normally a decline in the number of unemployed would be a good thing, but not when the number of employed also falls. In that case, the sum of these two or the decline in the size of the labor force represents, not people who left the labor force, but people the BLS defined out of it. This illustrates the central flaw in the way the BLS approaches its work. These people defined out of the labor force did not stop needing a job. They stopped looking for one. In August, the U-6, the BLS’ broader measure of un- and underemployment, decreased seasonally adjusted 0.3% to 14.7%. The seasonally adjusted U-6 rate (14.7%) represents 23.136 million people and reflects the 12.544 million of the U-3 unemployed seasonally adjusted, 8.031 million involuntary part-time workers (down 215,000 from July), and 2.561 million marginally attached to the labor force (up 32,000; these have looked for work in the last year but not in the last month). This is the number Romney has been citing recently. The BLS measure of its undercount, those it defines as not in the labor force who want work but have not looked for work in the last month (seasonally unadjusted) increased 194,000 in August from 6.837 million to 7.031 million.

Now remember unadjusted the labor force decreased by 1.271 million. This was more than twice the usual seasonal contraction. Are we really to believe that some 400,000-500,000 extra people this year decided they no longer wanted a job?


Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/09/the-bls-jobs-report-covering-august-2012-some-sound-and-fury-but-mostly-nothing.html#uBz2o0lR68VrXWxl.99

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
21. Spinning Bad Financial News Into Good By Paul Craig Roberts
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:23 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32403.htm

...When the long-term (more than one year) discouraged workers are included, the US unemployment rate is about 22%. In other words, the real US rate of unemployment is almost three times higher than the reported--headline rate--of 8.1%. What is the purpose of reporting an unemployment rate that is about one-third the real unemployment rate? The only answer is deception through Happy News...Let’s have a look at those 96,000 jobs. What kind of high-tech, high-income super jobs is “the world’s only superpower, the indispensable nation, the world’s greatest economy and capitalist heaven” creating? The answer is lowly paid third world jobs, which is why there is not and cannot be an economic recovery. All the good jobs have been moved offshore in order to maximize the incomes of the rich...According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 28,300 of the 96,000 jobs or 29% are waitresses and bartenders. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm Health care and social services, primarily ambulatory health care services and home health care services, provided 21,700 jobs or 22.6% of the jobs. So, 52% of the new jobs created by the American superpower are lowly paid waitresses, bartenders, practical nurses, and hospital orderlies....Highly paid manufacturing jobs declined by 15,000. The incomes lost by these jobs most likely exceed the income gains from the waitresses, bartenders, and hospital orderlies jobs.

Where did the other 46,000 jobs come from?

Formerly, in hard times government employment would expand, but, despite Republican propaganda, not today in today’s mean times. Government (federal, state and local) lost 7,000 jobs. Professional and business services gained 28,000 jobs, primarily in computer systems design and related services (mainly Indians on H-1B work visas) and management and technical consulting services (mainly former corporate professional employees who now eke out a living by consulting, without pension or health benefits, with their former employers; in other words, they are working the same for less).

These three categories account for 81% of the new jobs.

Where are the remainder?

A few thousand jobs in finance and insurance, jobs that absorb consumer incomes but produce no product. Telephone, cable, water, electricity, and heating produced 8,800 jobs. Transportation and warehousing to store unsold goods produced 5,700 jobs. Retail trade, primarily food and beverage stores (alcohol), produced 6,100 jobs.

And there you have it. The “powerful American economy” is an economy that cannot produce its own clothes and shoes, or the manufactured products, including high technology products, that it consumes, or its own energy, all of which it imports by issuing more debt. The “great hegemonic American economy” is on the verge of total collapse, because the only way it can pay for the imports that sustain it is by issuing more debt and printing more money. Once the debt and money creation undermine the dollar as world reserve currency, the US will become overnight a third world country, much to the relief of the rest of the world.

MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
10. Canada proves the decline of unions is not inevitable Dean Baker
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:42 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/09/201291103825936625.html

In polite circles in Washington it is common to view unions as a quaint anachronism. They may have made sense back when most workers had little education and worked in factories, but there really is no place for them in a 21st century economy. From this perspective, the sharp decline in union membership that we have seen in the last three decades is simply a natural process, sort of like the development of more powerful computers...There is evidence that suggests otherwise, most notably that many other wealthy countries still have very high rates of unionisation. The share of the workforce represented by unions is 80 per cent or higher in many European countries. While some may want to attribute the eurozone crisis to factors like high unionisation rates (as opposed to inept central bankers) they face the problem that non-eurozone countries like Denmark and Sweden seem to be doing just fine. In Denmark, 80 per cent of the workforce is represented by a union and in Sweden, the share is 91 per cent. According to the most recent OECD data, their unemployment rates are both 7.8 per cent. That isn't great, but it's still half a percentage point below ours. And, both countries are able to borrow at the same or lower interest rates than the US. Clearly, high unionisation rates have not led to catastrophe.

But many still view Europe as being fundamentally different than the United States. And of course they don't speak English in Denmark and Sweden, or at least not as a first language. This is why it is useful to look at Canada, a country that is culturally and economically very similar to the United States, and a place where they do speak English (for the most part). My colleague, Kris Warner, compared trends in unionisation over the last century in the United States and Canada. Several items jump out in his analysis. First, patterns in unionisation were comparable until the early 1970s. While union membership rates fell consistently in the US over the last four decades, they actually rose from the 1970s to 1990s in Canada. In the last two decades they have been dropping in Canada as well, but at 31 per cent, the unionisation rate is still far above the 10 per cent level in the US and in fact is still above its early 1970s level. Clearly it was not just economic factors that explain the decline in unions in the US...Warner looks at some of the key institutional factors that affect the ability of workers to organise, most notably the ability of workers to form a union through majority sign-up and first contract arbitration. While there are important differences across provinces, several Canadian provinces allow majority sign-up (sometimes referred to as "card check&quot recognition of unions. In the United States, majority sign-up recognition is only allowed at the discretion of the employer...Needless to say, employers who are hostile to unions are not likely to make the job of organising easier by letting them get a union by signing union cards. Anti-union employers demand elections that can be delayed long enough to mount an effective anti-union campaign. This often involves firing the workers who are most active in supporting a union.

The other major institutional difference is that several provinces have laws that provide for first contact arbitration in the event of a deadlock in negotiations. Almost half of all successful unionisation drives in the US do not lead to a contract. While the company is legally obligated to negotiate in good faith, this is generally not much of a requirement. Delaying a first contract is an effective way to undermine support for a union and often leads to a union being decertified. Provinces with first contract arbitration have higher rates of unionisation... if we chose, we could make US labour law closer to Canada's. That might over time bring us somewhat close to Canadian unionisation rates. People who care about inequality should have this at the top of their agenda. In our bag of tricks to reverse the upward redistribution of the last three decades, higher unionisation rates should rank near the top.

Not only do unions directly help the workers they represent, but unions have been at the forefront in pushing almost every progressive change the country has seen in the last eight decades. This list includes Social Security, the 40 hour work-week, Medicare and Medicaid, the government's college loan and aid programmes, the minimum wage, and most recently the Affordable Care Act. If you want to see what the country would look like without unions, watch re-runs of the Republican convention. If we didn't have unions, you would be looking at the centre of the American political spectrum.

Dean Baker is a US macroeconomist and co-founder of the Centre for Economic and Policy Research.
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
12. Can Corporations Be Made to Fit Democratic Theory and Vision?
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:50 AM
Sep 2012
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/11230-can-corporations-be-made-to-fit-democratic-theory-and-vision

This is an exclusive Truthout series from political economist and author Gar Alperovitz. We will be publishing weekly installments of the new edition of "America Beyond Capitalism," a visionary book, first published in 2005, whose time has come....This "Chapter Four" is part eight of Truthout's continuing series of excerpts from Gar Alperovitz's "America beyond Capitalism."

..........................................................................................

"If income, wealth, and economic position are also political resources, and if they are distributed unequally, then how can citizens be political equals?" asks political scientist Robert Dahl. "And if citizens cannot be political equals, how is democracy to exist?"

The superior ability of the rich to participate politically is not limited to buying influence via donations and lobbyists (and television ads); they also have superior education, more time, more developed skills, greater personal security, and far greater access and experience in managing politics and government. A recent study found that 81 percent of individuals who donate at least $200 to congressional campaigns make over $100,000 per year; 46 percent make at least $250,000. Those among the bottom fifth vote less, attempt to speak to or influence public officials less, participate in organized groups less, and indeed, are only one-tenth as likely to make any form of campaign contribution as those in the top decile.

Michael Lind's formulation of the antidemocratic result is succinct: "From its fortified command post in the large organizations of the private sector, protected by the concentric moats of alumni preference, college tuition, professional licensing and pro-managerial state laws, the white overclass dominates U.S. politics."

If meaningful democracy requires greater equality among the citizenry, and if, as we have seen, existing economic arrangements simply do not permit "after-the-fact" strategies to significantly alter inequality, what then? Either nothing can be done, or clearly a rather different long-term arrangement of economic institutions is necessary, at least in principle. Strikingly, the emerging theory - beginning now from the question of democracy -converges with the emerging theory illuminated by Chapter 1's examination of the problem of equality on its own terms. (And, as we have seen, the logic that flows from such considerations points ultimately in the direction of asset-based strategies and alternative wealth-holding institutions.)

The same question - though rarely stated openly - is also implicit in discussions of campaign finance reform. There is not much disagreement about the extraordinary importance of money in modern political campaigning. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates total spending for and by congressional candidates, presidential candidates, and the parties in 1999 to 2000 at over $2.5 billion - plus roughly another $200 million dollars for "issue" advocacy campaigns.

"Only those who have accumulated lots of money are free to play in this version of democracy," observes William Greider. "Only those with a strong, immediate financial stake in the political outcomes can afford to invest."


MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
13. Zuckerberg won't sell his Facebook stock for a year
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 06:59 AM
Sep 2012
http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/04/technology/zuckerberg-facebook-stock/

Some of Facebook's early investors sold off their stock at the first chance they got, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hanging on to his shares for at least the next year.

Zuckerberg, who owns about 444 million shares plus an option for another 60 million, disclosed his plans in a Facebook regulatory filing late Tuesday...MORE
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
14. Europe to Investigate Chinese Exports of Solar Panels
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:02 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/06/business/global/eu-prepares-to-investigate-chinese-dumping-of-solar-panels.html

Defying Chinese threats of retaliation against European wines and industrial materials, the European Union is preparing to begin on Thursday morning a broad investigation into whether Chinese companies have been exporting solar panels for less than it costs to make them.

The case would be one of the largest trade actions in European history and could lead to steep tariffs on much of China’s $20 billion in annual exports of solar products to Europe, four people familiar with the dispute said Wednesday.

The anti-dumping case, which follows a series of bankruptcies and factory closings by European and U.S. solar panel manufacturers, would broaden what has already become one of the biggest sticking points in trade relations between China and the United States. The U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary anti-dumping tariffs in May of at least 31 percent on Chinese solar panels, in addition to preliminary anti-subsidy tariffs of 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent that were imposed in March.

The Chinese government has responded by accusing American producers of polysilicon, the main material used in solar panels, of engaging in unfair trade practices and has threatened steep tariffs on the producers...

NOTHING LIKE LOCKING THE BARN DOOR AFTER ALL THE LIVESTOCK HAS BEEN STOLEN AWAY...
 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
15. DRAGHI: Europe Plan Faces Threat in Germany
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:04 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/business/global/10iht-euro10.html?_r=1

With a few choice words last week, the European Central Bank and its president, Mario Draghi, managed to tame bond markets and inspire a market rally. But the coming week may reveal whether the rescue plan for Spain and Italy was a turning point in the euro zone crisis or just a short-lived spell of relief.

On Wednesday, the work of the central bankers in Frankfurt could be undone in a stroke by judges in the sleepy university city of Karlsruhe, Germany. There, the German constitutional court could block the country from contributing to the European rescue fund on which the E.C.B.’s plan is heavily dependent.

The mood could also be soured by voters in the Netherlands, if on that same day they elect a government less committed to keeping the euro currency union together.

Or things could bog down in the days and weeks ahead as political leaders in the euro zone take on thorny issues like how to better supervise the region’s banks...
 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
16. Carthaginian terms for Italy and Spain threaten Draghi bond plan
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 07:27 AM
Sep 2012

... A grown-up view has at last prevailed. This is a crisis of capital flows and trade imbalances, a dysfunctional structure in which Germany itself is an equal "sinner" – a meaningless term in economics – in as much as it clings to a mercantilist trade advantage over Club Med through a distorted intra-EMU exchange rate.

Nor could the Draghi breakthrough have happened without the diplomatic arm-twisting of China and America. President Barack Obama found his intellectual soulmate in Mr Monti, telephoning him for every update on Europe's drama, treating him as de facto president of Europe, concentrating the full might of the United States behind the very different Monti narrative of the crisis.

Mrs Merkel has bowed to vastly superior global power, but only partially. Italy and Spain will each have to sign a Memorandum accepting "severe" conditions. It will not be enough to meet their existing deficit targets. They will have to do more...

... We can expect the Bundestag to impose Carthaginian terms, and there lies the rub. With Spain and Italy already in debt deflation spirals – and youth unemployment at 53pc and 35pc respectively – the limits of the politically possible are approaching...

... The eurozone recession – self-induced by austerity overkill and bad monetary policy before Mr Draghi took charge – has combined with the Chinese hard-landing in a mutually-reinforcing fashion. All we need now is the US `fiscal cliff' and we could soon face Nouriel Roubini's perfect storm...

... The Draghi Plan is a unquestionably a transforming step. The tail-risk of a sovereign defaults in Italy and Spain must be taken off the table... Yet the ECB's willingness to act – once the EFSF/ESM trigger is pulled – is plainly not enough in itself to save the euro. Primat der Politik is back in tooth and claw. Democracies will make or break EMU.

/... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/9531764/Carthaginian-terms-for-Italy-and-Spain-threaten-Draghi-bond-plan.html

Roland99

(53,342 posts)
17. US Futures with a case of the Mondays
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 08:10 AM
Sep 2012
[font color="red"]S&P 500 -0.2%
DOW -0.1%
NASDAQ -0.2% [/font]


probably going to have, yet again, very light volume ahead of this week's FOMC meeting.

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
18. U.S. to Become Minority AIG Shareholder With $18 Bln Sale
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:06 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-09/u-s-to-become-minority-aig-shareholder-with-18-bln-sale.html

The Treasury Department is offering to sell $18 billion of American International Group Inc. (AIG) shares in a transaction that will cut the U.S. stake in the firm to below 50 percent for the first time since its 2008 bailout.

The insurer plans to buy back as much as $5 billion of the shares and Citigroup Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are managing the sale, the Treasury said yesterday in a statement. (Underwriters have a 30-day option to buy as much as $2.7 billion more in AIG stock from the Treasury, according to the statement.)

The U.S. would own about 23 percent of AIG if it sells the shares at the Sept. 7 closing price of $33.99 each, data compiled by Bloomberg show. (The U.S. needs to average about $28.73 on the sales to break even on the stake it acquired as part of the bailout, excluding unpaid dividends and fees, according to the Government Accountability Office.) The first two offerings were priced at $29 a share, and the second two at $30.50 apiece. Treasury had cut its stake in the New York-based firm to 53 percent in four earlier share sales, which raised about $23.3 billion. The last offering, announced Aug. 3, came the same week that AIG reported a 27 percent increase in second-quarter net income to $2.33 billion, driven by improving results at its property-casualty operation...The Treasury’s shares are the final piece of AIG’s bailout that began in 2008 and swelled to as much as $182.3 billion, including support from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. AIG is the last U.S. insurer that hasn’t yet ended its bailout. The government has already divested its holdings in most of the largest U.S. banks including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. while retaining a majority stake in Ally Financial Inc....

“AIG is still a work in progress and has some work to do on its underlying fundamentals, but they’ve come a long way,” Cathy Seifert, an equity analyst at Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ, said in an interview before yesterday’s announcement. “We think it’s undervalued relative to its peer group and relative to the progress they’ve made at turning themselves around
.”

After this sale, AIG will be regulated by the Federal Reserve as a savings and loan holding company because it owns a bank, the firm said in a preliminary prospectus supplement. GLASS STEAGAL, ANYONE? AIG may face capital requirements and limits on its ability to repurchase stock or pay a dividend, under Fed oversight, according to the prospectus. The insurer is considering whether to close its bank unit to prepare for more government regulation including the Volcker rule, which limits proprietary trading and investing in private equity or hedge funds, Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said last month....Benmosche, 68, is buying back stock to help AIG regain independence and increase the value of remaining shares. He’s raised funds for repurchases by divesting assets including part of its stake in Hong Kong-based insurer AIA Group Ltd. (1299) AIG trades for about 56 percent of book value, a measure of assets minus liabilities.


A BIT MORE AT LINK

Roland99

(53,342 posts)
24. Debt crisis: German court may delay euro ruling
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 09:57 AM
Sep 2012

Germany's Constitutional Court said it will examine whether to postpone its long-awaited verdict on the eurozone's permanent rescue fund and the EU fiscal pact after a new legal challenge by a leading eurosceptic politician.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9532796/Debt-crisis-German-court-may-delay-euro-ruling-live.html

12.30 Germany's Constitutional Court said it will examine whether to postpone its long-awaited verdict on the eurozone's €500bn ESM rescue fund and the EU fiscal pact given a new legal challenge by a leading eurosceptic politician.

A spokeswoman told AFP the court would hold an emergency session on the latest challenge by Peter Gauweiler - a eurosceptic lawmaker from the CSU Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives - on Monday afternoon and make public its decision on Tuesday morning.

The court verdict is the last legal hurdle for the ESM before it can come into effect. Until now, the court had been scheduled to deliver its ruling on Wednesday.

But it could now be held up following Gauweiler's latest complaint on Sunday, in which he challenged last week's decision by the European Central Bank to launch a bond-buying programme.

He argues that the ECB move alters the situation and the court must now first decide whether the central bank's bond purchase programme is legal before it can rule on the constitutionality of the ESM rescue fund.


 

Ghost Dog

(16,881 posts)
30. Don't you just wish you had real politics in the USA, Roland
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 03:26 PM
Sep 2012

(you know: tooth and claw).

Yeah, yeah... you don't have to tell me...

Well. Europe too.



(Plus: Greater diversity; More Languages/Cultures/Histories (& Heads Thinking In Those Terms).

Me encanta.

Roland99

(53,342 posts)
25. FHFA Announces First Winning Bidder in REO Pilot Initiative
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 11:27 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/24273/REOInvestor91012.pdf

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced that
Pacifica Companies, LLC has purchased 699 Fannie Mae properties in Florida as part of a real
estate owned (REO) pilot initiative.

FHFA will announce the winning investors for properties in other areas upon closing of the
transactions in the coming weeks. Properties in Atlanta (541) were not awarded. Those
properties will be evaluated for disposition through Fannie Mae’s retail sales operation or
through future structured transactions. All properties were sold near or above market value.
Click here for additional details about the transaction.




more details:
http://homepath-activedt.netdna-ssl.com/content/pdf/structuredsales/SFR_2012-1_Florida_Transaction_Details_9-6-12_2.pdf

As part of the Fannie Mae’s SFR REO 2012-1 offering of eight sub-portfolios of residential real estate owned (REO) properties, including tenant-occupied units and vacant single family residential properties, Fannie Mae awarded three of the sub-portfolios – Florida Southeast, Florida Central / Northeast, and Florida West – to Pacifica L 47, LLC (Pacifica), a diverse-owned investor, in a structured sale transaction. On September 6, 2012 (Closing Date), Fannie Mae sold to Pacifica an interest in the equity cashflows of a newly created limited liability company (SFR 2012-1 Florida LLC, or LLC) which holds 699 properties transferred to the LLC by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae has retained an interest in the equity cashflows of the LLC. Pacifica is the Managing Member of the LLC, responsible for managing the operations of the
LLC.

The equity interest retained by Fannie Mae (Initial Member Interest) entitles Fannie Mae to receive 90% of the distributions to LLC equity until Fannie Mae has received $49,313,402.64 (Shift Threshold), after which Fannie Mae is entitled to receive 50% of the distributions to LLC equity. The equity interest purchased by Pacifica (Managing Member Interest) entitles Pacifica to receive 10% of the distributions to LLC equity until the Shift Threshold has been distributed to Fannie Mae, after which Pacifica is entitled to receive 50% of the distributions to LLC equity1. In addition to receiving distributions on its equity interest, Pacifica will also receive an asset management fee of 20% of gross rental income actually collected, with such fee to be used to compensate Pacifica for managing the entity and provision of asset management and property management services. The purchase price paid by Pacifica for the Managing Member Interest was $12,328,350.66, which resulted in an estimated transaction valuation to Fannie Mae of $78.1mm, or 95.8% of Third Party Valuation (as described below).

A Working Capital Reserve to finance working capital expenses and a Replacement Reserve to finance property maintenance, repairs, and improvements were funded upfront by Fannie Mae and Pacifica and over time by cashflow generated by the LLC

The transaction is designed to promote home price stability, improve quality of housing stock, and enhance rental inventory of markets by utilizing a rent and hold strategy. During the initial three year period of the venture, the number of properties that may be sold is limited, and the sale price for any property sold by the LLC during such time must meet or exceed a related minimum price threshold. Further, all properties must be maintained in accordance with applicable legal standards and requirements.


Roland99

(53,342 posts)
34. Fannie Mae Sale of Florida Foreclosures Gets 96% of Value
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 03:38 PM
Sep 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-10/fannie-mae-sale-of-florida-foreclosures-gets-96-of-value.html

Fannie Mae’s first auction of foreclosed homes to be managed as rentals sold for $78.1 million, or 96 percent of the properties’ estimated value, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

The purchase, of 699 homes in Florida, was the first to be completed in Fannie Mae’s auction of almost 2,500 repossessed properties in six states. The buyer was San Diego, California- based Pacifica Companies LLC, the FHFA said in a statement today. The homes had a total value of $81.5 million, including joint-venture financing from Fannie Mae, according to a transaction summary.

Investors are pouring money into single-family homes, seeking to capitalize on rising demand for rentals and real estate prices that have more than 30 percent from their July 2006 peak. Firms including Blackstone Group LP, Colony Capital LLC and Oaktree Capital Group LLC plan to spend about $8 billion buying foreclosed properties to rent, according to company statements and interviews.

“Seeing it traded at that high value means we’re probably going to see more pool sales coming,” Jim Warren, senior vice president of Tenant Access, a single-family rental management company based in Austin, Texas, said in a telephone interview. “Institutional money can aggregate a lot quicker. It’s easier to evaluate an entire pool than one property at a time.”


Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
35. The property next door
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 04:58 PM
Sep 2012

Went up for trustee's sale on 5 Sept. I should have kept closer eye on it and maybe I could've bought it for a song. No bids were received, so Chase took it back.

Tansy_Gold

(17,817 posts)
38. It's not in livable condition.
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 05:56 PM
Sep 2012

If I bought it, it would be with the condition that the existing manufactured home be removed or at least not be included as an "asset" in any negotiations. The cost of fixing it would be more than it's worth. I'm sure the septic system and basic utility access (water, electric) are good and something else could be put there, but the property alone has some value.

We'll see. I'm not wealthy.

Roland99

(53,342 posts)
26. More Fed Easing Won’t Push Banks to Lend: Bair
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 11:34 AM
Sep 2012
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48971406?__source=mnd|news|&par=mnd

Additional easing from the Federal Reserve won’t result in more bank lending, Sheila Bair, the former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

“If I had any confidence [that] it would help lending support real economic activity, I would say go for it, but there are significant risks," Bair said.

...

Instead of the Federal Reserve, Bair said it’s Congress that should be working on policies to address unemployment and the country’s fiscal issues. (Read More: Markets Crave Stimulus—Will the Fed Give Them Their Fix?)

Without congressional action, the Fed is in a difficult position, Bair noted, adding “I don't think QE3 is going to help, and I think there’s a risk to it.”

Bair worries about inflation and “the Fed’s ability to control the interest rate environment when that happens.”


DemReadingDU

(16,000 posts)
27. Video: David Stockman was 'allowed' on CNBC this morning
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 11:40 AM
Sep 2012

video at link

9/10/12
Former Reagan OMB Director David Stockman was 'allowed' on CNBC this morning - much to their chagrin now we suspect - and espoused his own brand of truthiness, starting with this epic tirade:

"Ron Paul is the only one who is right about the Fed, and the Fed is the heart of the problem. They have destroyed the capital markets and the money markets; interest rates mean nothing; everything is trading off the Fed and Wall Street isn't even home - as it's now a bunch of computers trading word-clouds emitted by this central banker and that"

In this environment, he goes on, everyone is being given the wrong signal - i.e. the Ryan/Romney campaign is abnout restoring vibrant capitalism; how can you do that when the financial markets are dead - the lifeblood of a capitalist system. And that is the problem today.

An excellent discussion ensues diving into the lack of fiscal discipline (that is enabled by a Fed ZIRP) as "[politicians] will never do it when you can keep borrowing free-money forever" and summed up nicely with this subtle sentence:

"The Fed (and the lunatics that run it) are telling the whole world untruths about the cost of money and the price of risk."


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/stockman-ron-paul-right-fed-and-lunatics-run-it-are-heart-problem

 

Demeter

(85,373 posts)
29. Stockman probably has the facts
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 01:04 PM
Sep 2012

that everyone does....

it's the interpretation, the "spin" that someone puts on it....

Roland99

(53,342 posts)
32. Consumer Credit in U.S. Unexpectedly Falls $3.28 Billion in July
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 03:33 PM
Sep 2012
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-10/consumer-credit-in-u-s-unexpectedly-falls-3-28-billion-in-july.html

Consumer borrowing in the U.S. unexpectedly decreased in July for the first time in almost a year, restrained by a second straight decline in credit-card debt.

The $3.28 billion drop followed a revised $11.8 billion jump the previous month that was bigger than first estimated, the Federal Reserve said today in Washington. Economists projected a $9.2 billion rise, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Revolving credit, which includes credit card spending, decreased $4.82 billion, the most since April 2011.

The drop in credit-card borrowing coincides with a slowdown in hiring this year and a rise in consumer pessimism that indicate households are wary of taking on debt. Employers added fewer workers to payrolls than forecast in August, while a gain in average hourly earnings from a year earlier matched the smallest increase since records began in 2007.

...

Non-revolving debt, such as that for college tuition or auto purchases, climbed $1.55 billion in July, the smallest gain since a decrease in August 2011. It climbed $15.1 billion in June. Cars and light trucks sold in July at a 14.05 million annual rate after a 14.3 million pace in June, according to Ward’s Automotive Group. Borrowing may have held up in August as auto sales were the strongest in three years.


Roland99

(53,342 posts)
33. 'Underwater Mortgage' Refis Get Fresh Push in Congress
Mon Sep 10, 2012, 03:34 PM
Sep 2012
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48973237?__source=realestate|news|&par=realestate

A slight improvement in home prices has helped to pull some U.S. homeowners back above water on their mortgages, but the gains are small, and the problem is still epidemic.

As of July, 22.4 percent of homeowners with a mortgage owed more than their home was worth, according to a new report from Lender Processing Services. (Read More: Home Prices Are Not Rebounding as Fast as You Think.)

The numbers go higher, as the loans get more troubled. Of non-current mortgages, 57.6 percent are underwater, and of loans in foreclosure, 68.3 percent.

Being underwater on your mortgage does not necessarily mean that you can’t afford to pay that mortgage. In fact, 18 percent of loans that are current are underwater, according to LPS, with the depths ranging from just 0.4 percent in Wyoming to a whopping 55 percent of Nevada homeowners owing more than their home is worth. Unfortunately, negative equity does breed delinquency.


Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Economy»STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Mon...