Home Prices Heading For Triple-Dip
October 31, 2011, CNN Money article written by Les Christie: The besieged housing market has even further to fall before home prices really hit rock bottom. According to Fiserv (FISV), a financial analytics company, home values are expected to fall another 3.6% by next June, pushing them to a new low of 35% below the peak reached in early 2006 and marking a trip dip in prices. To read more about the forecast for your area go to http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/31/real_estate/home_prices/index.htm. [Some areas will see an uptick but most won’t.]
Brace Yourselves for a Double Dip Recession
September 30, 2011, Chris Isidore article at CNNMoney says that the U.S. economy is staring down another recession, according to a forecast from the Economic Cycle Research Institute. “It’s either just begun, or it’s right in front of us,” said Lakshman Achuthan, the managing director of ECRI (Economic Cycle Research Institute). “But at this point that’s a detail. The critical news is there’s no turning back. We are going to have a new recession.”
Suicide Rates in U.S. Increase as Economy Declines
April 14, 2011 Bloomberg.com printed Molly Peterson’s article stating: People in their “prime working ages” of 25 to 64 years old are the most likely to commit suicide during recessions, the study by the American Journal of Public Health found. “Economic problems can impact how people feel about themselves and their futures as well as their relationships with family and friends,” Feijun Luo, an economist in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention and the study’s lead author, said.
Men Accused of Posing as Nonprofit Employees Seek Donations for Disabled Veterans
September 14, 2010 Scams are on the rise and taking on a new twist. Rebecca Woolington, an Oregonian columnist, reported: A man knocked on a neighborhood door, handed the homeowner a note that said he was an Iraq war veteran who could not speak because he had been shot in the throat. Four men are accused of misrepresenting themselves as veterans and nonprofit employees collecting donations for the United States Mission. And once the checks are handed over, there is plenty of information to hand over to an ID theft ring. Washington County sheriff’s deputies (Portland, OR) on Friday arrested four homeless men in connection with the incident and similar cases.
Fiscal Costs of Illegl Immigration to Taxpayers
July 26, 2010 Illegal immigration is a hot topoic today. It has been brought to my attention that the Federation for American Immigration recently released a report, The Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers, that reveals information specific to each of our 50 states. The cost to Oregon taxpayers alone is $687.2 million annually. The annual costs to federal, state, and local governments combined is about $113 billion, nearly $29 billion at the federal level and $84.2 billion at state and local level. (Oregonions for Immigration Reform ofir@oregonir.org) The full report can be found at www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/USCostStudy_2010.pdf?docID=4921.
Peddling Relief, Firms Put Debtors into a Deeper Hole
June 18, 2010 NY Times (Peter S. Goodman): Consumers rarely emerge from debt settlement programs with their credit card balances eliminated, these critics say, and many wind up worse off, with severely damaged credit, ceaseless threats from collection agents and lawsuits from creditors…On multiple fronts, state and federal authorities are now taking aim at the industry.
Are the Majority of States in Trouble, too?
May 21, 2010 EconomicPolicyJournal.com has learned that 32 states have run out funds to make unemployment benefit payments and that the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed. In some cases, states have borrowed billions. As of May 20, the total balance outstanding by 32 states (and the Virgin Islands) is $37.8 billion.
China Issues Escalate
February 10, 2010 Barrons reported: Beijing has called for a substitute for the U.S. dollar as the world’s main reserve currency and has upbraided Washington for its fiscal and regulatory management. And while Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asserted last weekend that the U.S. government would never lose its triple-A credit rating, last year Chinese students openly laughed at his assertion that U.S. securities were safe. (by Randall W. Forsyth)
The Housing Mess Continues
“In January (2010), builders sold a whopping 1000 houses per day nationally. During the same month, foreclosures rang up at 4300 and Notice-of-Defaults at 5100 per day nationally. What a mess.” (Included in John Mauldin’s newsletter. Info reported by Mark Hanson.)
Road Risks Rise as More Drivers Drop Insurance
Several hundred thousand drivers dropped their insurance in the past year as the jobless rate climbed, estimates a study to be released next month by the Insurance Research Council, an industry-funded group. You can protect yourself by carrying uninsured-motorist coverage.
Strategic Foreclosure
James Hagerty and Nick Timiraoss,Wall Street Journal December 17, 2009 reported: A growing number of people are considering what is known as “strategic default,” walking away from their mortgages not out of necessity but because they believe it is in their best financial interests. Walking away isn’t risk-free. [or, Maxine adds, a good moral choice if payment can be made; the loan was given in good faith].
Bernanke Sees ‘Formidable Headwinds’ for U.S. Economy
“The nation’s chief economist just gave a big thumbs down on the hopes for a V-shaped recovery,” said Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York. “Bernanke is saying it will take a long time to put the unemployed back to work.” 12/7/09
Foreclosure Fraud is Rampant
Consumers facing foreclosure can get help, but they should be very careful where they look. Experts recommend ignoring unexpected solicitations, whether through the mail, by phone or in person. Instead, enlist the help of a HUD-certified counselor. A state-by-state list is available at
HUD’s Web site.
(Bob Sullivan, Red Tape Chronicles, 9/22/09)
‘This Time it’s Different’
Of late, there has been a tendency for analysts to see numbers or statistics that are “less bad” and interpret them as signs that we are in recovery or at least almost there. They glance back at previous recoveries and say, “Doesn’t this look like the last time? When such and such happens it means that recovery is on the way. We should therefore buy stocks” (or whatever). …The process of reducing debt and unwinding leverage is going to take a rather long time. It will not be the typical one or two years and then things get back to an ever-higher normal. We are, using a phrase coined by my friend Mohammed El Erian at PIMCO, on our way to a new normal. We are hitting a massive reset button on our economic world, taking us to some new and lower level of consumer spending, leverage, etc.
by John Mauldin, June 19, 2009 Thoughts From the Frontline,
http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/unsubscribe.asp
‘Sucker’s Rally’
The sustainability of the financial system is a huge concern. Great wealth has already been lost. But what’s to come next? On April 21, 2009 the Associated Press printed comments from Nouriel Roubini, a well-known economist and professor at New York University’s business school, and former adviser at the U.S. Treasury Department. He is one of the few experts to foresee the current global crisis before it happened. His take on future market conditions: “A recent ‘suckers rally’ in stock markets would fade as the U.S. economy continues to wither and the financial system suffers unexpected shocks. For people who say there are green shoots, I see only yellow weeds frankly,” Roubini said. “It’s not a true recovery. It’s just a bear-market rally, it’s a suckers rally.”
Debt Leaks
The nation is gripped by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. “We’re deep into Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole,” Mr. Blinder (economist at Princeton) said.
Too many households are having trouble paying their mortgages. Too many people are out of work. Too many banks are bloodied. by Peter S. Goodman, NYTimes 9-21-08
“Debt eventually leaks into other areas, whether it starts with the mortgage and goes to the credit card or vice versa,” said Cliff Tan, a visiting scholar at Stanford University and an expert on credit risk. “We’re starting to see leaks now.”
