tagged w/ Credit
-
I mean, who's that great that they've started doing holiday shopping already??? I'd like to know..I mean, who's that great that they've started doing holiday shopping... more
-
-
We're not nearly out from under the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and
already analysts are speculating about the next industry crisis, related to the little plastic cards in your wallet. With American Express becoming a bank-holding company this week in order to get low cost funds and share in the $700 billion bailout pool, it's clear even traditionally resilient industries like credit cards are feeling pressured. "Credit cards are in line to fall," says Adam Levitin, associate law professor at Georgetown University. "The question is whether they will beat out the auto industry — they're racing for the honors."
The net charge-off rate on credit card defaults could skyrocket to 10% in 2009 — double the average of 5% over the past ten years — reaching $18.6 billion in the first quarter and $96 billion by the end of 2009, predicts an October report from Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, an investment research firm. "A 10% [charge-off] rate would be unprecedented," says Laura Nishikawa, an Innovest analyst. (Read: Fannie and Freddie Offer New Plan to Help Homeowners)We're not nearly out from under the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and
already... more
-
-
This 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. This 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple... more
-
-
Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
Zsarday - R.I.P.
Too many people chucking things away.
Should you do a job you get bored with just for the money ?
Is it a Rosary ?
The duet.
The NHS Vs the American health system.
Closing the door and locking it - but is that the right thing to do ?
Years and years of use left, in parts of me.
Looking for offence.
Lowering the washing line.
Disney look after disabled people very well.
The minimum payment is £5.
Where has the grass gone ?
I'm only little.
My little Buddah's.
James Dean says I have a foul mouth. What a liberty.
Changing from man to woman.
Once a year.
There's no charge.
It's steaming.
Staying with the same person for years.
Hi to Alan & Chris.
Back from the dead.
The joker of the pack.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UKThursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on... more
-
-
vc2 producer Carlos Aguilar is having all his friends and family over for the annual Super Bowl party but he knows that his old projection TV is not going to cut it. Like many Americans Carlos buys a new HD LCD TV he can't afford with every intention of returning the TV he next day.
Producer: Bookworm Brown
Camera: Alex Villegas and Donald Quintana
Editor: Donald Quintanavc2 producer Carlos Aguilar is having all his friends and family over for the annual... more
-
-
It's tax time and vc2 producer Carlos Aguilar doesn't know whether to prepare his own forms, use the software, or visit the Tax Man. In this pod, Carlos tries all three options to find out which method will save him the most money, legally.
Producer: Carlos Aguilar
Camera: Alex Villegas
Editor: Donald Quintana
Special thanks to Jaime Aguayo, Tax AdvisorIt's tax time and vc2 producer Carlos Aguilar doesn't know whether to... more
-
-
China is today resisting calls from European leaders to take a lead role in efforts to combat the credit crisis that threatens to bring on a world
recession.China is today resisting calls from European leaders to take a lead role in efforts to... more
-
-
ANP: The morning her house was to be auctioned off Voltaire woke up to donations and reporters.
Last week, ANP reported on the foreclosure of Jocelyn Voltaire in Queens Village, NY and the impending auction of her house. Since the report aired, a national grassroots effort to save her home was launched. In this piece, we report on the outcome of said initiative and delve deeper into a connection between Jocelyn's mortgage company and Goldman Sachs.
ANP: The morning her house was to be auctioned off Voltaire woke up to donations and... more
-
-
Tuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
Ross P needs help with flossing.
We're doomed.
It's all being eroded.
Steam ironing.
A response from our young policeman.
£100 per hour !
A little puddle.
They cry !
The washing machine.
Anthony - have a pasty.
Dave Lynn & Patrick Duffy.
Say "NO".
Little Jade is 13.
Iceland's Prime Minister may be able to help.
The traffic police.
Florida on the cheap.
Someone returns to Brazil.
Ivona & Donald.
Has Bob got all the money ?
Is there enough water ?
Be positive.
Doug has trouble at work.
Keep your credit limit down.
James Dean is leaking.
An arm & a leg.
No injection.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UKTuesday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on... more
-
-
There is a safe way to securitize home loans.
By George Soros
The American system of mortgage financing is broken and needs a total overhaul. Until there is a raealistic prospect of stabilizing housing prices, the value of mortgage-related securities will erode and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's efforts will come to naught.
There are four fundamental problems with our current system of mortgage financing.
First, the business model of Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) in which profits accrue to the private sector but risks are underwritten by the public has proven unworkable. It would be a grave mistake to preserve the GSEs in anything resembling their current form.
Second, the American style of mortgage securitization is rife with conflicts where entities that originate, securitize and service mortgages are generally not the same as those that invest in mortgage securities. As a result, the incentives to originate sound mortgages and to service them well are inadequate. No wonder that the quality of mortgages degenerated so rapidly.
Third, mortgage-backed securitizations, which were meant to reduce risk by creating geographically diversified pools of mortgages, actually increased risk by creating complex capital structures that impede the modification of mortgages in the case of default.
Finally, and most fundamentally, the American mortgages market is asymmetric. When interest rates fall and house prices rise, mortgages can be refinanced at par value, generating the mortgage equity withdrawals that fueled the housing bubble. However, when interest rates rise and house prices fall, mortgages can only be refinanced at par value even though the market price of the securitized mortgage has fallen.
To reconstruct our mortgage system on a sounder basis, we ought to look to the Danish model, which has withstood many tests since it was brought into existence after the great fire of Copenhagen in 1795. It remains the best performing in Europe during the current crisis. First, it is an open system in which all mortgage originators can participate on equal terms as long as they meet the rigorous regulatory requirements. There are no GSEs enjoying a quasimonopolistic position.
Second, mortgage originators are required to retain credit risk and to perform the servicing functions, thereby properly aligning the incentives. Third, the mortgage is funded by the issuance of standardized bonds, creating a large and liquid market. Indeed, the spread on Danish mortgage bonds is similar to the option-adjusted spread on bonds issued by the GSEs, although they carry no implicit government guarantees.
(more below)There is a safe way to securitize home loans.
By George Soros
The American... more
-
-
Who is better equipped to manage the most volatile market in decades?
President George W. Bush has proven himself a novice in dealing with both the precipitous lending crisis, and the following market collapse. Barack Obama has never been responsible for such a large budget. John McCain made several curious decisions surrounding the crisis, including suspending his campaign to dismantle the initial talks between House Republicans and Democrats about the financial bailout.Who is better equipped to manage the most volatile market in decades?
President... more
-
-
For the past three years, Chaturvedi has been a top collection agent at her call center, phoning hundreds of Americans a day and politely asking them to pay up. As the U.S. financial crisis plunges Americans into debt, her business is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Indian outsourcing. It is also one of the few sectors of outsourcing in India that is still aggressively hiring.
"Lately, 25-year-old Americans are telling me that they are declaring themselves bankrupt," said Chaturvedi, raising her eyebrows in shock. "These days the situation is so emotional, so fragile. We have to have so much empathy and patience."
"It's like people are totally drowning," said Omkar Gadgil, 24, who goes by the alias Richard Rudy and was a math major in college. He is brainy and considered the office expert on the intricacies of debt collection. "There has just been years of overspending and now: the crash."
Chaturvedi said she has never seen it so bad. Many of the young employees say they are flabbergasted at just how widespread the financial ruin appears to be.For the past three years, Chaturvedi has been a top collection agent at her call... more
-
-
jkw077
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
The GOP candidate wants to spend $300 billion to buy out "underwater" homeowners at the original value of their mortgages, a plan sharply criticized by a top Obama adviser The GOP candidate wants to spend $300 billion to buy out "underwater"... more
-
-
Alcoa (AA) posts $0.33, vs. $0.63 a year ago, third quarter EPS [including items] on 5.3% sales drop. Says aluminum prices have fallen steeply, demand has softened further, while input costs remain high. Says given sharp decline in metal prices, increasingly soft demand in its key markets, AA is stopping all non-critical capital projects, making targeted reductions to match market conditions, adjusting its mfg capacity to meet demand. Suspends buyback program. S&P downgrades to sell from buy. FBR Capital cuts ests, target, keeps outperform.
Merrill Lynch (MER) and other financials are seen under pressure on report Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said today that it will not be easy for the central bank to unwind many of its liquidity providing efforts. "We have expanded our interventions" on a wide variety of fronts and "it is going to be a challenge" to reverse some of those initiatives when conditions improve, Plosser said.
Bank of America (BAC) announces that its offering of $10 billion, or 455 million shares, of common stock, was priced at $22 per share. S&P Equity Research notes that the offering price is well below where the company had originally anticipated; S&P cuts estimate, target, maintains hold.
Alcoa (AA) posts $0.33, vs. $0.63 a year ago, third quarter EPS [including items] on... more
-
-
Amid the new "Ice Age" in credit markets, some bond market pros are still finding attractive opportunities. Here's what they're buying Amid the new "Ice Age" in credit markets, some bond market pros are still... more
-
-
ANP: All over the country Americans are spending less because of the sputtering economy.
McClatchy Newspapers and the American News Project talked with locals at a diner in Quakertown, hoping to see how this eastern Pennsylvanian town is coping with the ongoing credit crisis.ANP: All over the country Americans are spending less because of the sputtering... more
-
-
Turns out $1 billion of the $700 billion dollar wall street bail out package will go towards $7500 tax breaks for consumers who decide to buy hybrid or electric cars like the $40,000 chevy volt hybrid which doesn't even have a working prototype yet.Turns out $1 billion of the $700 billion dollar wall street bail out package will go... more
-
-
Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman on the $700 billion bailout.
"Thank goodness Congress approved that bailout. Otherwise, the economy might be tanking.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asked Congress to approve a $700 billion rescue of the banking industry. Without this sudden, massive infusion of federal cash, we were told, economic disaster loomed. Prompt approval, on the other hand, would assure the solvency of the financial sector, thaw frozen credit flows and give investors a badly needed dose of confidence.
In the end, Congress approved the package—seeing as how the alternative was rising unemployment, a plunging stock market and corporations unable to borrow to cover their short-term obligations. Now, with the bailout proceeding according to plan, Americans are confronted with . . . rising unemployment, a plunging stock market and corporations unable to borrow to cover their short-term obligations.
That is not how things were supposed to go...
The feds had decided to fill the markets with enough cash to burn a wet mule—only to see it have no apparent impact whatsoever. But we could have had no impact whatsoever for a lot less money.
You may remember that when the House of Representatives voted against the original rescue plan, it was blamed for the subsequent 778-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average. This stomach-turning development was clear proof of the urgent need for the bailout.
But if a stock market's performance is the test of a policy, this one has failed. At best, the passage of the measure did no evident good. At worst, it backfired.
Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron suspects the latter. 'The bailout approach will generate uncertainty about what's going to happen,' he told me. 'It's quite plausible that it has not calmed markets because no one knows what it means.'
Instead of stimulating productive activity by removing doubt, it has impeded it by multiplying doubt. It has also encouraged lenders to hold off dealing with their bad debt in hopes of getting a better deal from the Treasury than they can dream of getting from anyone else. But postponing the banks' rendezvous with reality will not speed recovery.
The sheer size and unprecedented nature of the intervention generates a different kind of uncertainty—about how extensively the federal government will immerse itself in the economy from now on. The spectacle of Washington nationalizing private assets is bound to dishearten millions of investors who think that generally, the most helpful economic role for government is staying out of the way.
The rescue surrenders an important principle: that private sector mistakes should be borne by the people who make them. If the bailout means we may all get the bill any time a company implodes, it will undermine the critical incentives of the market. In the long run, that will not strengthen the economy but weaken it.
Ditto if it means we are resolved to do the impossible—namely, live indefinitely even further and further beyond our means. Which, by the way, it does.
But none of this will deter our policymakers from sticking to their approach. Waist deep in the Big Muddy, and the big fool says to push on."
Full article at link...Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman on the $700 billion bailout.
"Thank... more
-
-
SDLN
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
The tentacles of the global credit crisis are reaching into some of British Columbia's large-scale infrastructure projects as international banks with a stake here are struggling to find cash.
The tentacles of the global credit crisis are reaching into some of British... more
-
-
Leo Panitch: As property values tank, so do state and municipal budgets. Part 3
In the third segment of Senior Editor Paul Jay's discussion with Leo Panitch, Leo explains how the credit crunch will affect state and municipal governments. Leo points out that the Great Depression had its roots in the bankruptcy of state and municipal governments, offering that in such a situation the national government must intervene to keep the states and municipalities solvent. Leo advocates for a hybrid of increased taxation and deficit spending to finance this, adding finally that a real solution requires more than a change in policy, but a change in deep structures.
Leo Panitch is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto. Panitch is also the author of "Global Capitalism and American Empire" and his most recent release "American Empire and the Political Economy of International Finance".
See Part 1 at: http://current.com/items/89378166_free_markets_depend_on_state_intervention
See Part 2 at: http://current.com/items/89382669_the_financial_crisis_and_the_real_economy
Leo Panitch: As property values tank, so do state and municipal budgets. Part 3
In... more
-
