Countrywide customers to be repaid $108 million for overcharges – LA Times
At least 200,000 homeowners whose mortgages were serviced by Countrywide from 2005 until its sale in July 2008 will be eligible for reimbursement of their overpayments.
Paul Krugman’s Magic Keynesian Mirror – Mish
When the problem is debt, going deeper in debt cannot possibly be the solution.
Ponzi from Strike Anywhere on Vimeo.
Defaulting…on purpose – Real Deal NY
As the commercial market continues to struggle in New York, an increasing number of developers here are turning to so-called strategic defaults to force lenders and special servicers to enter into negotiations for loan restructurings.
Goldman Sachs May Explain PPT’s Vanishing Act – Bloomberg, Carolyn Baum
Where are they? What’s keeping them? Stock markets across the globe are getting hammered, and there’s no sign of the Plunge Protection Team.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3RIWNRpisI&feature=player_embedded
Why Private Employment Is In Structural Decline – Charles Hugh Smith
Statistics reveal the structural decline in private employment but do not capture the causes.
Why do you want to own? – Patrick.net
I’m just confused, the theme here is critical of home ownership, so why do you want to buy?
Bernanke Forecasts a Fitful Recovery – NYT
“My best guess is that we’ll have a continued recovery, but it won’t feel terrific,” Mr. Bernanke told the broadcast journalist Sam Donaldson in a question-and-answer session at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
The Great Recession – Jesse
Stimulus. Reform. What we have seen so far from the Congress, the Fed, and Wall Street is simply white collar looting, and ironically in a crisis which they created.
“Green Consumerism” Largely a Myth - Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith
Tell people not to consume? Horrors. Aside from the fact that it would take a generational shift in values, or a Great Depression II to undo America’s addiction to retail therapy, another ugly complicating factor is that emerging economies, particularly China and India, are out to provide larger proportions of their population with middle class lifestyles. That is generally believed to entail owning more stuff.
Homeownership Is Overrated – WSJ, Richard Florida
Several generations of Americans have seen homeownership as a birthright and a necessity. We take it for granted that owning your home is a good thing. It goes along with higher incomes; it causes people to be more diligent, hard-working and productive; it leads to stable families, stable communities, and higher levels of happiness and well-being.
Homeownership certainly contributed significantly to the golden era of American prosperity that began after World War II and continued into the 1990s, fueling demand for the cars and appliances that were rolling off assembly lines. But the foundation of our economy no longer lies in manufacturing, which created stable populations of workers committed to their jobs and communities for life. Today’s idea-driven economy requires a more mobile work force that can seize opportunities wherever and whenever they arise.
Owning a home may actually be a drawback given the economic flexibility required to power long-lasting recovery. My colleagues and I tracked homeownership levels across U.S. cities and regions to see how they correlate to other measurable demographic and economic factors. As we expected, the rates of homeownership are greatest where housing prices are lowest. But cities with high levels of homeownership—in the range of 75%, like Detroit, St. Louis and Pittsburgh—had on average considerably lower levels of economic activity and much lower wages and incomes. Far too many people in economically distressed communities are trapped in homes they can’t sell, unable to move on to new centers of opportunity.
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