http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/ it is the theory which decides what can be observed - einstein en http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/04/01/community-coalition-purchases-47-homes-in-foreclosure.html HousingWire || financial news on behalf of the mortgage market Community Coalition Purchases 47 Homes in Foreclosure By KELLY CURRAN April 1, 2009 1:07 PM CST The first large-scale purchase of defaulted mortgages by an alliance of U.S. nonprofit organizations was announced Wednesday. HANDS, Inc. said it has acquired the defaulted mortgages on 47 vacant homes in the greater Newark area, all of which are vacant as well as abandoned. HANDS purchased the mortgages from J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM: 28.14 +5.87%), as part of a new strategy to reclaim neighborhoods hard-hit by foreclosure, as well as is working with its partners in Operation Neighborhood Recovery to rehabilitate the properties so they may become “cornerstones on behalf of productive modification in their surrounding communities,” instead of magnets on behalf of increased crime as well as vandalism, creating general neighborhood blight. “Time is our enemy as well as early intervention is the key to battling the destabilizing influence of abandoned as well as foreclosed properties on neighborhoods,” said Patrick Morrissy, executive director of HANDS, a member of the NeighborWorks network. “We knew that as time passed, the properties would continue to deteriorate, their values would plummet, as would the residence values in the overall neighborhood.” HANDS shall ultimately convey groups of the properties to Operation on behalf of Neighborhood Recovery partners that work in the properties’ respective neighborhoods, as well as who have came to an agreement to rehabilitate the properties as well as manufacture them available on behalf of affordable homeownership. One may request how such an organization acquired the funds to purchase, repair as well as maintain 47 homes — a cost which is anticipated to total around $5.4 million. New Jersey Community Capital, a community development financial institution working throughout New Jersey, took a lead role in the transaction, according to a HANDS press statement. The institution coordinated the provision of debt as well as equity from Prudential Social Investment, Local Initiatives Support Corporation-Greater Newark & Jersey City, NeighborWorks America, as well as Enterprise Community Partners. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/04/01/community-coalition-purchases-47-homes-in-foreclosure.html Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:33:03 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/28/democracy-now-kortens-agenda-for-a-new-economy.html Message to David Korten: Your basic thesis makes sense. I agree with numerous points in your deconstruction of the current system. And many, numerous people are struggling to implement localized sustainable business enterprises: farmers markets etc. Yet competing with purveyors of “phantom wealth” remains difficult if not impossible. The neoliberal washington consensus has delivered an acknowledged as well as spectacular failure of unregulated markets. Someone needs to articulate recommendations on behalf of specific policy frameworks that enable sustainable business models to compete effectively in well regulated markets that more closely reflect Adam Smith’s original vision. If you desire to be taken seriously, this is the moment: manufacture specific policy recommendations that can be implemented today — in the current political as well as economic context. Please. More detail. ~e Democracy Now! | David Korten: “Agenda on behalf of a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth” As President Barack Obama reveals more particulars of his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, we turn to David Korten of YES! Magazine. In his new book, Korten argues that the nation faces a monumental economic challenge that goes far beyond anything being discussed in Congress. He writes that now is an opportune moment to transfer forward an agenda to replace the failed money-serving institutions of our present economy with the institutions of a new economy dedicated to serving life. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/28/democracy-now-kortens-agenda-for-a-new-economy.html Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:28:13 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/29/banks-walking-away.html In Homeowners’ Latest Woe, Banks Are Skipping Foreclosures - NYTimes.com By SUSAN SAULNY Published: March 29, 2009 SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mercy James thought she had lost her rental property here to foreclosure. A date on behalf of a sheriff’s sale had been set, as well as notices about the foreclosure process were piling up in her mailbox. Ms. James had the tenants transfer out, as well as soon her white house at the corner of Thomas as well as Maple Streets dropped into the hands of looters as well as vandals, as well as then, into disrepair. Dejected as well as broke, Ms. James said she salvaged but a lesson from her loss. So imagine her surprise when the City of South Bend contacted her recently, demanding that she resume maintenance on the property. The sheriff’s sale had been canceled at the last minute, leaving the property title — as well as a world of trouble — in her name. “I thought, ‘What kind of game is this?’ ” Ms. James, 41, said while picking at trash at the house, now so worthless the city plans to demolish it — another bill on behalf of which she shall be liable. City officials as well as housing advocates here as well as in cities as varied as Buffalo, Kansas City, Mo., as well as Jacksonville, Fla., say they are seeing an unsettling development: Banks are quietly declining to take possession of properties at the end of the foreclosure process, an estimated all often because of the fact that the cost of the ordeal — from legal fees to maintenance — exceeds the diminishing value of the real estate. The so-called bank walkaways rarely mean relief on behalf of the property owners, caught unaware months at the end of the fact, as well as often mean additional financial burdens as well as bureaucratic headaches. Technically, they still owe on the mortgage, but as a practicality, rarely would a mortgage holder receive any more payments on the loan. The way mortgages are bundled as well as resold, it can be enormously time-consuming just trying to determine what company holds the loan on a property thought to be in foreclosure. In Ms. James’s case, the company that was an estimated all recently servicing her loan is now defunct. Its parent company filed on behalf of bankruptcy as well as dissolved. And the original bank that sold her the loan said it could not find a record of it. “It is what some of us think is the next wave of the crisis,” said Kermit Lind, a clinical professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law as well as an expert on foreclosure law. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/29/banks-walking-away.html Sun, 29 Mar 2009 11:51:52 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/23/china-calls-for-new-reserve-currency.html FT.com / Asia-Pacific - China calls on behalf of new reserve currency By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing Published: March 23 2009 12:16 | Last updated: March 24 2009 00:06 China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund. In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations as well as is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”. Analysts said the proposal was an indication of Beijing’s fears that actions being taken to save the domestic US economy would have a negative impact on China. “This is a clear sign that China, as the largest holder of US dollar financial assets, is concerned about the potential inflationary risk of the US Federal Reserve printing money,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist on behalf of HSBC. Although Mr Zhou did not draw attention to the US dollar, the essay gave a pointed critique of the current dollar-dominated monetary system. “The outbreak of the [current] crisis as well as its spillover to the entire world reflected the inherent vulnerabilities as well as systemic risks in the existing international monetary system,” Mr Zhou wrote. China has little choice but to hold the bulk of its $2,000bn of foreign exchange reserves in US dollars, as well as this is unlikely to modification in the near future. To replace the current system, Mr Zhou suggested expanding the role of special drawing rights, which were introduced by the IMF in 1969 to support the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate regime but became less relevant once that collapsed in the 1970s. Falling greenback fuels BRIC dollar reserve rethink | Special Coverage | Reuters Chinese central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said the SDRs, created by the IMF as international reserve assets in 1965, could be used as a super-sovereign reserve currency, eventually displacing the dollar. His feedback come a week at the end of Russia said it would put forward a proposal on behalf of the creation of a new reserve currency issued by international financial institutions at the G20 meeting in April. Russia said it had the broad support of its fellow BRIC countries — Brazil, India as well as China — as well as South Korea as well as South Africa on behalf of its proposal. The push underscores growing concerns among emerging-market leaders about the long-term value of the dollar. The dollar saw its biggest weekly slide since 1985 .DXY last week at the end of the Federal Reserve’s decision to buy long-term government debt raised the specter of oversupply in dollars. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/23/china-calls-for-new-reserve-currency.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:49:57 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/china-seeks-export-carbon-relief.html BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | China seeks export carbon relief China has proposed that importers of Chinese-made goods should be responsible on behalf of the carbon dioxide released during their manufacture. China’s top climate modification negotiator, Li Gao, said his country should not pay on behalf of cutting emissions caused by the high demands of other countries… Fair deal? China’s latest suggestion would see its posses huge export sector be exempted from any new treaty. Beijing argues that rich nations buying Chinese goods bear responsibility on behalf of the estimated 15-25% of China’s carbon emissions that are created by its production of exports. “It is a very important item to manufacture a fair agreement,” Mr Li said in Washington. He argued that it was unfair to put the highest burden on China. “We are at the low end of the production line on behalf of the global economy,” he said. “We produce products as well as these products are consumed by other countries, especially the developed countries. This share of emissions should be taken by the consumers but not the producers,” he said. Mr Li also criticised proposals by the US to place carbon tariffs on goods imported from countries that do not restriction those gases blamed on behalf of a rises in global temperatures. “If developed countries set a barrier in the name of climate modification on behalf of trade, I think it is a disaster,” Mr Li said. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/china-seeks-export-carbon-relief.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:27:29 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/chinas-stimulus-spending.html Decoupling, the idea that the global economy could remain strong in spite of a US recession, has proven false as economies around the globe melted down in unison. Yet in the wake of the meltdown a realignment of economic power may emerge. If China is successful in building its posses domestic demand, can US domestic manufacturing as well as service industries compete in global markets? Time shall tell… In China’s Stimulus Spending, Seeds of a Surge - NYTimes.com By KEITH BRADSHER Published: March 16, 2009 GUANGZHOU, China — The global economic downturn, as well as efforts to reverse it, shall probably manufacture China an even stronger economic competitor than it was before the crisis. China, the world’s third-largest economy behind the United States as well as Japan, had already become more assertive; now it is exploiting its unusual position as a country with piles of cash as well as a strong banking system, at a time when numerous countries have neither, to acquire natural resources as well as manufacture new friends. Last week, China’s prime minister, Wen Jiabao, even reminded Washington that as one of the United States’ biggest creditors, China expects Washington to safeguard its investment. China’s leaders are turning economic crisis to competitive advantage, said economic analysts. The country is using its nearly $600 billion economic stimulus package to manufacture its companies better able to compete in markets at residence as well as abroad, to retrain migrant workers on an immense scale as well as to rapidly expand subsidies on behalf of research as well as development. Construction has already begun on new highways as well as rail lines that are likely to permanently reduce transportation costs. And while American leaders struggle to revive lending — in the latest effort with a $15 billion program to help small businesses — Chinese banks lent more in the last three months than in the preceding 12 months. “The recent tweaks to the stimulus package indicate a sharper focus on the long-term competitiveness of Chinese industry,” said Eswar S. Prasad, a former China division chief at the International Monetary Fund. “Higher expenditures on education as well as research as well as development, in conjunction with amounts already committed to infrastructure investment, shall boost the economy’s productivity.” http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/chinas-stimulus-spending.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:03:21 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/china-inoculates-itself-against-dollar-collapse.html This is worth a read. While there was much talk of decoupling at the beginning of the global crisis that thought, as CR, Setser as well as Roubini consistently pointed out, was so much wishful thinking. But, articles like the one below as well as the earlier post from the NYT indicate that decoupling may now begin in earnest. With little real evidence of a recovery in the real US economy, as well as the benefits of remaining tightly linked to US currency as well as US markets in decline, now is the time that holders of current account surpluses can take specific steps to reduce dependence on US markets as well as investments in US dollar denominated assets. The dollar is starting to decline from recent highs. Articles such as the one below indicate the decline may be just beginning. Asia Times Online :: China News, China Business News, Taiwan as well as Hong Kong News as well as Business. China inoculates itself against dollar collapse By W Joseph Stroupe There is mounting evidence that China’s central bank is undertaking the process of divesting itself of longer-dated US Treasuries in favor of shorter-dated ones. There is also mounting evidence that China’s increasingly energetic new campaign of capitalizing on the global crisis by making resource buys across the globe may be (1) helping its central bank to decrease exposure to the dollar, while (2) simultaneously positioning China to manufacture much greater profit on its investment of its reserves into hard assets whose prices are now greatly beaten down, while (3) also affording it greatly increased control of strategic resources as well as the geopolitical clout that goes with it. This is turning out to be a win-win-win situation on behalf of China as it capitalizes upon the important opportunities afforded it by the present global crisis. The exact size as well as the precise composition of China’s huge forex reserves, the exact degree of China’s exposure to the dollar as well as its viable options, if any, in decreasing that exposure are matters of intense interest, because of the fact that China’s policies in this regard could have gargantuan implications on behalf of the US as well as the global financial systems as well as on behalf of the dollar. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/03/16/china-inoculates-itself-against-dollar-collapse.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:51:46 -0400 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/02/25/mr-whipples-charmin-effect.html A bit of good news on behalf of hardasses… February 26, 2009 Mr. Whipple Left It Out: Soft Is Rough on Forests By LESLIE KAUFMAN Americans like their toilet tissue soft: exotic confections that are silken, thick as well as hot-air-fluffed. The national obsession with soft paper has driven the growth of brands like Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra as well as Charmin Ultra — which in 2008 alone increased its sales by 40 percent in some markets, according to Information Resources, Inc., a marketing research firm. But fluffiness comes at a price: millions of trees harvested in North America as well as in Latin American countries, including some percentage of trees from rare old-growth forests in Canada. Although toilet tissue can be made at similar cost from recycled material, it is the fiber taken from standing trees that help give it that plush feel, as well as an estimated all large manufacturers rely on them… With a global recession, however, that may be changing. In the past few months, sales of premium toilet paper have plunged 7 percent nationally, said Ali Dibadj, a senior stock analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, a financial management firm, providing an opening on behalf of makers of recycled products. http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/02/25/mr-whipples-charmin-effect.html Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:34:06 -0500 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/02/07/state-budgets-843-billion-gap-for-2010.html States’ only option now is budget pain - Los Angeles Times “With personal, sales as well as corporate income tax revenue plummeting, state governments — which recently trimmed their budgets to cover a cumulative $40.3-billion shortfall on behalf of the current fiscal year — are now watching in horror as a $47.4-billion gap opens on behalf of 2009. And on behalf of fiscal year 2010, they shall face a $84.3-billion hole, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The total shortfall through fiscal 2011 is estimated at $350 billion, according to the Center on Budget as well as Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. Unlike the federal government, nearly all states must balance their budgets. So legislatures either have to raise taxes, use money from dwindling rainy-day funds, or cut. The last option is becoming increasingly common. “The easy budget fixes are long gone,” Corina Eckl, fiscal program director on behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said in a statement. “Only hard as well as unpopular options remain.” State lawmakers can anticipate some relief from the federal stimulus package — but it is far from a cure-all. The version passed by the House of Representatives would cover only about 45% of the projected state deficits. A Senate version of the bill, which has yet to be approved, would, in its present form, offer even less relief. The budget-cutting plans that have emerged from state capitols so far have a potential effect on an estimated everyone. Parks shall close. Environmental programs shall be scaled back. Bus as well as ferry routes shall shut down, possibly sending more drivers onto clogged streets as well as highways. Schools may go without school nurses, as well as classes may become more crowded. Sick people who rely on state health programs may instead get sicker. Washington state’s predicament illustrates the brutal reality lawmakers are facing in the hardest-hit states. Washington’s budget gap on behalf of 2010 shall total 18.5% of its general fund, making it the sixth-worst situation in the nation. (Nevada is facing the an estimated all serious shortfall, with a 38% gap; California’s 22% gap is the fourth-worst, behind Arizona at 28% as well as New York at 24%, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.) ”        http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/02/07/state-budgets-843-billion-gap-for-2010.html Sat, 07 Feb 2009 11:50:36 -0500 eliel42 http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/01/31/procurement-policies-and-free-trade.html The following may be of some interest to those who wish California’s procurement policies would prioritize local California products… Out of Gaps In Treaties, First Salvos Of Trade War - washingtonpost.com By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, February 1, 2009; Page A01 “In the United States, a transfer to greatly expand Buy American provisions as part of the $819 billion fiscal stimulus package has generated shock waves in other countries, with Canadian as well as European officials in particular rising up in protest. The provision, passed by the House on Wednesday, would mostly bar foreign steel as well as iron from the infrastructure projects laid out in the stimulus package. A Senate version still being considered goes further, requiring, with few exceptions, that all stimulus-funded projects utilize only American-made equipment as well as goods. Yet subject to how the language on a Buy American provision may ultimately read, experts on trade law say it remains unclear whether it would categorically violate a WTO agreement on government procurement the United States signed in 1996. “There are lots of institutional firewalls to prevent trade wars that exist today that did not exist during the Great Depression,” said Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow with the Peterson Institute on behalf of International Economics. “That could help now. But there's still a lot of room on behalf of damage, maybe pretty bad damage, that can be done in the gray area of the rules.” Although the legality of the Buy American provision may be in question, that might not prevent a potentially dramatic series of countermeasures by America’s trading partners if it is passed as well as signed by President Obama. For that reason, analysts are seeing it as a major test on behalf of Obama, arguing it could signal that the United States may be changing course from a decades-long embrace of free trade because of the fact that times are now too tough to maintain that path. ”        http://eliel42.bloghostpro.com/2009/01/31/procurement-policies-and-free-trade.html Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:03:52 -0500 eliel42