From FHFA Director James B. Lockhart, June 23, 2009 : “Although monthly data are volatile, we may be starting to see signs of stabilization in prices for houses funded by conventional conforming loans, as the HPI is only down 0.3 percent for the first four months of the year.” From the National Association of Realtors, June 23, 2009 : The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $173,000 in May, down 16.8 percent from a year earlier.
The NAR reports: May Existing-Home Sales Continue Rising Trend Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008. … Total housing inventory at the end of May fell 3.5 percent to 3.80 million existing homes available for sale, which represents a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 10.1-month supply in April.
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona The eurozone economies moved sideways in June, with the flash reading on the composite purchasing managers index (which covers both industry and services) for the 16 nation euro area rising to 44.4, fractionally above the 44 registered in May. So we are just where we were before, contracting more slowly than in Q1, but still contracting, and the fiscal bullet is now almost spent
Practically since the beginning of the “reform and opening” period in 1978, China’s central government has sought to shift from an extensive to an intensive development model — from growth based on capital accumulation to growth based on improvements in productivity. This year, however, while the planners continue to talk about the need for this long-sought-after transformation, they are moving in exactly the opposite direction, counting heavily on state-sponsored investment to keep the economy growing in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Last week I blogged on the Administration’s ambitious proposals for altering the regulation of the financial markets, proposals set forth in the 88-page report Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation, which the Treasury Department issued on June 17. (I’ll call it the “Report.”) The proposals require a fuller analysis, which I shall conduct in four parts published this week. The first–the subject of this blog entry–addresses what seem to me the fundamental weaknesses in the Report: weaknesses in the overall conception rather than the specific proposals
6/22/09 – CNBC – Oil, Rates May Stifle Recovery: Roubini ( Click here for video ) ( CNBC ) — The price of oil, which is rising too fast, and long-term interest rates that are beginning to creep up are likely to suppress a budding recovery, Nouriel Roubini, president of RGE Monitor, told CNBC Monday. Click on the following links for associated text: Clamp Down on Too Big to Fail Banks: Roubini Oil at $100, Interest Rates May Stifle Recovery: Roubini
A new wave of lawsuits and arbitrations are being filed on behalf of investors who purchased auction rate securities but have not been eligible to participate in redemptions offered by big banks as a result of regulatory settlements. See article entitled “’Stranded’ ARS investors sue for a share of pie” by Jed Horowitz in the May 24, 2009 edition of InvestmentNews. These stranded investors purchased auction rate securities from “downstream” broker-dealers who sold but did not underwrite auction rate securities.
Members of the Maryland Chamber’s Board of Directors visited Constellation Energy’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant last week and received an outstanding presentation about a proposed new nuclear unit on a site adjacent to the two existing units. The Chamber has expressed its support for a nuclear joint venture between EDF Group and Constellation Energy and the potential construction of a new 1,600-megawatt pressurized water reactor that would deliver enough emission-free electricity to power 1.3 million homes. You can view our recent letter to the editor here
What Paul said: What’s moving interest rates? : I’ve written recently about applying the Engel-Frankel method to making sense of interest rate movements: ask what else moves when rates move, and you get a clue to what’s driving the changes. I’ve previously argued that the behavior of commodity prices suggests that the big rise in interest rates this spring was driven by economic optimism, not fear of deficits.
Why oh why can’t we have a better press corps? Remember the presumption when reading the Post : if it’s true, you probably already knew it; if you didn’t already know it, it probably isn’t true. For example, Robert Samuelson on the costs of greening the economy
DeLong Smackdown Watch: : Henry Farrell writes about me, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, James Scott, High Modernism, Jane Jacobs, the collectivization of agriculture, Karl Polanyi, rubber tomatos, the despised medieval Jewish Maghribi traders, and the cheap restaurants of Florence, Italy. I am silenced: I will return to the lists to defend the rubber tomato and American Chinese food someday–but not yet
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Foreclosure numbers don’t add up (ht Mark) When the most frequently quoted source of foreclosure information released its April statistics, it estimated that 3,746 properties in metro Atlanta’s five core counties had been slapped with foreclosure sale notices. But a review of local legal advertisements – the only official source of Georgia foreclosure information – suggested a decidedly different number for April, with 7,462 properties slated for auction on the courthouse steps.
Michael Munger, of Duke University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about franchising, particularly car dealerships. Munger highlights how the dealers used state regulations to protect their profits and how bankruptcy appears to be unraveling that strategy. The main themes of the conversation are the incentives in the franchising relationship and the evolution of the auto industry in the United States over the last forty years.
Paul Osborne discusses the feeling of having ones property sold, with Lorna who just sold her property, 29 Leonard St Burwood. … “Melbourne real estate” “Burwood real estate” “Melbourne property” “Sealed bid” Tender Sold “Real estate”
From the Taipei Times : The risks of a double-dip, W-shaped recession may be growing By Nouriel Roubini In the past three months, global asset prices have rebounded sharply: Stock prices have increased by more than 30 percent in advanced economies and by much more in most emerging markets. Prices of commodities — oil, energy, and minerals — have soared; corporate credit spreads (the difference between the yield of corporate and government bonds) have narrowed dramatically, as government-bond yields have increased sharply; volatility (the “fear gauge”) has fallen; and the dollar has weakened as demand for safe dollar assets has abated.
A corresopondent writes: Dear Professor DeLong: This fall I am teaching a section of the required freshman writing course at Malefactor of Great Wealth University, a course that emphasizes the analysis of argument and other related rhetorical skills, as well as instruction and practice in academic writing. All sections are organized around a single issue, and I have chosen to focus on public argument on the economy leading up to and following the events of late 2008. I have been enjoying your blog and the fine array of links
From the Sacramento Bee: 7 lenders get immunity from state foreclosure prevention act Bank of America Home Loans, CitiMortgage and Carrington Mortgage Services are among the first seven lenders and loan servicers granted immunity from the state’s foreclosure prevention act launched this week in California. The new law makes lenders prove to the state that they have a comprehensive loan-modification program that helps borrowers stay in their homes. Those that can’t prove it to the state’s satisfaction must wait an extra 90 days before foreclosing on borrowers
It is–I confess–very rare that I learn anything save the multiple forms of error from Washington Post stories: what’s true in them is rarely new to me, and what’s new to me in them is rarely true. But here are six very good stories over the past six months that taught me things: 1) June 8, 2009: Dan Froomkin: How Cheney Bent DOJ to His Will : Three newly-disclosed Justice Department e-mails thoroughly vindicate the most cynical suspicions about how former vice president Dick Cheney bent ostensibly independent Justice Department lawyers to his will and forced them to manufacture legal cover for his torture policies….
by Edward Hugh: Barcelona Quietly clicking my way through Bloomberg last Sunday afternoon, I came across this : Facebook Members Register Names at 550 a Second Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said members registered new user names at a rate of more than 550 a second after the company offered people the chance to claim a personalized Web address. Facebook started accepted registrations at midnight New York time on a first-come, first-served basis. Within the first seven minutes, 345,000 people had claimed user names, said Larry Yu, a spokesman for Palo Alto, California-based Facebook
Farnaz Fassihi: Crowds, Calm and Then Gunshots China Mieville: There and Back Again: Five Reasons Tolkien Rocks Paul Krugman on the Dan Froomkin firing Paul Krugman: Out of the Shadows Matthew Yglesias: Conservative Justices’ Strange Enthusiasm for the Punishment of the Innocent Gawker JuicerHub Juan Cole: Mourning Rally Biggest Demonstration Since Monday in Tehran; Khamenei to Address Nation Wonkette : Washington Post Fires Froomkin! Zachary Roth: Husband Of Ensign’s Girlfriend To Fox’s Kelly: Help Me Expose Senator’s “Relentless Pursuit Of My Wife” Greg Ip: Reforming financial regulations in America: Better broth, still too many cooks Ezra Klein: Health reform is, I think it fair to say, in danger right now. The news out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee was bad…
The Washington Post, Dan Froomkin and the establishment media : GG: I’m going to ask you in just a second a very open-ended question, which is to invite you to tell me and anyone listening what you think about the firing of Dan Froomkin… JR: Dan prospered, for quite a while, as a washingtonpost.com columnist. But then with the firing or letting go of Jim Brady, he lost his protector, the washingtonpost.com operation began to be merged into the Post newsroom
During the Chrysler bankruptcy, I excerpted and linked to lawyer Steve Jakubowski’s Bankruptcy Litigation Blog. Steve has taken it a step further and stepped into the GM fray … From Steve: Objecting to the GM 363 Sale’s Treatment of Product Liability Claims: Stepping Into The Fray [A] lot of panicked plaintiffs’ lawyers involved in cases against GM are screaming these days as they watch years of toil on behalf of people seriously injured by defective GM products (like crushed roofs, exploding “side saddle” gas tanks, and collapsing seat backs) potentially go for naught as GM makes its grandest attempt ever to crush an entire class of former customers and existing and future products liability claimants in a sale that many plaintiffs lawyers of record only received written notice of in the past couple of days.
Spring wanes to Summer Crushing debt broods over banks Fresh Winter for one. by Soylent Green is People From the FDIC : United Community Bank, Blairsville, Georgia Assumes All of the Deposits of Southern Community Bank, Fayetteville, Georgia As of May 29, 2009, Southern Community Bank had total assets of $377 million and total deposits of approximately $307 million. ..
Washington Post “ombudsman” Andrew Alexander this morning: [Dan Froomkin's] slant seemed to attract a large and loyal audience during the Bush administration, but it may have suffered when Barack Obama became president… “Seemed,” “may.” Shouldn’t he try to find out? But that would require work for Andrew Alexander, and would require him to represent reader concerns.
From Bloomberg: Obama Mortgage Refinancing Program May Expand, Lockhart Says President Barack Obama’s program to help more homeowners refinance may be expanded to include borrowers who owe more than 105 percent of their homes’ values, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said. The Obama administration is considering allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance loans with current loan-to-value ratios of 125 percent or higher, Lockhart said at a National Association of Real Estate Editors Association conference in Washington yesterday.
