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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (16720)	11/24/2004 10:17:06 AM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 116555

Home equity loans money.cnn.com Outstanding debt for home equity lines of credit increased nearly 11 percent during the third quarter, according to preliminary numbers released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The amount of outstanding debt for home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, was nearly $460 billion at the end of the third quarter, a 46 percent increase from the same time in 2003. "Homeowners have been pretty aggressive in tapping their home equity," said Richard A. Brown, chief economist for the FDIC in an interview with CNN/Money last month. In 2003 alone, they tapped more than $300 billion of home equity via lines of credit and cash out refinancing, he said, or about 4 percent of personal income. "That's a big number." It should come as no surprise that home equity lines continue to grow in popularity. These loans, which allow you to borrow against the equity in your home any time, for any purpose just by writing a check, are cheap, convenient and widely available. Still, the numbers are staggering. The average line of credit available between June 2003 and June 2004 was about $77,500, according to the Consumer Bankers Association, up from about $69,500 the previous year.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (16720)	11/24/2004 10:22:23 AM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Dollar's Dip Shows Greenspan in Denial By Peter Eavis Senior Columnist 11/24/2004 7:11 AM EST Just about everyone is worrying about the tanking dollar and the enormous U.S. trade deficit. So it's high time for Alan Greenspan, the nation's central banker, to step in and tell us how we might deal with the wilting greenback. Instead, the Fed chairman has made a speech that will go down as the one of most flagrant pieces of self-serving tripe in financial history. . . . The speech, given last Friday at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt, clearly shows that Greenspan is refusing to deal with the root cause of the dollar's slide because his policies are the main reason for its decline. Now it very much appears that Greenspan will pull up short of doing what's necessary to fix the current account deficit, because it would mean admitting that he's created the mess that led to the blowout trade deficit. . . . Since Greenspan almost never admits he's wrong, the Fed -- under him or one of his acolytes (he's likely to retire in early 2006) -- almost certainly isn't going to change course. This makes it increasingly likely that America will be laid low by the mother of all currency crises before long. It's incredible to think that in a governmental system known for its checks and balances, the pride of one man could cause the fall of the world's largest economy. But that's what we're looking at here, going by the central banker's Friday speech. ========= It's on the free site today so read the rest here: thestreet.com