Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: mishedlo who wrote (65536)	5/15/2007 3:49:42 PM
From: Chispas	Respond to of 116555

The nation's highest foreclosure rate - The Central Valley city of Stockton has the nation’s highest foreclosure rate -- one foreclosure filing for every 131 households, nearly six times the national average -- according to figures compiled by RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine-based publisher of a national database of pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, For Sale By Owner, resale and new homes. Other California cities with foreclosure rates in the top 10 include Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 2, Riverside-San Bernardino at No. 4, Modesto at No. 6, Sacramento at No. 7, and Merced at No. 8. Nationwide, a total of 147,708 foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- were reported in April, down about 1 percent from March but up 62 percent from April 2006, RealtyTrac says. The report shows a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 783 U.S. households during the month. "After hitting a two-year high in March, U.S. foreclosure activity slipped slightly lower in April," says James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "Last year foreclosure activity subsided somewhat during the spring and summer months, thanks in part to increased interest from buyers. Whether the decrease in April is the beginning of a similar trend this year remains to be seen, but we expect foreclosure activity to at least stay above last year's levels for the remainder of 2007, fueled by a combustible mix of risky loans taken out in the last few years -- many in the subprime market -- and slowing home price appreciation." Nevada, Colorado, Connecticut post top foreclosure rates • Nevada reported 3,737 foreclosure filings during April, a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 232 households -- highest among the 50 states for the fourth month in a row and more than three times the national average. The state's foreclosure activity decreased 21 percent from the previous month but was up more than 200 percent from April 2006. • Colorado's foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 314 households was second highest among the states despite a 7 percent decrease in foreclosure activity from the previous month. The state reported 5,826 foreclosure filings during April, the eighth most of any state and a 57 percent increase from April 2006. • Connecticut's foreclosure rate leapfrogged to third highest among the states in April. The state reported 4,207 foreclosure filings during the month, a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 329 households -- more than twice the national average. Connecticut's dramatic increase is due in part “to more rigorous data collection activities implemented by RealtyTrac in the state during April,” the company notes. California, Florida, Ohio document largest foreclosure totals With 30,505 foreclosure filings reported in April, California documented the largest foreclosure total of any state for the fourth month in a row. The state's foreclosure activity in April decreased about 3 percent from March but was up more than 200 percent from April 2006, resulting in a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 400 households -- fourth highest among the states and nearly twice the national average. Florida reported 14,318 foreclosure filings in April, the second largest state total and a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 510 households -- seventh highest among the states and 1.5 times the national average. The state's foreclosure activity increased less than 1 percent from the previous month and was up nearly 72 percent from April 2006. Ohio's foreclosure activity surged in April, up 39 percent from the previous month and up 135 percent from April 2006, pushing the state's foreclosure total to third largest in the nation. The state reported 11,431 foreclosure filings during the month, a foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 418 households -- 1.9 times the national average. Other states with foreclosure totals among the nation's 10 highest in April were Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Michigan, Colorado, Connecticut and Arizona. Two Colorado cities registered foreclosure rates among the top 10 metro areas: Greeley ranked No. 3, with one foreclosure filing for every 165 households; and Denver ranked No. 10, with one foreclosure filing for every 236 households. Other cities with foreclosure rates among the top 10 were Las Vegas -- No. 5 with one foreclosure filing for every 179 households -- and Akron, Ohio -- No. 9 with one foreclosure filing for every 216 households. centralvalleybusinesstimes.com

To: mishedlo who wrote (65536)	5/15/2007 5:54:49 PM
From: Crimson Ghost	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

Angry Wolfowitz in four-letter tirade Richard Adams in Washington Tuesday May 15, 2007 Guardian Unlimited P An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night. Under fire for the lavish package given to Shaha Riza, a World Bank employee and Mr Wolfowitz's girlfriend when he became president, an official investigation into the controversy has found that Mr Wolfowitz broke bank rules and violated his own contract – setting off a struggle between US and European governments over Mr Wolfowitz's future. Article continues Sounding more like a cast member of the Sopranos than an international leader, in testimony by one key witness Mr Wolfowitz declares: "If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too." The remarks were published in a report detailing the controversy that erupted last month after the size of Ms Riza's pay rises was revealed. The report slates Mr Wolfowitz for his "questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest", saying: "Mr Wolfowitz saw himself as the outsider to whom the established rules and standards did not apply." The report brushed off Mr Wolfowitz's defence that he thought he had been asked to arrange Ms Riza's pay package, observing that "the interpretation given by Mr Wolfowitz ... simply turns logic on its head". The investigators have sent their completed report to the bank's governing board, containing a string of withering criticisms of Mr Wolfowitz's behaviour and casting doubt on his ability to continue running the bank, a multibillion-pound international agency with 12,000 staff based in Washington. According to the report, Mr Wolfowitz's actions "had a dramatic negative effect on the reputation and credibility" of the bank. It concluded that "the damage done to the reputation of the World Bank group" should lead the bank's board to "consider whether Mr Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible". It also said: "Mr Wolfowitz's contract requiring that he adhere to the code of conduct for board officials and that he avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, [was] violated." Despite the weeks of turmoil within the bank, Mr Wolfowitz may still keep his job if the US government is prepared to stick by him. Mr Wolfowitz still enjoys support from the Bush administration, where he served as deputy defence secretary at the Pentagon during the invasion of Iraq. Yesterday vice president Dick Cheney defended Mr Wolfowitz, saying: "Paul is one of the most able public servants I've ever known .... I think he's a very good president of the World Bank, and I hope he will be able to continue." The US treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, was yesterday said to also be drumming up support for Mr Wolfowitz, while European governments increasingly despair of US intransigence in allowing Mr Wolfowitz to hang on. The angry comments attributed to Mr Wolfowitz came from damning testimony by Xavier Coll, head of human resources at the bank, who provided investigators with his notes of a meeting with Mr Wolfowitz last year. The notes directly contradict Mr Wolfowitz's assertions that the details of Ms Riza's treatment were properly shared with senior bank officials. In March last year, when a mention of Ms Riza's secondment outside the bank to avoid rules about partners was first published in the magazine US News & World Report, an angry Mr Wolfowitz accused Mr Coll of leaking the information. According to Mr Coll's notes: "At the end of the conversation Mr Wolfowitz became increasingly agitated and said that he was 'tired of people ... attacking him' and 'you should get your friends to stop it'. Mr Wolfowitz said, 'If they fuck me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too'," naming several senior bank staff he felt were vulnerable. Mr Wolfowitz appears before the bank's executive board today to make a final defence of his actions, with the board meeting tomorrow to consider the report and make a statement later in the week. With Mr Wolfowitz so far refusing to step down, the board may need to take radical action to break the stalemate. Members have discussed a range of options, including sacking Mr Wolfowitz, issuing a vote of no confidence or reprimanding him. Some board members argue that a vote of no confidence would make it impossible for him to stay in the job.

To: mishedlo who wrote (65536)	5/16/2007 12:33:16 AM
From: Chispas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Boomers look to bankruptcy system for relief : Chattanooga bankruptcy lawyer Mark Young said more often than not, his baby boomer clients who file for bankruptcy are not frivolous spenders. Rather, he said, they simply face insurmountable financial burdens as they struggle to put kids through college and support aging parents. "People are getting squeezed," said Mr. Young, who has practiced in Chattanooga for almost 30 years. "A lot of baby boomers are seeing incredible debt loads. All the sudden you're just keeping your mouth above water to keep from drowning." Competing financial obligations to parents and children, health care costs, mortgage debt and inadequate retirement planning are all adding up for many older Americans who opt for bankruptcy, said some Chattanooga bankruptcy lawyers and credit counselors. Their perceptions are echoed in a recent study by John Golmant and Tom Ulrich, researchers at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which found that older Americans are filing for bankruptcy at faster rate than the general population. The number of bankruptcy petitioners over the age of 45 increased from 27 percent of all filers in 1994 to 39 percent of filers in 2002, according to the study published in the May 2007 issue of American Bankruptcy Institute. Conversely, the percentage of filers under 25 years old decreased from 10.6 percent to 4.2 percent of all filers in the same period. The fastest growth occurred in the percentage of petitioners over the age of 55, which increased by nearly 46 percent from 1994 to 2002, though the age grouping still comprised only 14 percent of all filers in 2002. Credit card debt is often the immediate cause of bankruptcy filings, but many of these debtors are using credit cards as a life-line to pay for prescriptions and high insurance deductibles, said Lois R. Lupica, professor at University of Maine School of Law and resident scholar at American Bankruptcy Institute. "People don't have the money, so they use the credit cards," she said. "The increasing credit card debt can be a deceptive cause of people filing for bankruptcy, until you look behind what's being charged. The underlying causes have not been addressed." Kyle Weems, a Chattanooga bankruptcy attorney, said, "We've filed many more boomer (bankruptcy) cases recently because of health problems. They have a lot of problems with coverage until they get to Medicare. There's that gap from 50 to 65." Bankruptcy filing rates in Chattanooga and nationwide have fluctuated in recent years, due to bankruptcy law reform. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 made it more complicated and more expensive to file for bankruptcy, and required debtors to receive credit counseling before and after filing. Bankruptcies nationwide surged before its passage in October of 2005 and dropped steeply in the months following. Bankruptcy rates in Chattanooga also dipped significantly in 2006, but now the numbers appear to be bouncing back. In the first three months of 2007, 1,259 people in Chattanooga filed for bankruptcy, compared to 917 in the same period of 2006, according to the Eastern District of Tennessee Bankruptcy Court. Tracy Johnson, education specialist with the Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Chattanooga, said, "I don't want to say the (reform) law didn't work, but what the law was intended to do was make people come to a legitimate credit counseling agency and learn their alternatives before they went bankrupt." Instead, many debtors now see credit counseling as an obligatory stop on the road to filing for bankruptcy, she said. Consumer Credit Counseling Service will work with a customers' creditors to lower payments and interest rates, as well as formulate a budgeting plan for debtors, Ms. Johnson said. In many cases these efforts free up enough money for people to avoid bankruptcy altogether. Mr. Young said there is hope for breaking the cycle of financial illiteracy and indebtedness. "I think some of the young people are starting to see the faults of the baby boomer generation and the mistakes of their parents," he said. "The cycle is only going to be broken with the true education of people in their teens and twenties and I think that's slowly starting to turn around." timesfreepress.com