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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (25769)	11/28/2007 8:22:13 PM
From: Cogito Ergo Sum	Respond to of 218142

680news.com Protective parents avoid purchasing China-made toys this Christmas, polls shows Wednesday, November 28, 2007 - 09:17 AM By: Katie Simpson Parents are being a little bit more careful with toy purchases this holiday season, remaining wary of small pieces that babies and toddlers could potentially choke on. Toronto - Parents purchasing holiday toys are more likely try to find out where the product was made before the final sale. A new poll finds most Canadians are trying to avoid buying products made in China, but that may be a difficult task. Of all of the toys that are sold in North America, 85 per cent are from China. This makes it tricky for nervous parents to find products from elsewhere. A new Harris Decima poll uncovered that in light of recent lead contamination recalls, 55 per cent of Canadians are going to avoid purchasing items that have been manufactured in China. Finding alternatives won't be easy, according to the Executive Director of the Canadian Toy Testing Council, who said you need to uphold tough purchasing standards for toys made here. "Especially for children three years and younger, you definitely don't want to buy anything with small parts," she said. Regardless of where a toy was made, the poll also found, nearly three-quarters of us will double-check to make sure the product wasn't part of an earlier recall.

To: Ilaine who wrote (25769)	11/29/2007 11:45:25 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218142

Help May Be on the Way Skeptics abound, but Hank Paulson says a breakthrough is near that could rescue troubled homeowners by Jane Sasseen Passing squall or supersized economic blowout? However the housing and credit-market upheavals play out, they will shape the legacy of Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. From the start, he has tried to orchestrate a private-sector-led response to the wave of home loan defaults and price declines under way. But progress has been glacial. Yet a comprehensive program may be within reach. It would get mortgage lenders, servicers, and investors to help eligible homeowners to renegotiate adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) that will reset and become far more expensive. "Well before the end of the year, we will have a template—and the infrastructure in place to make it easier to handle the wave [of resets] that is coming at us," he said in an interview with BusinessWeek. "Focusing on the Middle" The problem so far: Refinancing relief has largely been on a case-by-case basis, and the industry has been unable to agree on broad-based criteria that would allow it to quickly evaluate large pools of homeowners based on their financial standing. As things stand now, mortgage servicers have adjusted just 1% of the subprime loans on which rates reset in the first half of 2007, according to Moody's Investors Service (MCO). Given the scale of the crisis, and the complexity of the ownership of securitized mortgages, only a sweeping plan involving all the industry players is likely to prevent a wave of foreclosures. Paulson, who was scheduled to meet mortgage leaders on Nov. 29, argues that a deal could go a long way toward easing pressures. He says the talks, which involve servicers and investors covering 85% of the market, will give rise to a far speedier and standardized method both for processing such workouts and determining who might be eligible. Those who can readily pay after their resets won't qualify, of course. Yet neither will those who don't have the financial means to own a home even after refinancing. "We're focusing on the middle bucket," says Paulson. "We'll have broad agreement on criteria that will make it easier to modify mortgages in the volumes we need." ARM Wrestling Some sort of breakthrough would be welcome. With market conditions deteriorating and Wall Street fearful that recession risks are rising, critics are asking whether the Administration needs to get far more aggressive in its approach. The U.S. stock market has been in manic-depressive mode for weeks on recession worries, and credit conditions have tightened. Next year, without a better mechanism for home loan workouts, the mortgage industry turmoil could enter a dangerous new phase. Through September, roughly $45 billion in subprime ARMs were reset each quarter this year, according to Banc of America Securities (BAC). Starting in December, and through all of next year, that will jump to an average of $90 billion a quarter. Paulson's efforts, if successful, would build on a similar push by Sheila C. Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In late October, she argued that mortgage servicers and lenders should simply freeze interest rates on resetting ARMs at the initial teaser rate, often around 7% to 9%. That's already above the mortgage rates borrowers with good credit pay. To qualify, borrowers would have to live in the homes—speculators need not apply—and be current on their payments. So far, she has found one taker: On Nov. 20, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a deal with four of the largest mortgage lenders in the state to streamline the loan-workout process and extend for at least several years the initial mortgage rates for struggling subprime borrowers. With some 500,000 loans scheduled to reset in the state over the next two years, California officials say the changes could help some 100,000 homeowners.