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Strategies & Market Trends : The coming US dollar crisis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: THE ANT who wrote (5645)	3/29/2008 11:36:04 PM
From: Aloysius Q. Finnegan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71406

CAPITOL REPORT Treasury regulatory blueprint hobbled from the start marketwatch.com "... the Treasury plan calls for the merger of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But the CFTC has been able to hold off previous attempts to be swallowed by the SEC because of support from the powerful commodity exchanges in Chicago, who have natural allies in the omnipotent farm lobby." None-the-less, "One wild card for Wall Street is that regulation has now become a topic of the presidential election. This could end up causing more action than expected."

To: THE ANT who wrote (5645)	4/22/2008 9:24:37 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 71406

Florida luxury home market shows signs of wear The surprisingly healthy market for oceanfront mansions and palatial condos in Florida, one of the most toxic states in America's housing meltdown, may finally be showing some cracks. While many luxury properties are selling briskly thanks to Europeans and Canadians pouring their strong currencies into Florida, billionaire Donald Trump recently dropped the price on a Palm Beach mansion by 20 percent, and some market watchers say the U.S. housing woes have finally touched the wealthy. At a recent luxury property auction in Fort Lauderdale, the auctioneer took home after home off the block within moments after opening the bidding when nobody made an offer. On one high-rise condo in the Miami enclave of Williams Island, a 3,100 square foot penthouse previously listed at $5.6 million, he opened bidding at $5 million, lowered his price to $3.5 million, $3 million, $2.5 million, and then closed the auction, all within a minute. "There's just not that much enthusiasm or activity in the luxury market," said Jack Winston, a real estate analyst with Goodkin Consulting in Miami. After the local real estate market peaked two years ago, local brokers said high-end real estate was the only thing propping up the condo market in Miami, one of the most overbuilt and overpriced in the United States. Sales figures from the Florida Association of Realtors supported that notion. The median price of Miami condos gained 6 percent last year while price declines of 25 percent or more were seen elsewhere in the state amid the U.S. mortgage crisis, soaring property taxes and hurricane insurance woes. Continued... reuters.com