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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (177912)	1/19/2009 11:35:57 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

California may delay tax refunds marketwatch.com SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Facing a severe cash crunch, California may delay sending out tax refunds, aid to needy residents, money for some state services and payments to businesses, the state's controller said Friday. State controller John Chiang said in a press release that expected cash shortages in February "will force him to delay some critical payments next month," including money owed to businesses for services provided to the state, rent and food aid for older and disabled Californians. Money for certain state services and tax refunds for 2008 taxes will also be affected. Payments for education and debt service have first claim on the state's general fund under the state constitution, federal law and court rulings. If state lawmakers don't address the budget situation, failing to delay certain other payments will put the state $346 million in the red in February and $5.2 billion in the red by April, the controller said. See more on payment delays on California state controller's Web site. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called on state lawmakers to close the state's steep budget deficit, expected to hit $42 billion over the next 18 months. During this difficult economic time, the payment delays will be particularly bad news for some state residents, many of whom are likely hoping for a quick tax refund payment. Under state law, the state has until May 30 to start paying tax refunds, said Hallye Jordan, spokeswoman for the state controller, in a telephone interview. "Traditionally the state has encouraged people to file early and get their refunds quickly. It's been more of a practice that established the quick turnaround, rather than a legal requirement," she said. The payment delays will go into effect in February if the state legislature and governor don't address the budget issues by Feb. 1, the controller said. If the budget situation isn't rectified, people may eventually start receiving IOUs instead of their expected checks. "For months, I have warned state leaders that our cash flow will be in serious danger this spring. Without corrective action from the governor and legislature, there is no way to make it through February unscathed," Chiang said. "I take this action with great reluctance. I know it will put many California families who rightfully expect their state tax refunds in a desperate position. Individuals who already are vulnerable will be hit hard. Small businesses that don't get paid may have to lay off more workers. Rather than helping stimulate the economy, withholding money from Californians will prolong our pain and delay our economic recovery," he said. Andrea Coombes is an assistant personal finance editor for MarketWatch, based in San Francisco.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (177912)	1/19/2009 11:37:21 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Revenge of the Girly-Men optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (177912)	1/19/2009 11:40:07 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

The Growing Foreclosure Crisis One oft-repeated assertion no longer holds true. Those in trouble are not, primarily, lower-income borrowers. The foreclosure crisis has become a wave, afflicting neighborhoods of every stripe -- but particularly communities created by the boom itself. washingtonpost.com Before Robin Bohnen and her husband, Shane, bought a $1.16 million Mediterranean-style house in an upscale Southern California suburb two years ago, they were not cash-strapped, debt-ridden or credit-impaired. Now they are all of the above. Soon they also may qualify for one more distressing category: home lost to foreclosure. "Wake me up, can this really be happening?" the 42-year-old Bohnen says. As she tries to describe how it feels to have the nation's financial crisis land in her living room, the phone rings. She ignores it. "It's probably the bank -- again," she says. Bohnen once owed her comfortable lifestyle to the dizzying growth that transformed Southern California over the past decade, creating a boom that led many to believe their home values would keep climbing. As the owner of a furniture store born during the housing boom, she provided bean bag chairs and bedroom sets for the brand-new communities that easy credit built. Now, she and husband just owe. They cannot afford their $6,400 monthly payment, and in this plummeting market, they wouldn't make enough on a sale to pay off their mortgage or recoup the 20 percent they put down to buy their Riverside County home. They're "underwater," industry parlance for borrowers who owe more on their mortgage than their houses are worth. They have joined the growing line of homeowners seeking a break from their lenders. Both the departing and incoming administrations in Washington have promised help on the foreclosure front, but providing help requires federal regulators to get their collective arms around the size and shape of the crisis. That isn't easy. No one agency collects information on every loan, every borrower and every delinquency. But interviews and a Washington Post analysis of available data show that the foreclosure crisis knows no class or income boundaries. Many borrowers ensnared in the evolving mortgage mess do not fit neatly into the stereotypes that surfaced by early 2007 when delinquency rates shot up. They don't have subprime loans, the lending industry's jargon for the higher-rate mortgages made to borrowers with shaky credit or without enough cash for a down payment. The wave of subprime delinquencies appears to have crested. But in October, for the first time, the number of prime mortgages in delinquency exceeded the subprime loans in danger of default, according to The Post's analysis. This trend shows up most acutely in California and other high-growth regions, such as Arizona, Nevada, Florida and pockets of the Washington region, most notably in Prince William and Prince George's counties. The recession has made it tougher for people to pay their mortgages, and crashing home prices have left many borrowers underwater, unable to sell or refinance their way out of trouble. One of every five mortgage holders now has a home worth less than the mortgage on it, according to First American CoreLogic, a firm that tracks mortgages and provided data for The Post's analysis. Of the 20 Zip codes with the highest share of underwater loans, seven are in California and four are in Riverside County, the vast exurb southeast of Los Angeles where the Bohnens live. Riverside's unemployment rate has zoomed to 10 percent, well above the national average of 7.2 percent. About 94,200 people in the county are looking for work, many of them formerly employed in the real estate, banking and construction industries, according to the county's economic development agency. CONTINUED 1 2 3 4 5 Next > »

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (177912)	1/19/2009 12:49:17 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

The minute the US sneezed china practically collapsed and that means their GDP figures are overstated. Why would you claim the above? High GDP growth (or even just GDP itself) says zero about how an economy is structured. China has a high GDP growth because they had both very high export growth and internal growth. The internal growth is leveraged off the export growth, which is what came to a screeching halt when the US had problems. Consequently the internal growth is also screeching to a halt.