Company Cash
"Companies Are Piling Up Cash"
"The typical American corporation has increased its savings so sharply that it probably has enough cash on hand to completely pay off its debts.
According to S.& P., the total cash held by companies in its industrial index exceeded $600 billion in February, up from about $203 billion in 1998."
The rest is going DOWN, readers!
Housing
"Forecast: No housing recovery until 2009"
"by Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | March 4, 2008
A widening credit crunch and rising risks of a US recession will delay the Boston housing market's recovery until mid-2009, according to a new forecast.
House prices in the Boston metropolitan area, which have fallen 7 percent since their 2005 peak, will decline another 8 percent before starting to recover in the middle of 2009, Moody's Economy.com said yesterday.
The forecast has "gotten a little bit worse," said Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at the Philadelphia economic consulting firm. "We expect prices to bottom out in 2009."
Most economists now agree US and local housing prices will fall through 2008 and won't begin to rise again until next year.
Moody's Economy.com had previously forecast a turnaround for late 2008. But Faucher said mortgage lenders' tighter credit standards are hitting the housing market hard this year, including in the Boston area.
Interest rates for jumbo mortgages, which are used heavily in expensive markets like Boston's, are almost a full percentage point higher - around 7 percent - than are rates for conventional fixed-rate mortgages.
Investors who buy these mortgages perceive jumbo loans (those currently defined as those exceeding $417,000) as being more risky. Previously, many such loans were too large to qualify for backing from Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.
The economic stimulus package Congress passed recently increases the lending ceiling for loans that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can guarantee. The government is expected to specify new limits for various markets within a few weeks.
Subprime loans, which fueled the real estate boom earlier in the decade, have virtually disappeared, eliminating mortgages used by an entire segment of buyers, economists said. Many buyers with less than stellar credit turned to subprime loans.
Forecasts are notoriously difficult to get right. That's even more true when economic data are in flux and economists remain uncertain whether the US economy has entered - or will enter - a recession.
If you keep reading this post, you will find that is untrue.
Surprised?
If unemployment rises, it is more difficult for people to buy homes or trade up to bigger properties.
"If we have a recession, demand is going to drop further and put more downward pressure on prices," said Chip Case, a housing economist and professor at Wellesley College.
But, Case said, the Boston and Massachusetts housing markets could turn around this year. He noted a wide variation between troubled markets such as in Lawrence, where subprime mortgages were concentrated, and wealthy suburbs such as Weston that are holding up well.
"You look at these different segments and see different things," he said.
Yeah, the POOR CONTINUALLY TAKING a BATH!!!
Alicia Sasser, senior economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, also predicted that house prices in New England, including Massachusetts, would decline for a second year in a row in 2008.
She, too, said the region could begin to recover late in the year - and before the rest of the country - because New England's housing market slumped earlier than elsewhere.
She shared her predictions with real estate agents yesterday at a conference of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors in Cambridge. Also, there were fewer new homes built here than in the South and West, where the population is expanding rapidly, Sasser said, leaving those regions saddled with large inventories of unsold homes.
"Our oversupply is not as dire as in the rest of the country," she said, adding, "It's still going to take time to work through that inventory."
When local markets do recover, Sasser said, they will do so without the rapid price appreciation of 10 percent or more a year that characterized the boom years.
New England house prices, she predicted, will rise about 2.1 percent annually. Massachusetts, along with Rhode Island, she said, "will have the slowest growth in housing prices through 2011."
They said it would be over in 2009!!
WTF?!
"by Associated Press | March 4, 2008
WASHINGTON - A banking industry group says lenders have helped more than 1 million troubled borrowers from last July through January, though critics say the response to the mortgage mess falls short.
Statistics released yesterday by Hope Now, a Bush administration-organized effort to help at-risk borrowers, show more homeowners are getting assistance. But critics yesterday said the industry had not released enough information about what kind of help people are getting and questioned the value of the banks' intervention.
Consumer advocates say repayment plans are not effective assistance for most and that loan delinquencies and foreclosure rates continue to soar.
But we got WARS to FIGHT and WAR CONTRACTORS to make PHAT!!!!!
John Taylor, chief executive of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, noted that many borrowers aren't able to keep up - even with modified loans.
The industry group's statistics show that workouts made up about 36 percent of total loan modifications in January, up from about 30 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said in a statement that she was encouraged by that trend, but "concerned about the reliance on repayment plans which may be unsustainable for borrowers and lead to later delinquencies."
Bair yesterday sent a letter to banks encouraging them to report details of their foreclosure-prevention activities to the Hope Now alliance. The federal Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Reserve, and other regulators have issued similar requests to the industry.
Steve Bartlett, chief executive of the Washington-based Financial Services Roundtable, the industry group coordinating the Hope Now effort, said in a conference call with reporters that lenders "have stepped up in what is the most massive and impressive industry effort that I can recall.
Members of Hope Now include Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Washington Mutual Inc., and Wells Fargo & Co.
No wonder companies are socking away cash!
Can you pay all your debts right now, readers?
What, you sitting on that $$$$ like the companies?
Among subprime borrowers, about 70 percent of borrowers received repayment plans, while 30 percent received loan modifications."
But they still have to PAY what they can't AFFORD!!!
Can ee get that WAR LOOT that was STOLEN back?
The Dollar
This article is interesting.
The price of oil is not going up because of the supply/demand bullshit the business crappers are telling us; it's GOING UP because the value of the DOLLAR is GOING DOWN!
Just like what Ron Paul said.
"Crude oil futures hit $103.95 per barrel"
"by Bloomberg News | March 4, 2008
NEW YORK - Crude oil rose to a record after the dollar dropped to an all-time low against the euro, increasing the appeal of commodities as an alternative investment.
Oil has risen 25 percent since Sept. 18 when the first of five cuts to the US benchmark interest rate sent the dollar lower. Traders purchase energy and metals as inflation hedges when the US currency weakens. Prices also rose on reports that the United States launched an air strike in Somalia and that Venezuela sent tanks to its border with Colombia.
Oh, nice moves!
Thanks, thanks, a lot, U.S.!
All to kill a few women and animals, huh?
I guess it was worth it -- to the hoggish oil companies!
And CUTTING the RATES made the DOLLAR WEAKER -- thus OIL PRICES "JUMPED!"
Maybe you'd like to drink a barrel of oil with your bowl of shit, 'murkns?
"The energy market has caught the inflation wave once again as a reaction to new lows for the dollar versus the euro," said John Kilduff, vice president of risk management at MF Global Ltd. in New York. "The US military action in Somalia reminds participants of the geopolitical risk attendant to oil production globally."
Translation: Pull your pants down and bend over when you go to the pump, 'murkn!
"There are still plenty of reasons to buy, and the only compelling reason to sell is the US economic outlook," Kilduff said.
"I don't think OPEC would be increasing production because we would be increasing to meet demand that doesn't exist," OPEC president Chakib Khelil said in Vienna as member nations gathered before the group's meeting tomorrow."
What?
I was told the price is going up because of DEMAND from China and India, not because of a SHIT DOLLAR!!!!
Oh, Lord, Americans, BUSH HAS DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY!!!
You ain't even gonna need that oil!
Manufacturing and Construction
"Building, factory spending shrink"
"by Bloomberg News | March 4, 2008
WASHINGTON - Manufacturing in the United States shrank at the fastest pace in almost five years and construction spending fell the most since 1994 as the economy moved closer to a recession.
But above it says IF, IF, IF!!!
At the same time, the Commerce Department reported that spending on building projects slumped 1.7 percent in January, more than anticipated.
The collapse in housing is rippling through the economy as consumers pare spending and factories cut production of cars, furniture, and appliances. Traders are betting the Federal Reserve will reduce its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage point at its March 18 meeting.
Which will drive OIL PRICES HIGHER and the DOLLAR EVEN LOWER!!!!
"The evidence is piling up that the economy is slipping into at least a mild recession," said Scott Anderson, a senior economist at
Joseph LaVorgna, chief US economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, yesterday joined the growing number of forecasters saying the United States had slipped into a recession. Merrill Lynch Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Citigroup Inc. are among the banks that had already projected the economy was contracting.
Yeah, that's those lender fellers from up above.
THEY SAY the economy is in recession; the only one who doesn't is that LIAR George W. Bush!!!!!
The figures had little impact on financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.1 percent to close at 12,258.9 in New York. Investors anticipated a weaker manufacturing report after the National Association of Purchasing Management-Chicago said last week that business activity had weakened.
Richers ALWAYS do just fine, thank you!
Homebuilding is in a third year of decline as sales weaken and builders halt new projects. Stricter borrowing rules and lower demand are also restraining commercial developers, creating an even greater drag on growth.
Yesterday's factory survey corroborates other regional business polls in the past two weeks that showed factory activity, which accounts for about 12 percent of gross domestic product, contracted in February.""New vehicle sales plummet"
"y Associated Press | March 4, 2008
DETROIT - Automakers got hit where it hurts in February, with US sales of their most profitable vehicles - trucks, sport utilities, and large sedans - plunging as consumers reacted to high gas prices and the possible recession. General Motors and Ford said they will cut production in the second quarter in the face of falling US sales.
"POSSIBLE" recession.
The BANKS and BUSINESS say we are IN ONE!
And SO DO I!!!
You ever get tired of the lying like me, readers?
Chrysler reported an overall sales decline of 14 percent, while General Motors' sales fell almost 13 percent. Ford's sales slumped 7 percent, and Toyota's dropped 3 percent.
It was expected to be a difficult month for automakers as consumer confidence continued its slide. Declines in home construction have also significantly weakened truck sales.
GM said its sales decline was led by a 19 percent drop in sales of trucks and SUVs. Sales of Chevrolet's full-size pickups were down 29 percent for the month. Large sedans didn't fare much better; sales of the full-size Buick Lucerne were down 26 percent. GM's sales dropped 6 percent in the first two months of the year.
GM said the comparison with last February was a tough one, since retail sales hit a high mark for the year in February 2007. Still, the company responded to the downturn by cutting North American production by 5 percent in the second quarter, to 1.08 million vehicles.
Mark LaNeve, General Motors Corp.'s vice president for North American sales and marketing, said that while a weeklong strike at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. has idled some GM plants, the company has enough inventory of trucks and SUVs to last at least 60 days.
Yeah, they stockpile so they can crush labor!
Like the CASH at the top of the piece!
"Right now it's not a threat to us doing business, given our relatively healthy inventory situation," he said.
Toyota Motor Corp. said its car sales fell 4 percent, while its truck sales were flat for the month. Toyota saw particular weakness in its luxury Lexus division, where sales of its flagship LS 460 sedan fell 25 percent for the month. Toyota's overall sales were down 2.5 percent for the year.
Oh, weakness in the rich Lexus market.
Ford Motor Co. said it will cut shifts at three factories by summer and reduce North American production by 10 percent in the second quarter to 730,000 vehicles.
The company noted that sales of its crossovers were brisk in February, but buyers shunned its large sedans and SUVs.
Chrysler LLC said its car sales were up 9 percent. But its truck sales fell 22 percent. Chrysler's newly redesigned Dodge Caravan minivan was down a disappointing 32 percent for the month."T-Rates
"Short-term Treasury bill rates decline"
"By Associated Press | March 4, 2008
WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in auction yesterday to their lowest levels since 2004.
The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.790 percent, down from 2.160 percent last week. Another $23 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.810 percent, down from 2.070 percent last week.
The three-month rate was the lowest since three-month bills averaged 1.770 percent on Oct. 18, 2004. The six-month rate was the lowest since these bills averaged 1.775 percent on Aug. 30, 2004.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bills, the three-month price was $9,954.75 while a six-month bill sold for $9,908.49.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, dipped to 1.98 percent last week, from 2.10 percent the previous week."So our bonds cost less, our dollar is worth more, interest payments are higher, and the American public is drowning in economic shit.
And we ain't even near the bottom!
(Author gets up from chair, turns around, undoes pants, bends over and... Oooooooooowwwwww!!!)
