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Archive for June, 2008

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Dow Chemical hiking prices 25%

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Via CNN Money:

Dow Chemical Co. announced its second comprehensive price hike in less than a month to offset the “relentless rise” in costs for energy and related raw materials.

The Midland-based chemical company announced Tuesday it will raise prices by as much as 25% next month. That follows price increases of up to 20% that took effect June 1.

Jim Wesley of Survival Blog comments:

Ay carumba! Dow produces a huge variety of chemicals and compounds that go into everything from fertilizers to plastics. This is an alarming indicator of consumer price increases in the near future. When paired with fuel price jumps, this becomes downright frightening for near-future food prices at the consumer level.

Here’s an inflation “score board” Jim recently posted on Survival Blog:

Crude oil up 42.5%
Ethanol up 20.7%
Heating oil up 43.9%
Natural gas up 76.5%
Unleaded gas up 39.5%
Cattle up 1.0%
Corn up 58.8%
Soy beans up; 26.4%
Wheat down 2.2%
Coffee up 5.9%
Aluminum up 32.7%
Copper up 25.7
Platinum up 33.4%
Gold up 6.0%
Silver up 13.4%.
S&P 500 down 10.24%

Illinois to Sue Countrywide

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Here come the lawsuits:

The Illinois attorney general is suing Countrywide Financial, the troubled mortgage lender, and Angelo R. Mozilo, its chief executive, contending that the company and its executives defrauded borrowers in the state by selling them costly and defective loans that quickly went into foreclosure.

Telecom Donations Tied to FISA Vote

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 25th, 2008

Vote Democratic Party for “change”:

When scores of House Democrats joined Republicans last week to reauthorize a controversial White House spying program, many critics attributed that support to election-year jitters. But as liberal voters continue to bash Democrats on the issue, some campaign finance reformers charge that political contributions from the telecom industry, which benefited handsomely under the bill, probably also swayed votes.

GAO says $6 BILLION given to Pakistan can’t be accounted for

Posted by patriot on June 24th, 2008

Oops, we lost some more money…

The United States has not accurately tracked about $6 billion it gave to help the Pakistani government fight terrorism since 2001, according to a report released Tuesday.

Pakistan is the largest recipient of payments from the Coalition Support Funds, which gives money to 27 partner countries to help combat terrorism.

The country, which the Department of Defense considers a key ally in the war on terrorism because of its proximity to large swaths of ungoverned tribal land, has received $5.56 billion of $6.88 billion given out since September 11, 2001.

But a report released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said the Coalition Support Funds cannot prove that the money went to projects or operations specifically fighting terrorists.

L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

The four wheel homeless:

Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels away from homelessness.

She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won’t get hassled by the cops or insulted by residents.

“I’m not a piece of trash,” the former home health-care aide said as she stroked one of five dogs in her cramped quarters parked in the waterfront community of Marina del Rey.

Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out of their cars, vans or RVs.

US Home Prices Continue Record Declines in April

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

CNBC: Continual Never-ending Bad Crap:

Housing prices were weakest in Las Vegas and Miami, with prices down almost 27 percent over the year in each of those markets.

The losses reverse some of the largest gains registered during the housing boom, when house prices soared more than 53 percent in Las Vegas and 32 percent in Miami in the 2004-2005 period, according to S&P.

In April, Miami and Phoenix were the worst performers, with prices falling more than 3 percent in each market, S&P said.

House prices rose in eight of the 20 metro areas in April from March.

“There might be some regional pockets of improvement, but on an annual basis the overall numbers continue to decline,” Blitzer said.

Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dallas are the only two markets that have had two consecutive months of price gains.

“It’s going to be a slow process, but the less overblown markets will stabilize first and we’re getting a hint that that’s beginning to happen,” said Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics. “Ultimately, with a very long lag, the serious bubble markets will settle down, too, but not in a time frame that is meaningful for markets now.”

Update: Congress passes massive $300 billion foreclosure rescue bill.

Communities suffer as foreclosure rate rises

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

This reminds me of Atlas Shrugged:

As mortgage defaults and foreclosures continue to rise, the impact is spreading well beyond those who are losing their homes.

In communities across the country, msnbc.com readers report that local governments are coping with shrinking tax rolls, lenders are saddled with more foreclosed homes than they can sell and empty homes in many neighborhoods are being vandalized.

Like everything associated with the nation’s housing crisis, the fallout from foreclosures is very local, a fact confirmed by hundreds of e-mails from readers in msnbc.com’s Gut Check America. Some regions appear to have escaped relatively unscathed. But in hard-hit states like California, Arizona and Florida, readers report that some neighborhoods are becoming virtual ghost towns.

Senators’ mortgages under microscope

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 24th, 2008

What comes around goes around:

Amid a brewing scandal over special mortgage deals given to two U.S. senators, Politico last week asked the offices of all 100 senators to describe the circumstances under which they obtained their own home loans. Seventy-seven senators have complied so far. Twenty-three have not.

Senators are not required to report in their disclosure forms any financial information about their homes unless they draw rental income from the home. But in the wake of questions regarding mortgages obtained by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) — loans they received through a VIP program run by Countrywide Financial Corp. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said that the disclosure rules should be changed so that senators’ mortgage details are made public.

Only 32% of Americans have confidence in our banks

Posted by patriot on June 23rd, 2008

Which side of the line are you on?

The percentage of Americans saying they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in U.S. banks has fallen to 32% — down nine percentage points from June 2007 and 17 percentage points from June 2006 — matching the 32% of March 1991 and near the three-decade low of 30% in October 1991.

Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government

Posted by Charlie Kilo on June 22nd, 2008

What? They’re not already doing this:

Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd’s 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.

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