Posts tagged New
5 Smart Tips to Ensure Successful Debt Negotiation
Jan 15th
The New Year and decade is an opportunity to bring about change for the better. For people whose resolution is to become debt free through debt settlement, here are some important tips they need to know.
$100 Million Loan BWIC Due At 11:00 AM
Jan 14th
New $100MM Loan BWIC lurking. $100 million of various Term Loan Bs (and other) about to be gobbled up by credit investors. The name of the liquidating fund is, as always, unknown. The largest names in the BWIC include Del Taco TL B at $6.5MM, Neiman Marcus TL at $6MM, Polymer Group Tranche 2 TL at $5.4MM, Burger King Tranche B-1 at $5.3MM and Chrysler 1st Lien at $3.8 MM. Rush to get your bids in – you have 3 minutes.
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| January 14 BWIC.pdf | 451.73 KB |
Spotlight on Ken Feinberg: The Special Master of America
Jan 14th
The term “special master” is just so cool, connoting, as it does, a rarefied mix of power and wisdom. Were we ever called that in any context, we’d probably make a point of telling our decedents to slap it up on our gravestone.
Kenneth Feinberg has become the king special master, presiding over every American crisis of the last decade. Most recently, he was tapped to serve as President Obama’s “pay czar.” In that role, he’s tasked with the thorny job of setting pay at bailed out companies.
The Washington Post on Thursday contains a very revealing profile of Feinberg, a Washington lawyer.
Opens the story:
Partly through his volition and partly as an accident of history, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg has become a ubiquitous personage when it comes to national emergency. Beginning in 2001, Feinberg was the U.S. government’s special master tasked with setting compensation for injured victims and the families of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, a job he describes as “the most harrowing experience of my professional life.”
In 2007 he distributed the money donated to victims of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech and to bereaved families.
And just now, in response to the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Feinberg is the Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation — the pay czar — charged with capping salaries at firms receiving the biggest chunks of bailout money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
How’d he get to this exalted spot? A native of Brockton, Mass., Feinberg got his undergraduate degree from UMass, then went to law school at NYU. He clerked for former New York Court of Appeals chief judge Stanley Fuld, worked as a federal prosecutor, and later served on the staff of Ted Kennedy.
After law school Feinberg clerked for the chief judge of the state of New York, Stanley H. Fuld, then worked as a federal prosecutor and later as chief of staff for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Before founding his own firm — The Feinberg Group — in 1993, he helped found Kaye Scholer’s Washington office of Kaye Scholer.
But his first significant brush with mediation came about a decade earlier, when Brooklyn federal judge Jack Weinstein, invited Feinberg to help settle a long-standing dispute between thousands of Vietnam War veterans claiming injury from exposure to Agent Orange, and chemical companies that were involved with manufacturing the herbicide. Feinberg worked with both sides and a settlement of $180 million was reached. It was then, according to the Post, that he discovered the peculiar satisfaction of mediation.
“That one case, Agent Orange, changed my entire professional career,” says Feinberg, who found himself negotiating claims involving asbestos, breast implants, heart valves and other products. He launched a firm devoted to dispute resolution, work that was challenging and lucrative.
The Post story ends with a natural question: What’s next for Feinberg? We love the answer:
Please, let the special master move on to routine paid work; let the special master have plenty of time with his family. Let nothing else happen, please, that would require the special master to occupy yet another public role in yet another crisis. “I agree with that!” exclaims the special master. “I keep saying that. I hope this is the last emergency.”
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on Spotlight on Ken Feinberg: The Special Master of America
- Pediatrician Rockwall
PUERTO VALLARTA REAL ESTATE WELCOMES NEW MAYOR
Jan 14th
Puerto Vallarta Real Estate started the New Year with auspicious news. Puerto Vallarta has a new Mayor at the helm. Salvador Gonzalez Resendiz is the new mayor of Puerto Vallarta since January 1st, 2010…
HECM Program Not Subsidizing the Rest of FHA Says Analysts
Jan 13th
New View Advisors published an interesting analysis on the risk profile of the Federal Housing Administration’s reverse mortgage program (HECM).
Using an actuarial analysis published by IBM in October 2009 and FHA’s Annual Management Report (AMR) for FY 2009, New View anticipates that we can expect a tightening of ending standards across FHA’s entire program, both forward and reverse.
For years there has been a group of people who believe that due to the frontloaded MIP structure of the HECM program, the cash generated has been used to subsidize other parts of FHA’s business.
However, New View writes that the dramatic increase in the HECM Loan Liability Guarantee (LLG) which is used to estimate the present value of projected income and costs make it clear that the HECM program is not subsidizing the rest of FHA.
According to the AMR, the LLG rose alarmingly from $19.3 billion in FY 2008 to $33.9 billion in FY 2009, up 75%.
HECM accounted for $4.4 billion of this increase, not an insignificant amount. Overall, HECM LLG nearly quadrupled, from $1.5 to $5.9 billion. This amount represents, in effect, the negative net present value of the HECM program, and exceeds the total amount of MIP ever collected. Most of this is concentrated in the GI fund, not the MMI fund. The AMR attributes says this “increase in liability is primarily due to the drop in house price appreciation projections … [which] results in lower recoveries from future HECM assigned assets which increase the liability.” True, but the reversal of fortune for the LLG surely also reflects the house price depreciation that began in 2007 and continued through FY 2009.
Therefore, given the uncertain state of the housing market, and its diminished capital position, FHA was justified in reducing the HECM principal limits says New View.
Read the entire analysis at the link below.
HECMs: Are We Still in Trouble?
Crude Sharply Lower
Jan 13th
Oil’s pullback puts it on track for a third straight day of losses after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported across-the-board increases in oil and fuel inventories in the week ended Jan. 8, as well as a decline in products supplied, a proxy for demand.
With futures now trading below the key $80 level, traders believe the selling could last awhile longer. In particular, options activity suggests that many participants have turned skittish about crude, with bearish bets being placed Wednesday in contracts due to expire in June and later, said Raymond Carbone, president of Paramount Options, a brokerage active on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
“Everyone was expecting an inflow of money into commodities early in the year, but now that that’s run its course, fundamentals are taking over a bit more,” said Mr. Carbone. “People are looking at the inventory and demand numbers and pulling back a bit.”
Light, sweet crude for February delivery recently traded $1.95, or 2.4%, lower at $78.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange traded $1.80 lower at $77.50 a barrel.
12 Charts You MUST See Before You Even Think About Buying A Home
Jan 13th
But unless you are a first-time buyer or other demographic specifically benefiting from the many government programs distorting home prices, the reality is that home prices are still falling from the massive bubble.
Housing blog New Observations collected twelve charts that illustrate the scary trends facing homebuyers today. (If you still aren’t discouraged from buying a home, consider contacting the editor of New Observations, who, strangely enough, is also the CEO of a mortgage company.)
See The 12 Reasons Not To Buy A Home Today –>
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Making Money the Easiest Way
Jan 13th
Approaching the New year 2010, what you place forward as a security to invest your time and money on a legitimate methodology that will build your online business for real, and get rid of dangerous junk products we’re all exposed to every day online.
SEC Brings New Charges Against Bank of America
Jan 13th
Filed under: Bank of America (BAC)
The Securities & Exchange Commission filed new charges against Bank of America (BAC) today, accusing the company of hiding “staggering financial losses” at Merrill Lynch prior to the consummation of the merger between the two companies.
The Associated Press has details, but there are a few interesting things about this latest development:
- Current Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was the general counsel of Bank of America at the time of the alleged disclosure improprieties. Just saying.
Continue reading SEC Brings New Charges Against Bank of America
SEC Brings New Charges Against Bank of America originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Links: 2010-01-12
Jan 12th
More links are available in the news feed (also available as an RSS feed).
Feature Link: A New Tax on Banks and Bankers? – NYTimes.com
Simon Johnson, Bert Ely and I each gave our view on a proposed banker tax for the Editors at the New York Times’ Room for Debate. Bert and I are against and Simon is for.
- Economics of Contempt: The Unofficial List of Pundits/Experts Who Were Wrong on the Housing Bubble
- When men shouldn’t be in want of a wife – New Scientist
- Paul Kedrosky: U.S. House Prices to Income: 1989-2009
- Economist’s View: Will We Get ”Sensible, Comprehensive Financial Reform"?
- Too big to fail fail? – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com
- How single mothers enter the labour market | vox
- Federal Reserve earned $45 billion in 2009 – washingtonpost.com
- Why Are They at War With Us? Patrick J. Buchanan
- Flattery Will Get You Far: Scientific American
- Eugene Robinson – Harry Reid’s comments were crudely put, yet true – washingtonpost.com
- Econbrowser: Bernanke on the Taylor Rule
- The Big Picture – Lessons from Merrill Lynch
- The Big Picture – Wages of Failure: Exec Comp at Bear, Lehman 2000-08
- The Pragmatic Capitalist – One Overvalued Market?
- Your Passwords Aren’t As Secure As You Think – Lifehacker
- Taylor: Federal Reserve Monetary and the Financial Crisis: A Reply to Chairman Ben Bernanke – WSJ.com
- Holding off inflation, blowing bubbles | The Economist
- FT.com – Edward Chancellor – Ben Bernanke has learnt so little
- Fitch: U.S. CMBS Delinquencies up 42bps
- Federal Reserve Seeks to Block Release of U.S. Bailout Secrets – Bloomberg.com
Today’s Bread & Circus feature: Rod Blagojevich: ‘I’m blacker than Obama’
Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)
Related posts:
- Links: 2010-01-04
- Links: 2010-01-06
- Hitler flips out over hacked climate change e-mails
- Links: 2010-01-08
- Links: 2010-01-07
Post Permalink: Links: 2010-01-12
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Author: Edward Harrison;
Tags: distraction, financial news, news, Online, video
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How to Save Money in 2010
Jan 12th
This article will highlight some examples on how to save money this New Year and put some extra green in your wallet.
Hot Stocks For 2010
Jan 12th
Well it’s the dawn of a New Year and in the stock market everyone is trying to speculate as to what will be this years best stocks. We all love to guess the next big winners but rarely do we ever predict it correctly. If we did we’d be in the Bahamas retired.
3 Key Steps in Debt Settlement Process
Jan 12th
What is your New Year Resolution? Turning into a new leaf? When you are knee deep in debt, what must you do to get a way out? If debt settlement is your solution, you are advised to kick off your plan immediately. If you are not clear about this process, here is a simple guide for you. In general, there are only 3 main steps you need to take in order to go through the debt reduction process.
$24 Billion 91-Day Bills Auctioned Off At 0.041%; Window Dressing Theory Fail
Jan 11th
New year window dressing was responsible for the micro yields on bill auctions pre-New Year. Or so the theory went. So why did we just have another effectively zero bill auction? And no, the Lehman scramble for risk-free parallel is oh so very inappropriate here – after all funds have to window dress their Dec. 31 2010 results… Granted, a little early. So we ask, again, who is buying stocks when real money is willing to accept zero returns to park their cash in “risk-free” equivalents. Liberty 33 – once again, the podium is all yours.
Most News Outlets Are Repetitive, New York Times Repeats
Jan 11th
Filed under: Newspapers, Ford Motor (F), New York Times’A’ (NYT), Gannett Co (GCI), News Corp’B’ (NWS)
The New York Times (NYT) reports today that newspapers dominate the news creation business.
This is an interesting twist — instead of touting readers or paid circulation or ads or total revenue, it’s talking about production. It’s almost as if Ford (F) were to announce: “We make more cars than anyone else.” Who the hell cares if they sell any, right? What’s important is production, not sales! For the Times, and print media in general, it feels like yet another attempt to justify its existence and “prove” that it is more valuable than the more cost-effective and nimble online outlets.
Continue reading Most News Outlets Are Repetitive, New York Times Repeats
Most News Outlets Are Repetitive, New York Times Repeats originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Haves and Have Nots
Jan 10th
Tough times for the “have nots” …
For the Unemployed, New Job Often Means a Pay Cut
but not so bad for the “haves” …
From Louise Story and Eric Dash at the NY Times: For Top Bonuses on Wall Street, 7 Figures or 8?
Bank executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years.
And in the UK from James Quinn at the Telegraph: Record bonus pot at JP Morgan
JP Morgan’s pay-out looks set to be the highest ever offered by the bank. Based on analyst consensus, it will be 28pc up on 2008 and 2007 levels … The investment bank’s refusal to rein back bonuses is likely to be seen as an act of defiance both by the US and UK governments.
It must feel good to be a bankster! (thread music)
Related Blogs
- Related Blogs on Haves and Have Nots
Top 10 Most Read Articles on Agent Genius – Week of January 09
Jan 9th
This week on AG:
This week, the most read articles on Agent Genius were focused on statistics, 2010 predictions and oddly enough, posts about respect resonated this week with readers which makes sense as the first month of the year is typically when people feel productive and introspective as they make personal and business resolutions. In case you missed any of these stories, here are the top 10 most read AG articles of the week:
- Real Estate Stats: Buyer Demographics Over The Decade (last week’s #1 also)
- Mobile Phone Comparison Chart Helps You Choose Your Next Shiny Phone
- Surprise! Fannie & Freddie Get Blank Checks, Executive Bonuses Skyrocket
- Productive New Year’s Resolutions – Resolution Worksheet
- Bank of America Retard Division for Short Sales
- Google Real Estate Search – New Trend Away from MLS Based IDX
- Onward to a New Decade – Predictions for 2010
- Is a Short Sale Backlash Starting Against Bank of America?
- Get OFF Facebook and Sell My Friggin’ House Already!
- Want My Respect? Earn It (odd Top 10 addition as this is an article from 2008, go see why it still is so highly read)
Top 10 Most Read Articles of weeks past:
Our publishing of the top 10 just started last week, so check it out if you missed it!
Top 10 of week ending January 02
There’s A Very Good Reason Why The New Home Sales Data Plunged In November
Jan 9th
One day after November’s Existing Home Sales report blew away estimates, the Census Bureau’s related New Homes Sales report failed to impress.
A “new home” is a home that is newly-constructed; not bought as a resale.
In a lackluster showing, New Home Sales dropped 11 percent in November, falling to the lowest levels since April. Furthermore, the all-important “months of supply” climbed by a half-month to 7.9.
The press pounced on the figures and if you only read the headlines, you’d think that housing had cratered. Some of the angles were quite bold, even:
- Weak U.S. Home Sales Show Recovery’s Shakiness (Reuters)
- New Home Sales Plunge In November (CNNMoney.com)
- Housing Forecast : Off Life Support, Still In Critical Care (CBS News)
These headlines, although technically accurate, only tell half the story, however. The other half relates to November 30’s role as the original First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit ending date.
See, different from home resales, when a contract is written on a newly-built home, the home is rarely finished. According to the Census Bureau, just 1 in 4 new homes are sold “move-in ready”. The other 3 of 4 are in various stages of construction when a buyer signs on the dotted line.
Some have yet to break ground, even.
Regardless, it’s at this date of signing that the Census Bureau counts the home as “sold” — not at the actual closing. This is the main driver of the November New Home Sales data dip.
First-time home buyers would have risked up to $8,000 in federal tax credits if they bought a newly-built home and it wasn’t ready for move-in by November 30, 2009. And it wasn’t until November 5 that the credit was officially extended.
Suddenly, first-timers representing more than half of last month’s Existing Home Sales isn’t so shocking. Buying new carried a lot risk.
There’s always more to the story than the headline. Sometimes, you have to dig deeper. Looking back over 10 months, the housing market is on a steady course of improvement. November’s New Home Sales data — although weak — is not terrible.
Despite what the papers might say.
Chris is Florida’s #1 FHA Mortgage Broker and a syndicated mortgage blogger. He is regular contributor to the three leading industry blog-fronts including The Mortgage Chili Blog, My FHA Mortgage Blog, Top of Mind Networks, the newest contributor to Lenderama and recently featured on Fox35 News.
Chris can be found at
Orlando FHA Loans,
Chris[at]OrlandoMortgagePro[dot]com,
or by calling 407.377.0500 x 210
Quote of the Day
Jan 8th
Via the New York Times: (HT: Housing Bubble Hall of Shame)
“Everyone out here always preached to me, ‘Buy real estate. It’s the best investment you’ll ever have,’ ” said Mr. Moller, who grew up in Iowa. “Then all this stuff started crumbling and I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.’ ”
And by ‘everyone‘ he means Realtors and current homeowners. Of course, that’s the advice they are still giving today (although we could probably exclude many of the latter who are going through foreclosure).
It’s still awful advice given that we have years of housing declines to come. Buying a depreciating asset with leverage is, and always will be, a recipe for financial ruin.
New York Times on the Loan Modification Program
Jan 8th
The New York Times is reporting what everyone at Bloodhound Blog has known for a long time about the Federal Government’s attempt to encourage loan modifications:
The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.
If you’re a fan of Peter Schiff, then you heard him say in the fall of 2008 that the government’s cure to a bursting asset bubble would be worse than the underlying problem itself. He was right, but the logic of politics does not care about the long term economic health of the country.
Here’s The New York Times telling us that government-backed loan modifications are:
1. delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate,
2. [encouraging] desperate homeowners [to send] payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences,
3. [are allowing banks to use] temporary loan modifications under the Obama plan as justification to avoid an honest accounting of the mortgage losses still on their books,
4. [are preventing] housing prices [from] drop[ping] to levels at which enough Americans can afford to buy,
5. delaying the return to work for carpenters, construction workers, and a whole sector of the American economy.
These numbers tell the story:
In 2008, more than 1.7 million homes were “lost” through foreclosures, short sales or deeds in lieu of foreclosure, according to Moody’s Economy.com. Last year, more than two million homes were lost, and Economy.com expects that this year’s number will swell to 2.4 million.
Now, if in late 2008, the government had simply let foreclosures go forward without holding out hope for a loan modification program, it would’ve been an awful as opposed to merely bad 2009. But we would be seeing a recovery in the next 6 months. Instead, we’re just going to see more foreclosures for the next two years.
Update: The Washington Independent has a good article on the failure of the loan modification program.
