Empiric Student Property Share Discussion Threads

[briarberry] 07/7/2009 23:55

NEW YORK (AP) -- The corporate entities behind credit cards issued by U.S. banks posted record-high losses in May, according to a report from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.



A record 3.23% of U.S. consumer loans were late by 30 days or more, the most since records began in 1974.

[briarberry] 07/7/2009 23:42

FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--German manufacturing - The volume of new orders increased 4.4% from April, But total manufacturing order volumes were sharply lower than in May 2008, down 29.4%, highlighting the severity of the economic slump.

[briarberry] 07/7/2009 14:37

WSJ reports a group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

[briarberry] 06/7/2009 23:51

Tax Bill Appeals Take Rising Toll on Governments

Homeowners across the country are challenging their property tax bills in droves as the value of their homes drop, threatening local governments with another big drain on their budgets.

The requests are coming in record numbers




Another wave of foreclosures is poised to strike

[briarberry] 05/7/2009 21:06

The unemployment timebomb is quietly ticking

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - 04 Jul 2009

Capacity (utilisation) use has fallen to record-low levels (68pc in the US, 71 in the eurozone). A deep purge of labour is yet to come.

The shocker last week was not just that the US lost 467,000 jobs in May, but also that time worked fell 6.9pc from a year earlier, dropping to 33 hours a week. "At no time in the 1990 or 2001 recessions did we ever come close to seeing such a detonating jobs figure," said David Rosenberg from Glukin Sheff. "We have lost a record nine million full-time jobs this cycle."

...
The Centre for Labour Market Studies (CLMS) in Boston says US unemployment is now 18.2pc, counting the old-fashioned way. The reason why this does not "feel" like the 1930s is that we tend to compress the chronology of the Depression. It takes time for people to deplete their savings and sink into destitution. Perhaps our greater cushion of wealth today will prevent another Grapes of Wrath, but 20m US homeowners are already in negative equity (zillow.com data). Evictions are running at a terrifying pace.

Some 342,000 homes were foreclosed in April, pushing a small army of children into a network of charity shelters. This compares to 273,000 homes lost in the entire year of 1932.

[briarberry] 04/7/2009 11:33

Everyones waiting to see if the $800bn Obama stimulus package works, it's being spent over about a year



(and the Treasury still has to raise this bailout bubble money)

[briarberry] 02/7/2009 22:39

First State Bank of Winchester fails; 47th of 2009

[briarberry] 02/7/2009 16:39

?

Treasury to auction off $73 bln in bonds and notes next week; $31 bln in 6-mo, $8 bln in 10-year TIPS, $11 bln in 30-year, and $35 bln in 3-year

[briarberry] 02/7/2009 00:00

Vehicle Sales - AutoData = June: 9.6 mil

2009 could turn out to be the worst year since records began in 1967

[briarberry] 01/7/2009 19:18

General Motors U.S. June sales decline 33.6% YoY
Nissan June U.S. sales fall 23% to 58,298 units YoY
Honda June U.S. sales fall 29.5% to 100,420 units YoY

BMW U.S. June sales decline 20.3%
Chrysler June U.S. sales down 42% to 68,297 units
Toyota June U.S. sales down 32% to 131,654 units

[briarberry] 01/7/2009 15:05

ISM Index Jun 44.8

U.S. June ISM new orders 49.2% vs 51.1% May
U.S. June ISM production 52.5% vs 46.0% May

On a year-on-year basis, overall construction outlays slipped to minus 11.1 percent in May, from minus 10.9 percent the month before.

Pending Home Sales May 0.1%

ADP Employment Change Jun -473K

[briarberry] 01/7/2009 01:06

Prime mortgages are going bad now, and they are taking over from subprime in terms of toxic debt...



...
The Case-Shiller Composite 20 Seasonally Adjusted (SA) index was at 141.36 in March and 140.1 in April - a decline of 0.9% or 10.2% annualized.

...
Price to income/rent ratios are getting back to normal (very close to longterm range). Although rents and income (employment) are falling.

[briarberry] 30/6/2009 23:16

more money or else cuts...


States brace for shutdowns - Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve budget gaps.

By P.J. Huffstutter and Nicholas Riccardi - June 30, 2009


"What's different now is that the recession has eroded tax revenues across the country," Haggerty said. Collectively, he said, states are wrestling with budget deficits totaling $121 billion.

In California, state finance officials will begin issuing IOUs on Thursday if lawmakers and the governor cannot agree on a way to close a $24-billion shortfall.

[briarberry] 30/6/2009 19:49

Denmark - GDP 2009Q1: -1.1%

Ireland - GDP 2009Q1: -8.5%

Canada - GDP fell 0.1% MoM and 3.0% YoY

Chile - Industrial Production May: -10.5% YoY

Thailand - Industrial Production May: -10.0% YoY

South Korea - Industrial Production May: -9.0% YoY

[briarberry] 29/6/2009 21:29

Chinese bailout bubble...


China's banks are an accident waiting to happen to every one of us

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The regime is so hellbent on meeting its growth target of 8pc that it has given banks an implicit guarantee for what Fitch calls a "massive lending spree".

Bank exposure to corporate debt has reached $4,200bn. It is rising at a 30pc rate, even as profits contract at a 35pc rate.

Fitch traces the 2009 bubble to the central bank's decision to cut interest on reserves to 0.72pc. Bankers responded to this "margin squeeze" by ramping up the volume of lending instead. Over half the new debt is short-term. Roll-over risk is rocketing. China's monetary stimulus since November is arguably more extreme than the post-Lehman printing of the US Federal Reserve, though less obvious to the untrained eye.

[briarberry] 24/6/2009 13:59

Bailout bubble continues


June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank said it will lend banks 442 billion euros ($621 billion) for 12 months, the most it has ever allotted in an auction, as it steps up efforts to unblock credit markets in the 16-nation euro region.

The Frankfurt-based ECB filled all bids in its first offer of 12-month loans to banks at the current benchmark interest rate of 1 percent. The 1,121 banks that participated will receive the funds tomorrow.

[briarberry] 24/6/2009 13:13

Japan's exports in May dropped 40.9% YoY

(although it has been as low as 50)

Declines in shipments to Asia accelerated for the first time since January, damping hopes that demand from the region will spur a recovery in the world's second-largest economy.

[briarberry] 24/6/2009 01:01

stats...

manufacturing fell from 27 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 1950 to 12 percent in 2005, while financial services grew from 11 percent to 20 percent. From 1980 to 2005, the highest-earning 1 percent of the U.S. population increased its share of taxable income from 9 percent to 19 percent, with most of the gain going to the top one-tenth of 1 percent. The country became a net importer, with a persistent annual trade deficit of more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars financed by rising foreign debt. Wall Street insiders congratulated themselves on their financial genius even as they turned the United States into a national economic basket case and set the stage for global financial collapse.

[briarberry] 24/6/2009 00:34

Interesting view on inflation/deflation, not sure if it's right :)


Pushing on a String - by Gary North - June 20, 2009



THE MAGNITUDE OF THE DEFICIT

The magnitude of the Federal deficit this year is beyond comprehension. If the economy produces the estimated $14 trillion in goods and services this year, the government's $1.8 trillion deficit constitutes almost 13% of the economy. But this is way too optimistic. Government spending at all levels constitutes at least 40% of the American economy. Deduct most of this from the total output – maybe 35%. (Lew Rockwell would say to deduct the whole 40%.)

This cuts national productivity to $9.1 trillion. The deficit then constitutes about 20% of the private sector's total output. That's just the deficit. That does not count this year's share of the rollover of the existing Federal debt: at least another $2.5 trillion. The average maturity of the national debt is now 48 months.

The debt is now $11.5 trillion. But I am taking the pre-Obama debt of $10 trillion. Whatever is tacked on this year must be rolled over next year.

[briarberry] 23/6/2009 19:32

RBS

It's Finished - John Lanchester



(The UK is finished)

[briarberry] 23/6/2009 00:24

world slump continues...


Thailand's exports slumped by more than a quarter in May - a record fall - as demand for Thai goods overseas continued to drop during the downturn.

Exports fell by 26.6% compared with a year earlier, to $11.7bn (£7.1bn). Imports dropped by 34.7% to $9.3bn.

[briarberry] 22/6/2009 16:55

financial spreads have done some maintenance to their website, a couple of weeks ago, and since then their website has worked 100% of the time

so I guess it was just a tech problem



the thing I like about fins is that their futures do seem to match the "official" figures, whereas I have heard some horror stories from users of other spreadbetters

so yeah I guess I'll keep the fins account

[briarberry] 22/6/2009 14:08

Copper, will China stop buying copper (+ other commodities) now that the price has risen. Or will they continue to stockpile as a store of wealth and for future growth ? (I've got a feeling they'll at least take a rest given the price rise, especially as there are a lot of reports of excess speculation in China on borrowed money)


China's Copper Imports Climb to Record on Stockpiling (Update1)

June 22 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's biggest copper consumer, increased imports to a record in May as buyers replenished stockpiles needed for the country's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus program.

Inbound shipments of refined copper advanced 6 percent from the previous month to 337,230 metric tons and were more than triple the same month last year, final data from the Beijing- based customs office showed today. The imports were the highest ever, said Lai Qiwen, Guantong Futures Brokerage Co.

China's urban fixed-asset investment surged 32.9 percent, more than estimated, in the first five months from a year earlier as the government pumped money into building railways, oil pipelines and low-cost housing. Copper, used in power grids and homes, has advanced 58 percent this year in London as China boosted purchases.

"May's shipments were from orders early in the year and have been priced in," Lai said from Beijing today. "Copper importing turned unprofitable about two months ago."

China's refined copper imports more than doubled to 1.4 million tons in the first five months compared with a year earlier.