Home Foreclosure Rates Soar

Foreclosure rates soar in 2007 and looks to increase in 2008.

The number of U.S. homes that slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2007 was 79 percent higher than in the previous year, a real estate tracking company said Tuesday. Many homeowners started to fall behind on mortgage payments in the last three months, setting the stage for more foreclosures this year.

About 1.3 million homes received foreclosure-related warnings last year, up from 717,522 in 2006, Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc. said. Foreclosure filings rose 75 percent from the previous year to 2.2 million.

More than 1 percent of all U.S. households were in some phase of the foreclosure process last year, up from about half a percent in 2006, RealtyTrac said.

Nevada, Florida, Michigan and California posted the highest foreclosure rates, the company said.

The filings included notices warning owners that they were in default, or that their home was slated for auction or for repossession by a bank. Some properties may have received more than one notice if the owners had multiple mortgages.

A late-year surge in the number of properties reporting foreclosure filings suggests that many are in the initial stages of the foreclosure process and could end up lost to foreclosure this year unless lenders or the government steps in, RealtyTrac said.

"It does appear that we're seeing a new batch of properties enter the process," said Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac's vice president of marketing.

Consumer Confidence Drops

The AP is reporting that consumer confidence fell in January.

Consumer confidence fell sharply in January on worries over deteriorating business conditions and a weakening job market, a business research group said Tuesday.

The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 87.9 in January from a revised 90.6 in December. That put it back to about where it was in November, when it registered 87.8.

The January reading was just a tad below the 88 expected by Wall Street analysts, according to Thomson/IFR.

The index, which measures how consumers feel now about the economy, has been weakening since July, suggesting that wary consumers could retrench financially. Any cut back on consumer spending could weaken the economy further.

Bush Takes up Sword Dancing

While we pay, they play...

Stocks Fall After Bush Announcement

Wall Street didn't take kindly to the economic stimulus plan announced earlier today.

Wall Street resumed its downward trek Friday as skittish investors, unable to hold on to much optimism about the economy, drew little comfort from President Bush's stimulus plan.

Investors had already pulled back from a big early gain, with the major indexes trading mixed as Bush began to speak. By the time the president finished announcing a plan for about $145 billion worth of tax relief, the indexes were well into negative territory.

"It's disappointed in the size of the economic growth package. Wall Street's showing its displeasure," said Kim Caughey, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh. "Honestly, I think the institutional investors understand the limits to the government's ability to enact economic change."

The Dow Jones industrial average, up more than 180 points in morning trading, was down 85.11, or 0.70 percent, at 12,074.10. The Dow plunged 306 points Thursday amid deepening pessimism about the economy.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 15.40, or 1.16 percent, to 1,317.85, while the technology-focused Nasdaq composite index fell 10.38, or 0.44 percent, to 2,336.52.

Bush Announces Economic Stimulus Plan

This just in.

President Bush on Friday called for about $145 billion worth of tax relief to stimulate a sagging economy and fend off a possible recession.

Bush said that to be effective, an economic stimulus package would need to roughly represent 1 percent of the gross domestic product — the value of all U.S. goods and services and the best measure of the country's economic standing. White House advisers say that, in current terms, 1 percent would amount to around $145 billion, which is along the lines of what private economists say should be sufficient to help give the economy a short-term boost.

Time Warner to Test New Internet Fees

One of the worst ideas I have seen this year.

Time Warner Cable Inc said on Wednesday it is planning a trial to bill high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee, the standard industry practice.

The second largest U.S. cable operator said it will test consumption-based billing with subscribers in Beaumont, Texas later this year as a part of a strategy to help reduce congestion of its network by a minority of consumers who pay the same monthly fee as light users.

The company believes the billing system will impact only heavy users, who account for around 5 percent of all customers but typically use more than half of the total network bandwidth, according to a company spokesman.

Think that this will not become the standard?

Time Warner Cable, which has 7.4 million residential Internet subscribers, is hoping the move will not confuse consumers if introduced nationwide and is planning a trial period.

"Largely, people won't notice the difference," said the Time Warner Cable spokesman. "We don't want customers to feel they're getting less for more." News of Time Warner Cable's plans was originally leaked on an online industry forum BroadbandReports.com.

Other cable operators may follow Time Warner Cable's lead and phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T Inc are likely to be watching the New York-based cable operator's plans.

Credit Card Data Lost

Protecting our private information sounds like a good campaign issue to me. To date...silence.

Personal information on about 650,000 customers of J.C. Penney and up to 100 other retailers could be compromised after a computer tape went missing. GE Money, which handles credit card operations for Penney and many other retailers, said Thursday night that the missing information includes Social Security numbers for about 150,000 people.

The information was on a backup computer tape that was discovered missing last October. It was being stored at a warehouse run by Iron Mountain Inc., a data storage company, and was never checked out but can't be found either, said Richard C. Jones, a spokesman for GE Money, part of General Electric Capital Corp.

Jones said there was "no indication of theft or anything of that sort," and no evidence of fraudulent activity on the accounts involved.

Iron Mountain spokesman Dan O'Neill said it would take specialized skills for someone to glean the personal data from the tape. He said the company regretted losing the tape, "but because of the volume of information we handle and the fact people are involved, we have occasionally made mistakes."

Penney said it had been told of the situation and referred further inquiries to GE Money.

Jones declined to identify the other retailers whose customers' information is missing but said "it includes many of the large retail organizations."

Treasury Plans New Social Security Debit Card

Will payments become cheaper and more secure?

The Treasury Department plans to introduce a prepaid debit card for Social Security recipients in an effort to provide safer and cheaper benefits payments.

The Direct Express debit card, set to be announced today, will be introduced in a handful of states this spring and rolled out nationwide by the end of the summer. Dallas-based Comerica Inc.'s Comerica Bank has been selected as the card issuer for the program, which is targeted at Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients who don't have a bank account.

The card could mean significant cost savings for benefits recipients as well as the federal government, Treasury officials and banking experts say. People who sign up for the card will also gain faster access to their money and avoid some security problems, like stolen checks.

But there are some cardholder fees associated with Direct Express, and a significant education effort may be required to get users to accept and understand the card.

The debit card is part of a broader effort by the Treasury to move to electronic payments. In 2005, the department started its Go Direct campaign, which is designed to encourage benefits recipients with bank accounts to switch to direct deposit.

Bush and Bernanke Support Stimulus Package

This just out but I wonder if the tired 'tax cuts for the rich' will be the answer again?

President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Thursday embraced calls for an economic stimulus package to avert recession. Bernanke said such a plan should be quickly implemented and temporary so that it won't complicate longer-term fiscal challenges.

The Fed chief, in testimony to the House Budget Committee, did not embrace any specific provisions or a specific plan. Rather, he spoke to the general concept of an economic rescue package. It is likely that any such package would include tax rebates.

"Fiscal action could be helpful in principle" and may provide "broader support for the economy" than the Fed can furnish alone through reductions in interest rates, Bernanke said. However, he also said that "the design and implementation of the fiscal program are critically important."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said that Bush "does believe that over the short term, to deal with the softening of the economy, that some boost is necessary. His comments marked the first White House confirmation that Bush, confronting a deepening economic crises that has shaken much of the nation, supports government intervention. Until now, the White House said the president was just considering some type of short-term boost.

Free Trade Freeloaders

I have just finished reading the most absurd article regarding free trade that I have seen in quite some time. The following is an excerpt but I encourage you to read the whole piece.

In the days before Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary in Michigan, Mitt Romney and John McCain battled over what the government owes to workers who lose their jobs because of the foreign competition unleashed by free trade. Their rhetoric differed — Mr. Romney said he would “fight for every single job,” while Mr. McCain said some jobs “are not coming back” — but their proposed policies were remarkably similar: educate and retrain the workers for new jobs.

All economists know that when American jobs are outsourced, Americans as a group are net winners. What we lose through lower wages is more than offset by what we gain through lower prices. In other words, the winners can more than afford to compensate the losers. Does that mean they ought to? Does it create a moral mandate for the taxpayer-subsidized retraining programs proposed by Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney?

Um, no. Even if you’ve just lost your job, there’s something fundamentally churlish about blaming the very phenomenon that’s elevated you above the subsistence level since the day you were born. If the world owes you compensation for enduring the downside of trade, what do you owe the world for enjoying the upside?

What do I owe the world for 'enjoying the upside'? The upside of what? Oh, and lower prices don't really help those that have no money to spend.

Working After Retirement- Choice or Necessity

I came across this incredible piece of fluff this morning.

To earn money or keep their hand in the game, many retirees head back to work or start their own businesses.

It took Jay Franklin ten years and three attempts to actually retire. "I flunked retirement. . . twice," jokes Franklin, 69, a hard-charging former sales executive from Thornton, Pa.

After being unexpectedly downsized as vice-president of an international company in June 1996, Franklin, then 58, took the summer off. He hung out with his wife, Doreen, at their beach house in New Jersey and played golf with his friends. He had a pension, lifetime health benefits, a respectable investment portfolio and a closet full of custom-made dress shirts. Retirement, even an accidental one, wasn't so bad.

But when the summer ended and all of his buddies went back to work, Franklin got restless. "There's a loss of identity when you retire, and I missed being in the game," he says. "No one teaches you how to retire."

The article paints a picture of tireless wealthy retirees itching to be productive in their golden years.

With the economy sound and the job market strong, many employers welcome the trend. Fearful of staff shortages after boomers retire, companies are willing to offer experienced workers flexible hours, part-time schedules and innovative "snowbird" programs that let employees split a job between summer and winter locations.

Michael Jalbert, president of MRINetwork, one of the world's largest professional-staffing firms, says his company places an increasing number of retired baby-boomers in jobs. "Companies seek people with the skills, experience and work ethic of that generation," says Jalbert. "It's a candidate-driven market."

Many employers also think older workers are just as productive as their younger counterparts, if not more so, according to a recent report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. After surveying 400 employers, the center's staff concluded that managers and professionals have better prospects for extending their careers than rank-and-file workers. The report also notes that midsize employers (with 100 to 1,000 employees) offer the best opportunities for older workers.

On the downside, employers view older workers as more costly than their younger counterparts because of their higher salaries and benefits. So you may need to accept less money to land a new job.

I dream for the day when I can 'retire', have plenty of money but work for pennies just to keep busy.

Gas Prices Increase

The juice keeps going up.

The national average price for gasoline rose nearly 10 cents over the last three weeks, according to a survey released Sunday.

The average price of regular gasoline on Friday was $3.07 a gallon, mid-grade was $3.19, and premium was $3.30, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

Of cities surveyed, the nation's lowest price was in Cheyenne, Wyo., where a gallon of regular cost $2.77, on average. The highest was in San Francisco at $3.39, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide.

Sunday Matinee- Hacking Democracy

Hacking Democracy- Full Version.

Economy Ties War as Top Voter Concern

This from the AP:

The faltering economy has caught the Iraq war as people's top worry, a national poll suggests, with the rapid turnabout already showing up on the presidential campaign trail and in maneuvering between President Bush and Congress.

Twenty percent named the economy as the foremost problem in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Friday, virtually tying the 21 percent who cited the war. In October, the last time the survey posed the open-ended question about the country's top issue, the war came out on top by a 2-1 majority.

About equal proportions of Republicans, Democrats and independents in the new poll said the economy was their major worry, suggesting the issue looms as a potent one in both parties' presidential contests. It was also cited evenly across all levels of income, underscoring the variety of economic problems the country faces.

Amid increasing trade, job, housing, stock market and gasoline price woes, candidates from each party have started talking about how they would bolster the economy. The issue looms as the dominant one in the next presidential contest: Tuesday's Republican primary in Michigan, which had a 7.4 percent unemployment rate in November that is the nation's worst.

Bush- US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz

Please let this madness end.

President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust memorial Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing, the memorial's chairman said.

Bush emerged from a tour of the Yad Vashem memorial calling it a "sobering reminder" that evil must be resisted, and praising victims for not losing their faith.

Wearing a yarmulke, Bush placed a red-white-and-blue wreath on a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six extermination camps. He also lit a torch memorializing the victims.

Bush was visibly moved as he toured the site, said Yad Vashem's chairman, Avner Shalev.

"Twice, I saw tears well up in his eyes," Shalev said.

At one point, Bush viewed aerial photos of the Auschwitz camp taken during the war by U.S. forces and called Rice over to discuss why the American government had decided against bombing the site, Shalev said.

Weak Retail Sales in December

The numbers are in.

An already weak holiday shopping season turned out to be even worse than expected for many of the nation's retailers, who reported Thursday they had disappointing sales results for December. The poor performance raised more concerns about consumer spending, and in turn, the health of the economy.

The weak results came from across all retail categories, and prompted many stores to lower their fourth-quarter earnings forecasts. Particularly hard hit were apparel sellers including Limited Brands Inc. and AnnTaylor Stores Corp., as well as department stores including Macy's Inc. Among the few bright spots was Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which posted results that exceeded Wall Street expectations, as it benefited from shoppers trading down to cheaper stores amid higher gas prices and a slumping housing market.

"It's weaker than expected," said Jharonne Martis, a retail analyst at Thomson Financial. "There's definitely a consumer spending slowdown." But she added that she's waiting to see how sales fare in January, when stores benefit from consumers redeeming their gift cards. Retailers don't record sales of gift cards until they are redeemed.

According to a preliminary sales tally by Thomson Financial, 19 retailers missed December projections, while nine beat forecasts and one met expectations. The tally is based on same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

Your Real Inflation Rate

A look at some of the projected price increases for the year.

US Warns Iran Over Strait of Hormuz Incident

Here we go again...

A confrontation between three U.S. Navy warships and five Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz almost triggered an exchange of gunfire, and if it happens again there may be a battle, the president's top security aide says.

The Pentagon released dramatic video of Sunday's encounter, which occurred in the narrow channel critical to the shipment of oil from the Persian Gulf. Iran's navy said the video was faked, according to state-run media.

U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley was blunt Wednesday.

"It's the kind of incident that can provoke exchange of fire," Hadley said. "And we think the Iranians need to be on notice that they are fishing in troubled waters here."

Hadley, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as President Bush headed to Israel, said, "It almost involved an exchange of fire between our forces and Iranian forces," but he stopped short of saying whether the U.S. Navy would have fired the first shots.

"This is not -- this is a provocative act, not a smart thing to do, and they're going to have to take responsibility for the consequences if they do it again," Hadley said.

Bush on Tuesday also called the confrontation "a provocative act" on Iran's part.

"It's a dangerous situation, and they should not have done it, pure and simple," Bush said during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden. "I don't know what their thinking was."

Countrywide says Foreclosures Highest on Record

Regardless of how many times Neil Cavuto or any other financial pundit tells you how peachy the housing market is, the reality is far different.

Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N), the largest U.S. mortgage lender, said on Wednesday that foreclosures and late payments rose in December to the highest on record, though it made more loans than expected in the fourth quarter.

Its shares fell as much as 20.2 percent as concern persisted that Countrywide might seek bankruptcy protection. The shares fell 27.4 percent on Tuesday though Countrywide rejected an identical rumor.

"Rumors of bankruptcy are still surrounding Countrywide," said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments. "Investors still believe that they need an infusion of capital."

In its monthly operating report, Countrywide said the foreclosure rate among the 9.03 million mortgages for which it collects and processes payments doubled to 1.44 percent from 0.70 percent a year earlier, and rose from November's 1.28 percent. The delinquency rate rose to 7.20 percent of unpaid balances from 4.60 percent a year earlier.

White House Responds to Sinking Economy

How to ward off a recession? Tax cuts for millionaires of course!

The Bush administration, faced with a deteriorating economy and a big jump in unemployment, said Friday it was considering an economic stimulus package that might include tax cuts to ward off a recession.

Officials stressed that President Bush has not decided yet to offer a proposal but was looking at a variety of options with a plan possibly being unveiled around the time of his Jan. 28 State of the Union address.

"The president is always looking at options ... always talking to people and looking at data," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bush met Friday with top economic officials including Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who are part of the president's working group on financial markets, a group formed after the 1987 stock market crash to monitor markets.

The president was given an assessment of how the economy is behaving and how financial markets are performing after the severe credit squeeze that hit in August. A number of big financial institutions have declared multibillon-dollar losses because of rising defaults in the subprime mortgage market.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said tax cuts were an option being considered.

Bush in his first term included a tax refund of up to $300 per person to combat the impact of the 2001 recession. Private economists said another round of tax cuts would be the best approach to get money to people who would spend it.

Some suggested a one-year tax rebate of $500 might provide a sufficient shot-in-the-arm for the economy. But they stressed that the proposal would have to be passed quickly.

So how did you lift the economy with that $300 you got way back when? And now we may get $500. Gee, thanks! The crumbs that they throw at us peons are laughable when you see what the really rich receive in these scams.

Is A Recession Around the Corner?

The economic clouds continue to darken.

The unemployment rate surged to 5 percent in December as the economy added a meager 18,000 jobs, the smallest monthly increase in four years, the Labor Department reported on Friday.

Economists viewed the report as the most powerful indication to date that the United States could well be falling into a recessionary downturn. Evidence of widening unemployment heightened anticipation that the Federal Reserve would further cut interest rates this month, perhaps by an unusually large half a percentage point, in a bid to prevent the economy from sliding into the muck.

“This is unambiguously negative,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “The economy is on the edge of recession, if we’re not already engulfed in one.”

A recession is typically defined as an extended period of at least several months during which economic activity shrinks and unemployment rises.

The swift deterioration in the job market resonated as a warning sign that troubles once confined to real estate and construction are spilling into the broader economy, threatening the ability of American consumers to keep spending with customary abandon.

On Wall Street, the report led to a big sell-off that sent the Dow Jones industrial average plunging nearly 2 percent.

YouTube- Obama Victory Speech

Barack speaks after his win in the Iowa Caucuses.

YouTube- Edwards Speaks After Iowa Caucuses

Edwards speaks after the caucuses.

YouTube- Hillary Post Iowa Caucus Speech

Here is what she had to say...

Obama Girl Returns for Iowa

She's back and ready to fight...

Dateline Reporter Speaks Out Against NBC

More on your 'liberal media'.

A former "Dateline NBC" correspondent claims that in the aftermath of September 11, the network diverted him from reporting on al Qaeda and instead wanted him to ride along with the country's "forgotten heroes," firefighters.

John Hockenberry, who was laid off from "Dateline" in early 2005, wrote in this month's Technology Review that on the Sunday after the September 2001 attacks he was pitching stories on the origins of al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism. He claimed that then-NBC programming chief Jeff Zucker, who came into a meeting Hockenberry was having with "Dateline" executive producer David Corvo, said "Dateline" should instead focus on the firefighters and perhaps ride along with them a la "Cops," the Fox reality series.

According to Hockenberry, Zucker said "that he had no time for any subtitled interviews with jihadists raging about Palestine."

It's really no surprise as anyone can see that the media in this country is a joke. The article goes on to say this.

Another bombshell is Hockenberry's claims that General Electric, NBC's parent company, discouraged him from talking to the Bin Laden family about their estranged family member. Hockenberry asked GE, which does business with the Bin Laden family company, to help him get in contact with them. Instead, a PR executive called Hockenberry's hotel room in Saudi Arabia and read a statement about how GE didn't see its "valuable business relationship" with the Bin Laden Group as having anything to do with "Dateline."

This is what happens when large corporations own media companies on your public airwaves. All the 'news' that we are fed must always be presented with the company's interest in mind. And the FCC wants more media consolidation?! Great idea!

Mitt Romney Swipes Clinton

I do believe that Republicans somehow are stuck in the 1990's. It's all so simple, you see. Bad = Anything Clinton. Good = Bush?

Republican Mitt Romney said Wednesday that if elected president he and his wife will not embarrass the nation by their conduct in the White House as happened in "the Clinton years."

In an interview on CNN, Romney was asked about comments he made at recent house parties in Iowa that he and his wife, Ann, would not embarrass the nation in the White House. He is campaigning for Thursday's Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa, while Hillary Rodham Clinton is campaigning on the Democratic side.

"We'll try and represent ourselves and our nation well also to our kids because I think, I think kids watch the White House and there have been failures in the past in the White House — if you go back to the Clinton years and recognize that — that I think had an enormous impact on the culture of our country," Romney said. "And we'll do our very best, our whole family will to — well, if we can't be perfect, we'll do our best to uphold and to be a good example for the kinds of values I think people expect from our leaders."

Not a word about the current travesty in the White House. I suppose that lying us into war was a good thing for the country?