Tag Archives: financial crisis

The housing market and the regional approach

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I’m sure the JS story this morning saying that home prices in the region fell 4.6% is right, but defining the real estate market as the entire region sure disguises the extent of the price collapse in central Milwaukee, where homes are selling for less than 50% of their assessed value (and assessments are based on sales prices). The paper does report that Milwaukee County prices are down 12%, but even that doesn’t get at the extent of the Milwaukee problem.

However, the regional approach could be really useful in other areas of reporting — how about reporting crime stats on a regional basis? Milwaukee would improve immensely. Same with student test scores — why not report on a regionwide basis and just footnote the results from individual school districts?

Another nauseating rescue

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From Reuters:

Late on Sunday, the U.S. government unveiled a bailout plan for Citigroup Inc, agreeing to shoulder most of the potential losses on $306 billion of high risk assets, in the latest attempt to restore confidence in the stricken financial system.

The government will also inject $20 billion of new capital, on top of $25 billion it just put into the bank, and receive preferred shares with an 8 percent dividend. Citigroup received the latest injection after its shares plunged 60 percent in the last week, amid worry it lacked enough capital to survive.

Perhaps it is just time to forbid firms from getting “too big to fail.”

Bailout blues

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It’s odd, isn’t it, how the bailout kept expanding — first the government was going to buy mortgage debt, now it is going to buy just about any distressed financial instrument — but the price tag never budged above that $700 billion. Somebody isn’t playing straight with us.

Now a deal is near (again) so our elected Congress people can come home and tell us what a good job they did on our behalf. The deal isn’t done, though. According to the New York Times:

Among the last sticking points was an unexpected and bitter fight over how to pay for any losses that taxpayers may experience after distressed debt has been purchased and resold.

Democrats had pushed for a fee on securities transactions, essentially a tax on financial firms, saying it was fitting that they contribute to the cost.

In the end, lawmakers and the administration opted to leave the decision to the next president, who must present a proposal to Congress to pay for any losses.

What a shameful cop-out.

The more you know, the worse it is

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Just say “No” to the bailout in its present form. Not only has the reach of its rescue been expanded from mortgages to just about any type of financial instrument, but it would give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a Wall Streeter himself, godlike powers including immunity from review “by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Paul Krugman has more.

Another Bushie tries to put himself above the law.

No.