http://ml-implode.com Tracking the housing finance breakdown. en http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_USCMBSMarketTrendsOfficeRetailDelinquenciesHitNewHighsasOverallC.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 ``Delinquencies for office and retail loans have hit their highest-ever levels while overall U.S. CMBS delinquencies  fell for the sixth straight month, according to the latest index results from Fitch Ratings. CMBS late-pays declined five basis points (bps) in January to 8.32% from 8.37% a month earlier. The improvement was driven by multifamily loans, which saw a 165-bp plunge in its rate month-over-month to 12.77%. The delinquency rates for office and retail rose to all-time highs of 7.30% and 7.21%, respectively.'' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_GreecesNovemberUnemploymentRateIncreasesto209.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 Further financing may be needed, as the economy shrinks more rapidly than originally estimated. The draft of a new financing deal between Greece, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, obtained by Bloomberg News, predicts a contraction of 4 percent to 5 percent this year, in part because of a worsening external environment. That compares with a forecast of 3 percent contained in a December report on Greece by the IMF. November unemployment among those under 24 was 48 percent, up from 35.6 percent in the year-earlier month. The highest regional rate was 23.8 percent in Macedonia-Thrace, in northern Greece. Unemployment in the Attica region, which includes Athens, was 21.1 percent, up from 13.9 percent a year earlier. http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_PimcoForeclosureDealStiffsPensions.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 ``The government's deal with banks over their foreclosure practices after 16 months of investigations is cheap for the loan servicers while costly for bond investors including pension funds, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Scott Simon.'' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_MFGlobalTrusteeSees16BillionCustomerShortfall.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 MF Global commodity customers whose cash vanished when the firm collapsed last year are owed $1.6 billion -- up significantly from previous estimates -- the trustee tasked with recovering the money said on Friday. The revised figure reflects growing concerns that the trustee will not be able to claw back $700 million in customer money trapped overseas. Until now, the trustee did not include the $700 million when projecting the shortfall, hoping to avoid a battle with MF Global's British arm, which is holding the customer money. But now the trustee, James W. Giddens, has acknowledged that he is making little headway in recovering the money from KPMG, the court-appointed administrator for MF Global's British subsidiary. That money, Mr. Giddens said, was held for American clients who traded on foreign exchanges. http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_USAttorneysGeneralRobosignedAForeclosureSettlementWhichDoesNotEx.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 ``American Banker reports that the reason why the terms of the so-called historic (just ask the Teleprompter in Chief) foreclosure settlement deal are not public yet, is "because a fully authorized, legally binding deal has not been inked yet." Wait, so America's cohort of AGs just all, pardon the pun, robosigned a piece of paper that does not exist?'' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_50State25BMortgageSettlementReliefforStrugglingHomeownersorBailo.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 "The U.S. Justice Department has unveiled a record mortgage settlement with the nation's five largest banks to resolve claims over faulty foreclosures and mortgage practices that have indebted and displaced homeowners and sunk the nation's economy. While the deal is being described as a $25 billion settlement, the banks will only have to pay out a total of $5 billion in cash between them. We speak to one of the settlement's most prominent critics, Yves Smith, a longtime financial analyst who runs the popular finance website, "Naked Capitalism." "The settlement, on the surface, does look like it's helping homeowners," Smith says. "But, in fact, the bigger part that most people don't recognize is the way it actually helps the banks with mortgages on their own books... The real problem is that this deal is just not going to give that much relief." " http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-11_ViolentProtestsinGreece6CabinetMembersResignControversyOverMissi.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-11 ``Imagine you are asked to sign a document but three pages were missing. Further imagine the documents you were asked to sign were written in English but you only speak Greek. Would you sign?'' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_FannieMaePrincipalwritedownsposechallenges.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage finance provider, on Thursday said a plan to reduce loan balances for troubled homeowners had proved too difficult to carry out on a broad scale when tested in pilot programs. " http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_UsersofCitibankBillPayAppChargedTwice.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "A technical bug caused Citi, the nation's fourth largest bank by deposits, to double the charge for customer payments in recent months. Some customers using their iPads to settle their cable bill or mortgage payment, for example, actually paid twice, according to customers and a bank official." http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_WillMortgageSettlementAvoidRepeatingObamasForeclosureFailures.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 Yesterday, administration officials stood alongside state attorneys general to announce a $25 billion mortgage settlement. It was reminiscent of a big announcement by administration officials three Februarys ago involving an even bigger number: $50 billion. That money was supposed to go to the administration's signature mortgage modification program, which eventually became HAMP. Three years later, HAMP (the Home Affordable Modification Program) is widely considered a failure. That failure provides key context to yesterday's announcement. http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_GonzaloLiraATaleofTwoSettlements.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 ``So yesterday, there were two big settlements: Greece, and the Mortgage Mess. Completely independent of each other, both settlements not only happened on the same day, they happen to highlight two issues which ought to be bugging us all like cockroaches crawling through our underwear. '' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_WhyIsGasolineConsumptionTanking.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 ``What other plausible explanation is there for the decline from 42.4 MGD in July 2011 to 30.9 MGD in November 2011 other than a dramatic decline in discretionary driving? That 27% drop in a few months in unprecedented, except in times of war or sharp economic contraction, i.e. recession. '' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_DebtSlavery30FactsAboutDebtInAmericaThatWillBlowYourMind.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "When most people think about America's debt problem, they think of the debt of the federal government. But that is only part of the story. The sad truth is that debt slavery has become a way of life for tens of millions of American families. Over the past several decades, most Americans have willingly allowed themselves to become enslaved to debt. These days, most of us are busy either going into even more debt or paying off the debt that we have accumulated in the past." http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_Thefallacyofeconomicgrowth.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 ``The statistics devised to [growth], principally gross domestic product, cannot measure anything other than the money in the productive economy, which it does imperfectly. Government spending, which is an economic cost, is included pari-passu with valued production. Efficient producers such as the manufacturers and suppliers of electronic goods and services, who reduce their prices over time, see their output diminished as a proportion of the statistical whole, while those that maintain their prices by monopolistic or subsidised means keep and even increase their weightings. This is simply the result of the indiscriminate use of a money-aggregate to measure the fallacious concept of economic growth. So GDP and related statistics do not measure progress: if anything they promote economic regression.'' http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_USBanksFaceBillionsofDollarsMoreinCostsAfterMortgageAgreement.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "U.S. lenders including Bank of America Corp. still face years of litigation and billions of dollars in liabilities tied to the housing collapse after agreeing to settle a probe of abusive foreclosure practices." http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_MortgageSettlementIsJustAnotherStealthBankBailout.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "The 50-state settlement with the banks (Oklahoma didn't sign, but supports letting the banks go scot-free) over mortgage fraud is a stealth bank bailout, according to many top observers. " http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_FedPlaysWallStreetFavoritesinSecretDeals.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 ""The exclusivity by which the process has shut out smaller dealers is a little un-American," said David Castillo, head of sales and trading at broker Further Lane Securities LP in San Francisco, who said he would have liked to participate. "It seems odd that if you want to get the best possible price that it wouldn't be open to anyone who wants to put in the most competitive bid."" http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_WarrenBuffettBaptistandBootlegger.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 ". Warren Buffett is very much a political entrepreneur; his best investments are often in political relationships. In recent years, Buffett has used taxpayer money as a vehicle to even greater profit and wealth. Indeed, the success of some of his biggest bets and the profitability of some of his largest investments rely on government largesse and "coddling" with taxpayer money." http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_Mortgagesettlementistoolittletoolateformany.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "Some who suffered foreclosures say the payouts are a pittance, and many homeowners in trouble won't qualify for help." http://ml-implode.com/staticnews/2012-02-10_FloridiansFindLittletoLoveinForeclosureSettlementWithGangsters.html http://ml-implode.com 2012-02-10 "While Bondi described the deal yesterday as a historic win, interviews around the Sunshine State revealed anger among homeowners stuck in foreclosure cases that last longer than in any other state, and skepticism from real-estate professionals leery of banks' promises."