Yearly Archives: 2013

Banks Outbidding Private Equity Funds at Foreclosures, Believing They Can Beat Them at the Pump and Dump Game

It’s conventional to deem local journalism to be dead, but Josh Salman at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune has written well-researched investigative story on bank bidding at foreclosures in his neck of the woods, Big lenders bidding to keep homes, that has national implications.

ObamaCare Rollout: Punts on Income Verification and Employer Insurance Checks, Setting Stage for Insurers to Call Mistakes “Fraud” and Rescind Policies

By lambert strether of Corrente.

Obama’s career transition from selling hope and change to selling insurance seems to be, at least so far, a wee bit rocky. Kudos to WaPo’s Sarah Kliff and Sandhya Somashekhar for breaking the story of the newest #FAIL, which required them to process 600 pages of dense HHS prose on July 5; a classic Friday document dump, with bonus points for the holiday weekend, and super double bonus sparkle pony points for following hard on the heels of another huge #FAIL, Obama’s triage of the employer reporting mandate (chirped White House apparatchick Valerie Jarrett: “We are full steam ahead for the Marketplaces [exchanges] opening on October 1.” Right onto the rocks, Val!). Kliff and Somashekhar write:

Monday DataDive: May’s Trade Deficit, Factory Orders and June’s ISM Reports

By rjs, a rural swamp denizen from Northeast Ohio, and a long-time commenter at Naked Capitalism. Originally published at MarketWatch 666.

Links 7/7/13

It’s Time to Levy the Land

Yves here. While some of the concerns in this post are specific to Australia, they can be readily translated to other property regimes. The part that is missing, however, is that the US relies on “real estate taxes” which includes the value of the buildings on the land. Michael Hudson has advocated taxing land much more heavily, since unlike taxing capital or labor, it does not burden the economy with higher costs . As he explains in a 2009 interview:

Links 7/6/13

The Jobs Report Covering June 2013: Seasonal Factors Rule at The Summer Peak

By Hugh, who is a long-time commenter at Naked Capitalism. Originally published at Corrente. A complete archive of Hugh’s reports can be found here.

The short version:
Seasonally adjusted, June was not a bad month for jobs, and with the revisions to April and May, job creation has been near 195,000/month for the last three months. However, we need about 90,000 a month to keep up with population growth. So we are talking about 100,000 a month over and above population growth. And we are still some 2.3 million jobs below the November 2007 peak in jobs. So it would take us nearly two years of such growth to get back to where we were 5 1/2 years ago.

Michael Hudson: From the Bubble Economy to Debt Deflation and Privatization

Michael Hudson looks at the implications of ending QE in the context of the past 30 years of bubble blowing.

Links 7/5/13

EU Demands Explanations for US Spying, Threatens Data Pacts and Trade Deal

The Europeans have caught out the Obama Administration in a Big Lie, and unlike ordinary Americans, they are in a position to retaliate. And while top dogs in the EU are making cautiously reassuring noises for the moment, the Administration looks to be overplaying its hand.

David Dayen: A Revealing Episode in DC Groupthink

So this week I got an education in the mentality of “official” Washington.

Last week I was asked by a DC-based publication to give a comment on Corker-Warner, the flavor-of-the-month proposal to abolish Fannie and Freddie and reform mortgage finance. I basically take the same position as Yves on this issue: all of these GSE 2.0 plans assume a private label MBS market the way the proverbial economist on a desert island assumes a can opener.

Links 7/4/13

Beware, the Borderless Tax Man Cometh

Yves here. Readers presumably know that the US departs from the practice of pretty much every country in the world in taxing its citizens on worldwide income. Spain is breaking new ground in making citizens and residents declare foreign assets…which most see as a precursor to taxation. And of course, a move to tax out of country income or assets will increase the interest of countries to do more intensive snooping into the financial affairs of their inhabitants.