Reuters (June 23)
“Chinese faith in the economy is shaken…. Those who thought property was a one-way winning bet are rushing to pay down mortgages. With industrial profits plunging, companies are exhibiting similar conservatism.” Confronting this “double whammy of depressed consumption and investment is raising fears of long-term stagnation similar to Japan’s ‘lost decade’ in the 1990s.” Without successful countermeasures, “China risks slowly slipping into the same outcome.”
Tags: China, Depressed consumption, Double whammy, Economy, Faith, Fears, Investment, Japan, Mortgages, Plunging, Profits, Property, Shaken, Stagnation
Mercury News (February 17)
“Despite an unprecedented 2.4 million jobs lost in the spring, Californians joined fellow Americans in paying down interest-heavy debt such as credit card bills while acquiring wealth-building loans by taking out mortgages…. But looks can be deceiving.” Aggregate figures can obscure real suffering. “Millions of Californians suffering job losses have accumulated crippling debt that goes uncounted in national measures: unpaid rent, utility bills, borrowed money from loved ones and, in some cases, predatory loans.”
Tags: California, Credit card, Debt, Interest, Jobs, Loans, Mortgages, Predatory, Rent, Suffering, U.S., Uncounted, Unprecedented, Utility bills, Wealth-building
The Economist (April 13)
Though relatively new, Central Bank independence has become sweeping. “In a single generation billions of people around the world have grown used to low and stable inflation and to the idea that the interest rates on their bank deposits and mortgages are under control.” Increasingly, it looks like that independence may be a short-lived. Today, the success of central banks “is threatened by a confluence of populism, nationalism and economic forces that are making monetary policy political again.”
Tags: Bank deposits, Central banks, Independence, Inflation, Interest rates, Mortgages, Nationalism, Populism
New York Times (December 2)
While there have been some signs of a housing recovery in the U.S., action is still required. “In all, nearly 12 million borrowers collectively owe $600 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, a loss of wealth and a load of debt that make a strong and steady economic recovery all but impossible.” President Obama should “use his second term to get mortgage relief right and, in the process, put the economy on a firm footing.”While there have been some signs of a housing recovery in the U.S., action is still required. “In all, nearly 12 million borrowers collectively owe $600 billion more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, a loss of wealth and a load of debt that make a strong and steady economic recovery all but impossible.” President Obama should “use his second term to get mortgage relief right and, in the process, put the economy on a firm footing.”
Wall Street Journal (October 9)
Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and other U.S. lenders have called a halt on foreclosures as they determine whether legal requirements were met on previous foreclosures. Paperwork for foreclosures in 23 states may lack the required signature of an individual who personally reviewed all the relevant mortgage documents. The Wall Street Journal believes the moratorium is damaging “to the housing market, which desperately needs to find a bottom by clearing excess inventory and working through foreclosures as rapidly as possible.”
Tags: Foreclosures, Mortgages, U.S.
