Daily Archives: October 12, 2008

Saving The Economy By Forgiving Or Putting Off Debt Payments

HouseA sort of shadow economy has been forming. The sherriff in Cook Country, Illinois has stopped enforcing evictions on may foreclosed homes. According to The Chicago Tribune, Sherriff Tom Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies.

That is the story which has received national attention, but there are a great many similar activities at the level of the economy where people actually make payments for homes, offices, and cars.

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Posted on: October 12, 2008 – 3:27 pm in Economy

America’s Next Major Financial Hurdle: Government Retiree Health Plans

95129cState and municipal governments have failed to put tens of billions of dollars into health plans for their retired workers. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board was set up to monitor the use of GAAP accounting by the these bodies and is also supposed to collect data on the size of the funding deficits. Its work is only beginning and may not be done for another two years.

The US Government Accountability Office is not waiting for the results and has already sounded an alarm that most of these government retirement health plans are under water, but very few people seem to be listening.

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Posted on: October 12, 2008 – 2:34 pm in Regulation

Nice Work If You Can Find It: Lehman Approved $100 Million In Comp As Firm Failed

According to The Times of London, THE Lehman Brothers board signed off on more than $100m (£59m) in payouts to five top executives just three days before the bank went bankrupt leaving thousands of employees out of work in London.

Rank has its privileges.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: October 12, 2008 – 8:24 am in Uncategorized

Credit Crisis Report 10/12/2008 Problems Deepen (MS)(RBS)(HBO)(FNM)(FRE)(GM)(F)

TreasuryThe IMF said that the world banking system faces of meltdown if governments does not take immediate action to support that largest banks. Based on comments from Paulson, the US may be moving a bit slowly, which could cost the stock market dearly on Monday

The Times of London reports that the four largest banks in the UK will ask for 35 billion pounds. The UK may become the biggest investor in some of these banks and certainly will be at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). The government may take board seats at some of the financial firms.

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Posted on: October 12, 2008 – 6:40 am in Economy, , , , , , ,