Thoughts For This Morning:
Greece has woken up to the implications of their financial problems towards the other EU member states. This is the background to their statement today giving one week for an agreement between the EU and Greece for a bailout rescue program.
Note the potential involvement of the IMF if an agreement with the EU is not forthcoming. All of this is focused on Germany and the video posted last evening.
Bloomberg reported this morning that EU intelligence agencies are looking into the derivative dealings that lead up to the hammering of Greek debt.
The international investment firms may well have bitten off more than they can handle when countries come into the cross hairs.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This review by shadowstats.com is a must if you wish to understand that inflation is far from what you read on current statistical numbers.
- February’s Annual Inflation: CPI-U (2.1%), SGS (9.4%)
- Oil Price Gyrations Contained February Inflation but Promise March Spike
"No. 287: February CPI and PPI "
http://www.shadowstats.com/
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
As Greece is a state of the EU, New York is a state of the USA headed for bankruptcy.
New York State Tax Refunds Put On Hold
Gov. Paterson Freezes $500 Million, Says Financial Situation The Case, Won’t Start Sending Again Until April 1
Embattled Governor: $1.5 Billion In School Aid Next To Be Halted
Mar 18, 2010 6:16 am US/Eastern
NEW YORK (CBS) ― For hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, the check won’t be in the mail — at least not on time. New York State has stopped paying tax refunds and won’t start again until next month.
The tax refund delay is part of a bigger cash crunch.
Message to New Yorkers: don’t start spending your tax refund money because it’s going to be delayed.
Half a billion dollars’ worth of refund checks were put on hold last Friday, and state beancounters won’t start sending you your money until at least April 1.
"I apologize that we had to do this. I hope it serves notice on the public of how serious our financial situation is," Gov. David Paterson said.
Several hundred thousand New York taxpayers will be affected with most getting an average refund of $1,000. People who filed in late February and early March might have to wait as long as six weeks till the checks are in the mail.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
QE to infinity or the Fed is legislative history.
Bernanke opposes Obama’s Fed reforms
By business editor Peter Ryan
A political battle is underway in the United States over president Barack Obama’s new rules to regulate financial firms.
At the heart of the Obama crackdown is the role of the US Federal Reserve. The legislation unveiled earlier this week suggests that the central bank would supervise only the biggest banks, those described as "too big to fail."
But the Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says he wants to have control over Main Street as well as Wall Street.
However, Ben Bernanke has faced a grilling in front of Congress, and was constantly reminded that the US Federal Reserve failed to see the global financial meltdown coming.
"There’s been a massive failure on the part of the Fed in my opinion," said one member of the powerful House Financial Services Committee in Washington.
"I don’t understand why a regulator can’t take a look at a product and say this is so bad, this is so predatory that it shouldn’t be on the market, and we’re not going to allow it to be on the market," commented another.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Here is an article you might like to save. It borders on stand up comedy.
Health Bill Will Cut Deficit by $100 Billion Over 10 Years, House Majority Leader Says, Citing Report
By REUTERS
Published: March 18, 2010
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) – U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Thursday that proposed final healthcare legislation would cut the U.S. deficit by more than $100 billion over the first 10 years.
Hoyer told reporters that the Congressional Budget Office said the sweeping healthcare overhaul would cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the subsequent decade. The CBO is expected to release its official estimate of the cost of the Democratic-written legislation on Thursday.
Hoyer said momentum was growing for the legislation despite solid Republican opposition and that the U.S. House of Representatives was on track to vote on the bill on Sunday.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Banks with troubled loans for your inspection See if yours has made this distinguished list.
The following link is courtesy of CIGA JB Slear.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
What happens in California migrates east.
Foreclosure Starts Up Nearly 20% in California
By: Carrie Bay
03/18/2010
Notice of defaults, which represent the start of the foreclosure process in California, increased by 19.7 percent in February, according to new data released this week by a locally-based company that tracks every foreclosure inthe state. The sudden jump comes after four straight months of declines, when default notices fell to their lowest level in a year. The about-face has quickly quelled any ideas that California might be starting to make its way out of a crippling housing crisis.
Discovery Bay-based ForeclosureRadar also reported that the number of properties scheduled for foreclosure sale remained near record levels last month, yet foreclosure sales, either back to the bank or sold to third parties, dropped by 11.9 percent.
“The disconnect between delinquencies, and foreclosure sales continues to widen,” said Sean O’Toole, founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.
O’Toole says the administration’s efforts to slow foreclosures are clearly contributing to delays in the process and prolonging the sale timeline, and he faults foreclosure prevention initiatives for not addressing what he calls “the core problem” – negative equity that now plagues about 25 percent of homeowners in the United States with a mortgage.
Last month, ForeclosureRadar tracked 31,004 notices of default filed in the Golden State, up nearly 20 percent compared to the previous month. Notices of trustee sale, which set the date and time of the foreclosure auction, increased slightly as well, rising 3.6 percent to 28,195 filings.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The US is in total denial of the dire conditions that still exist.
You can thank mainstream media for that.
Florida courts choking with foreclosure cases
Reported by: Paige Kornblue
WEST PALM BEACH, FL — State courts are taking brand new action to try and alleviate the chokehold that foreclosures are causing and keeping everyone’s property values down.
Palm Beach County has one of the state’s worst number of filings.
Florida’s courts have requested a one-time payment of $9.6 million to help cleanse the system and get the housing market back on track.
Foreclosures in Florida often take more than a year to settle, homes then deteriorate, and families are left with many questions.
Officials say they want to get properties through the courts and back onto the market.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
All states of the USA will be bailed out as Greece will.
Larger Cash Shortfall Is Projected in Albany as Fiscal Year Nears End
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE
Published: March 17, 2010
ALBANY — New York will end the fiscal year on March 31 with at least $2 billion less in cash on hand than originally projected, the state’s comptroller said Wednesday, burdening lawmakers with another headache and making the prospect of achieving a budget agreement before the next fiscal year begins even more dim.
The estimate by the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, adds half a billion dollars to Gov. David A. Paterson’s own projection for the current shortfall, issued a little over a month ago. Mr. DiNapoli said the state could no longer count on two large infusions of cash that were expected by the end of the month: a $300 million fee from the winning bidder on the Aqueduct video-lottery franchise and $200 million from the coffers of the Battery Park City Authority.
The Aqueduct franchise was delayed last week when Mr. Paterson announced he was withdrawing support for the winning bidder, Aqueduct Entertainment Group, because the state’s Lottery Division determined that it could not license some of the company’s investors. Money from the Battery Park authority, which is controlled by the city and the state, have been held up by a dispute over the share of revenue each government is entitled to.
Moreover, a tax amnesty program that was projected to take in $250 million by the end of the year has fallen far behind, bringing in just $2.1 million through the end of January.
“This year’s budget was seriously flawed,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a statement. “It was based on overly optimistic revenue assumptions and temporary revenue sources that pushed the problem into the future.”
