Important News - Oct 19 update 1

By Daniel at 19 October, 2009, 12:54 pm

1) “NYT: Ex-homeowners forced into shelters

‘These families never needed help before,’ says one advocate

“No one could have told me that in a million years: I’d wake up in a homeless shelter,” she said. “I had a house for homeless people. Now, I’m homeless.”

2) Report finds new wrinkle in U.S. bankruptcies

“PayNet Inc, which provides analytic tools to the commercial credit industry, looked at 750 small business bankruptcy filers and found 50 percent were current with one or more of their lenders when they threw in the towel and sought protection from their creditors.”

3) Drop in foreclosures called ‘very scary’

Lenders’ actions show they think properties are not worth pursuing.

Banks, bullion dealers and hedge funds are pushing gold with the same stories as with oil in 2007/8:

Gold at $2,000 Becomes Inflation-Adjusted Bullseye for ‘80 High

6) Cap and Trader Demands Carbon Derivatives Bubble

7) Harvard’s Bet on Interest Rate Rise Cost $500 Million to Exit

Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) — Harvard University’s failed bet that interest rates would rise cost the world’s richest school at least $500 million in payments to escape derivatives that backfired.

Armageddon in Alabama Proves Parable for Local U.S. Governments

“Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) — In its 190-year history, Jefferson County, Alabama, has endured a cholera epidemic, a pounding in the Civil War, gunslingers, labor riots and terrorism by the Ku Klux Klan. Now this namesake of Thomas Jefferson, anchored by Birmingham, is staring at what one local politician calls financial “Armageddon.””

9) The White House Readies a Stealth Stimulus

NC To Hike Pension Contribution

“State and local North Carolina governments will need to raise their pension contribution, Global Pensions reports. They will have to increase it to 6.71% from the current 3.57% to make up for an underfunded status, according to the state treasurer.”

Police pension benefits curtailed

“CORPUS CHRISTI — Cherie Roberts retired from the Corpus Christi Police Department two years ago after 26 years and five car crashes in the line of duty.

Her spine, she said, looked like a piano keyboard on medical imagery scans. But at 53 she thought she had a plan — and that her union had promised — to pay for health insurance until she was eligible for Medicare.

She was wrong.

Trustees for a union-run health insurance trust voted to curtail benefits in July, citing unsustainable obligations.”

12) CalPERS Pension Reform

“Saving Jobs, Preserving Public Services

Local governments throughout California are facing severe financial

challenges due to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

As a consequence, many agencies are laying off and furloughing employees

resulting in decreased public services and employee hardship. Complicating

the economic picture is the 23% loss on CalPERS investments in 2008,

which will result in increased retirement costs for local agencies beginning

in Fiscal Year 2010-11. This will further distress agencies and lead to more

reductions in jobs and services”

13) Colorado’s state pension board proposes changes

“DENVER — The board that oversees Colorado state pensions approved a bailout plan Friday to keep the troubled program from going bankrupt.”

14) Baltimore police, fire pension costs could double next year

“An unusual pension benefit for police and firefighters could cost Baltimore $164.9 million next year, nearly double what the city is now paying and a figure that the city’s finance director says taxpayers cannot afford.

After years of calls for pension reform, board members who oversee the nearly $2 billion system said their Tuesday vote that passes the whopping bill on to City Hall is a message that the fund is close to a breaking point and needs attention.”