International Bits Bucket For February 4, 2008
Please post items of interest from outside the US here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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The credit bubble is local. That was an amazing football game.
Agreed. One of the best SuperBowls ever.
Even my wife, that isn’t really into football, got WAY into the game.
As a resident of Glandale AZ, I hope it pumped as much in to the local economy as they hoped it would. We’re going to need it.
Definitely a great game with a thrilling ending.
Great ad on the right. LoL. Just right for the bloggers.
All of David Cee’s money appears to have gone down a rat hole.
PAGE ONE
Obama Closes In on Clinton
As McCain Lengthens Lead
In California Race,
Poll Puts Democrats
Nearly in Dead Heat
By JACKIE CALMES
February 4, 2008
On the eve of tomorrow’s near-national contest for each party’s presidential nominee, Democrat Hillary Clinton has lost much of her longtime polling lead over Barack Obama both nationally and in grand prize California, while Republican John McCain has surged ahead for a potentially decisive edge.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120206305479638875.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone
Is the international bits bucket the place for a discussion of the US gridiron game? At least on this thread we should know that football is a game played with a round ball and you are not allowed to use your hands. (wink)
Today’s study from Aotearoa, the land of the long white lie, is the little northern farm town of Kaikohe. Now I have to admit, Kaikohe is actually a pretty sweet place for someone to live and raise a family. Most people who live there were born in the area, so community ties are strong. This town, population 4000, has all essential services. In the centre of New Zealand’s far north it has some of the best weather in the country. The air is clean. Nice forest parks and harbours are nearby on both coasts. The economy is classic low income agricultural, the kind of place that in the US consists mainly of “manufactured houses”. But that need not be a problem as long as one is willing to live without plasma screens and BMWs. It should be affordable, as no one makes much money. Well, it used to be.
The bubble came late to Kaikohe, but it hit with a vengeance. As late as September 2003, the median house was $75,000. Now a vacant lot costs that much! The median house price peaked September 2007 at a hefty $228,000 and is finally starting to drop off. Total bubble effect was 204% increase price in just four years. What happened here has nothing to do with Kaikohe. International loose lending and idiot specuvestors from Auckland have not even spared this Kiwi version of Mayberry RFD.
NZR:
Have you managed to find any good attributes about NZ?
If one had never been to California or Montana, one might think the scenery was somehow special. If one had been to Norway or Alaska, one would think it pretty pedestrian.
I’ve been to all 4 places you mentioned, and NZ has similar scenery to them, in an area the size of Colorado.
I guess part of this increase is cause by building/selling a few Richestan homes in the area … with such small numbers, any small upscale development can seriously skew the numbers, especially if most of the locals are happy with what they have and don’t move too often. What we need to get a more accurate impression are repeat sales statistics, like the US Case-Shiller index; unfortunately in most countries this is not available.
International/insomniac/US expats & jet lag-ers’ bit bucket?
It’s the wee hours in North American time zones, so… Anybody want to talk about Alien Influence on the HB? No no, I don’t mean *human* aliens…
Are you talking aliens from outer space?
Woody Allen?
International news-
Here in Brooklyn, (part of the People’s Republic of New York) the weekend was predictably slow. The spring is filled with fear in Brokerland, and nobody is even going to the Open Houses. Investors in Sheepshead Bay are busy preparing to expatriate their gains back to Mother Russia after sucking the US system dry for a decade.
My Korean friends are amazed at their bad fortune for not being back in Seoul from the American Colony- Korea has been a rocket since the ’90s meltdown.
To study what will happen in the US in the coming decade, I can only recall Sau Paolo ‘2000, Argentina 1999, Thailand 1997, Russia 1991.
No US involvement in New Jersey!
Hope everyone liked the game- Ticker Tape parade kicks off at 11 on Tuesday. I’m taking the kids.
-Be happy, and bid 30% under ask…..
Dead line for Northern RockDeadline for Northern Rock bids
Northern Rock got itself into financial difficulty last year
Up to three potential rescuers of Northern Rock are expected to submit formal bids for the bank ahead of the government’s Monday deadline.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7225030.stm
and
UK bills and taxes rise faster than earnings (and I thought it was just me that happened too)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7225581.stm
Northern Rock got itself into financial difficulty last year.
I see the fine British talent for understatement lives on.
Prudent customers risk losing credit cards
http://tinyurl.com/3bjttg
This is starting to become a major PR desaster for Citi in the UK.
Prudent customers = “deadbeats” in credit card issuer parlance.
I am not clear why credit card companies cannot make money on these folks; just charge them a fee same as the rest of their customers, or better yet, charge higher fees on those who maintain low or no credit balance.
JEFF TYLER: Citigroup bought a British bank called Egg last spring. With the acquisition, Citigroup inherited over 2 million credit-card customers. About 7 percent of them had missed payments in the past or had other credit problems.
Adrian Russell is a spokesman for Egg.
Adrian Russell: We’re very sorry, but we don’t want to lend them any new money. Or we don’t want them to borrow any new money from us. Apart from that, nothing’s changed. They won’t be able to use their card for new purchases, but we’re not asking for immediate repayment.
Russell says the purge is a one-time event. But some observers consider the case as a test for what banks might do in the U.S.
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/02/04/citigroup/
huge asian stock rally:
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — China’s benchmark stock index rose by a record 8.3 percent on speculation the government will act to boost equities and stimulate growth after the worst snowstorms in decades closed transport networks and shut factories
http://tinyurl.com/2dvd79
new world order:
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — There’s a new world order for banks, and the Chinese, for the first time, are the biggest, with a market capitalization that has made perennial No. 1 Citigroup Inc. a distant also-ran behind Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of China Ltd.
http://tinyurl.com/yopthb
Why rent a 1 bed apt for R6 400 a month, when you can rent a 2 bed/2 bath apt in the same block for R6 000.
1 b/r furnished.
2b/r unfurnished.
SocGen money laundering:
Societe Generale is facing more trouble as a trial begins in Paris over a huge money laundering scam between France and Israel.
Four banks, including Societe Generale, and 138 people, including the bank’s chairman Daniel Bouton, will go on trial on Monday over the multi-billion dollar scam that allegedly began in the late 1990s, according to TODAY.online:
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/235855.asp
rich to leave the UK?
More than half of the wealthiest people in Britain are planning to leave or scale back their UK investments in response to the tax crackdown on “non-domiciled” foreigners, according to a survey.
Switzerland has emerged as by far the most popular destination for wealthy individuals leaving Britain, according to the poll of advisers representing about 22,000 non-domiciled clients
http://tinyurl.com/2398un
DUBAI: Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corp has reported a decline in profit last year after setting aside $230mn to cover for US-related write-downs, one of the first Gulf banks affected by the subprime mortgage crisis.
Net income in the year to December 31 fell 38% $125mn, compared with $202mn in 2006, the bank said in a statement yesterday.
“The significant change was entirely due to the net provision of $230mn resulting from securities write-downs that the group was obliged to take in the wake of the global credit squeeze that followed the US sub-prime housing loan crisis,†the bank said in a statement…..”
http://tinyurl.com/2he325
GulfTimes
And so it spreadds