Local United Auto Workers leaders from across the country will hold an emergency meeting in Detroit on Wednesday to discuss concessions the union could make to help auto companies get government loans.
UAW leaders called the meeting Monday night in an e-mail, obtained by The Associated Press, to local union presidents and bargaining chairmen.
Among the subjects to be discussed at the meeting will be the possibility of restructuring the union-administered health care fund so that the automakers can delay payments to the multibillion-dollar fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The union leaders will also discuss potentially eliminating the jobs bank, in which laid-off workers keep receiving most of their pay. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the talks haven’t been finalized.
Presidents from union locals for General Motors Corp., (GM, Fortune 500) Ford Motor Co. (F, Fortune 500) and Chrysler LLC will attend the meeting, according to the e-mail. A separate meeting for GM union officials will follow.
Members of the committee that negotiated contracts last year with GM, Chrysler and Ford also will attend.
Chief executives from all three companies and UAW President Ron Gettelfinger are traveling to Washington this week to present business plans to Congress as they seek to get $25 billion in federal loans to help them survive.
The CEOs will go before Congress on Tuesday, the same day major automakers are scheduled to report November U Free Credit Report and Score.S. sales. Analysts are expecting yet another month of dismal volumes due to the economic recession and the credit crisis.
GM, Ford and Chrysler would refinance their companies’ debt, cut executive pay, seek concessions from workers and find other ways of reviving their staggering companies.
Gettelfinger said Tuesday the plans the automakers are submitting to Congress don’t yet include union-approved cutbacks, but he said "we recognize that there may be additional sacrifices required."
"We have ongoing discussions with the companies about different issues. We’re working all the time to help save the companies money," he said on WJR-AM’s "Paul W. Smith Show" in Detroit.
U.S. automakers are struggling to stay afloat heading into next year under the weight of an economic meltdown, the worst auto sales in decades and a tight credit market. GM, Ford and Chrysler went through nearly $18 billion in cash reserves during the last quarter, and GM and Chrysler have said they could collapse in weeks.
Last month, chief executives from the Detroit Three failed to convince Congress they were worthy of the $25 billion in loans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ordered them to outline major changes, including the elimination of lavish executive pay packages and assurances that taxpayers would be reimbursed for the loans.
The dollar fell against the euro Friday after a dismal unemployment report increased the likelihood that the Federal Reserve would cut its key interest rate to 0.5% in order to bolster the economy.
Employers cut 240,000 jobs in October, according to the Labor Department, and the unemployment rate rose to 6.5%. The report sparked concern that the U.S. central bank may have to extend its efforts to keep the economy afloat.
"Everyone is just looking forward to a larger rate cut by the Federal Reserve," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research with Global Forex Trading in New York.
The Fed’s next meeting on interest rates is scheduled for Dec. 16.
The dollar fell against the 15-nation euro, which rose 0.47 cents to $1.2763 from $1.2715 late Thursday. The dollar also lost ground against the British pound, which rose 0.49 cents to $1.5673 from $1.5626, but gained against the Japanese yen, rising ¥0.64 to ¥98.39.
Economy still sour: The jobless report was the latest in a long line of poor economic signals this week.
On Thursday, a Thomson Reuters monthly report on retail sales showed another huge decline in October, marking yet another sign that Americans are putting off non-essential purchases.
Another report earlier this week showed the nation’s services sector contracted in October to its lowest level in at least 10 months.
However, even as currency investors anticipate another Fed rate cut, the dollar, which is often purchased by investors as a hedge against economic risk, will probably continue to gain strength as the global economy slows, according to Lien Faxless pay advances.
"In no way do I think the dollar rally is over," she said. "Everyone knows the global economy is headed for a recession, and that tougher timer are ahead."
Europe rate cuts: As the global economy slows, central banks of Europe will be able to cut interest rates much deeper than the Federal Reserve, meaning greater weakness is possible for the euro and pound.
The Fed’s key interest rate is currently at 1%, and another deep cut could take it down to 0.5%, but the rates of the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are much higher.
On Thursday, the ECB cut its rate by a half-percentage point to 3.25%, while the BoE slashed its rate by 1.5 percentage points to 3%.
"They can keep cutting their rates just a little bit longer," said Nick Bennenbroek, chief currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
Rate cuts by the ECB and BoE weakened the euro and pound against the dollar on Thursday. By late Thursday, the pound had lost 1.3% against the dollar, while the euro was down 2%.
Ten years after Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand were bailed out by the International Monetary Fund, their stocks and currencies are again under siege. This time, analysts say, they are strong enough to stand alone.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 7.5 percent today for a 42 percent decline this year. Indonesia halted stock trading after the benchmark index tumbled 10 percent. South Korea's won slid 4.8 percent to the lowest since 1997, when the nation took out a $57 billion loan from the IMF to meet overseas debt payments.
“None of the economies are likely to experience the same kind of downturn to the same degree that you saw during the Asian crisis,'' said Duncan Wooldridge, a Hong Kong-based economist at UBS AG, citing the region's foreign-currency holdings and absence of “huge'' current-account deficits.
The Asian financial crisis, set off in 1997 by plunging currencies, forced government to raise interest rates to limit capital outflows and caused companies to buckle under billions of dollars of debt. The region has since accumulated more than $3 trillion of reserves, more than half of the global total.
Today's market rout wasn't confined to countries pummeled in 1997. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average fell 9.4 percent, the sharpest drop in two decades. Australia's dollar declined 7.4 percent against the U.S. currency.
`Recession-Like' Growth
Asia faces “recession-like'' growth in 2009 because slumping stocks will depress business and consumer spending, already being hurt by a drop in exports to the U.S., Europe and Japan, Wooldridge said. UBS yesterday cut its growth forecast for Asia excluding Japan to 6.1 percent from 6.9 percent.
Indonesia's stock exchange halted trading for the first time in eight years after the benchmark index plunged 10 percent, the biggest decline since 1998.
“We need to give enough time to the market to digest information rationally,'' Ahmad Fuad Rahmany, chairman of Indonesia's capital market regulator, said in a mobile-phone text message. “It's justified for us to suspend'' trading if the index falls more than 20 percent in just three days, he said.
Indonesia's currency fell 1.4 percent against the dollar today, taking its drop this month to 4.1 percent.
The rush to sell stocks comes amid relatively buoyant economic growth. Indonesia's gross domestic product unexpectedly accelerated to 6.4 percent in the second quarter as rising prices and demand for the nation's coal, palm oil and rubber pushed exports to a record. Growth will probably cool as commodity prices recede.
`Nobody Is Immune'
“Indonesia is simply buffeted by external forces to which nobody is immune at a time when global liquidity is drying up and risk aversion is increasing,'' Agost Benard, associate director at Standard & Poor's in Singapore, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday (pay day loans).
In Thailand, the SET Index fell 6.9 percent to the lowest since 1993. The growth outlook in Asia's second-largest economy is worsening after protesters vowed to step up efforts to oust the government following violent clashes with police yesterday.
The Thai central bank kept interest rates at a 16-month high of 3.75 percent after two increases since July. The baht, Asia's third-worst performing currency this year, fell 0.2 percent to 34.54 per dollar at of 2:42 p.m. in Bangkok. The currency is close to its lowest level since February 2007.
Thailand's banks have enough capital to withstand the world credit crisis, said Vincent Milton, managing director of Fitch Ratings in Bangkok.
“You don't have the structural imbalances'' of 1997, Milton said. “The capital position of most Thai banks is stronger than lenders anywhere, because they are risk averse and moderate economic growth means there's been no run up on the loan books.''
Won's Slide
South Korea's currency slid to the lowest in a decade today as a seizure in global credit markets forced banks and companies to sell the currency to meet their dollar-financing requirements.
The slump has been exacerbated by a global shortage of dollars and by South Korea's current-account deficit, according to Goohoon Kwon, economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Seoul.
“Korea is the only major country in the region with a current-account deficit, so there's no money coming in,'' Kwon said. The shortfall stands at about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, down from 3 percent during the financial crisis.
The deficit could change to a surplus “very quickly'' as the drop in oil prices shaves the import bill, Kwon said. A 10 percent decline in crude would lower the deficit, which was a record $4.7 billion in August, by about $1 billion a month, he said.
South Korea has said it is willing to use the nation's foreign-exchange reserves to ease the currency shortage. South Korea has accumulated $243.2 billion in foreign reserves. They plunged to $7.3 billion in November 1997 as the government made an unsuccessful attempt to prop up the won.
Japanese and Australian money market rates fell as U.S. lawmakers worked to salvage a financial- rescue plan and central banks pumped $15 billion into the system.
The Bank of Japan added 1.2 trillion yen ($11.3 billion), helping lower the overnight call rate to 0.4 percent from 0.7 percent, the highest level since April 1, according to Tokyo Tanshi Co. Overnight U.S. interbank loan rates fell to 3.85 percent from as high as 7.3 percent earlier today in Tokyo.
“With news from Congress they will come up with a solution, the high anxiety of yesterday's open has been stripped out to an extent,'' said Peter Pontikis, a treasury strategist at Suncorp- Metway Ltd. in Brisbane. “A fear premium got locked.''
Central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are pumping billions into money markets to keep them functioning. The cost of borrowing in dollars overnight in London rose the most on record yesterday after Congress's rejection of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan caused an unprecedented squeeze in credit markets.
Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to vote today on legislation that would give Paulson broad authority to buy troubled assets from financial companies.
Asian financial markets including China, Hong Kong and Singapore are closed today for holidays.
`Better Quality Assets'
The Reserve Bank of Australia injected A$4.67 billion ($3.7 billion) as one-month bank rates fell 0.285 percentage point to 7.1 percent at 3 p.m. in Sydney, the lowest since January.
The BOJ and RBA “will continue to intervene as much as is needed to maintain liquidity in inter-bank markets,'' said Guthrie Williamson, portfolio manager in Sydney at Principal Global Investors, which manages $244.9 billion in assets globally. “Banks are definitely more resilient in Japan and also in Australia because of better quality assets.''
Australian banks' borrowing costs fell from near the highest since Bear Stearns Cos. failed six months ago, according to a gauge that measures the availability of funds in the market. The difference between the rate banks charge each other for three-month loans and the overnight indexed swap rate stood at 62.5 basis points, from 97.67 points yesterday.
The rate that Japanese banks charge overseas lenders for overnight loans fell to 0.75 percent, from 1 percent yesterday, the highest since at least December payday loans cash advance.
Financial shares in Asia gained. Westpac Banking Corp., Australia's third-largest bank, rose 5.3 percent and Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, jumped 4.8 percent.
Credit Risk Drops
The cost of protecting investors in Japanese and Australian corporate bonds from default also declined. The Markit iTraxx Australia index fell 15 basis points to 185.5, Citigroup Inc. prices show. The benchmark is tied to the debt of 25 companies and drops as perceptions of credit quality improve. The Markit iTraxx Japan fell 6 to 158, according to Morgan Stanley.
The BOJ yesterday said Japan's banking industry has been resilient during the U.S. financial crisis, though slower economic growth at home is stalling profit growth.
“Japan's financial system, on the whole, has remained stable despite continued turmoil,'' the central bank said in its semi-annual Financial System Report released yesterday. “Credit risk has started to increase amid the sluggish economic growth, and future developments require vigilance.''
India, Korea
India's benchmark overnight borrowing rate climbed to an 18-month high of 17.5 percent, the most since March 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The central bank should make more cash available to lenders to ease a credit shortage and restore investor confidence, executives at Alok Industries Ltd., Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. and Balrampur Chini Mills Ltd. have said.
South Korea's three-month interbank offered rate held at 7.15 percent yesterday, the highest since May 2002.
The nation plans to provide at least 4.3 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in extra loans to small and medium-sized companies struggling from higher costs.
The extra loans will be provided through state-controlled banks including Korea Development Bank and Industrial Bank of Korea, the Financial Services Commission said today in a statement. The government will ask the central bank to raise the limit on total loans to commercial banks, the regulator said.
Nearly a quarter of U.S. fuel production was shut down in the wake of Hurricane Ike, according to a government assessment released Saturday after the storm slammed into the heart of the Texas coast’s refinery base.
By noon ET, 14 of the 26 Texas refineries, representing a production capacity of 3.8 million barrels of fuel a day, had been shut down, the Energy Department said.
Almost all of those had been shut ahead of the storm and reports about the extent of damage were not yet available.
But even if the refineries were lucky enough to escape damage from the hurricane that came ashore at Galveston, Texas, early Saturday, they could remain shut due to near total power outages in the area.
Texas accounts for more than a quarter of the nation’s total capacity to produce gasoline and other petroleum fuels. In normal operation, facilities there can produce up to 4.8 million barrels a day, according to the government.
About half of the state’s capacity is in the Houston/Galveston area, which took the brunt of the storm. The eye of the hurricane passed directly over the ExxonMobil (XOM, Fortune 500) refinery in Baytown, Texas, the nation’s largest refinery.
CNN correspondent Ali Velshi reported Saturday morning that there was no apparent damage to the refinery that could be seen from outside it, despite extensive damage in Baytown.
Kevin Allexon, spokesman for ExxonMobil, said the company has yet to determine if there is damage that could further disrupt operations.
"There’s still some pretty significant weather that affects how safe it is to do assessment work," he said.
Velshi said that the Baytown refinery appeared to be on high enough ground to avoid flood damage. But refining facilities on land are more vulnerable to flooding and power outages than offshore facilities, according to Ray Carbone, president of oil trading company Paramount Options.
"Without power, no refineries will be working and the flooding could complicate how long it takes them to come back online," said Carbone.
The Energy Department reported that 2.4 million utility customers are without power, including essentially all those customers in the center of the storm’s path. While refineries have auxiliary power, it is typically for emergency use only and not enough to resume operations.
"Close to 20% of the U.S. refining capability could be lost for a long period of time," wrote Jim Rouiller, Senior Energy Meteorologist at Planalytics in an email ahead of the storm. "Major and long term damage likely at the major refining cities from Galveston and Texas City northward to Baytown," he wrote.
After Katrina, some refineries were shut down for 6 to 9 months, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Service.
All Texas ports from Freeport west to Louisiana were closed Friday as well, according to the Energy Department.
Much of the nation’s Gulf infrastructure had already been shut down or operating at minimal capacity due to Hurricane Gustav, which struck over Labor Day weekend payday advance low fees low rates payday advance.
However refineries in Louisiana that had been shut down due to the previous storm were in the process of re-starting or were already operating, the Energy Department said.
The refinery shutdowns drove up gas prices in the region.
The average gas price nationwide jumped nearly 6 cents in the Saturday survey of 5,000 stations, conducted Friday by AAA. But some markets, particularly along the Gulf Coast and the South, saw much sharper price spikes.
Pipelines: All of the major crude and natural gas pipelines flowing out of the region had been completely or partially shut ahead of the storm and remained shut Saturday, according to DOE. The approach of Ike has caused many pipelines to declare "force majeure," which frees them from delivery obligations in case the worst happens.
28 of the 39 natural gas pipelines in Ike’s path were confirmed shut down by the Energy Department Saturday, up from 20 that had been shut in advance of the storm. That reduced capacity by 13.5 billion cubic feet per day, an increase of 3 billion cubic feet from those shutdown ahead of the storm. The shutdowns include facilities already in stand-by mode as a result of Hurricane Gustav.
The government also shut down Strategic Petroleum Reserve sites at Bryan Mound and Big Hill, Texas, and West Hackberry, La.
Offshore rigs: Evacuations also continued from oil rigs and platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and from parts of coastal Texas, including Galveston and parts of Houston.
Also Saturday, the Minerals Management Service reported 611 production platforms, or more than 85% of the 717 platforms in the Gulf, had been shut down. That’s up from the 562 that had been shut Thursday in advance of the storm.
In addition, 101 of the 121 rigs had been evacuated, up from 93 Thursday.
Many of the facilities were in the process of being restarted after Hurricane Gustav.
But experts said the major impact of the storm on energy prices is likely to come from the effect on refining capacity and pipelines, rather than offshore production.
Catherine Clifford, CNNMoney.com staff writer, and Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer, contributed to this report.
Japan's economy shrank 3 percent last quarter, the steepest contraction since 2001, as companies and households cut spending and exports fell.
Gross domestic product for the three months ended June 30 shrank more than the annualized 2.4 percent initially estimated, the Cabinet Office said in Tokyo today. Economists expect the slowdown to continue into next year as the U.S. slowdown spreads to Asia, where Japan ships half its exports.
The next prime minister will have little money to spend on an economy that may be in a recession, because public debt is about 1.8 times the size of GDP. Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, one of five candidates to replace Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned this month, said last week that there's “nothing to be done but wait'' for export markets to recover.
“Japan's economy will keep slowing at least until the end of this year,'' said Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief Japan economist at Credit Suisse Group in Tokyo. “Compared with previous recessions, this one will be very shallow. We're at the deepest point of the downturn now.''
The yen traded at 107.16 per dollar at 12:11 p.m. in Tokyo from 107.14 before the report was published. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected the economy to contract 3.1 percent.
Taro Aso, the favorite in polls to become prime minister, said in a debate yesterday that balancing the budget isn't a priority. Yosano and the other three candidates — Yuriko Koike, Shigeru Ishiba, and Nobuteru Ishihara — want to maintain a goal of eliminating the fiscal deficit by 2011 to contain the debt.
Bank of Japan
Stalled growth and the fastest inflation in a decade have created a dilemma for the Bank of Japan, which will probably have to keep interest rates unchanged for the rest of the year, according to economists surveyed this week. At 0.5 percent, Japan's key rate is the lowest among major economies.
Central bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said last week growth in the world's second-largest economy is likely to “remain sluggish for the time being.''
From the first quarter, the economy shrank 0.7 percent, the biggest drop since the third quarter of 2001, when Japan was in a recession, and more than the 0.6 percent initially reported. Economists expected a 0.8 percent contraction.
Business spending slid 0.5 percent, more than twice the pace of the 0.2 percent drop reported last month. The revision reflected Finance Ministry figures last week that showed capital spending fell for a fifth quarter americashadvance faxless payday advance.
Consumers also reduced spending 0.5 percent, deterred by prices that rose faster than wages. Compensation adjusted for inflation fell 0.4 percent as higher fuel and food prices ate into paychecks.
Toyota Cuts Jobs
Slumping U.S. demand has forced exporters including Toyota Motor Corp. to cut production and jobs. A Kyushu-based Toyota subsidiary reduced output of sport-utility vehicles by at least 10 percent and fired 800 workers since June.
Markets outside the U.S. are also deteriorating. The European economy shrank for the first time in almost a decade last quarter, and EU Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said this week that the outlook is “unusually uncertain.''
Sales of construction equipment by companies including Komatsu Ltd. will fail to meet industry forecasts because of lower demand from India and China, the Japan Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association said last month.
“The market is heading into a turning point,'' said Michijiro Kikawa, chairman of the association and president of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co. “Although we expect the strength of emerging markets to continue, the speed of growth will decelerate.''
Exports Weaken
Exports dropped 2.5 percent and imports fell 2.6 percent, today's report showed. Net exports subtracted 0.1 percentage point from GDP, the first negative contribution in three years.
Even as exports weaken, economists say companies are better able to withstand the slowdown because they have shed the excess workers, factory lines and debt that contributed to a decade of economic stagnation in the 1990s.
“Japan's economy is weak because foreign demand is slumping and the terms of trade have been worsening, not because there are any big domestic structural problems,'' said Hiroaki Muto, senior economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Co. in Tokyo.
Further declines in oil prices, which have eased 30 percent since reaching a record in July, will benefit Japan even more than other economies, according to Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London. Jessop says Japan escaped the credit crunch and the housing collapse that's hit the U.S. and Europe.
Boeing Co’s (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 27,000 machinists prepared for a third day of strike action, halting production at the plane maker’s Seattle-area plants in protest at Boeing’s contract offer and what they see as plans to shift more jobs to non-union and foreign companies.
The fourth strike in 20 years by Boeing’s biggest union threatens to cost the company $100 million a day in revenue and is likely to cause problems for a long list of suppliers across the world in an increasingly global aerospace business.
On Sunday, about 15 picketers milled about the main entrance to Boeing’s Everett, Washington plant, which usually employs 13,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).
“It’s not about the money, it’s all about the subcontracting wordage,” said picketer Butch Blount, a 53-year-old motor equipment operator, handing out cookies to fellow strikers. “My job is one they could possibly offload to a subcontractor.”
The IAM, whose members call themselves the “Fighting Machinists”, is looking for higher pay and better benefits from Boeing, but is particularly worried about language put in the contract in 2002, when times were lean in the aerospace industry, which gave Boeing the power to use outside companies for work usually done by IAM members.
Boeing took advantage of that to widen its base of suppliers for its newest plane, the 787 Dreamliner, which is being made by companies around the world and only assembled in Everett fast cash now easy quick payday loans. The union says Boeing has got rid of 16,000 IAM members since 1990 with the progressive increase in outsourcing.
“We understand our jobs are going away,” said John Jorgensen, 62, a final assembly mechanic who has worked at Boeing for 43 years. “If we don’t get subcontracting language protection (now), we’ll never get it. We have Boeing loyalty, but the top of the company has no loyalty to us.”
Union members in the nearby IAM hall said there would be more action early on Monday Seattle time, when greater numbers of picketers are expected at the plant’s gates to see if workers attempt to cross the picket line.
A record 1.2 million homes were in foreclosure during the second quarter of 2008.
That represents 2.8% of all outstanding loans, up from 1.4% of all loans during the same period a year ago, according to a report released Friday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
And 490,000 of the 45 million home mortgages serviced by MBA members began new foreclosure proceedings. That’s up 9% from the 448,000 starts recorded in the previous quarter, and marked the seventh straight quarter that foreclosure starts increased.
The delinquency rate, which measures mortgages that aren’t in foreclosure but have missed least one payment, also hit a record high.
During the three months ended June 30, 2.9 million homeowners, or 6.4%, were behind on their payments, up more than 25% from last year.
The MBA has been tracking foreclosure and delinquency data since 1979.
"The national foreclosure numbers continue to be driven by the hardest hit states that are continuing to get much worse," said Jay Brinkmann, MBA’s Chief Economist. "The increases in foreclosures in California and Florida overwhelmed improvements in states like Texas, Massachusetts and Maryland."
California and Florida accounted for 39% of all foreclosures started during the quarter. Those two states as well as six others - Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Rhode Island, Indiana, and Ohio - all had foreclosure start rates higher than the national average.
Once again, subprime adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) weighed heavily on the down side. Subprime ARMs, which represent only 6% of all loans outstanding, accounted for 36% of all foreclosures started during the quarter. In other words, 6.6% of all subprime ARMs went into foreclosure during the period - nearly 20 times the rate for fixed rate prime mortgages.
While the percentage of all subprime ARMs past due fell slightly to 21% from 22.1%, the proportion of these loans that are 90 or more past due rose to 26.8% from 24%, indicating that many of these borrowers are falling deeper into trouble.
"The big problem," said Mike Larson, a real estate analyst with Weiss Research, "is this mortgage crisis long since stopped being just about subprime." Indeed, the prime delinquency rate rose to 3.9% from 3.7% in the first quarter of 2008, and 2.7% a year earlier. "This is the highest reading yet."
"Even if subprime stabilizes," said Larson, "I would anticipate that prime loans would start to play catch-up payday loan low fee free credit report.com. We’re not just confronting a credit crisis any more, we’re dealing with broad economic problems that are contributing to delinquency rates."
On the bright side, Larson says the deterioration in home prices has slowed in the last couple of months, which could help delinquencies level off as well.
"They’ll continue to worsen," he said, "but not at the pace of the last year."
Nevertheless, Jay Brinkmann warned that it would be fruitless to try and call a bottom in this market any time soon.
"Real estate markets are local and some markets are already improving," he said in a statement. "For example, even Michigan, one of the worst hit markets in the country, has now gone three quarters with little to no increase in its rate of foreclosures. Likewise, Massachusetts showed a very large drop in foreclosure starts, perhaps signaling a bottom."
"Because of the sheer size of California and Florida, an improvement in the national numbers, whether delinquencies, home prices or any other measure, is unlikely until we see some turnaround in those two states."
Much of what’s ahead depends on home prices, according to Brinkmann. "Home price declines have a bigger impact on foreclosure rates than foreclosures have on home prices."
Home price declines drive foreclosure rates higher by stripping value from homes and putting mortgage borrowers underwater, owing more than their homes are worth.
"So many of the loans are going from delinquency to foreclosure because they are so deeply underwater," said Patrick Newport, a real estate analyst with Global Insight.
Foreclosure prevention efforts could help stem this tide, said Faith Schwartz, Director of Hope Now, the coalition of lenders, servicers, mortgage investors and community groups. "The more people who get their mortgage loans stabilized, the more home prices will stabilize," she said.
But whether delinquencies worsen over the next few months is largely dependent on how the economy shakes out, according to Brinkmann, and right now, things don’t look good. The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1%, the government reported on Friday, a five-year high.
Beyond Email, a design, development and interactive marketing company in Greensboro, has changed its name to B?M Interactive.
Malinda Pengelly, the company’s founder and president, said the change reflects how staff and clients have referred to the firm for years.
“The ‘Email’ portion of our name limits us,” she said. “And while we do provide e-mail and robust e-mail marketing services, that is really only one segment of what we do. Our team’s ability to provide innovative designs, robust e-commerce, reliable application development, effective Web marketing strategies and detailed analytics is the core of our business.”
The firm has seen yearly growth of at least 40 percent annually since its was founded in 1996 no fax payday advances no checking account payday advance. Today, the company has 24 full-time professionals and serves more than 350 companies nationwide.
Federal Judge S. Arthur Spiegel this morning sentenced the last of 11 Berkeley Premium Neutraceutical executives who either pleaded guilty or were convicted for their part in a multi-million fraud scheme.
Paul Kellogg, 41, of West Chester, was Berkeley’s in-house counsel. He received a prison sentence of one year and one day for his February conviction on six conspiracy counts.
Investigators from four federal agencies and the U.S. Attorneys office spent years pursuing the case, alleging Berkeley made millions of dollars over five years by sending customers dietary supplements they didn’t order, charging credit cards without authorization, misrepresenting their business activities to clients and lenders and laundering money.
Berkeley owner Steven Warshak received the most severe punishment, including 25 years in prison and a $93,000 fine no qualifying payday advance paydayloans. His mother, Harriet Warshak, drew a 24-month sentence. The Warshaks and their company were ordered to forfeit more than $500 million to the government.
Other Berkeley executives received sentences of 12 to 13 months. Among those sentenced this week were Greg and Susan Cossman of Maineville, Shelly Kinmon of Union, Ky.; James Teegarden of Florence, Ky.; and Steven Pugh of West Chester. Former Berkeley accountant William Bertemes drew the lightest sentence – one month in prison and a $10,000 fine. Bertemes pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in May, 2006.
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