American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture
The WaPo has a rather long article about granite countertops,
Granite: Why every homeowner wants a piece of the rock
I could have saved them the verbiage. There are 4 reasons why:
In other words, granite is rock-solid.
Blogging on serious matters shall resume shortly.
While you’re reading this, keep in mind that the Community Reinvestment Act is still the law:
Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy To Housing Crisis
Excerpt (emphasis added):
The unusual full-court press was predicated on a Boston Fed study showing mortgage lenders rejecting blacks and Hispanics in greater proportion than whites. The author of the 1992 study, hired by the Clinton White House, claimed it was racial “discrimination.” But it was simply good underwriting.
It took private analysts, as well as at least one FDIC economist, little time to determine the Boston Fed study was terminally flawed. In addition to finding embarrassing mistakes in the data, they concluded that more relevant measures of a borrower’s credit history — such as past delinquencies and whether the borrower met lenders credit standards — explained the gap in lending between whites and blacks, who on average had poorer credit and higher defaults.
The study did not take into account a host of other relevant data factoring into denials, including applicants’ net worth, debt burden and employment record. Other variables, such as the size of down payments and the amount of the loans sought to the value of the property being bought, also were left out of the analysis.
Insanely,
It also failed to consider whether the borrower submitted information that could not be verified, the presence of a cosigner and even the loan amount.
Not surprisingly,
When these missing data were factored in, it became clear that the rejection rates were based on legitimate business decisions, not racism.
Still, the study was used to support a wholesale abandonment of traditional underwriting standards — the root cause of the mortgage crisis.
Now comes the scary part,
And it’s still alive today. Obama is building on the fair-lending infrastructure Clinton put in place.
As IBD first reported in July, Attorney General Eric Holder has launched a witch hunt vs. “racist” banks.
“It’s a more aggressive fair-lending enforcement approach now,” said Washington lawyer Andrew Sandler of Buckley Sandler LLP in a recent interview. “It is well beyond anything we saw during the Clinton administration.”
Go read every word.
LATIN AMERICA
Latin America’s housing boom
It’s not all froth
Big price hikes at the top end reflect a new, richer reality
FreedomHouse’s report PRESS FREEDOM IN 2010: SIGNS OF CHANGE AMID REPRESSION
Americas: In the Americas, 17 countries (49 percent) were rated Free, 14 (40 percent) were rated Partly Free, and 4 (11 percent) were rated Not Free for 2010. The region’s population is almost evenly split between those living in Free (41 percent) and Partly Free (42 percent) media environments, with the remaining 17 percent living in Not Free countries. These figures are significantly influenced by the open media environments of the Caribbean, which tend to offset the less rosy picture in Central and South America. There were two negative status changes, with Honduras and Mexico joining the ranks of Not Free countries, as well as a number of significant numerical declines. Not since 2006 have so many countries in the region been designated Not Free. The regional average score worsened compared with 2009, with the bulk of the decline occurring in the political and economic categories.
Press freedom conditions remain extremely restricted in Cuba, which has one of the most repressive media environments worldwide, and Venezuela, where the government of President Hugo Chávez continued its efforts to control the press. Further pressures were placed on independent V enezuelan broadcast outlets during the year, including the revocation of licenses, and the head of a major television station, Globovisión, fled into exile.
Ongoing deterioration in Mexico and Honduras tipped both countries into the Not Free range in 2010. Mexico’s score worsened from 60 to 62 due to the country’s escalating drug wars, which have taken their toll on journalists. Violence and intimidation by criminal groups have steadily increased in a climate of impunity, leading to heightened self-censorship by the profession as a whole as well as the murders of more than 60 journalists over the past 10 years. During 2010, the nature of drug gangs’ control over the news agenda expanded from prohibitory censorship to concerted attempts to place propaganda or press releases in selected media outlets. This was typically achieved through a combination of threats and bribery. In Honduras, political conditions stabilized somewhat in 2010 following a coup in 2009, and some legal and constitutional protections for press freedom that had been suspended the previous year were reinstated. However, journalists’ ability to work safely was severely compromised by a sharp rise in harassment and attacks in early 2010, including the killing of six journalists in March alone. The aggression and intimidation came from both sides of the political divide. This increase in violence, coupled with a climate of impunity in which journalists’ deaths were not investigated thoroughly or in a timely manner, pushed Honduras’s score from 59 to 61, placing it just inside the Not Free bracket.Following a series of declines in recent years, Ecuador and Bolivia experienced significant downgrades in 2010. Ecuador’s score fell five points, from 47 to 52, to reflect an increasingly polarized media environment and a rise in negative rhetoric and actions against news outlets by the administration of President Rafael Correa. Pressures on the media included a growing number of criminal defamation suits, raids and shutdowns of broadcast outlets, government advertising boycotts, and official attempts to influence the news agenda through the establishment of state-owned or controlled outlets. Meanwhile, Bolivia’s score moved from 43 to 46 due to the approval of several new laws that allow the government to impose fines, withdraw operating licenses, and imprison journalists under loosely defined criteria. The legislation led to an increase in self-censorship by journalists. More modest declines were registered in Argentina as a result of continued tensions between the government and oppositionist news outlets. Journalists faced increased attacks and harassment, and there were officially sanctioned attempts to restrict the production and the distribution of newspapers, particularly those associated with the Clarín media group.
The only significant positive numerical movement in the Americas for 2010 took place in Colombia, whose score improved from 60 to 56 due to progress in ending impunity for past attacks on journalists. Charges were filed in a number of cold cases, and previously closed investigations were reopened.
Related to the above article, Special Report: The 10 Tools of Online Oppressors
ARGENTINA
Excellent report on how Argentina Firing of Inflation Expert Signaled Start of Dubious Price Data after 2007.
IAPA warns that press freedom in Argentina is in a “state of deterioration”
The Week in Buenos Aires, Argentina – May 8, 2011
BRAZIL
Skin-Deep Gains for Amazon Tribe
Mantega Says Brazilian CPI Peaked in April After Exceeding Target Range
CUBA
Inventories, Appropriations
Harvard Professor Unfazed by Tyrants
El por qué de los silencios de Fidel Castro
Eager to modernize its army, Cuba invites Russia to share in profits from oil venture
Castro and Che’s Foiled (and Forgotten) 9/11
Razones ciudadanas 4 from Yoani Sanchez on Vimeo.
ECUADOR
Ecuador Votes on Bid to Give More Control to President
HAITI
Haiti cholera strain may have links back to peacekeepers, says U.N. panel
HONDURAS
Truth and reconciliation in Honduras
A road back for Zelaya?
MEXICO
President calls on Mexicans to back war on drugs
Siesta? What siesta? Mexicans work longest hours in world
Are Tougher U.S. Immigration Policies Responsible for Mass Murder Along the Mexican Border?
Families along U.S.-Mexico border face tough school choices
PANAMA
U.S. Embassy Travel Alert
Peru to gain 4,300 kilometers of international waters in agreement with Ecuador
PUERTO RICO
Moody’s Warns Puerto Rico Of $28B Rating Cuts
In addition to assessing recent proposals by Gov. Luis G. Fortuno for addressing the island’s underfunding of its retirement system, Moody’s said it also will look at his proposed budget to determine if it moves the island closer to structural balance and if it believes revenue and expense forecasts are reasonable.
URUGUAY
Carlos Curbelo Tammaro lavado de activos del narcotrafico
VENEZUELA
Is Hugo Chavez an idiot?
Fascism forges ahead in Venezuela: the army declares journalists “military objectives”
The strange case of Joaquin Perez Becerra, the Man Chavez Personally Extradited to Colombia
The week’s posts,
What we can learn from Chile
The Middle East-Latin America Terrorism Connection
Hezbollah setting up camp in Mexico
The growing Chilean economy
NY City cabs to be built in Mexico
Peru: Ollanta Humala’s new PR face
A fake takeover, and a real takeover in today’s news:
First, the fake takeover,
Egyptian Embassy in Venezuela Briefly Taken Over, Chavez Says
Demonstrators briefly took over Egypt’s Embassy in Caracas today in a bid to show support for protests taking place in the North African country against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.
The protesters entered peacefully under the pretext of collecting documents and once inside took over the building, Chavez said. They were persuaded to leave after speaking with Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, he said.
“The wanted to protest, of course, but they shouldn’t have done that because we are obliged to protect all of the embassies, which are sovereign territory,” Chavez said in comments carried on state television during a military event.
Seems to me that the protesters made their point and left, without much happening; indeed, the Wall Street Journal’s headline is less dramatic, Egypt Embassy In Venezuela Sees Shortlived Protest – Chavez
When reached for comment, a worker at the embassy who declined to identify himself said “everything was calm and had returned to normal.” He declined to give further details.
It seems to be another instance where Chávez is inflating his importance by injecting himself into today’s headline.
The real story in Venezuela, however, is the housing crisis. Chávez is now commanding the poor to squat on private property:
Chávez tackles housing crisis by urging poor to squat wealthy parts of Caracas
Move to exploit ‘unused’ land in capital rattles Venezuela’s middle class, as troops also take over ‘unproductive’ farms
ugo Chávez has sent out troops to take over farms and urged the poor to occupy “unused” land in wealthy areas of Caracas, prompting a wave of squats that is rattling Venezuela’s middle class.
The move by Venezuela’s president to step up the campaign to “recover” land and other property follows a housing crisis that has left millions of people in shabby conditions and affected his popularity in the run-up to next year’s election.
Squatters wearing red T-shirts from Chávez’s socialist party seized 20 spaces in a co-ordinated strike in the well-off Caracas municipality of Chacao last weekend, a move which shocked even some government supporters. Additional groups have targeted other cities.
Chávez’s attack on property rights, the cornerstone of democracy, continues (emphasis added),
The government has stepped up rural expropriations by deploying 1,600 troops at 47 farms in the western states of Merida and Zulia, claiming the farms were unproductive. The state has taken control of 2.5m hectares since Chávez gained power in 1999.
Just another day in the cult of Chavismo.
Cindy Perman of CNBC thinks so,
Housing Market Slips Into Depression Territory
Home values have fallen 26 percent since their peak in June 2006, worse than the 25.9-percent decline seen during the Depression years between 1928 and 1933, Zillow reported.
November marked the 53rd consecutive month (4 ½ years) that home values have fallen.
What’s worse, it’s not over yet: Home values are expected to continue to slide as inventories pile up, and likely won’t recover until the job market improves.
And no thanks to the stimulus, either.
Today’s headline: New home sales unexpectedly fall in December
Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes fell unexpectedly in December, data showed on Wednesday, the latest indication that the government-led housing recovery might be losing some steam.
The Commerce Department said sales fell 7.6 percent to a 342,000 unit annual rate from an upwardly revised 370,000 units in November. It was the second straight month that new home sales declined.
Last week, jobless claims “unexpectedly” worsened: Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Rise on Backlog
More Americans than anticipated filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, reflecting a backlog of applications from the year-end holidays.
Initial jobless claims rose by 36,000 to 482,000 in the week ended Jan. 16, the highest level in two months, from 446,000 the prior week, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.
Before that, foreclosures rose, also “unexpectedly“.
Considering we’re in a recession, and the Obama administration continues to castigate private business, it’s difficult to ascertain why the above three rose “unexpectedly“. It is to be expected.
On Christmas Eve, when most Americans’ minds were on other things, the Treasury Department announced that it was removing the $400 billion cap from what the administration believes will be necessary to keep Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac solvent. This action confirms that the decade-long congressional failure to more closely regulate these two government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) will rank for U.S. taxpayers as one of the worst policy disasters in our history.
Bad news then,
Fannie and Freddie’s congressional sponsors—some of whom are now leading the administration’s effort to “reform” the financial system—have a lot to answer for. Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, sponsored legislation adopted in 2008 that established a new regulatory structure for the GSEs. But by then it was far too late. The GSEs had begun buying risky loans in 1993 to meet the “affordable housing” requirements established under congressional direction by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Most of the damage was done from 2005 through 2007, when Fannie and Freddie were binging on risky mortgages. Back then, Mr. Frank was the bartender, denying that there was any cause for concern, and claiming that he wanted to “roll the dice” on subsidized housing support.
Roll the dice he did, and the Republicans were not able to stop him,
There is more to this ugly situation. New research by Edward Pinto, a former chief credit officer for Fannie Mae and a housing expert, has found that from the time Fannie and Freddie began buying risky loans as early as 1993, they routinely misrepresented the mortgages they were acquiring, reporting them as prime when they had characteristics that made them clearly subprime or Alt-A.
…
An Alt-A mortgage is one in which the quality of the mortgage or the underwriting was deficient; it might lack adequate documentation, have a low or no down payment, or in some other way be more likely than a prime mortgage to default. Fannie and Freddie were also reporting these mortgages as prime, according to Mr. Pinto.
It gets worse. Go read the rest of the article.
