spent-at-least

Joseph E. Stiglitz: Fixing America’s Broken Housing Market

by on September 15, 2010

NEW YORK – A sure sign of a dysfunctional market economy is the persistence of unemployment. In the United States today, one out of six workers who would like a full-time job can’t find one. It is an economy with huge unmet needs and yet vast idle resources. The housing market is another U.S. anomaly: there are hundreds of thousands of homeless people (more than 1.5 million Americans spent at least one night in a shelter in 2009), while hundreds of thousands of houses sit vacant. Indeed, the foreclosure rate is increasing. Two million Americans lost their homes in 2008, and 2.8 million more in 2009, but the numbers are expected to be even higher in 2010. Our financial markets performed dismally — well-performing, “rational” markets do not lend to people who cannot or will not repay — and yet those running these markets were rewarded as if they were financial geniuses. None of this is news. What is news is the Obama administration’s reluctant and belated recognition that its efforts to get the housing and mortgage markets working again have largely failed. Curiously, there is a growing consensus on both the left and the right that the government will have to continue propping up the housing market for the foreseeable future. This stance is perplexing and possibly dangerous. Continue reading at Project Syndicate.

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Joseph E. Stiglitz: Fixing America’s Broken Housing Market

Joseph E. Stiglitz: Fixing America’s Broken Housing Market

by on September 15, 2010

NEW YORK – A sure sign of a dysfunctional market economy is the persistence of unemployment. In the United States today, one out of six workers who would like a full-time job can’t find one. It is an economy with huge unmet needs and yet vast idle resources. The housing market is another U.S. anomaly: there are hundreds of thousands of homeless people (more than 1.5 million Americans spent at least one night in a shelter in 2009), while hundreds of thousands of houses sit vacant. Indeed, the foreclosure rate is increasing. Two million Americans lost their homes in 2008, and 2.8 million more in 2009, but the numbers are expected to be even higher in 2010. Our financial markets performed dismally — well-performing, “rational” markets do not lend to people who cannot or will not repay — and yet those running these markets were rewarded as if they were financial geniuses. None of this is news. What is news is the Obama administration’s reluctant and belated recognition that its efforts to get the housing and mortgage markets working again have largely failed. Curiously, there is a growing consensus on both the left and the right that the government will have to continue propping up the housing market for the foreseeable future. This stance is perplexing and possibly dangerous. Continue reading at Project Syndicate.

Original post:
Joseph E. Stiglitz: Fixing America’s Broken Housing Market

Hedge-Fund Manager Allegedly Swindled Universities Out Of Millions Of Dollars, Bought Mansions, Books, Collectible Teddy Bears

July 29, 2010

A former hedge-fund manager has pleaded guilty to criminal charges in an investment scam in which he bilked as much as $900-million from investors, including four university endowments. In his plea, Paul R. Greenwood said on Wednesday that he and his partner, Steven Walsh, had spent money from the investment accounts on themselves and their family members. According to investigators, the two spent at least $160-million on mansions, horses, rare books, and an $80,000 collectible teddy bear. Mr. Walsh has pleaded not guilty, and Mr. Greenwood will testify against him at trial.

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British Hostage Moore Spent Part of His Captivity in Iran, Petraeus Says

January 1, 2010

By Caroline Alexander Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) — British hostage Peter Moore, freed this week after being kidnapped in Iraq in May 2007, spent at least part of his time in captivity in neighboring Iran, U.S. regional military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. “Our intelligence assessment is that he certainly has spent part of the time, at the very least, in Iran, part of the time that he was a hostage,” Petraeus told reporters in Baghdad today during a briefing aired by al-Iraqiya Television. Petraeus said it was difficult to tell what role Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or the Quds Force, a branch of the Guard accused of supporting attacks in Iraq, had in Moore’s capture. The commander said he hasn’t talked to the Briton or heard anything that he has said about his ordeal. Moore, 36, arrived back in the U.K. today to be reunited with his family, the Foreign Office in London said in a statement. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman described claims the abduction had been organized by the Revolutionary Guards as “baseless,” the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Moore was set free and delivered to Baghdad authorities on Dec. 30, ending Britain’s longest-running hostage crisis since 1991 when Church of England envoy Terry Waite was released after being held for almost five years by the Islamic Jihad organization in Lebanon. Bodyguards Killed Three of four British bodyguards seized with Moore in the Iraqi capital have been killed. U.K. officials believe the fourth is dead. Moore, from Lincoln in eastern England, was working as an computer consultant for U.S. management consulting firm BearingPoint Inc. when he was taken. Moore arrived in the U.K. on a flight into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. “Peter was met by Foreign Office staff and will be reunited with his family later,” today’s statement said. In a statement issued by the Foreign Office on their behalf, the Moore family said they “are thrilled to have Peter back safely — we have a lot of catching up to do and would like to have time with Peter on our own.” To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net .

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Commodities to Attract Record $60 Billion Inflows This Year, Barclays Says

November 20, 2009

By Stuart Wallace Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) — Commodities will likely attract a record $60 billion this year as investors seek to diversify their assets, Barclays Capital said. Inflows so far this year are almost $55 billion, already more than the previous full-year record of $51 billion set in 2006, the bank said in a report. Total commodity assets under management will probably expand to $230 billion to $240 billion by the end of the year, Barclays said. “Sharp falls in commodity prices earlier in the year created opportunities for long-term exposure, providing an opportunity for investors to act on their interest in commodities as a diversification tool,” analysts including London-based Gayle Berry and Suki Cooper said in the report. The S&P GSCI Index of 24 commodities rose 46 percent this year, rebounding from last year’s 43 percent slump, as governments spent at least $12 trillion to lift their economies from the worst recession since World War II. Copper, lead and sugar doubled and gold reached a record. “A strong end to the year for commodity prices does look likely, especially if the dollar continues to weaken, which should be especially beneficial for gold,” the analysts said. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by bullion, reached a record 1,134 metric tons in June. At the time, it exceeded Switzerland as the world’s sixth-largest gold holding. The Dollar Index , a six-currency gauge, fell 7.3 percent this year, buoying demand for commodities as a hedge against further weakness in the currency and making dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for those holding other monies. To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Wallace in London at swallace6@bloomberg.net

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