El Paso County foreclosures on another record pace

Not good:

El Paso County's housing woes showed little sign of easing last month, as local foreclosures continued on a record pace.

Foreclosure filings totaled 480 in April, bringing the year-to-date total to 1,696, according to a report Thursday by the El Paso County Public Trustee's Office.

At that pace, said Trustee Tom Mowle, foreclosures could top 5,000 for the year, which would shatter last year's record of 3,556 filings, although the percentage of area households in foreclosure is smaller than in previous housing downturns.

The nation's mortgage industry crisis has been cited by many experts as one of the major causes of rising foreclosures in the Springs and elsewhere. Many buyers bought homes using adjustable-rate, interest-only and other nontraditional loans.

I won't say it.........

March 17 Status Report for the Bush/Iraq War/Republican Recession

Just cuz Mike Rosen was whining the other day that we are not "hurtling toward a recession":

• Bear Stearns is bankrupt.
• This actually is good news.
• The Federal Reserve is scared shitless.
• Simply put, Bernanke is trying to prevent a financial sector meltdown.
• Unless you hear or read about it on CNBC or Bloomberg, do not pay attention to it. Reporters on both channels have very deep connections.

And I always said Bush would screw up the economy worse than he screwed up our foreign policy.....

Greenspan calls it: Recession

ruh-roh.

As the recession looms ever larger

Until we stop operating on the premise that the world is our playground to run and control through military force -- for invasions, bombing campaigns, wars and occupations to be commenced whenever we perceive it to be in our "interests," however broadly that might be defined -- the only real question is how quickly these problems are going to worsen, how severely the accompanying erosion of our national character will become. A country that is defined by endless war and world military hegemony is inevitably, unavoidably, the Nation of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and Torture and Renditions and Limitless Presidential Power and Secret Black Sites and Blackwater.

Stare at that Iraq war cost calculator at the right for a few minutes as our economy continues to worsen.......

Everything you wanted to know about the recession but were afraid to ask

I always knew it would be George Bush's Gentleman's-C-student, always-failing-updwards business "skills" that would really do us in:

It’s been a terrible opening for the markets in 2008. While the new year is supposed to bring hope of god things to come, the markets have instead dropped like stones. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch announced massive writedowns in their respective portfolios, everyone from Congress to the Fed is talking about some type of stimulus plan and there is hope for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Finally, there is more and more talk about a recession – which is defined as two quarters of negative economic growth. So, the question on everybody’s lips is what the hell is happening? Are we in a recession? Why are the markets tanking so hard?

....lots of charts and links and graphs......

So, the basic overall economy situation is not good.

-- The employment report indicates that employment growth is slowing. This indicates businesses are not confident about the future.
-- Christmas sales were OK, but not great.
-- The consumer is hemmed in by rising oil and food prices
-- The Federal Reserve is hemmed in by high gas and food prices.
-- The financial sector is still dealing with the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage mess and probably will be for the foreseeable future.

In short, things do not look good right now.

And yesterday on McLaughlin Group Mort Zuckerman said:

• Unemployment will hit 6.5% to 7% this year.
• This will be the worst recession since the Great Depression.
• Housing and money markets will continue to implode.
  

Hang on to your hats, your wallets are probably beyond hope...............

More on Bush recession from Saudi oil minister

The guy probably went to Harvard just like Bush:

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, appeared to rebuff the president’s appeal earlier in the day.

Saudi Arabia, he said, shared the president’s concern that a downturn in the American economy could have profound effects around the world, including on the oil market. He even raised the prospect of "recession," a word Mr. Bush studiously avoided in the interview, even when pressed about "the R-word." But Mr. Naimi said Saudi Arabia would raise production only "when the market justifies it."

"Presidents and kings have every right, every privilege, to comment or ask or say whatever they want," Mr. Naimi said in a news conference after Mr. Bush’s remarks. "The concern for the U.S. economy is valid, but what affects the U.S. economy is more than the price of oil."

The Bush economy is faltering

Bushonomics:

Merrill Lynch - $10 billion loss in Q4
Bank of NY - Q4 profit drops 68%
PNC Financial - Profits down 53%
JP Morgan - 24% decline in profits
Wells Fargo - down 38%
US Bancorp - 21% decline
Citigroup - $10 billion loss

Getting us out of Iraq can get us out of recession

Scholars and Rogues builds on a Meyerson column:

The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson has an op-ed in the Washington Post today outlining the nature of the coming recession, and how our economic response is going to have to change if we're to fix it.

"Wait," you're thinking, "is he saying we're in recession? Surely not! I know it's a worry, but no one's actually said it's official yet."

Let's take a look at the facts, then:

Citigroup, America's largest bank, has been hit with a staggering $10 billion in losses this quarter. Naturally, the company is doing what all companies do as a first response to crisis–cutting thousands of jobs –and is begging foreign investors to pump cash into its reserves to keep it solvent.

Countrywide, America's largest lender, reported spikes in delinquencies and foreclosures so severe that the company was looking at bankruptcy protection. It was hailed as a relief when Bank of America announced plans to buy the lender, but think about this–how bad is our economic state when our biggest giants in their respective industries are doing so poorly?

And what about the consumer, that bulwark of economic growth through spending? Well, thanks to a combination of collapsing home equity, high gas, energy, and food prices, and nearly insurmountable personal debt, consumers are falling behind on loan payments, credit card debt is on the rise, and retail sales are plummeting from lack of consumer spending.

If this isn't a recession, it's damn close, and like the wolf hungrily stalking its prey, will be upon us soon.

Back to Meyerson's column. He accurately notes that the mazelike structures of current Wall Street investment strategies make it nigh-impossible to accurately oversee these transactions, which has led to so many billions of dollars' worth of losses. Moreover, he also notes that without some serious infusion of jobs, cash, and direction from the government, this recession may deepen into a depression that will take years to recover from.

"Okay," you may be asking, "but where can we get the money for such a thing? That's going to be expensive!"

Well, here's one simple idea–ending the war in Iraq immediately and bringing our troops home. Imagine what we could do with the influx of capital we're wasting on a failed venture that has cost thousands of lives and tens of millions of dollars. I live in DC, so I used my own city as the basis for calculation....

Bring it on

This is the issue on which I always knew Bush would fail - the economy:

Merrill Lynch “said that Friday’s employment report, which sent shares tumbling worldwide, confirmed that the US is in the first month of a recession."

2 for 1 Condos, get 'em today!

On Woodmen.

Don't let anyone lie and tell you the economy is in good shape.