According to Bloomberg, these rates “are for borrowers with excellent credit who put 20 percent down” — but even so, 4.375% is I think unprecedented in living memory.
This is a great deal. I think it is below our likely inflation rate going forward. The only down side is that it is only a great deal if you keep your job. And if you a pretty sure you can keep your job and you have the money to put 20% down, you are not one of the ones who are hurting right now.
Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children’s clothing.
The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger — including clothing — be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable. Those that haven’t been tested will be considered hazardous, regardless of whether they actually contain lead.
“They’ll all have to go to the landfill,” said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale and Thrift Shops.
(H/T Rod Dreher
Erin Manning makes a good point in the comment section of Rod Dreher’s post saying….
So while only toys and child care articles might (though it’s not clear) be subject to the phthalates ban, *all* consumer products “designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger” are supposed to be subject to the mandatory third-party testing. The law is written so vaguely that some used bookstores which carry children’s books, as well as some small homeschool curricula providers, are wondering if they are also supposed to test their products before selling them–in which case, they’ll have to stop carrying materials for children under 12 or go out of business altogether.
Anything for the children, no matter what it costs. This country is insane.
U.S. private-sector firms shed 693,000 jobs in December, far worse than expected, according to the ADP employment index released Wednesday.
How can we expect throwing money at banks and car makers to fix their problems when everyone else is on the ropes?
Welcome to the Pity Party. It’s easy to get in; no cover charge, just bring a complaint.
Problems we have legion. About a year ago the A-Team left, having brought with them a Mandate from Heaven which we were Not Allowed to Question and having left behind, in several incompatible versions, a process which added more Click Here to continue reading.
US Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Friday that he wants jumbo limits to be raised again – to the previous level, if not higher.
Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, pledged to include a provision for this in the economic stimulus bill Congress is expected to take up with President-elect Barack Obama. He also wants to change the way the loan limits are calculated to reflect real market conditions.
“Even if you accept the principal we shouldn’t be financing luxury housing; what’s a luxury house in Nebraska is an average house in Quincy,” Frank said. “I’m lobbying hard to get at least last year’s level to be put back where it was.”
Is he seriously arguing that the government should be financing luxury housing?
I needed a job, bad, in LA in 1979/1980. I moved there with next to no money and no plan. I was only old enough to drink because they hadn’t changed the law yet. I’d had a dozen jobs or more already. No one was hiring nobody for nothing nohow. If I see another person compare today’s economy to the Depression I’m going to show them a picture of 1979. When a mortgage on a house reaches 17%, unemployment is right around 30% in the construction industry, and inflation looks like it’s going to touch 20, you get back to me. Car companies did more than just talk about going bankrupt back then.
Point taken. Things can get a lot worse. But then, nobody was talking cheerfully about running a trillion dollar deficits for years to come back in the 79/80 either.
Russia has halted all gas supplies to European countries including Turkey and Greece.
As best as can tell, this is a bit of stretch on the Telegraph’s part. Some gas still seems to be coming through. But some countries are facing serious problems. From Spiegel….
Earlier on Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Economy Ministry announced that all Russian gas supplies via Ukraine to Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece and Macedonia had been halted on Tuesday morning as a result of the dispute between Moscow and Kiev. “We are in a crisis situation,” the ministry said in a statement. Bulgaria relies almost entirely on Russian gas for its needs and has no access to alternative pipeline routes and with temperatures in the country dropping to minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight, the government is asking businesses and households to use other fuels.
The EU is in its normal crisis response mode. In other words, they are crying like babies. From later on in the same Spiegel article….
On Tuesday the European Union called the sudden cutoff of gas supplies “completely unacceptable.” In a strongly worded statement, Brussels complained that gas had been cut “without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurances given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities.”
I guess the much vaunted soft power that the EU supposedly had is not doing it much good. Maybe they should try paying tribute.
Edit: Does it count as tribute if you pay it in the name of another country?
Paul Krugman has analyzed the stimulus plan as it now stands, using accepted techniques (various multipliers for various types of spending) and finds it falls well short of its objectives. Given the determination of the Obama crowd to jolt the economy into some semblance of life, this strongly suggests that towards the end of the year, more stimulus measures will be on the table, with large dollar figures attached to them.
The post also contains a link to a Bloomberg article with this quote….
A “trillion dollar deficit will be here before we even start the next budget,” Obama said after meeting in Washington with his economic advisers, including Peter Orszag, who has been designated as director of the Office of Management and Budget. “Potentially we’ve got trillion-dollar deficits for years to come, even with the economic recovery we are working on.”
Who would have ever thought that it would be possible to talk about trillion dollar deficits as if they were no big deal?
Starting in February, the plant will be required to discharge two-thirds less nitrogen per liter of water — from 18 milliliters per gallon down to 6. To do that, the plant will have to use methanol, a chemical both volatile and expensive.
Of the $2.2 million budgeted for all chemicals in 2009, $1.3 million of it is for methanol — three times more than the $400,000 that was budgeted for chemicals in 2008. Overall, the plant is looking at a $1.8 million increase for chemicals.
Instead of saying “volatile” why don’t they just come right out and say that it is explosive? The average sanitation worker is not paid all that much. I don’t know how much I trust them to deal with something that is “volatile.”
GM, the nation’s largest auto maker, said it sold 220,030 light vehicles in December, down 31% from a year earlier. Car sales dropped 25% while light-truck sales dropped 35%. There were 26 selling days in the month, the same as a year earlier.
And from later in the article….
Ford, the No. 3 U.S. auto maker by sales behind GM and Toyota, said it sold 138,325 light vehicles in December, down 32%.
Also from later in the article…..
At Toyota, December sales fell 37% to 141,949, the eighth-straight month of sales drops for the No. 2 seller in the U.S., which earlier had defied the negative sales trends that have slammed Detroit.
Toyota’s sales fell by more than GM or Ford in percentage terms? What a shocker.
Its probably a combination of the fact that Toyota sales started falling later and the fact that Toyota is more popular in the housing boom areas then GM and Ford were (Think Florida and California). Those who don’t like change will be comforted by the fact that nobody did worse in percentage terms than Chrysler. This from Market Watch….
Chrysler LLC said Monday that U.S. December sales fell 53% to 89,813 vehicles from 191,423 a year ago.
Tell me again how the government loaning money to the Auto makers is going to help them when consumers don’t have the money to buy cars. Especially when the loans to people looking buy cars are becoming more expensive. This from Felix Salmon…..
Yes, despite the falling interest rate environment, 95% of banks have increased the cost of their loans. Sounds like a credit crunch to me — and sounds, too, like the stated aim of the government buying equity stakes in banks simply isn’t working.