Florida – Much Worse Problems Than the Oil Spill
by ilene - August 13th, 2010 10:11 pm
Florida – Much Worse Problems Than the Oil Spill
By Doug Hornig, Senior Editor, Casey Research
Media coverage of the oil spill’s effect on the Gulf focusing on tourist income lost by the waterfront towns – with footage of empty beaches, restaurants and T-shirt shops – dominates the news. Interviews with devastated business owners are heart rending. But they always end with references to somehow hanging on until “things get back to normal.”
Trouble is, things are not going to “normalize.” Not for the Panhandle of Florida, and probably not for the rest of the state, either.
Projections suggest that Florida can expect oil all along its west coast, and possibly throughout the Keys and up the east coast as well. Yet even before BP’s well began spewing crude, pressures within the state’s economy were building. It was an explosive situation awaiting a match.
Oily beaches and dying wildlife are likely that match.
Take unemployment. Statewide, it ballooned from 3% in 2006 to a peak of 12.3% in February 2010. Though it’s backed off, it remains in double-digit territory at 11.2%. ”Officially” – though official numbers understate the problem. Illegal immigrants, some 4.5% of Florida’s population, aren’t counted; the long-term unemployed and aging workers are regularly purged, even if they’re still looking for work.
This in a state already confronted with the worst of the coming healthcare/taxation crunch. It has the second oldest population in the nation, and as its citizens retire, their earnings fall off, causing tax revenues to drop. At the same time, healthcare bills rise, stressing social service budgets.
Florida is ground zero for Baby Boomer demographics. With 600 seniors for every 1,000 workers now, and the number trending inexorably higher, soon every employed person in the state will essentially have to adopt one senior to care for out of his or her paycheck.
Housing? Naturally, rising unemployment amplifies the difficulties of maintaining homeownership. With further negative effects from the oil, we can only expect the situation to worsen. A tsunami of defaults and foreclosures – and bank failures – would not be a surprise.
Florida is mortgaged to the hilt. It ranks second only to California in total securitized non-agency mortgage loans, 10% of the national total. Of those, half are 60 days or more…
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Internet Foreclosure “Myths”
by ilene - May 1st, 2010 3:11 pm
Internet Foreclosure “Myths”
Courtesy of Patrick Pulatie, originally published at The Implode-O-Meter Blog
Just over two and one half years ago, I began to work with homeowners facing foreclosure. At that time, there were two or three websites that had any information on foreclosure prevention and any viable defenses to foreclosure. Since that time, starting in late 2008, and throughout 2009, there has been an explosion of websites featuring foreclosure information. This has been both good and bad for the homeowner facing foreclosure; good because homeowners have been able to learn much about their situation, and know that they were not alone, but bad because there is much “inaccurate” information about foreclosure defenses being presented. This article is intended to help the homeowner sort the good and the bad.
I write this knowing that I am going to receive significant negative feedback from many different sources. Some will be disputing what I write because they have heard of people with positive results. Some will argue because for them, the distribution of such information is part of their business model and the more people who know that what they “preach” is not effective, the less they will make. Others will disagree because I am at direct odds with certain people that they follow, ones who have high visibility, but have not stepped into court rooms in years. More will even argue that I side with the lenders.
There is a particular motivation for writing this. I receive phone calls daily and weekly from homeowners who have read these from sites, and are thinking that if they just do one thing or another, their problems will “magically” disappear. Others are Pro Se litigants, doing their own lawsuits instead of hiring attorneys. They want me to review their filings, advise them where they are wrong, or do Predatory Lending Examinations. I refuse to do this because I will not work with a person who does not have an attorney, and I am not an attorney and cannot give legal advice. The sad part is that in their filings, I can immediately spot so many errors that it is obvious that they should just start packing to move.
The criteria for being considered a "myth" includes the probability of a desired outcome, and/or…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW. She manages the site