Geithner: No ‘Second Wave’ To Crisis
by ilene - December 23rd, 2009 12:19 pm
Geithner: No ‘Second Wave’ To Crisis
Courtesy of Mish
One sure way we know a second wave to the crisis is likely coming is the preemptive denial of it by those who never saw it coming. Please consider Geithner: There Will Be No ‘Second Wave’ Crisis.
"We are not going to have a second wave of financial crisis," Geithner said in an interview with National Public Radio. "We cannot afford to let the country live again with a risk that we are going to have another series of events like we had last year. That is not something that is acceptable."
Geithner, interviewed on NPR’s "All Things Considered" program, rejected the idea that a serious new crisis could be triggered by lingering problems with commercial real estate loans or with a sudden weakening in the value of the dollar.
"We will do what is necessary to prevent that and that is completely within our capacity to prevent," he said.
However, in a separate interview he conceded that it would take several months before the economy yields positive job growth. Job losses have been easing in recent weeks but the economy still saw 480,000 new claims for unemployment benefits last week. That number is expected to shrink just a bit this week.
Geithner on NPR
Inquiring minds might be interested in the complete NPR interview. Please consider Geithner Voices Confidence About Economic Rebound.
Here is the Transcript of the interview with Michelle Norris. Some snips follow …
NORRIS: You know that businesses are spending again. The administration has been asking the banks to try to free up more money for small business in particular. And I want you to help me understand something because on one hand the administration is telling the bankers that they need to take fewer risks, that they need to deleverage, that they need to have higher capital reserve. And at the same time you’re also telling them that they need to lend more money. Those two things don’t seem to square.
Sec. GEITHNER: It is very important that we work with Congress to pass legislation that can put in place financial reforms that can prevent the next crisis. So it’s pretty important in the future we build a more stable financial system. We constrain risk taking in the future. But
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The H1N1 Pandemic: Is a Second Wave Possible?
by ilene - December 11th, 2009 11:35 pm
The H1N1 Pandemic: Is a Second Wave Possible?
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By Alice Park, courtesy of TIME Since early November, cases of H1N1 have continued to decline nationwide, and scientists keeping track of the numbers say that as pandemics go, 2009 H1N1 may turn out to be a mild one — at least for the time being.
The question now on health officials’ minds is: Will there be a second wave of cases in the new year? The answer depends on whom you ask. "We took an informal poll of about a dozen of some of the world’s leading experts in influenza," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters recently. "About half of them said, Yes, we think it’s likely that we’ll have another surge in cases. About half said, No, we think it’s not likely. And one said, Flip a coin."
It is an accurate reflection of how unpredictable the influenza virus can be. Although flu activity has been waning for the third week in a row, health officials warn that there are still four to five months left in the official influenza season, plenty of time for the virus to make its rounds and find new hosts. "The story of pandemics, and the story of H1N1 in general, is the story of persistent uncertainty where we never quite know what we are going to get or when," says Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
How severe the current H1N1 pandemic seems depends on what you use as a measuring stick. Compared with previous pandemics, like the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed 20 million people and infected up to 40% of the world’s population, or even the far less deadly 1957 and 1968 bouts with a strain of H1N1 influenza similar to the 2009 strain, things don’t seem as bad this time around. Fewer people are getting severely ill when infected, and fewer have died or required hospitalization from the flu than in previous pandemics.
Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, and his colleagues studied the course of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic last spring in two cities — New York and Minneapolis — and determined that 0.048% of people who developed symptoms of H1N1 died, and 1.44% required hospitalization. Based…
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Half All Mortgage Holders Are Expected To Be Underwater
by ilene - August 6th, 2009 10:41 am
Half All Mortgage Holders Are Expected To Be Underwater
By Barbara Kiviat, courtesy of TIME
If you’re not already underwater on your mortgage, there’s a decent chance you will be. According to a new report from Deutsche Bank, up to 25 million American homeowners could eventually owe more than their house is worth. That would account for 48% of all mortgage holders.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard exceptional numbers on upside-down borrowers. First American CoreLogic figures there were already 11 million homeowners in that position at the end of last year, and Moody’s Economy.com estimates we had reached 15 million by the end of March. The Deutsche Bank projection, the direst so far, assumes house prices nationwide will drop another 14%. (See how Americans are spending now.)
The problem is already a massive one. When the value of a house is less than its mortgage, a homeowner can’t sell and pay off his debt. If a house becomes unaffordable—because of job loss, say, or an adjusting mortgage interest rate—a homeowner is trapped. Academic research shows that underwater borrowers are more likely to default on their mortgage than those with positive equity. (See a chart showing the highest percentage of underwater borrowers.)
The Deustche Bank report adds another wrinkle. So far, the highest rates of underwater borrowers have been found among those people with subprime, Alt-A and Option-ARM loans. These loans, often sold to people with low credit scores or those stretching to be able to afford a house, were largely peddled at the height of the boom, and therefore often correspond to home prices that had nowhere to go but down. However, according to Deutsche Bank’s projections, a second-wave of upside borrowers is about to hit, and this time prime borrowers will account for the bulk. As of the end of March, the bank estimated that 16% of prime borrowers with conforming loans were underwater. By the end of March 2011, some 41% are projected to be. And about half of those are expected to owe at least 25% more than their house’s value.
The "good" news is that the worst of the problem is fairly concentrated geographically. Places where house prices have fallen the most have been hit the worst. That includes areas that saw the wildest speculation and overbuilding—like California,…
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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.