Recession Depression Wreckovery

Reuters:

September home foreclosures top 100,000 for first time
By Corbett B. Daly

WASHINGTON Thu Oct 14, 2010 7:00am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of homes taken over by banks topped 100,000 for the first time in September, though foreclosures are expected to slow in coming months as lenders work through questionable paperwork, real estate data company RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Banks foreclosed on 102,134 properties in September, the first single month above the century mark, RealtyTrac said. There were 347,420 total foreclosure filings in September, 3 percent higher than August and 1 percent higher than a year earlier.

"We expect to see a dip in those bank repossessions -- and possibly earlier stages of the foreclosure process -- in the fourth quarter as several major lenders have halted foreclosure sales in some states while they review irregularities in foreclosure-processing documentation that has been called into question in recent weeks," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.

On Wednesday, all 50 states launched a joint investigation of the mortgage industry after widespread reports of mortgage industry officials signing foreclosure documents without knowing their contents.

For the quarter, there were 930,437 foreclosure filings, an increase of 4 percent over the prior three months and 1 percent lower than a year ago. One in every 139 homes received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter.

The firm said foreclosures could spike after a brief lull if lenders are able to quickly resolve the paperwork questions.

"However, if the documentation issue cannot be quickly resolved and expands to more lenders we could see a chilling effect on the overall housing market as sales of pre-foreclosure and foreclosed properties, which account for nearly one-third of all sales, dry up and the shadow inventory of distressed properties grows - causing more uncertainty about home prices," Saccacio said.

Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate for the 45th straight month, followed by Arizona, Florida, California and Idaho.

In 2005, before the housing bust, banks took over just about 100,000 houses, according to the Irvine, California-based company.

Yahoo:

Applications for jobless benefits rise to 462K
Christopher S. Rugaber

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More people applied for unemployment benefits last week, the first rise in three weeks and evidence that companies are reluctant to hire in a slow economy.

Initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was only the second rise in two months.

Jobless claims have been stuck near 450,000 all year. Few employers see much reason to create many jobs, and some are still laying off workers. Rail operator CSX Corp., for example, said Wednesday that it can lengthen its trains to handle rising shipments, reducing its need to hire more employees.

"The labor market is kind of frozen right now," said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities. "There's not a lot of hiring going on, not a lot of quitting, not a lot of layoffs."

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed the trade deficit widened in August by 8.8 percent to $46.3 billion. The gap grew because of a 2.1 jump in imports, driven by demand for foreign-made semiconductors, generators and other types of industrial machinery. Exports edged up a slight 0.2 percent.

A third report noted that prices at the wholesale level remained tame outside a sharp rise in food and energy costs. Excluding those two volatile categories, core wholesale prices rose just 0.1 percent, the Labor Department said.

the rest here

Human Events:

What Happened to Those Shovel-Ready Jobs?
by Eddie Scarry

10/14/2010

Democrats passed the “stimulus” package in early 2009 with the idea it would do two things: keep unemployment below 8% and create millions of “shovel-ready” jobs.

Five months later, unemployment leaped to 9.5% and Vice President Joe Biden said it was because the administration “misread the economy.”

Fast forward another 15 months to today and President Obama tells the New York Times “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” That’s two for two.

Obama first made “shovel-ready” a cool, keeping-it-rustic catchphrase in an interview with Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press” in December 2008. “When I met with the governors, all of them have projects that are shovel-ready,” he said.

And on that day, a talking point was born.
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Newsmax:

50% of Americans Pessimistic on Children's Future
Thursday, 14 Oct 2010 09:35 AM Article Font Size

Americans say they have weathered the worst of the longest recession in seven decades, even as they are pessimistic about prospects for their retirement years, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.

Three in five respondents to the Oct. 7-10 poll say their economic condition has improved recently or they are confident it will get better. One in three say things have gotten worse or aren’t likely to improve anytime soon.

“I see some hope, but not a lot,” says poll respondent Brian Ridlon, 34, an out-of-work resident of Green Mountain, Arkansas, who wants to learn how to become a barber. “There are some avenues to improve yourself, but we need more.”

What optimism there is about the immediate future doesn’t carry over to the longer term. Pluralities of those polled say they’re not hopeful they will have enough money in retirement and expect they will have to keep working to make up the difference. More than 50 percent aren’t confident or are just somewhat confident their children will have better lives than they have.

“I don’t think they’ve got a chance,” says Brian Rich, a 65-year-old retiree with three children in their 20s who lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts. “I’m very angry at what’s going on in this country. Change is being forced upon us.”

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