Friday, August 13, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: August 13, 2010


Happy Friday!
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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-13/manhattan-luxury-condos-embrace-federal-help-in-game-changer-for-sales.html

Whitney Gollinger, marketing chief for a Manhattan condo building with an outdoor movie theater and panoramic city views, is highlighting a different amenity to spur sales: the financial backing of the federal government.

The Federal Housing Administration agreed in March to insure mortgages for apartments at the 98-unit Gramercy Park development, known as Tempo. That enables buyers to make a down payment of as little as 3.5% in a building where apartments range from $820,000 to $3 million.

* THE AGE OF OBAMA...

The FHA, created in 1934 to make homeownership attainable for low- to moderate-income Americans, is providing a lifeline to new Manhattan luxury condominiums after sales stalled.

* MEANING THE TAXPAYER IS PROVIDING "A LIFELINE..."

(*SMIRK*)

Buildings featuring pet spas, concierges and rooftop lounges are applying for agency backing to unlock bank financing for purchasers. The FHA guarantees that if a homebuyer defaults on his mortgage, the agency will pay it.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

At least nine Manhattan condo developments south of 96th Street have sought approval for FHA backing since the agency loosened its financing rules in December... The change allows the FHA to insure loans in new projects where only 30% of units are in contract, down from at least 50%. About 1,900 apartments in New York’s most expensive neighborhoods would be covered by the applications.

* HMM... WASN'T OBAMA PRESIDENT IN DECEMBER? WASN'T NANCY PELOSI SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE? WASN'T HARRY REID MAJORITY LEADER OF THE SENATE? HOW'S THAT HOPE AND CHANGE WORKING OUT FOR THOSE OF YOU NOT IN THE MARKET FOR A $3 MILLION GRAMERCY PARK RESIDENCE?

The agency also offers insurance to half of all mortgages in a single building after previously setting a limit at 30%, according to the new standards...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

In New York City, the priciest urban U.S. housing market, the FHA insures loans of as much as $729,750, and permits buyers to borrow up to 96.5 percent of the price.

* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... IS THIS YOUR "HOPE AND CHANGE?"

August 13, 2010 at 4:52 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/08/11/morning-bell-summer-of-bailouts/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

1) The $16.1 Billion Medicaid Bailout --

Congress has already bailed-out state Medicaid programs three times this decade, the most recent $87 billion installment coming as part of President Obama’s $862 billion failed economic stimulus bill. But the states with the most wasteful Medicaid programs have already blown through that money, and now they need another hit.

Every state should have known that the stimulus funding would expire on December 31, 2010. But 30 states went ahead and built their budgets on the assumption that President Obama would hook them up for 2011 as well.

(*SNARL*)

This $16 billion Medicaid bailout is designed to aid to those states with the worst Medicaid spending problems. For instance, New York has nearly 30% of its citizens enrolled and spends in excess of $18,000 per person in poverty.

Texas, in comparison, with 5 million more people and 1 million more individuals in poverty than New York, has a much smaller Medicaid program.

In essence those 20 states that acted prudently and budgeted for the stimulus to expire are paying for the bailouts of the 30 states that can’t control their Medicaid spending problem.

2) The $10 Billion Government Union Bailout --

The President will tell you that without this $10 billion, your child’s teacher will be fired this fall.

Don’t believe him.

[T]hose schools that “fired” teachers this spring have already begun hiring them back.

If teachers unions were really concerned about saving teachers’ jobs, they could easily agree to pay-freezes or to start paying for their own health care. But government unions are not in the business of giving up revenue sources. They exist to suck the private sector dry as much as politically possible. The unions claim that the $10 billion public-education bailout would save 100,000 teaching jobs. That means taxpayers will be paying $100,000 per job...

(*HEADACHE*)

Using a conservative estimate of $300 in annual dues paid, the NEA and AFT have a minimum of $24 million in dues at stake. It is that $24 million in union dues revenue, not your children’s education, that this bailout is really about.

* AND WE KNOW WHICH PARTY AND WHICH OFFICIALS/CANDIDATES RECEIVED THOSE DUES DETOURED INTO POLITICAL "CONTRIBUTIONS," DON'T WE... (*FROWN*)

August 13, 2010 at 6:59 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.concordcoalition.org/tabulation/good-news-medicare-report-isnt-good-it-sounds

Good news comes and goes rather quickly in the 2010 Medicare Trustees’ Report. It begins with the optimistic news that Medicare’s finances have improved substantially as a result of this year’s health care reform bill, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, the report then goes on to explain in great detail why this apparently good news is probably not as good as it sounds.

According to the trustees, “actual future Medicare expenditures are likely to exceed the intermediate projections shown in this report, possibly by quite large amounts.” A separate memo prepared by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary bluntly states that “the projections in the report do not represent the ‘best estimate’ of actual future Medicare expenditures.”

* FOLKS. FOR CHRIST'S SAKE, UNDERSTAND... WHAT THE CONCORD COALITION IS SAYING - DIPLOMATICALLY - IS THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS TRYING TO PULL A FAST ONE... IS BASICALLY LYING. WE'VE COVERED THIS BEFORE, BUT IT BEARS REPEATING!

[T]wo key assumptions in the official projections are not realistic: 1) The first of these assumptions is that Medicare’s current law Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) for physician payments will be followed, starting with a 30% cut over the next three years. ... Congress has routinely overridden [SGR] and is widely expected to do so again. 2) The second questionable assumption is that annual adjustments to non-physician provider payments will be limited to the growth of economy-wide productivity. This change was a major cost-saving initiative in the ACA. However, productivity gains in the health care sector have generally not kept pace with economy-wide gains. So maintaining this new standard would necessitate substantial and continuous efficiencies. The CMS actuaries estimate that payments would be 28% lower after 30 years than under the pre-ACA law and 56% lower after 75 years.

* FOLKS... CUT AWAY ALL THE RHETORIC... IN PLAIN ENGLISH WHAT CONCORD IS SAYING IS THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS TRYING TO SELL THE NATION A BILL OF GOODS. TO QUOTE THEIR REPORT DIRECTLY:

In short, much of the apparent improvement in Medicare’s finances may prove to be illusory.

(*SHRUG*)

August 13, 2010 at 6:59 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/08/12/morning-bell-the-dodd-frank-bailout-is-already-here/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

On July 21, when President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, he promised: “There will be no more taxpayer-funded bailouts. Period.”

* YOU FOLKS REMEMBER THAT, RIGHT...???

How long [did] this Obama promise last?

Well, The New York Times [reported Thursday] that “the Obama administration on Wednesday pumped $3 billion into programs intended to stop the unemployed from losing their homes,” including a program announced by the Department of Housing and Urban Development that “will draw on $1 billion authorized by the new financial overhaul law.”

That’s right. The Dodd-Frank “no more taxpayer-funded bailouts forever” bill is not even a month old, and already President Obama is using it to turn your tax dollars into yet another bailout.

And why is the Obama administration turning to Dodd-Frank bailout funds so soon after passage? Because its original mortgage bailout plan, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), has been a complete failure.

(*SIGH*) (REGULAR NEWSBITES READERS ARE WELL AWARE OF THIS...)

Faced with the utter failure of its TARP funded mortgage bailout, the Obama administration is now turning to the Left’s old stand-in for housing market interference: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)

Fannie Mae is now working with the National Council of State Housing Agencies to let people buy houses with little or no down payment just like the GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities) did at the height of the housing bubble.

And last week, Freddie Mac was also promoting no-down payment loans, this time through an array of Housing and Urban Development programs.

(All this despite the fact that last week Fannie Mae announced it lost $1.2 billion in the second quarter of this year, and this week Freddie Mac announced a $4.71 billion loss. Both companies were also forced to ask for more Obama bailout cash, including $1.5 billion of your tax dollars for Fannie and another $1.8 billion for Freddie.)

No wonder the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill did nothing about Fannie and Freddie; the Obama administration had every intention of continuing to use them to prop up the housing market.

* SURE LOOKS THAT WAY, DOESN'T IT...?!?!

These programs will do nothing but delay the inevitable housing market correction. Instead of letting the market sort out what these homes are really worth, the Obama administration is only prolonging economic hardship by making it harder for new home buyers to afford a moderately priced home and making it harder for those who need to move for work to sell their current homes.

(*NOD*) (*SIGH*)

August 13, 2010 at 7:07 PM

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