Category: Economy

Boeing Gives Future Away on 787

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Look at the line about “with Boeing 787-based carbon-fiber construction”. The MBA suits at Boeing thought that it was a great idea to outsource critical technologies to “risk sharing partners”.

It has funded competitors in its own market.

This is stupider than when Coke decided not to buy Pepsi in 1933.

State Subsidy Plan Lifts Mitsubishi’s RJ Hopes(Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/11/2007, page 43

Bradley Perrett
Beijing

Plan for state aid buoys Mitsubishi’s aspirations for a regional jet

Printed headline: RJ Funding

A key Japanese government department plans to allocate ¥40 billion ($330 million) in subsidies for a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries project for a large regional jet, greatly increasing the likelihood of the country finally establishing itself as a supplier of commercial aircraft.

With Boeing 787-based carbon-fiber construction and new engines, the proposed Mitsubishi aircraft could present a serious challenge to Embraer, Bombardier and two other companies developing such jets, Sukhoi and China’s Avic I.”

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The Yen-Carry Trades Has a Real Possibility of a Global Meltdown

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The idea is that you borrow Yen at less than 2%, and invest it elsewhere at 4+%, and the difference is pure profit.

The problem? If the dollar, or Euro, or Yuan, falls relative to the Yen, you can end up way in the hole.

This is another problematic feature of the current world trade and currency system. To much speculation, not enough trade and investment, creating volatility and costs.

The increasingly leveraged monetary system is an act of keeping hundreds of balls in the air at the same time, and one day, they will come down.

Dollar Rises in Asia on Yen-Carry Trades
Friday June 8, 4:02 am ET
Dollar Rises in Asian Trading as Investors Swap Yen for Higher Yield Overseas Assets

TOKYO (AP) — The dollar rose in Asia Friday as investors swapped the yen for higher yield overseas assets to take advantage of low Japanese interest rates.

The dollar was trading at 121.16 yen midafternoon, up from 121.11 yen late Thursday in New York. The euro fell to $1.3422 from $1.3432.

Traders said the dollar’s climb likely wouldn’t last, with a global stock fall expected to hurt sentiment for the dollar and the euro.”

Why Identity Theft Should Not Be Left to the Private Market

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Because if it is, this will be the rule, not the exception.

Call your congressman and tell him that you should be able to have a credit freeze on demand.

Lifelock Founder a Shady Identity Thief?

By Kim Zetter

The Phoenix New Times has published an investigative piece showing that Robert J. Maynard, Jr., one of the founders of Lifelock, a company offering a service to protect people from identity theft, is himself a suspected identity thief who may have stolen his own father’s identity, has a troubled financial past (including at least two bankruptcies), and was jailed in 2003 for defaulting on a $16,000 Las Vegas casino loan — an incident that the New Times says Maynard has lied about repeatedly to customers and reporters.”

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Tech Companies Want Their Slave Labor

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What this is about is workers being free to tell them to “take this job and shove it”, and not leave the US.

Any visa in which losing your job with a specific employer requires you to leave is a step above slavery.

H1b, L1, and the proposed guest worker program are an attempt to create an underclass of cheap labor.

Tech seeing red over green-card proposal
By Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: June 6, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

Silicon Valley companies would be forced to compete with fast food joints, shops at the mall and truck-driving outfits for the same pool of legalized foreign hires under a controversial proposal that the U.S. Senate is debating this week.

The prospect of unpredictable competition for a fixed number of immigrant visas based on an applicant’s educational background and work history, which would replace the current employer-sponsored green card system, is drawing stiff opposition from technology lobbying groups that are pressing senators to preserve the current system.”

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Foreclosures hammer Atlanta Area

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Let’s assume $200 for property taxes, association fees, insurance, etc.

This gives a rate over 10.4%.

The banking industry needs to be reregulated.

South metro area hit hard by foreclosures
Planners, credit counselors cite subprime interest rates, job losses, lack of affordable housing

By ERIC STIRGUS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/07/07

Teresa Weathers may have bitten off more of the American Dream than she can afford.

Like an increasing number of homeowners, she’s facing foreclosure.

Recently laid off from her job as a mortgage loan processor and unable to find more work, the 39-year-old Clayton County resident is two months behind on the $1,345 monthly mortgage on her $125,000 four-bedroom townhouse.”

The number of foreclosures is particularly startling in the communities south of Atlanta. Nearly 1 in 20 homes in Clayton County is in foreclosure, the highest ratio in the region, according to a recently released Atlanta Regional Commission report.

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This will be ugly

Rental Properties Suffering Too in Florida

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My guess is that this would apply to everywhere that things got bubblicious.

Houses won’t sell, and the construction workers are going away, so you can’t rent them.

There was a real estate crash in Florida in the late 1920s. It took 10 YEARS for prices to recover, and it is considered a major contributor to the stock market crash of ’29.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Rentals aplenty, but not discounts

By DEVONA WALKER

devona.walker@heraldtribune.com
“For Rent” signs litter lawns in almost every Southwest Florida neighborhood, from canal-front homes in Port Charlotte to the 1960s-style Florida ranch homes off Bahia Vista Street in Sarasota.

The apartment and home rental vacancy rate is at nearly 10 percent because of the mass exodus of construction and service sector workers from the area.

Normally, this would be a sign of rental discounts to come. However, because of a near-perfect storm of issues fueled by rising property taxes and insurance costs, combined with the run-up in property prices over the past few years, that has not materialized.

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This Article is Incomplete. It’s Not About the Fed, It’s about Overseas Investment.

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A lot of this is foreign and domestic investors who are chasing higher rates of return now that rates in Europe are increasing.

It is this, which will produce downward pressure on the US Dollar, which will get our interest rates going up.

The US is dependent on foreign money flowing in for its solvency. We are like a pre-crash Argentina.

Rate woes sack stocks

Major gauges slip as investors eye ECB rate hike, rise in unit labor costs, Lacker comments, home price outlook.
By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer
June 6 2007: 11:07 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Stocks tumbled Wednesday morning as investors absorbed reports that suggested rising inflation, higher interest rates and a bigger-than-expected drag from the housing market going forward.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 92.49 to 13,502.97, Charts) lost around 100 points, or more than 0.8 percent 90 minutes into the session. The broader S&P 500 index (down 13.41 to 1,517.54, Charts) lost 0.8 percent. The Nasdaq composite (down 22.94 to 2,588.29, Charts) gave up 0.9 percent.
Stocks fell Tuesday as cautious remarks by the Federal Reserve chairman, rising Treasury yields and a strong reading on the economy raised worries that the central bank could raise interest rates later this year.

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