12 mai 2008
source: Hondo Creative
Helldorado: How expats dream life in the Spanish sunshine has turned into a property nightmare
source: Daily Mail
But the stories behind their "for sale" signs are the most stark warning yet that the Spanish property bubble has finally burst.
At last week's auction in Marbella, Mali Goharrez, an accountant from Surbiton in Surrey, is hoping that her plot of land - valued at £238,000 a year ago - will sell for £119,000. She estimates that she has lost more than £158,000 on property investments over the past year.
Back at Thursday night's "distressed" property auction in Marbella, the scene could not be more depressing. Thirteen properties fail to reach their guide price. Some don't even attract a single bid. All are withdrawn.
Sydney properties halve in price
source: The Daily Telegraph
One property in Bankstown, bought for $500,000 in August 2005 sold in February for $215,000 - a loss of $285,00
The data - complied exclusively for The Daily Telegraph - showed that
even the more affluent suburbs are now beginning to suffer. Several
homes in Waverley, Coogee and Paddington were sold for losses of more
than 25 per cent. The worst hit was the Waverley house bought in July 2003 for $725,000 and sold for $465,000 in March.....And experts predict that the losses will get worse as the year goes on.
The global slump of 2008-09 has begun as poison spreads
source: Telegraph
Auteur: Ambrose Evans-pritchard
The avalanche of bankruptcies has begun. Six US companies of substance have defaulted on bonds over the past fortnight, against 17 for the whole of last year.
"Companies are heading into this recession with a much more toxic mix. Their margin for error is razor-thin," she said.
We see a global recession unfolding. Liquidity will drain away and crush the twin emerging market and commodity bubbles. The recent hope that 'the worst might be over' is truly staggering. Profits are disintegrating," he said.
Britain, Europe, Japan, and China will go down before America comes back up. This is turning into a synchronised bust, after all. The Global Slump of 2008-09 is under way.
China Raises Bank Reserve Ratio as Inflation Surges (Update1)
source: Bloomberg
Banks must park a record 16.5 percent of deposits with the central bank, up from 16 percent, the People's Bank of China said today on its Web site. Consumer prices rose 8.5 percent in April from a year earlier driven by food costs, the statistics bureau said today.
U.K. Producer Prices Rise at Fastest Pace Since 1986 (Update4)
source: Bloomberg
Prices charged by factories rose 7.5 percent from a year earlier, the most since records began two decades ago, the Office for National Statistics said in London today.
The Oil Nonbubble
source: The New-York Times
“The Oil Bubble: Set to Burst?” That was the headline of an October
2004 article in National Review, which argued that oil prices, then $50
a barrel, would soon collapse
Again, I wouldn’t be shocked if oil prices dip in the near future —
although I also take seriously Goldman’s recent warning that the price
could go to $200. But let’s drop all the talk about an oil bubb
Rubenstein Says `Enormous' Bank Losses Unrecognized (Update2)
source: Bloomberg
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. and European banks and financial
institutions have ``enormous losses'' from bad loans they haven't
yet recognized and may have a harder time wooing sovereign-fund
rescuers, Carlyle Group Chairman David Rubenstein said.
``Based on information I see,'' it will take at least a year
before all losses are realized, and some financial institutions
may fail, Rubenstein said at a breakfast meeting of the Institute
for Education Public Policy Roundtable in Washington. He didn't
name any companies.
Northern Rock overstated the quality of its mortgage book
source: Telegraph
Northern Rock's former directors overstated the quality of the
nationalised lender's £100bn mortgage book by using "inadequate"
controls that have left the taxpayer more exposed to a housing downturn
than previously thought
At the end of December, 0.57pc of the mortgage book qualified as "in
arrears". Mr Sandler said the figure at the end of April was 0.95pc and
that it would "move much closer to the industry average... in the
coming months".
Ah les statistiques.....
California man losing nine homes in mortgage mess
source: Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man who has defaulted on nine homes and expects banks to foreclose on all of them, forcing him into bankruptcy, says he now considers it a mistake to have invested in the real estate market