Maryland Bill Would Protect Homeowners From Investors Buying Debt

“Maryland lawmakers are sponsoring legislation to prevent Baltimore-area residents from losing their homes for failing to pay small municipal water bills —a stunning scenario detailed in a Center for Public Integrity story.

The legislation is aimed at preventing a repeat of what happened to Vicki Valentine, a Baltimore woman who lost her family’s mortgage-free home over what began as an unpaid water bill of $362. The Center told Valentine’s story in 2010 as part of an investigation into the impact of tax-lien sales on struggling property owners.

Counties in Maryland, like many other states, sell investors the right to collect unpaid property taxes and other municipal debts of $250 or more at auctions, which often are conducted online and can draw investors from all over the world. The law in Maryland allows lien holders to charge double-digit interest rates and in some cases tack on thousands of dollars in fees. Homeowners who fail to pay may face foreclosure on their property.

But the new bill introduced earlier this week in the Maryland General Assembly would prohibit tax collectors in the City of Baltimore and suburban Baltimore County from including residential property in the tax sale when the lien “arises solely from any unpaid water, sewer and other sanitary system  charges” and is less than $750 in total.

“We’re one of the few jurisdictions in the United States of America that thinks an equitable solution to not paying water bills it to take your house,” said State Sen. James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, the measure’s chief sponsor. “It’s predatory and bizarre….”

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Not a sex video you sick fuck…..

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The erosion of central bank independence around the world threatens to unleash a round of competitive exchange rate devaluations, which leading economies have so far avoided during the financial crisis, the president of Germany’s Bundesbank warned on Monday.

Jens Weidmann, whose institution’s own fierce independence from political influence was the model for the European Central Bank when it was founded, said Stephen King, the chief economist at HSBC, was “perhaps right” in forecasting an end to the era of central bank independence.

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“It is already possible to observe alarming infringements, for example in Hungary or in Japan, where the new government is massively involving itself in the affairs of the central bank, is emphatically demanding an even more aggressive monetary policy and is threatening an end to central bank autonomy,” Mr Weidmann said in a speech in Frankfurt.

“Whether intended or not, one consequence could be the increased politicisation of the exchange rate,” he said, according to a text of his speech provided by the Bundesbank. “Until now the international monetary system got through the crisis without competitive devaluations and I hope very much it stays that way.”

Both the Bundesbank and later the ECB were founded on mandates that gave them wide powers and freedom from political interference in return for focusing solely on keeping inflation in check. Some observers argue that the ECB now faces a challenge if other central banks ditch their own inflation targets and act to lower exchange rates against the euro, making exports from the embattled eurozone economies less competitive.

Asked about the trend for central banks to look less at inflation-targeting and more at policy areas that affect exchange rates, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, said earlier this month that the exchange rate was very important “as far as growth and stability” were concerned but was not a policy target for the ECB.

He also noted that the Group of 20 leading industrial nations had pledged not to undertake competitive currency devaluations as such action undermines economic and financial stability.

Mr Weidmann said the period in the 1980s and 1990s during which central banks around the world had been made independent had heralded a period of “great moderation” during which inflation fell. But the outbreak of the financial crisis and the growing energy and raw materials demand from fast-growing economies had put rising prices back on the agenda and complicated the job of a central bank….”

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“An unprecedented $14trn (£8.8trn) greening of the global economy is the only way to ensure long-term sustainable growth, according to a stark warning delivered to political and business leaders as they descended on the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday.

• “Fraud police found details of move and business plan in raid on home
• Sarkozy is under investigation for corruption in France
• He will be latest Frenchman to escape potential top French tax rate of 75%
• Couple would become London’s most high profile Gallic celebrities
• Sarkozy would hope for fund support from French entrepreneur Alain Minc

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today.

If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country.

He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city.

But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.

Details of the planned move were uncovered during a raid by fraud police on Sarkozy’s Paris mansion last June.

It came within weeks of Mr Sarkozy losing his immunity against prosecution after being defeated by Socialist rival Francois Hollande in the May presidential election.

Now the hugely respected investigative news site Mediapart reports that the ‘first draft’ of Mr Sarkozy’s London project was found by detectives examining his computer files.

A judge has since made Sarkozy an assisted witness in the so-called Bettencourt Affair, in which he is accused of using illegal cash from France’s richest woman to fund his 2007 election campaign….”

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“Goldman Sachs has boosted its bottom line on the backs of people struggling to pay for food, according to a new report in The Independent.

The bank made about $400 million last year by betting on the prices of food staples, according to an analysis for The Independent by the World Development Movement. This speculation is fueling rising food prices, according to the report.

In an email to The Huffington Post, Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael DuVally accused the report of relying on “uninformed speculation” and noted that the rise in food prices can be attributed to a variety of factors.

“Research by respected international bodies like the OECD demonstrates clearly that long-term trends, including increased meat consumption by the growing middle class in the emerging markets and the increased use of biofuels in the developed markets, have created a backdrop for global food shortages,” DuVally wrote.

This is not the first time that Goldman has faced accusations of contributing to the hunger crisis. A 2011 article in Foreign Policy argued that food price speculation by Goldman and other banks has caused the cost of food to surge.

However, there is evidence that rising food prices may not be Wall Street’s fault….”

“The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has released its Regional Survey of Business Activity. The bank showed that the service sector activity improved and was bolstered by nonretail services. It also showed that the current outlook is now more optimistic. Unfortunately, the reading overall for January was negative and well under expectations.

Today’s overall index was -12 for the Richmond Fed’s survey for January, lower than a reading of 5 in December and lower than the Bloomberg consensus of 5 as well. The range of estimates from Bloomberg’s economist polling group was 3 to 13, so this was worse than all expectations. The only good news is that the Richmond Fed reading is generally considered to be a confirming of trends in general rather than a leading market indicator.

Manufacturing shipments were -12 in January, versus 6 in December. The services index was 13 in January, versus -2 in December. Retail revenues were -8 in January versus -13 in December. Below were some general comments from the report…”

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“The Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) buyout keeps getting more interesting. It keeps getting more convoluted as well. We have reported on the possible Dell leveraged buyout from founder and CEO Michael Dell, along with private equity group Silver Lake Partners, with mixed fanfare. Now CNBC’s David Faber has commented that he has learned that Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is interested in investing up to $3 billion for a preferred equity stake in Dell as part of the merger. 24/7 Wall St. wants to warn investors that this may not change the possible buyout premium much at all…”

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CNBC is reporting that options activity is expecting a 3% move up or down given the number of $195 straddles being placed today…

“SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — International Business Machines Corp. is expected to post a gain in fourth-quarter earnings despite flat revenues when it reports its results on Tuesday afternoon.

This may help Big Blue gain its way back into investors’ good graces. IBM’sIBM +0.23% shares took a hit in October, after the company reported a rare earnings decline after revenue fell across the company’s key segments. The stock is down about 8% since the last report, having closed at a record high of $211 immediately prior.

Sentiment on Wall Street is mixed on the tech giant, with slightly more than half the covering brokers rating the stock as a neutral.

“Investors have held to the notion that IBM can protect earnings through sluggish times, which was somewhat called into question based on last quarter’s in line earnings,” wrote Joseph Foresi of Janney Capital in a note on Friday.

For the fourth quarter, analysts expect IBM to post earnings of $5.25 per share on revenue of $29.1 billion, according to consensus forecasts from FactSet. That compares with earnings of $4.71 per share on revenue of $29.5 billion for the same period last year….”

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“SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Platinum costs more than gold again, a shift that reflects rising confidence in the global economy and investors’ bets the Federal Reserve is closer to ending its massive stimulus efforts.

Platinum prices settled with a premium over gold earlier this week for the first time since March 2012. As of Thursday’s futures settlement, platinum PLJ3 +0.26%  cost $1,700.50 an ounce, almost $10 more than gold GCG3 +0.23%  at $1,690.80 an ounce.

“Platinum’s premium (or discount) to gold offers a measure of economic confidence” because platinum is “so industrially useful, while gold is primarily a store of value,” said Adrian Ash, London-based head of research at BullionVault.

Platinum’s higher cost versus gold is a return to what had been a more normal relationship between the metals from about the mid-1990s until Sept. 2011, when gold prices started to consistently top that of platinum’s.See Commodities Corner from Sept. 2011 on gold, platinum ratio shift.

When the gold-platinum ratio is low, it points to increasing economic uncertainty and weakness worldwide, said Jan Skoyles, head of research at The Real Asset Company, a precious-metals investment platform provider.

“In 2011, we saw both the economy weakening and monetary problems increasing,” she said. “During times such as those, investors take flight into gold as it acts as a safe-haven in such situations.”

Gold is “not an industrial metal — it is money without counterparty risk and therefore is attractive in such times, unlike platinum, which reacts badly to weak economic conditions and currency issues,” said Skoyles.

Differing roles

Platinum and gold are both considered precious metals and prices often move in the same direction, but they also have very different sources of demand….”

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“Well, it depends on which Dow Theorist you ask.

To appreciate the intramural rivalry that currently exists among the Dow Theorists I monitor, consider where the Dow Theory stood a month ago.

The stock market then was at a make-or-break moment: A failure by the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.13%   to confirm strength by the Dow Jones Transportation Average DJT +0.86%   could have sent stocks over a fiscal cliff of their own. ( Read my Jan. 21 column, ‘The Dow Theory’s very own fiscal cliff’ )

Since then, of course, not only have the Dow transports risen to a new all-time high, but as of Friday’s close we now have a new bull-market high for the Dow industrials as well.

This constituted an unambiguous Dow Theory bullish signal, according to 2 of the 3 Dow Theorists I monitor.

But Richard Russell is not so sure. Russell, who is editor of Dow Theory Letters, argued over this past weekend that the Dow industrials must close at a new all-time high above 14,164.53 to confirm the Dow transports — not at just a new bull market high.

And a failure on the part of the industrials to eclipse that higher level could set up a non-confirmation, with potentially very bearish implications…”

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“Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman notified the Obama administration Tuesday that he has approved the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline to traverse his state, marking a significant step toward reviving the project after President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sidelined it. 

The governor approved a revised route for the Canada-to-Texas pipeline which his office said would avoid environmentally sensitive areas.

The decision on final approval now rests with the Obama administration.”

“The S&P 500 index closed at 1485.98 on Friday, up 119.6% since the start of the bull market. I’m still targeting 1565 before the middle of the year, matching the record high on October 9, 2007. That would be an increase of 5.3% from Friday’s close. My yearend target is still 1665, which would put the index up 16.7% for the year following last year’s gain of 13.4%

Several other major stock market indexes have gone vertical in recent days to new record highs including the S&P 400 MidCaps (up 165.4% since March 9, 2009), S&P 600 SmallCaps (175.1), S&P 500 Transportation (161.3), and Russell 2000 (160.1). The bull may be getting old, but you have to respect the strength and breadth of its most recent charge.

The bull’s stamina has been based on performance-enhancing earnings….”
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“BBY has announced that it’s closing around 300 stores in the U.S. over the next few weeks.

That’s around 35 percent of its total brick-and-mortar presence of 850 stores.

Around 3,000 employees will be laid off as a result of the closings, according to a spokesperson from parent company Dish Network.

“We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store level profitability and — as we have in the past — close unprofitable stores,” the spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times….”

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“Fox News anchor Shepard Smith gave a rather stunning rebuke to a suggestion that gun-control measures wouldn’t pass Congress because of non-moving polling on the subject.

“If we stuck with the polls, we’d have had slavery a lot longer than we did,” Smith said.

Smith’s comment came in a back-and-forth with The Hill associate editor A.B. Stoddard during a slow moment in the inaugural parade on Monday, when the two discussed the vision President Barack Obama laid out in a rather progressive inaugural speech.

Congress is scheduled to begin what could be a lengthy debate over new gun-control measures that Obama announced in a White House press conference last week….”

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“David Tepper, who runs $12 billion distressed debt hedge fund Appaloosa Management, is on Bloomberg TV “Market Makers” with Stephanie Ruhle right now.

Tepper, who has one of the best long term track records, tells Bloomberg TV that his fund was up 30% in 2012.  

Tepper says he’s “going to come out of the closet” as being bullish in 2013.  He says there are no major negatives.

“This country is on the verge of an explosion of greatness,” he says, “An explosion of greatness.”

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“Right now, the Street’s consensus is around 48 million units.

But, Topeka Capital analyst Brian White says that if you use Verizon’s just announced iPhone sales as a guide, Apple could demolish expectations.

Verizon sold 6.2 million iPhones last quarter. Historically, Verizon has been about 11% of iPhone sales. If that holds, then Apple will have sold 56 million iPhones, says White. Even if it’s 12% of iPhone sales, Apple could have sold 51 million….”

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“Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is feeling the heat.

Eighteen months after taking over from Steve Jobs, Cook is facing rising production costs, competition from Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) and slowing growth in smartphones, threatening profits for the world’s most valuable company.

An earnings report tomorrow may show that fiscal first- quarter net income slipped 2 percent to $12.8 billion, or $13.48 a share, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. In all except one quarter since 2003, profit has jumped more than 10 percent. Analysts project sales will rise 18 percent to $54.8 billion, the slowest growth rate since 2009.

Apple’s shares have dropped almost 30 percent since September, erasing about $190 billion in market value, on concern that demand for iPhones and iPads is ebbing. Cook, 52, overhauled most of the company’s product line ahead of the holiday shopping season, and results for the period will show for the first time whether the effort paid off.

“Sentiment could not be worse,” said Peter Karazeris, an analyst at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, which owned about 647,000 Apple shares as of September. “It does take something fundamental to turn that, and we’ll see if they can deliver.”

Apple often reports results that surpass even the most optimistic projections, and it’s possible the company will do so again tomorrow. The company has exceeded analysts’ estimates for earnings in all but three quarters since at least 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Parts Purchases…”

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“AT&T Inc. (T), the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, agreed to buy spectrum and subscribers from Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. (ATNI) for $780 million in cash, bolstering the company’s network and bringing in 585,000 new customers.

The deal includes the purchase of licenses, network assets and retail stores, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a statement. The spectrum is in the 700-, 850- and 1900-megahertz bands, making it complementary to AT&T’s network, the company said. Atlantic Tele-Network operates under the Alltel brand in six states, mostly in the South and Midwest.

AT&T, led by Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson, has been snapping up airwaves in a bid to catch up with Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. carrier. Verizon won approval last year to buy airwave rights from Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and other cable customers for about $3.6 billion. Wireless carriers rely on spectrum to transmit phone calls and data to mobile devices.

Demand for spectrum has increased consolidation in the wireless business and buoyed the values of companies that own a desirable collection of airwaves. With today’s deal, AT&T is acquiring operations that ATNI bought from Verizon in 2010 for $223 million. That means the business has more than tripled in value, despite losing more than 200,000 subscribers, saidChris King, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co. in Baltimore.

“Clearly the deal is a hugely successful investment for ATNI,” King said in a note to investors.

AT&T shares were little changed in New York today, trading at $33.45 at 10:03 a.m. in New York. The stock climbed 11 percent last year. ATNI, based in Beverly, Massachusetts, jumped 17 percent to $45.99….”

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