Tuesday 17 August 2010

Mortgage Arrears in the US - UK to Follow

Although mortgage rates have plunged to record lows, falling borrowing costs have failed to revive the US housing market. Indeed, the Washington deliberations, which will centre on what the level of government support for Fannie and Freddie should be, comes amid continuing pain for homeowners.

In the average congressional district, serious mortgage delinquency rates – defined as borrowers more than three months behind on their payments – are 9.4%, compared to 3.3% at the time of the election in 2008, according to a study by Deutsche Bank.

“That pace of deterioration alone should put housing and mortgage finance on most political radars,” said Steven Abrahams, managing director at Deutsche.

The problem remains concentrated in states such as Florida, California and Nevada. More than one in five borrowers (over 20%) are at least three months overdue on their mortgage payments in 23 congressional districts – including 13 in Florida, six in California and two in Nevada.

Will this malaise be found in the UK or is it already here?

Tuesday 10 August 2010

The Rape of Britain

Article courtesy of Nadeem Walayat

The Bank of England kept UK interests on hold at 0.5% last week as it continues its policy of IGNORING HIGH UK inflation that continues to stand above the Bank of England's 3% upper limit for the purpose of the BoE continuing to funnel tax payer cash onto the balance sheet of bailed out bankrupt banks as illustrated by the most recent banking sector profit announcements, most of which are fictitious as in actual fact the banks are not generating any profits because they continue to only partially write down bad debts.

The only reason why bankrupt banks are announcing profits is so as to allow them to pay their chief officers huge bonuses as a reward for succeeding in conning the tax payers by means of threats of financial armageddon as inept regulators with themselves having one hand in the cookie jar watch on as they intend to return to commercial banking themselves so as to have their turn at getting a piece of the tax payer funded bailout pie.

The ways and means by which these fictitious profits are being achieved are many, such as The Bank of England loaning the banks at 0.5% which they then run along and invest at zero risk in longer dated UK government stock at 3.5% and thus make a 3% risk free profit with the tax payers money, meanwhile the ordinary tax payers who have been saving hard all their working lives are seeing the value of their savings being stolen by means of the stealth inflation tax as banks drunk on central bank cash pay a pittance of less than 2% in interest whilst even the official doctored CPI inflation rages at 3.2%, well above the BOE target of 2%. And not to forget the government adding insult to injury by TAXING the pittance of interest received at 20% for basic rate and 40% for higher rate tax payers.

Similarly borrowers are not receiving anywhere near 0.5% for loans and mortgages as most mortgage borrowers will be lucky to see any rate below 4% with many on rates of as high as 6% which is resulting in huge profit margins for the banks that continue to penalise their customers for their own mistakes.

Where savers and borrowers are concerned Britain would be far better off with a nationalised banking sector that exists purely to service the loans and savings market rather than the bankster elite maximising the amount of money that can be stolen from tax payers, savers and borrowers by means of an officially sanctioned artificial banking system.