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Feb21
White House objects to ‘rant’ on housing
Filed under: Economy, Housing, Obama, Politics; Tagged as: americans, bailout, barack obama, breaking news, homeowners, Housing, internet, investing, investor, markets, Politics, president barack obama, television, tv, washington, white housePress secretary says TV reporter ‘doesn’t know what he’s talking about’
WASHINGTON – The White House on Friday dismissed a cable television reporter’s criticism of President Barack Obama’s housing bailout plan as the ranting of an individual who “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”In a report on CNBC on Thursday, Rick Santelli animatedly accused the Obama administration of “promoting bad behavior” with its $75 billion lifeline to millions of Americans on the brink of foreclosure. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs poked fun at Santelli by inviting him to come to the White House to read the details of Obama’s plan. “I’d be happy to buy him a cup of coffee,” Gibbs said. In a nod to Santelli’s caffeinated style, Gibbs then wryly added: “Decaf.”
Santelli took the critique in stride, saying Gibbs had hardly offered tough words.
“I think this is terrific that this has been opened up to national debate,” Santelli said in an MSNBC interview shortly after Gibbs’ daily briefing wrapped up. “I think it’s wonderful he invited to me to the White House. I’m really not big on decaf, though. I think I’d prefer tea.”
The episode underscores how closely the Obama White House, like others before it, monitors how media coverage may be shaping public opinion. In particular, the constant chatter of cable television news shows has at times gotten under the skin of White House aides, and they have made no effort to hide their displeasure.
The goal of Obama’s plan is to help millions of homeowners from being evicted and stabilize the flailing housing market. It aims to help struggling homeowners refinance and provides more money to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage them to rework deeply troubled loans.
Internet sensation
In his report on CNBC, Santelli said responsible homeowners would end up subsidizing other people’s bad behavior.From the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, he turned to traders and said: “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor’s mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?” The traders booed that notion, and Santelli said: “President Obama, are you listening?” Santelli’s report has become something of an Internet sensation. Gibbs countered that Obama’s housing plan would help those who have acted responsibly but yet could lose their home.
“Here’s what this plan won’t do,” Gibbs said. “It won’t help somebody trying to flip a house. It won’t bail out an investor looking to make a quick buck. It won’t help speculators that were betting on a risky market. And it is not going to help a lender who knowingly made a bad loan.”
Later, Gibbs acknowledged that “there will be people that made bad decisions that in some ways will get help,” but that they are not the focus. “I also think it’s tremendously important that for people who rant on cable television to be responsible and understand what it is they’re talking about,” he said.
1 CommentFeb17Bank fears felt worlwide
Filed under: Money, Wall Street; Tagged as: bank, banking, banks, breaking news, economic, Economy, europe, finance, financial, markets, Money, stock market, Wall Street
Stocks tumbled closer to their bear-market lows Tuesday, underscoring the renewed intensity of investors’ jitters over the global economy’s persistent weakness.Passage of a landmark stimulus package last week did not quell those concerns, and as trading resumed Tuesday, investors worried anew about the fate of the troubled U.S. auto industry
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was recently down 250 points, or 3.2%, at 7600, near its late-November lows that have so far marked the bottom of the recent swoon. Its component General Motors was off 16%.
Tuesday marks the deadline for GM and privately held Chrysler to submit recovery plans to the U.S. government. As the plans were being prepared, analysts and investors again fretted that one or more of the companies might veer into bankruptcy if all doesn’t pan out as expected.
For the broader market, traders and analysts increasingly fear that if major averages break to new lows, their downward momentum could mount, with the next trough not likely to be set until much more pain has been inflicted.
“Some people think its bullish that we’ve been near the lows a couple times and not broken through yet, but I tend to think the other way,” said Chip Hanlon, president of Delta Global Advisors in Huntington Beach, Calif. “The more times you test a low, the odds should go up that it’s going to give way.”
Other market indexes traded lower. The S&P 500 was down 3.6%, hurt by declines in every sector. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.4%.
The U.S. losses come on the heels of big declines overseas. Asian stocks suffered losses Tuesday, with financial stocks such as Industrial Bank of Korea and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group sliding on fear the global economic crisis is deepening and a recovery could take longer than previously expected. Japan’s Nikkei 225 slid by 1.4%, while the Shanghai Composite fell 2.9%.
Fears about the health of banks also pulled markets lower in Europe after the credit-ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service said that it may downgrade the ratings of lenders with exposure to Eastern Europe. Moody’s said that faltering economic conditions in Eastern Europe will continue to hit the asset quality and liquidity positions of local subsidiaries of major Western banks, which could spill over to their corporate parents in Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Sweden.
The FTSE 100 was down by about 3.2% in recent trading. Germany’s Xetra DAX was down by 2.5%.
Investors looking for a safe haven pushed gold prices to nearly a seven-month high, with the yellow metal climbing to nearly $963 an ounce. Treasury prices also jumped. The 10-year note surged by 1-14/32, putting its yield at 2.727%. Swap spreads, a gauge of credit risks, widened across the board. The cost to protect defaults from high-yielding, high-risk European firms climbed.
Commodities prices sank amid the deepening concern about the effects of the global economic downturn. Copper dropped to a two-week low and oil futures were down by roughly $1.50, at around $36 a barrel.