While parallels have been drawn between Detroit and Chicago for their huge unfunded pension liabilities, Jack Ablin of BMO Private Bank says his hometown is in an entirely different position. Says Ablin, Chicago’s population is stable and growing and real estate prices are rising, whereas Detroit’s demise has been a slow and steady decline that started in the 1970s.
World stock markets fell, led by a plunge in Japan’s benchmark index, as expectations mounted that the U.S. central bank will begin to phase out its monetary stimulus next month.
President Barack Obama called for broad reform of the mortgage finance system to boost the U.S. housing market, help still-struggling homeowners, and prevent one of the triggers of the 2007-2009 financial crisis from happening again.
President Obama is proposing to overhaul the nation’s mortgage finance system, including making 30-year mortgages widely available to borrowers, even in a system that would rely more on the private sector than the government to guarantee loans. (Aug.6)
UBS AG agreed to pay $49.8 million to settle U.S. SEC charges it misled investors about a mortgage bond transaction it structured prior to the 2008 financial crisis
This morning, NorthStar Realty Finance (NRF) priced is common share offering of 35 million shares at the price of $9.60 each — leaving the underwriters a 30 day window to purchase an additional 5.25 million shares. NorthStar has offered common shares two other times in the past eight months, pricing 25 million shares at $6.40 in December and 30 million shares priced at $8.39 in February.
John C. Liu, New York City’s comptroller, said his mayoral campaign would continue after a campaign finance board denied him matching public funds, citing fund-raising irregularities.
President Barack Obama will propose overhauling the U.S. mortgage finance system in a speech weighing in on a tangled and polarizing problem that was central to the devastating financial crisis in 2007-2009 and that continues to slow the economic recovery/
The Federal Reserve is nearer to dialing back its massive bond-buying program after the unemployment rate dropped last month, a top Fed official said, the second to make that point in as many trading days.
The New York City Campaign Finance Board voted to withhold more than $3 million in public funds to the mayoral campaign of John C. Liu, who was in fifth place among Democratic candidates in recent public polls.
