| Good news: Michigan's voices heard
California mortgage lender IndyMac cuts 2,403 jobs; computer chip-maker Applied Materials zaps 1,000; Bank of America slashes 650 jobs; Citigroup sheds 4,200, Nokia will close a German factory and eliminate 2,300 jobs. This nation needs to get over its hypersensitivity about who's insulting whom with an ill-chosen phrase, who's doing what in their bedrooms and who believes what about the hereafter. It's time to focus on the here and now of how to compete in a dynamic global economy, how to create companies and more good jobs and how best to educate our children to cope in a world that no longer kowtows to the notion that the United States gets to make all the rules. I'm not smart enough to know whether Michigan's primary win will propel Romney to the presidency of the United States.
Defaults moving beyond sub-prime
Thought the mortgage meltdown was just a sub-prime affair? Think again. There's another time bomb waiting to explode, experts say: risky loans made to people with good credit.
So-called pay-option adjustable-rate mortgages, or option ARMs, were the easiest and most profitable home loans for lenders and brokers to make for much of this decade. Last year, they accounted for about 9% of the volume of all mortgages made in the U.S. and were especially popular in California, Florida and Nevada -- states where home prices rose the most during the housing boom and are now falling most sharply.
An option ARM loan gives a borrower the option of paying less than the interest due, causing the loan balance to rise. If it rises too much -- say, by 10% or 15% -- the opportunity to make a low payment vanishes and the required payment skyrockets.
Marion D. S. Dreyfus
Facts, figures, pending legislation, back-room semi-deals and important state and city pol names rat-a-tatting out of her, shooting fast, smart, knowledgeable answers to every question. She's slightly evasive when we ask about illegal immigration and the people picking up cheap hands in Queens for various construction sites. We all notice. Were sorry we wasted that prime first 'recognition op' to get her feedback on the matter most on our mind.
Fortunately, T&A is right next to her, so we can snag attention the minute we venture a hand with a more relevant question. Now: Wait for enough of the others to ask her their reportorial bte noirs to get called on. Again. Surprisingly, there's a tinge of resistance to answering: Shell get back to us when she has more time.
It isn't a slam-dunk, this issue of homeland security -- despite its megaton primacy in this target of targets city, others are jingling on her cell to ask about sexy hot-button congestion pricing, education tax credits, and the outsize impact of looming Mitchell Lama housing expirations and associated concerns.
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