Housing

...Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at the University of California Berkeley and author of “The Great Risk Shift,” said Democratic leaders have been frustrated by several factors since taking the majority of the House and Senate after the 2006 elections: comparatively thin majorities, especially in the Senate; their insistence on adhering to pay-as-you-go budget rules that often require tax increases to support any substantial new spending; and the fact that relief bills such as the housing measure are limited in scope and largely throw money at a problem,… more

On June 25, 2008, the New America Foundation brought together Leo Hindery, Managing Director at InterMedia Partners and former senior economic advisor to the John Edwards Campaign, and Tom Gallagher, Senior Managing Director at International Strategy and Investment Group, to discuss the causes behind skyrocketing oil prices and their implications for American middle-class families. Hindery began by laying out research pointing to speculative investment as the reason for between one third and one half of the recent oil price… more

The U.S. economy has been gripped by a relentless housing crisis for almost two years. A key driver in this crisis has been the many subprime mortgages that involved high rates and fees -- often requiring no down payments -- that were made in the past several years. California is ground zero in the subprime crisis and the resultant spillover effects -- foreclosures, bankruptcies, decreasing property values to name a few. Recognizing that relying on the market alone is unlikely… more

While Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain appear anxious to move into the White House, none of them have much to say about housing. Yet rarely a day goes by that the headlines don't mention the current housing crisis and its threat to the financial markets and the economy. This has led to a strange disconnect between the presidential campaigns and national reality.

Subprime lending and the ensuing foreclosures are being blamed for the crisis, but the problems and blame… more

With foreclosures reaching record levels and predictions for further trouble ahead, the Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday unanimously approved potentially sweeping changes to how mortgages are marketed, made, and serviced, especially in the nonprime market. Will the Fed be able to meet its goal of a "comprehensive set of protections to consumers" when the comments come flying?

The proposed revisions to regulations under the Truth in Lending Act are designed to realign relationships in the mortgage business, so borrower and lender… more

It's more than a little difficult to imagine Angelo Mozilo, the embattled chief executive of mortgage lending giant Countrywide Financial, being a Drucker disciple. But just last year he didn't hesitate to paint himself that way and, in at least one sense, he was right.

"As the late Peter Drucker once said, the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity," Mozilo told an audience of bond holders, bankers, and others. "This is the essence… more

The current -- and predicted future -- turmoil in the mortgage market highlights an important challenge to the American dream of homeownership: how to make certain that those who enter into homeownership are able to sustain that status, protecting family stability and building equity in a critical asset. Thirty years ago, those who owned homes had fixed rate mortgages and substantial equity, and foreclosure was a rare event. However, many Americans were denied the opportunity to… more

Three years ago, Alejandro Gutierrez got a strange and tantalizing message from Hong Kong. Some McKinsey consultants were putting together a business plan for a big client that wanted to build a small city on the outskirts of Shanghai. But the land, at the marshy eastern tip of a massive, mostly undeveloped island at the mouth of the Yangtze River, was a migratory stop for one of the rarest birds in the world -- the black-faced spoonbill, a gangly… more

Only a sap, it seems, would believe that you can pull money out of thin air.

But an interesting proposal is floating around L.A. that would, in effect, do just that -- and it might well work, raising meaningful sums for worthwhile aims such as affordable housing.

The basic idea is not too different from the city's move this month to sell 9 million square feet of unused "air rights" from over the Convention Center, easing the way for developers operating elsewhere… more

You may remember the ruckus that arose a couple of years ago when a local Spanish-language television station, Channel 62, put up a billboard publicizing its newscasts. Next to the words "Los Angeles," the abbreviation "CA" was crossed out and "Mexico" written in its stead.

Many reacted angrily, saying the sign was glorifying illegal immigration. Others accused the complainers of being racist xenophobes and maintained that the ad was simply celebrating the region’s Latino flavor.

Whatever you thought of the promotion, I’m… more