US housing prices fall 18%

It's difficult to think that even with these declines it could get worse, but it will. As unemployment increases, so will housing defaults and banks still are holding onto surplus for when the market settles. Remind me again why we're listening to the GOP who set up this failure? CNNMoney:

An index of home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas fell at a record annual pace in November, to levels not seen since 2004, according to a report released Tuesday.

The S&P; Case-Shiller Home Price Index, a sampling of 20 cities from across the nation, fell a record 18.2% over the 12 months ended Nov. 30. That brought the index to its lowest point since February 2004. From its peak in mid-2006, the index has plunged a whopping 25.1%.

Eleven of the 20 cities showed record declines, and the 12-month price drop for 14 of the cities was a double-digit percentage.

"The freefall in residential real estate continued through November 2008," said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's, in a prepared statement. He said the 20-city index has fallen for every month since August 2006, a total of 28 consecutive months.

The decline was very broad, with prices down at least 1% in every region of the nation during the October-November period. Eight regions recorded record monthly declines, according to Blitzer.

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Cuomo issues subpoena to fired Merrill CEO

At least someone is doing something about this national disgrace. Handing out bonuses right before a fire sale does seem a bit odd, but what would you expect from the sleezeball who spent $1.2 million on new office furniture during a 12 month stay?

New York's attorney general issued a subpoena to former Merrill Lynch Chief Executive John Thain Tuesday in a probe into bonuses paid to the firm's employees just days before its takeover by Bank of America Corp .

"The fact that Merrill Lynch appears to have moved up the timetable to pay bonuses before its merger with Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) is troubling to say the least and warrants further investigation," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

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Sovereign Bancorp to pay CEO $7.2 million for one month

And they're going to fire 8% of the bank employees at the same time. When is enough, enough? From the Boston Globe:

Banco Santander chairman Emilio Botin told a special meeting of shareholders in Madrid that Gabriel Jaramillo will become Sovereign's chief executive after Santander completes its purchase of the bank, according to a statement Santander released yesterday, a deal expected to close by February. Jaramillo would be Sovereign's fourth leader in just three years.

Previously a Santander executive in Brazil, Jaramillo would replace Paul Perrault, who assumed the chief executive job only earlier this month. For his few weeks on the job, Perrault stands to receive a $7.2 million payout under the terms of his contract, a figure compensation consultant Frank Glassner said is "egregious" given that Sovereign is also laying off 8 percent of its workforce.

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Obama's first formal interview to Al Arabiya

From Ben Smith at Politico:

President Barack Obama presented a humble and conciliatory face of America to the Islamic world Monday in the first formal interview since he assumed office, stressing his own Muslim ties and shying away from any hint of belligerence even when asked if he could “live with” an Iranian nuclear weapon.

The interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya Network was a dramatic piece of public diplomacy aimed at capitalizing on the new American president’s international popularity.

“I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries,” Obama said, according to a White House transcript. “My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.”

Obama’s dramatic shift Monday was one of tone, not of policy, and he also affirmed America’s support for Israel.

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Obama tells Citi execs to "fix" luxury jet problem, and they do

This is what I like to see. ABCNews:

The high-flying execs at Citigroup caved under pressure from President Obama and decided today to abandon plans for a luxurious new $50 million corporate jet from France.

The decision came 24 hours after the banking giant, which was rescued by a $45 billion taxpayer lifeline, defended buying the state-of-the-art Dassault Falcon 7X -- one of nine to be flying in U.S. skies -- as a smart business deal.

The jet, the epitome of corporate prestige and privilege, can carry 12 passengers in elegant comfort.

ABC News has learned that Monday officials of the Obama administration called Citigroup about the company's new $50 million corporate jet and told execs to "fix it."

Earlier on Monday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said made it clear when asked about the jet by ABC News that the president disapproved of the deal.

"The president said this during the transition, as it related to the auto companies using private jets; doesn't believe that's the best use of money at this point," Gibbs said.

The company issued a statement today saying, "We have no intent to take delivery of any new aircraft."

Citigroup had argued it was selling two of its four other planes to pay for this one, its execs would be more efficient with a new jet and besides, it had already signed a contract for the jet. Breaking that deal would cost the bank millions in penalties.

The Citigroup air fleet will now shrink from four jets and a helicopter to just two planes.

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93 year old freezes to death in own home due to unpaid power bills

So Wall Street gets help to continue living their posh lifestyle with handouts but a single old man is left to die? The city office that shut down his electricity then has the nerve to push this out to the neighbors, that they should have been watching over him. This is sickening.

A 93-year-old man froze to death inside his home just days after the municipal power company restricted his use of electricity because of unpaid bills, officials said.

Marvin E. Schur died "a slow, painful death," said Kanu Virani, Oakland County's deputy chief medical examiner, who performed the autopsy.

Neighbors discovered Schur's body on Jan. 17. They said the indoor temperature was below 32 degrees at the time, The Bay City Times reported Monday.

"Hypothermia shuts the whole system down, slowly," Virani said. "It's not easy to die from hypothermia without first realizing your fingers and toes feel like they're burning."

Schur owed Bay City Electric Light & Power more than $1,000 in unpaid electric bills, Bay City Manager Robert Belleman told The Associated Press on Monday.

A city utility worker had installed a "limiter" device to restrict the use of electricity at Schur's home on Jan. 13, Belleman said. The device limits power reaching a home and blows out like a fuse if consumption rises past a set level. Power is not restored until the device is reset.

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The GOP's future: SarahPac

She's getting ready for 2012.

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Stimulus reportedly has $23 billion in useless GOP pork

$23bn buys a lot of corporate jets.

At least $23.8 billion in corporate tax breaks have been included in the $825 billion economic recovery package in order to win backing from key business groups and their Congressional allies, even though the team that put the legislation together believes the breaks have little value in stimulating the economy and creating jobs.

Top beneficiaries include banks, telecommunication companies, railroads and oil, hotels, casinos, and both commercial and residential real estate firms.

"Everyone knows these provisions are not going to do much, but some members of Congress need to be able to say 'the bill has a business tax cut.' So we put them in," said an Obama transition team architect, adding that the corporate breaks were carefully written to be temporary so that the drain on the treasury will be brief. According to another source: "This is just one of those things that you do to get a bill passed. It may not be pretty. We are talking about billions, but in reality it's only a tiny fraction of the whole bill."

Yeah, $23 billion is just one of those things. The Republicans are railing against Democratic provisions of the stimulus bill, while we're quietly adding pork to keep them happy. Republicans don't do "happy." What they do do is smell, and prey on, weakness. At some point, Democrats need to start acting like they won the election - hell, they need to start acting like they won the 2006 election too.

And actually, a report on Obama's meeting today with House Republicans shows that the GOP is out for blood, not for compromise.

In a rare closed-door Capitol meeting Tuesday afternoon, House Republicans pelted Obama with questions about tax cuts and deficits, and sources inside the private session say the president rejected their call for compromise on the tax section of the $825 billion economic stimulus.

One conservative House Republican in the room was asked if Obama was winning any votes: "Nope. He said he won't compromise on more tax cuts. All form - not substance."

Let's clarify for a moment what the GOP is saying. Obama carved out 40% of the stimulus package to tax cuts in order to woo Republicans. This, even though many are saying that portions of the tax cut proposal will do little to stimulate the economy. Were the Republicans wooed? No. They want more, or they say they're walking. Gee, what a surprise. You unilaterally cave to a bully and offer him a pay off, before you've even started negotiating, and suddenly he wants more. Perhaps Obama thinks he can spin this as "bad faith" on the part of the Republicans. And perhaps he can. We shall see.

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Gay State Department employees ask Hillary to end agency's discriminatory policies

Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) recently hand-delivered a letter to Hillary's office asking that she address discrimination in terms of how the State Department handles the partners of gay and lesbian employees. This is their letter, and they make an excellent point (the Washington Post also picked up the story today):

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Madam Secretary:

We congratulate you on your Senate confirmation, and we look forward to working with you in promoting America’s interests and strengthening our national security in this rapidly changing world. Whether assigned stateside or overseas, Civil Service or Foreign Service, active or retired, we are all proud to be serving our nation.

We, the undersigned and representing the diversity of the foreign affairs agencies, would like to bring to your attention a matter that concerns us all. All of us are troubled that our families are not all treated equally and with the same respect. We are concerned that access to the federal health care insurance program is denied to same-sex partners of employees serving in Third World countries with substandard medical care. We question the logic of leaving same-sex partners to fend for themselves during an emergency evacuation of a high danger post. We are embarrassed when the Department will reimburse a variety of moving expenses, including the cost of transporting a pet, when an employee is assigned overseas, but will not do the same for a same-sex partner. We are saddened that individual and community safety are put at risk because full language instruction is not available to same-sex partners. We are uncomfortable that same-sex partners receive less compensation and fewer benefits for performing exactly the same job inside the mission as an opposite-sex spouse, that is, when same-sex partners are given a chance to work.

An order from your office designating same-sex partners as Eligible Family Members (EFMs) could remedy many of the inequalities that these families face. Other remedies will require coordination between the Executive and Legislative branches.

Madam Secretary, we believe that no colleague of ours is a second-class colleague, and no colleague's family is a second-class family. Given your commitment to protecting the safety and promoting the welfare of all Foreign Service families, we ask for your full consideration of our concerns and we hope that a dialogue aimed at ending this unequal treatment can be started.

Your loyal staff

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House GOP leadership tells members to vote against stimulus bill

Nobody could have seen that coming. Maybe if we just give them a bit more of what they want, next time they'll be nice to us. Read the rest of this post...

Key Democrat trying to kill health care reform

His name is James Clyburn's (D-S.C.), he's a senior member of Speaker Pelosi's leadership, and he's trying to kill health care reform this year.

Clyburn, for no apparent reason, went on TV (twice) in the past few days and said we likely won't be doing anything on health care reform this year - even though Obama has said otherwise, and it was a key promise in the campaign. You see, Clyburn says he still feels burned by the 1994 health reform fiasco, so he'd rather have us bite off a few small pieces of reform and then we can revisit the issue later. I guess "later" means the next time the Democrats hold the White House, House and Senate after winning a massive mandate. I'm sure we'll have another Barack Obama type candidate some time in the next generation or two.

"If you take what we've done with [the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill] and then you follow with [more spending] on community health centers, you would have gone a long way to building a foundation upon which to build a universal access healthcare program.

"I would much rather see it done that way, incrementally, than to go out and just bite something you can't chew. We've been down that road. I still remember 1994."

Yeah, a few points. First, if Mr. Clyburn is so traumatized by events 15 years ago, he should resign his position in the House leadership and on any committees with jurisdiction over the matter. We don't need dinosaurs in our leadership who are too afraid to address the nation's problems because something bad happened to them nearly two decades ago.

As for Clyburn's notion that expanding health care for children of the working poor, and increasing funding for "community health centers" - both very nice ideas that won't do a thing for the majority of us - will somehow be a big step towards helping the rest of us, I have a modest proposal. Let Mr. Clyburn and his family go get health care at a community health center, then tell us how this proposal addresses the very real problem Americans face with their inadequate, overly expensive health care. For all intents and purposes, I have no prescription drug coverage (I have enough coverage to buy 5 months of my asthma medication a year, then nothing else for the next 7 months), even though I have the best self-employed plan that Blue Cross offers. Does Mr. Clyburn propose that I try to sell myself as a poor child, or do I hustle over to a community health center, to deal with the asthma drugs I can't afford? And what happens if I, or any of you, come down with a catastrophic illness? Better not need any prescriptions drugs for that illness (and if your plan has a lifetime cap, you'd better not have that illness long, or you won't have any coverage ever again).

We have a very real problem in this country, and incrementally helping poor children and community health centers, while nice, does nothing to help the majority of Americans who people like Clyburn were elected to serve and protect. At some point, Democrats need to get over their fixation with turning everything into a class issue. The poor need help, and should be helped. But the rest of us, rich and poor and everyone in between, are just as screwed if we get really sick and our insurance doesn't cover our illness. We expect our government to help all of us, not just the rich (Republicans) and not just the poor (Democrats).

If Clyburn isn't man enough to help President Obama take this issue on, then he shouldn't be in our leadership. Speaker Pelosi should choose someone instead who isn't psychologically damaged by events nearly two decades ago. Read the rest of this post...

Why is anyone, especially Obama, even listening to the GOP?

Bob Herbert's column asks the question that everyone I know is asking: After all the damage the GOP has done to our nation, why is anyone listening to the Republicans?:

When the G.O.P. talks, nobody should listen. Republicans have argued, with the collaboration of much of the media, that they could radically cut taxes while simultaneously balancing the federal budget, when, in fact, big income-tax cuts inevitably lead to big budget deficits. We listened to the G.O.P. and what do we have now? A trillion-dollar-plus deficit and an economy in shambles.

This is the party that preached fiscal discipline and then cut taxes in time of war. This is the party that still wants to put the torch to Social Security and Medicare. This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat.

Why is anyone still listening?

Why?

We keep seeing efforts by the Obama administration to assuage the Republicans. The President is heading to Capitol Hill today to meet with House and Senate GOPers. To what end? Dealing with the Republicans is like playing the arcade game "Whack-a-mole." As soon as one concern is addressed, a new one pops up. It's never going to be enough. Even better, Atrios calls it "rule by Republican hissy fit."

Whatever it is, it has to stop. Soon. The GOP has destroyed America's economy. Obama has to fix it. And, the Republicans who destroyed the economy are going to be his biggest obstacle. Read the rest of this post...

Big surprise: FOX News promoting anti-Obama book filled with "falsehoods and red herrings"

Yesterday was Rod Blagojevich's big day of spin and obfuscation on TV. Today that honor goes to Bernard Goldberg, a FOX news contributor, who will spend part of his day on FOX News hawking a book about Obama and the media. So, a book being hawked on FOX -- by Bernard Goldberg -- about Obama and the media -- you know that's got to be a real winner. Our friends at Media Matters for America actually read the book and fact-checked its content. Guess what they found? Goldberg's book has "falsehoods and red herrings":

In Chapter One, Goldberg cites as evidence of the media's "pro-Obama tilt" the fact that CBS' The Early Show ran a segment called "Five Things You Should Know About Barack Obama" that featured trivia about Obama. Of course, five days later, the show ran a segment called "Five Things You Should Know" about Sen. John McCain -- a fact Goldberg conveniently neglects to mention.

In another example of purported media infatuation with President Obama, Goldberg echoes Rush Limbaugh by printing badly doctored "snippets" of an interview between Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw. Like his Early Show example, Goldberg's doctored transcript of the interview falsely suggests that comments Brokaw and Rose made about their lack of familiarity with the candidates applied only to Obama when, in fact, they were referring to McCain as well. It also falsely suggests that Brokaw expressed the view that "there's a lot about [Obama] we don't know," when, in fact, Brokaw attributed that assertion to "conservative commentators."

And, in a particularly striking example of mangling the facts, Goldberg writes, "Finally, in the last month of the campaign, the [New York] Times returned to the Obama-[William] Ayers story, but only after McCain and (mostly) [Gov. Sarah] Palin began making it an issue on the campaign trail." In fact, in what was reported as the "first time" Palin raised Obama's connection to Ayers, Palin actually cited the October 4, 2008, New York Times story to which Goldberg refers.

Goldberg's book is titled, "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media." Sounds like it's really just another slobbering and pathetic right wing smear job. So FOX is the perfect place for Goldberg and his book. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

It's snowing in D.C. Not a lot, but it doesn't take a lot of snow here to cause problems.

As Chris notes below, yesterday was a brutal day on the jobs front. But, one person who should lose his job spent the day plastered all over t.v. That would be Rod Blagojevich. He was everywhere. Every single time I looked at my television, he was on another show. The guy is unbelievable. You know he loves the attention. How else would he ever get on the TODAY Show and Larry King Live?

Let's get it started..... Read the rest of this post...

Bloody Monday claims 71,400 jobs in US

Unfortunately, there are a lot more of these days coming. We're in the thick of earnings season so such announcements tend to occur when the numbers are provided. Unless we can have growth in Q1, we will see the same in April. I can't speak for the US but in Europe I do see business moving again after a nearly complete shut down late last year. It's not great, but it's moving. As the week progresses there will be more quarterly reports and then the Q4 numbers will be out on Friday and most expect to hear that the US experienced a severe decline in GDP. Positive future outlooks by the corporate world could help temper the mood (and negative response on Wall Street) but even then, it would have to be something special.

The final week of January began with a bloodbath for the job market, as over 71,400 more cuts were announced on Monday alone.

At least six companies from manufacturing and service industries announced cost-cutting initiatives that included slashing thousands of jobs.

More than 200,000 job cuts have been announced so far this year, according to company reports. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost over 2008, the highest yearly job-loss total since 1945.

"It's all about the consumer, and the consumer's been hit hard," said Robert Brusca, chief economist at Fact and Opinion Economics. "It's a vicious circle as weakness begets layoffs, which beget more spending weakness."

A late addition to the Monday cuts include IBM who are cutting 2,800 employees pushing the losses for the day closer to 75,000. Read the rest of this post...

I've always liked David Attenborough

Perhaps I like him even more after reading about his battle with religious extremists. I like him so much, I can even ignore the ridiculously silly title that he accepted.

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Attenborough went further in his opposition to creationism, saying it was "terrible" when it was taught alongside evolution as an alternative perspective. "It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five ... Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066."

Attenborough, who attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester in the 1930s, said he was astonished at manifestations of Christian faith.

"It never really occurred to me to believe in God - and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever ... and thinking, he can't really believe all that, can he? How incredible!"

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Monster.co.uk hacked - 4.5 million records snatched

This sets the record for the largest theft ever in the UK. The only upside here is that it does not appear to include actual credit card data though the data collected could make it very easy for others to use their data to apply for credit. Let's hope the credit crisis makes that a bit more difficult than a year or so ago.

Hackers accessed the confidential information provided by 4.5 million people registered with Monster.co.uk and now hold their user names, passwords, telephone numbers and email addresses. The company said other information including client birth dates, gender and ethnicity had also been taken, along with "basic demographic data".

Monster revealed in a statement on Friday that its database had been illegally accessed but the scale of the breach did not emerge until last night.

Fears were growing that hackers may have gained access to user bank accounts, since many people use the same password and email address to access multiple websites.

Yet another reason why people ought to use different passwords for different secure logins. Read the rest of this post...

Berlusconi does it again

What kind of an idiot thinks that rape jokes are remotely funny?

Premier Silvio Berlusconi sparked outrage Sunday for suggesting that Italy's women were so beautiful they needed military escorts to avoid being raped.

Berlusconi made the comments in response to questions about his proposal to deploy 300,000 soldiers in the streets to fight crime. A series of violent attacks, including a rape in Rome on New Year's Eve and another outside the capital this week, have put pressure on the government to crack down on crime.

But Berlusconi said that, even in a militarized state, crimes like rape can happen. "You can't consider deploying a force that would be sufficient to prevent the risk," the ANSA and Apcom news agencies quoted him as saying. "We would have to have so many soldiers because our women are so beautiful."

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