The Big Picture - Macro Perspective on the Capital Markets, Economy, Technology, and Digital Media

Looks like there’s gonna be trouble!

Economist: The government of Dubai requested a six-month “standstill” from creditors on paying back debt accumulated by Dubai World, causing a prompt downgrade to government-related debt from credit-rating agencies. The state-owned conglomerate is behind some of the Gulf emirate’s most ambitious ventures of recent years, including the Palm Jumeirah residential resort. Once feted by businessmen the world over, Dubai’s government and state-backed companies are reckoned to have racked up as much as $80 billion in debt. See article

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I am not convinced that its all really due to Dubai — that’s just an excuse for a little overdue whackage.

David Kotok, however, has some thoughts on the issue . . .

WSJ reporter Ann Zimmerman – a retail-sector veteran – offers tips and tricks to finding bargains on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year.

11/25/2009

Attention, US Shoppers:

With the economy still punk, there are plenty of shopping deals to be had — if you know where to look. Here is a short list:

• Amazon has already announced its Black Friday promotions, including discounts from other stores.

• Black Friday Ads publishes daily updates featuring the best deals on electronics;

• SlickDeals.net categorizes offers by retailer• BlackFriday.info allows shoppers to create a Black Friday shopping list — noting what sales promotions goes with each item;

• Some shopping experts believe that Black Friday is the best day if the year to buy a car;

• Retrevo.com reviews all of the gadgets that are in Black Friday gadgets deals — in real time. (Use the Retrevo Real Time Review to see if the products you are interested in are worth waiting in line for)

• DealNews.com tracks sales each year, separating the junk from the higher-end stuff.  “Black Friday is about cheap stuff at cheap prices.”

• Apple has a mysterious Black Friday online ad

• DealsVista has a deals spreadsheet that can be viewed online or downloaded;

• Shoppers Shop has an online table of deals (including start and end dates).

• Black Friday-themed Twitter account posting deals as they materialize

One other thing to note: Retailers are said to have gone easy on the inventory — so the game of chicken, where discounts pile on as we get closer the 12/25 — might not work this year.

My advice: If you find something at what you thing to be a fair price — grab it, rather than missing the buy in the hopes of getting a few more drachmas discounted.

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Source:
Where to Find Black Friday Deals
WSJ Digits

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/11/25/watching-the-black-friday-sites/

Retailers Extend Deals Beyond Black Friday
STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM and CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
NYT, November 25, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/business/26friday.html

click for audio

I’m flying off to Chicago for Turkey day, but I had to pass along this ‘toon. Its funny because its true:

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On the way to the train this evening, it began drizzling — so I duck into Macy’s to cut thru to Penn Station.

I noticed 2 things — first, the place was jam packed — it was a mad house, with 30 and 40% off sales.

Second, I could not help but notice they did a fabulous job decorating for the holidays! It wass really quite lovely.

Anyone visiting the city over the holidays should definitely swing by some of the more interesting retail shops; Saks Fifth Avenue storefront has terrific windows; Then you can go to the plaza at 30 Rock and saee the Tree; further down 5th Avenue, Lord & Taylor’s windows are also lovely (its the most reasonable of the better Mens shops, too.

And if you can find a quiet time to slip into Macy’s, you may be quite impressed with how they did the place up . . .

Safe travels!

“[The adjustable rate bank note issued Aug. 4, 2004 is' hereby canceled, voided, nullified, set aside and is of no further force and effect . . . the lender and its successors are barred, prohibited and foreclosed from attempting, in any manner, directly or indirectly, to enforce any provision of" the mortgage loan."

-Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey A. Spinner

"We never asked for this. I was shocked, honestly. It's not like we said, 'Judge, please throw the loan away.' We just wanted them [the bank] to be reasonable.”

-Greg Horoski, East Patchogue Home owner.

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Here’s a fascinating development: A Long Island judge voided the mortgage of a home-owner after the legal team for the creditor behaved in an egregious manner.

The lender lied in various dunning notices and court papers, claiming a balance due of $527,437.73, including an escrow overdraft of $46,627.88 for advanced taxes — even though the outstanding loan balance was $283,992.48 as of Aug. 10 and the taxes were already paid.

Excerpt:

A Suffolk judge awarded a Long Island family their East Patchogue house, wiping the slate clean on their mortgage debt and ruling that the bank holding their home loan had acted in a manner “so completely devoid of good faith that equity cannot be permitted to intervene on its behalf.”

In a terse, no-holds-barred decision rendered Nov. 19, Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey A. Spinner blasted the actions of IndyMac Mortgage Services, a division of OneWest Bank F.S.B., and its representatives – and awarded the home to Diana J. Yano-Horoski and husband Greg Horoski.

The decision came after a series of state-mandated, pre-foreclosure settlement conferences between the lenders and borrowers of subprime loans.

Spinner wrote in his decision: “It was celeritously made clear to the Court that Plaintiff had no good faith intention whatsoever of resolving this matter in any manner other than a complete and forcible devolution of title from Defendant.”

The lending institution, represented at a hearing on Sept. 22 by Karen Dickinson, regional manager of loss mitigation for IndyMac, asserted Yano-Horoski owed a debt in excess of $525,000 – and “freely concedes” that the property was worth “no more than” $275,000, Spinner wrote.”

Glad to see the screws being turned on weasels like this . . .

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Hat tip Singer!

Source:
Judge cancels LI family’s mortgage, berates lender
JOHN VALENTI AND JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Newsday.com, November 25, 2009

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/judge-cancels-li-family-s-mortgage-berates-lender-1.1621785

Otis still loves us! The 7 yr note auction was very good as the yield was about 3-4 bps below the when issued and the bid to cover at 2.76 was above the average seen this year of 2.53 and is the 3rd highest of the 10 auctions now seen in ’09. Indirect bidders totaled 62.5% which is right in line with the recent auctions. To repeat what I said yesterday after the 5 yr, “Whether its due to year end buying and prettying up of balance sheets, or still economic concerns, or still apparent risk aversion, or bank buying taking advantage of free money from the Fed, or foreign central bank FX intervention of buying US$s to halt the rise in their respective currency or lack of belief in inflation or confidence that the Fed will remain easy for much longer, the US Treasury has been able to finance every growing deficits with continued relative ease.”

http://www.outragedpatriots.com/Otis-Day.jpg