Here’s a quick 10 spot of links worth reading:
• U.S. Stock Pessimism Drops to Lowest Since 2007, Survey Finds (Bloomberg) Pessimism about U.S. stocks fell to the lowest level since the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index peaked in October 2007, as economic reports and policy makers indicate the recession in the world’s largest economy is easing.
• Roubini: The Spend-And-Borrow Economy (Forbes) Governments have been spending and borrowing like never before. The question now is: how do they stop?
• Fannie, Freddie soar on opportunistic day traders (Reuters)
• Homebuilders Buying Land After Three Years of Cutting Inventory (Bloomberg) Homebuilders that spent the past three years selling off land and writing down the value of property holdings are scouring markets in Sacramento, Phoenix, Denver and Orlando — cities synonymous with the real estate bubble — looking for deals on ready-to-build lots as they prepare for a rebound. Writedowns and write-offs by 14 of the largest publicly traded homebuilders totaled $28.5 billion since the start of 2006.
• ATA Truck Tonnage Index Rose 2.1 Percent in July (ATA)
• Adjustable Mortgages Loom as Threat to Housing Recovery (NYT) more than a half-million option ARMs scheduled to reset in the next four years, at rates many homeowners cannot afford.
• When all else fails, blame the lawyers… (Footnoted)
• Finance: Before the Next Meltdown (Democracy: A Journal of Ideas) Intellectual conservatives and bankers have mounted an even more fervent defense of financial innovation. For the past 30 years, financial innovation has increased costs and risks for both individual consumers and the global economy. Consumers bought houses they could not otherwise have bought using new mortgages they had no hope of repaying, creating a housing bubble, while new derivatives helped hide the risk of those mortgages, creating a securities bubble. The collapse of those bubbles has shaken the world for the last year. Today’s challenge is to rethink financial innovation and learn how to separate the good from the bad
• A brief history of climate change and conflict (The Bulletin)
• Second Degree Murder and Six Other Crimes Cheaper than Pirating Music (Gizmodo)
To answer an emailer’s question from yesterday, I may not agree with all of links I post, but I always find them intriguing and/or thought provoking . . . .
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