Legal Commentary

Haircuts And Downturns

By Big Tent Democrat

3 stories for your consideration:

Obama Administration a year late and a lot of dollars short with haircuts for banks:

The Obama administration is trying to push through a settlement over mortgage-servicing breakdowns that could force America's largest banks to pay for reductions in loan principal worth billions of dollars. [. . .] Under the administration's proposed settlement, banks would have to bear the cost of all writedowns rather than passing them on to other investors. [. . . E]ven if banks agree to a $20 billion penalty, the number of mortgages that can be cured with that number is limited [. . .]

Goldman Sachs says budget cuts will significantly reduce economic growth:

[A] report by the investment firm Goldman Sachs said the [GOP proposed budget] cuts would reduce the growth in gross domestic product by up to 2 percentage points this year, essentially cutting in half the nation's projected economic growth for 2011.

The Deal was GREAT stimulus wasn't it? Yes, this is the natural course The Deal took us down. Instead of fighting about tax cuts for the rich, the Obama Administration chose spending cuts as the place to do political battle. A grievous mistake.

And jobless claims will go up again, after showing slight improvements this week.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).