The Great Debate UK
Is it safe to make cuts in the current economic climate?
-Ian Ellis is executive chairman of Telereal Trillium. The opinions expressed are his own. Join Reuters for a live discussion with guests as Chancellor George Osborne makes an emergency budget statement at 12:30 p.m. British time on Tuesday, June 22, 2010.-
The government is clear that reducing the public sector budget deficit is top priority and Tuesday’s budget will give us our first real indication of how and where public spending cuts are going to occur.
While there’s a consensus about the need to reduce debt, opinion is greatly divided over whether it’s safe to make these cuts in the current economic climate, with some commentators suggesting that deep cuts could bring about dangerous consequences such as job losses, damage to frontline services and even the possibility of a double-dip recession.
The dilemma is clear – how can wide-ranging cuts be made without hurting frontline services or the economy as a whole, without making redundancies and without causing public outrage?
from UK News:
MPs and the property market: an uneasy pairing
Would you have an MP for a tenant? Not so long ago, those two letters placed after a person's name were seen as a mark of respectability, but the unending drama of the expenses scandal has blown all that away.
New rules, brought in after revelations last year about MPs "flipping" their main and second homes to maximise allowances, stipulate that MPs can no longer buy second homes and claim mortgage payments on expenses. If they wish to claim expenses related to a second home, they will have to be content with renting one.
from Commentaries:
Goldman’s real estate gambit
Is history repeating itself at Goldman Sachs?
In late 2006, Goldman shrewdly began backing away from the residential mortgage market. With little fanfare, the firm began aggressively hedging its exposure to home loans, in particular mortgages to borrowers with shaky credit histories.
This savvy and somewhat stealthy strategy enabled Goldman to pawn off lots of its soon-to-be toxic mortgages and mortgage-backed securities on other institutions -- forcing those foolhardy speculators to pay the price when the subprime market blew up.
from The Great Debate:
Fishing for the housing bottom in San Diego
-- James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --
When prophetic long time bears turn a bit cuddly, it is usually best to take notice. A real estate maven who rejoices in the "nom-de-blog" of Professor Piggington has now, after five years of correctly shouting bubble, labelled San Diego housing prices "reasonable" based on the latest available housing data.
Remember, San Diego has been, along with Phoenix, Las Vegas and parts of Florida, among the most bubbleicious markets in the U.S., and the massive busts there still represent a huge problem for bank balance sheets, for employment and for the U.S. economy generally.
