No one is really questions that the stabilization of the US economy.  But for many who have lost their job or are facing foreclosure this is meaningless.  Even though stabilization is here the economy is described as remaining weak.

University of Texas professor James Galbraith says it's going to take a very long time for the U.S. to recover from a "truly extraordinary slump.  Galbraith says. "There's very little sign the benefits that are being felt on Wall Street will be felt in the broader country anytime soon."

I believe the word recession is now a misnomer and that the weakness is a symptom and not the disease.  The curse was cheap capital and the willingness to create too much debt.  Until we complete this period of debt destruction the economy will remain weak.  The danger, it seems to me, is that we try to bypass the process by moving debt from the private sector to the government's books.

•  The new first-time homebuyer tax credit extension is in place and ready for action on December 1.  It is being joined by a tax credit for move-up or move-down buyers.  Certain time and income restrictions apply.  For more details see our New Homebuyer's Tax Credit.

•  OCC Calls for Worldwide Ban on Pay Option/Negative Amortization Loans
Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said regulators worldwide should prohibit lenders from making payment-option adjustable-rate mortgages and other negative amortizing products. 

We disagree.  If they are done as full documentation loans with substantial equity required from the borrower these loans serve a purpose for a percentage of borrowers who have uneven, lumpy income such as commissioned salespeople.

•  Single-Family Starts Drop 6.8% as Multifamily Plummets 33%
Single-family housing starts dropped 6.8% in October from the previous month while multifamily starts plummeted 33% to the slowest pace on record.

•  Counseling, Favorable Loan Mods Seen Aiding Struggling Borrowers
Struggling borrowers are less likely to lose their homes if they take advantage of housing counseling services and they receive more favorable loan modifications than other borrowers, according to a NeighborWorks America-commissioned study.

•  Happy Veterans' Day and a big thank you to all who have served our country and defended our liberties.

This past week found a number of surprising and unusual events and stories passing our eyes.  Some never made it to the evening news, some were hoaxes which generated great deals of interest and as always there are some that we need to look below the top layer.

In no particular order we present the following:

President Obama is Snubbed by Russian Leaders

On Thursday morning I received an email with a video embedded.  Attaching the video instead of directing someone to a web site with a link indicates this person was hard at work to make this particular clip infamous.  It purported to show President Obama walking through a receiving line with President Medvedev of Russia.  President Obama extends his hand to each of the Russian dignitaries who refuse to shake his hand.

I was outraged that an American president could be shown such disrespect in such a public setting.  Where was the news coverage?  Much to my relief the clip was shown to be a hoax.  Perhaps the most disturbing part was the accompanying text of the email which somehow tried to blame the president for this faked snub of the leader of the free world.

Cat Fighting Gets Ugly During Women's NCAA Soccer Game

As a colleague who forwarded this said, "It happens all the time in boy's sports.  Now we have equality so boys don't play fairer - girls play dirty".  All you need do is watch this clip to get the full flavor of how societal acrimony has entered every level of interpersonal interaction.  The pony tail yank is just awful.

Much to the relief of players everywhere she gets caught and shows up on ESPN.  I just wonder how she can say that these actions weren't indicative of her true character.  Don't actions speak louder than words?  Where was her coach?  Where were the refs?  Which leads us to perhaps this week's winner for the dismal and can you top this?:

In this updated story on Bloomberg (the original has been apparently deleted) Goldman Sachs’s Brian Griffiths Says Inequality Helps All.  Or a bunch of investment bankers go to church to explain why outrageous bonuses are the moral thing to do.

The story must have been rewritten after Matt Taibbi quoted the following from the original story:

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”

via Profit `Not Satanic,’ Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus – Bloomberg.com.

To see the rest of Taibbi's invective and understand how ludicrous this is please click on greed is love and taking is sharing.  Just in case you don't here's an excerpt:

"On the other end of the spectrum, not nearly as evil comparably but still pretty bad, are people like this clown from Goldman.  They lie to themselves and think up elaborate reasons to do the bad acts they were already hoping to do anyway.  Some day, when historians finish peeling back all the different onion-layers of this financial disaster we’re living out right now, they’re going to find at the heart of it all this social Darwinist mantra wherein a very small group of overeducated twerps agreed to believe that stealing every last dime they could get their hands on was something other than what it looks and sounds like to the rest of us.  That protective delusion was the first of the many luxuries they bought with all the money they stole, and see if it isn’t the last they agree to give up.  What a bunch of assholes!"

Payrolls in U.S. Probably Fell at Slower Pace, Joblessness Rose

The headlines as measured by the establishment survey said unemployment was down by 190,000.  Slightly worse than forecast.

I see that the number of unemployed actually soared by 558,000 to 15.7 million, as measured by the household survey.  The establishment survey polls larger businesses; the household survey actually calls individual households.

Furthermore, the establishment survey makes seasonal adjustments.  If you don't seasonally adjust the number, the actual change in unemployment for October was 641,000, or about 450,000 more than the seasonally adjusted number.  Yikes!

And the Bureau of Labor Statistics added 86,000 jobs that they simply guess were created through the so-called birth-death ratio.

The total (U-6) employment rate is at a record high of 17.5% (this includes those who are part-time for economic reasons).  There are now over 10.5 million people who have lost their jobs since the beginning of the downturn.

They say that the worst news comes at a bottom.

It's becoming more difficult to tell what is real.