Results tagged “bloomberg”

Seattle Bubble directed us to this Bloomberg article the Seattle Times picked up suggesting there might be a "lost generation" of U.S. home values. Baby boomers are downsizing and it's "unlikely that Generation X, born between 1965 and 1976 (or more derisively called 'baby busters'), will bid up home prices. They are only 44 million strong, not as wealthy and even more in debt from college loans." On the bright side, there's probably never been an easier time to buy an apartment near Green Lake.

JPMorgan Chase is holding a conference call at 6:15 p.m. today, and the expected topic is its purchase of (part of) Washington Mutual. WaMu was frenetically batting its eyelashes at any suitor within bidding distance, especially with news of a bailout in the offing, potentially keeping WaMu's toxic mortgage holdings from being a dead loss. Bloomberg says that federal regulators decided to press the issue, and seized the bank's assets today. JPMorgan Chase is apt to pluck the shiniest apple, WaMu's thriving retail bank.

WaMu is like a free public water fountain these days. Except instead of water, it's all bad news. And it's not free, it's costing billions. But it is highly public!

Meanwhile, over on the New York Attorney General's site, Andrew Cuomo is impersonating a pitbull, if pitbulls knew how to file subpoenas:

“In order to fulfill their duty to consumers and investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must ensure that Washington Mutual’s mortgages have not been corrupted by inflated appraisals,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Our expanding investigation into the mortgage industry has uncovered that Washington Mutual improperly pressured appraisers to provide inflated values that best served the lender’s interest. Knowing this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot afford to continue buying Washington Mutual mortgages unless they are sure these loans are based on reliable and independent appraisals.”

Jim Riches, Deputy Chief of the FDNY, is one of the producers of the Urban Legends video that questions the supposedly heroic actions of Mayor Giuliani on 9/11. Jen Carlson recently interviewed him for our sister site in New York.

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us.

Seattlest hopes that the mayor is paying a lot of attention at the gun control summit he's attending right now in New York. Greg, you're not on vacation. Nickels and a dozen other mayors are meeting with Bloomberg in NYC to share notes and listen to a few gun control experts. It sounds like Seattle's big contribution will be the idea of a regional database of gun dealers. Databases, as you intrinsically know as a Seattle resident, can solve anything.

We feel llike there's been just about enough comment in town on snow, the chance of snow, the lack of snow, snow where you came from, snow removal, snow traffic, chains, tires, boards, forecasts, mobiles, makers, shovels, problems, etc. And we haven't seen any snow in Seattle today. Maybe some rain with tracer fire. Howerver, if you are all wrapped up in precipitation than you should take note of a few things: