Here we go again! Barney Frank asks FANNIE and FREDDIE to relax Mortgage lending rules…
Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.In March, Fannie Mae (FNM.N)(FNM.P) said it would no longer guarantee mortgages on condos in buildings where fewer than 70 percent of the units have been sold, up from 51 percent, the paper said. Freddie Mac (FRE.P)(FRE.N) is due to implement similar policies next month, the paper said.
In a letter to the CEO’s of both companies, Representatives Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Anthony Weiner warned that a 70 percent sales threshold “may be too onerous” and could lead condo buyers to shun new developments, according to the paper.
The legislators asked the companies to “make appropriate adjustments” to their underwriting standards for condos, the paper added.
In an interview with the paper, Weiner said the rules have “had a real chill on the ability to get these condos sold,” at a time when prices of condos have fallen enough to attract potential buyers.
In addition to the 70 percent sales threshold, Fannie Mae will also not purchase mortgages in buildings where 15 percent of owners are delinquent on condo association dues or where one owner has more than 10 percent of units, as the firm sees these as signals that a building could run into financial trouble, the paper added.
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EXCLUSIVE: U.S. contacted Iran’s ayatollah before election
Prior to this month’s disputed presidential election in Iran, the Obama administration sent a letter to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for an improvement in relations, according to interviews and the leader himself.
Ayatollah Khamenei confirmed the letter toward the end of a lengthy sermon last week, in which he accused the United States of fomenting protests in his country in the aftermath of the disputed June 12 presidential election.
U.S. officials declined to discuss the letter on Tuesday, a day in which President Obama gave his strongest condemnation yet of the Iranian crackdown against protesters.
An Iranian with knowledge of the overture, however, told The Washington Times that the letter was sent between May 4 and May 10 and laid out the prospect of “cooperation in regional and bilateral relations” and a resolution of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
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Don’t trust politicians:South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford says he’s had an affair
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he’s been having an affair with a woman from Argentina and will resign as head of the Republican Governors’ Association.
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Monkey urinates on Zambian president
A monkey urinated on Zambian President Rupiah Banda as he spoke to reporters outside his State House offices on Wednesday. “You have urinated on my jacket,” a startled Banda told the monkey, one of many that makes their home in the trees outside his offices.
“I will give this monkey for lunch to Mr Sata,” he joked, referring to opposition leader Michael Sata, who Banda defeated in last year’s elections.
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Shocking News:Oscar-winner ‘raped 11 women using CRAIGSLIST’
The Oscar-winning composer behind ‘You Light Up My Life’ raped 11 women he lured to his apartment with the promise of a starring 
role in a movie, prosecutors said today.
The women read an online ad placed by director, Joseph Brooks, applied for the audition ‘and thought this was their chance to become a big star,’ prosecutor Lisa Friel said.
Instead, once the women were in Brooks’ Manhattan apartment, he plied them with wine and forcibly raped them or used threats and coercive behavior to make them have sex with him, prosecutors said.
Read full story at DailyMail
Get Read for Carbon Tax: House to vote Friday on another $2 trillion in waste
Independent estimates say that families could pay $3,000 more a year on energy and the entire plan would take $2 trillion from our economy in just over eight years. (And here’s what you can do to stop it….)
(Excerpt) Read more at hawaiifreepress.com …
Warren Buffett to CNBC: U.S. Economy In “Shambles” .. No Signs of Recovery Yet
In a live interview on CNBC today, Warren Buffett said there has been little progress over the past few months in the “economic war” being fought by the country. “We haven’t got the economy moving yet,” he told Becky Quick
While the economy is a “shambles” and likely to stay that way for some time, he remains optimistic there will eventually be a recovery over a period of years.
BECKY: The last time we sat down to talk to you was on May 4, and at that point you told us that you think we’re in an economic war right now. How much progress do you think we’ve made in that war?
BUFFETT: Well, it’s been pretty flat. I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily. Everything that I see about the economy is that we’ve had no bounce. The financial system was really where the crisis was last September and October, and that’s been surmounted and that’s enormously important. But in terms of the economy coming back, it takes a while. There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still underway and it looks to me like it will be underway for quite a while. In the (Berkshire Hathaway) annual report I said the economy would be in a shambles this year and probably well beyond. I’m afraid that’s true.
Buffett also noted that he had a cataract operation on his left eye about a month ago. He joked that he thought it might help him see “green shoots” for the economy, but so far he hasn’t seen any hopeful signs.
Read full story at CNBC
Obama, a Smoker, Signs Anti-Smoking Bill
President Barack Obama signed into law Monday an anti-smoking bill that will give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.
Obama, who has struggled to quit smoking, signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act during an event Monday in the Rose Garden. “I know how difficult it can be to break this habit,” Obama said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.aol.com ..
Al Qaeda says would use Pakistani nuclear weapons
If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired on Sunday. Pakistan has been battling al Qaeda’s Taliban allies in the Swat Valley since April after their thrust into a district 100 km (60 miles) northwest of the capital raised fears the nuclear-armed country could slowly slip into militant hands.
“God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the mujahideen would take them and use them against the Americans,” Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, the leader of al Qaeda’s in Afghanistan, said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Abu al-Yazid was responding to a question about U.S. safeguards to seize control over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in case Islamist fighters came close to doing so.
“We expect that the Pakistani army would be defeated (in Swat) … and that would be its end everywhere, God willing.”
Asked about the group’s plans, the Egyptian militant leader said: “The strategy of the (al Qaeda) organisation in the coming period is the same as in the previous period: to hit the head of the snake, the head of tyranny — the United States.
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More Americans are on Welfare (Thanks to Hope and Change)
Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging “to end welfare as we know it” more than a decade ago.
Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation’s total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as a stopgap.
Read full story at WSJ