My photo
Agree with me? Drop me an email or leave a comment. Don't agree? Drop me a line anyway.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

His Name Is Mudd...Dan Mudd That Is.


Fannie Shuffles Its Top Leaders

Struggling mortgage giant Fannie Mae shook up its senior management yesterday, announcing the departure of its chief financial officer and two other top executives.

Daniel H. Mudd will continue to serve as chief executive and the departing company officers will be replaced by other Fannie Mae insiders.

The company, battered by the meltdown in the mortgage market, said it was putting in place a team that will help it endure mounting losses that have put the firm's survival at stake.

"This team will be responsible for meeting the dual objectives of conserving capital and controlling credit losses," Mudd said in a statement. "As we move through the bottom of this cycle, maintaining capital, managing credit and driving revenues are the priorities."

District-based Fannie Mae -- along with its sister Freddie Mac of McLean -- are the largest source of mortgage finance across the country. Both made bad bets on securities backed by home loans and have been badly bruised by the housing bust. The companies' shares have lost most of their value this year.

Source

_________________________________

In the article it names those giving their walking papers, I won't bore you here...we'll just call them "those that failed their fellow Americans and help trash the national economy to boot"

As you know from previous posts I am no friend of Fannie Mae and/or Freddie Mac...BUT this is definitely a move in the right direction.

Tip of the hat to Dan Mudd for taking a tough stand AND they appointed staff from inside the company and not outsourced to the "old boy network".

Good job Dan Mudd and keep up the hard line, maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel for Fannie Mae.

Note: I would not want to be one of those former Fannie Mae tools who lost hundreds of millions called onto the carpet for this one....you KNOW that was a serious ass chewing in the bosses office.



Welcome to Detroit

Job Search News


Well I got a couple of good news bits on the job search...well not good but an improvement...well not a couple more like one.

I received an email from Express Employment Professionals, unfortunately they were anything but.

Per their email I called them back to review my resume, Francesca Marie Julianne Romero Stephano Smith (not her real name) took my call.

I explained the email and asked to speak with the person on the email, Betty Mae Gonzalez Cortez Alfredo Johnson (not her real name either), thinking it may just have been a form letter and there was no Betty Mae Gonzalez Cortez Alfredo Johnson.

Well I still don't know, Francesca Marie Julianne Romero Stephano Smith said she was in the middle of an interview and would call me back in 10 minutes and took my number down....never heard from them again.

Just not good cricket as they say over the pond...over here in we call it unprofessional.

My second contact via email by another contractor was a lot more optimistic. I won't name the contract house but my contact seemed eager and was going to start shopping me around...I liked that conversation.

It was what I like to call "the crazy filter" call...they call you to see how you speak, conduct yourself over the phone, discuss some skills you may or may not have...you know just generally see if your a raving lunatic or not.

So nothing concrete but still I am hopeful...I don't want to leave Michigan...I like it here.

Since about June 15th or so I have submitted daily anywhere from 2-20 online applications Monday through Friday...I estimate I have applied to over 300 separate positions.

Just keeping it in perspective for you.



Welcome to Detroit



Veritas Mansuras for President

Veriras Mansuras for President.

Best site ever...better have fun before it crashes.
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" height="304" width="384">








Welcome to Detroit

Incomes Fall In Michigan, Poverty Rises, But Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay


The 2007 median income in Michigan was $47,950, down 1.2 percent or $596 from the 2006 median of $48,546. The state's nationwide ranking slid from 24th to 27th.

They also showed Michigan's rate of "extreme poverty" -- a yearly income of less than half the poverty threshold, or $10,325 for a family of four -- jumped from 6 percent in 2006 to 6.5 percent last year. Eight years ago, the rate was 4.8 percent.

Source

___________________________

Michigan income down, poverty having best year ever

Impact of economic restructuring shows up in state's rate of 14%; in Detroit, 1 in 3 residents is poor.

Poverty rose across Michigan last year while incomes fell for the third year in a row, according to new data that reveal the widening impact of the state's economic restructuring.

The Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that Michigan's poverty rate crept up to 14 percent, a percentage point above the national rate that it had mirrored in previous years. But the state's poorest cities fared even worse: An estimated one in three Detroiters is in poverty, making the city the poorest large city in the country.

Flint and Kalamazoo, each at 35.5 percent, were even higher.

In the face of an increase in demand, social service agencies are fighting a battle at the other end as well, officials said: donations are down.

That's not surprising given that Michigan's income fell, pushing its rank to 27th in the nation, down from 24th in 2006; it had been 19th in 2003. Only South Dakota, Kentucky and New Mexico also saw incomes fall in 2007. Michigan was the only state that saw both a rise in poverty and decline in income.

Nationally, income rose 1.3 percent in 2007. Maryland, at $68,080, had the nation's highest median household income, well above the national median of $50,740.

Median household income in Michigan, once among the leaders nationwide, was pegged at $47,950 in 2007, which is below the inflation-adjusted 2006 level of $48,521.

Indeed, an estimated 47.8 percent of Detroit children under 18 live below the poverty line -- estimated at $21,027 for a family of four with two children. A year earlier, the city's poverty rate was 43.9 percent. Statewide, the percentage of children in poverty also rose, to 19.4 percent, well above the national rate of 18 percent.

Although the national economy has struggled for over a year, Michigan families have been dealing with the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs for several years as buyouts and layoffs have hammered the auto manufacturers. And many of the replacement jobs often pay half the wages.

Finding a solution .... will require diversifying the economy to minimize the impact of downturns in the auto industry. The state needs to keep its focus on tapping into its high tech and skilled engineering resources and its burgeoning life-science companies.

That's bad news for cities like Detroit.

Meanwhile, the Census data also showed that women both in Michigan and the nation closed the gap on men in regard to income. In Michigan, female full-time workers had median earnings of $34,849, or nearly 72 percent of male full-time workers, up from 70 percent in 2005.

Over the last three years, women have earnings that, adjusted for inflation, are nearly 1 percent lower than in 2005. But the median earnings for men fell farther: 3.4 percent.

The Census released income and poverty figures for the nation, states and counties, cities and metro areas with populations greater than 65,000. The results are based on surveys of 3 million households.

There were a few bright spots for the state. The ranks of those without health insurance fell slightly, down to 10.8 percent during the last three years. Michigan is well below the national rate of 15.4 percent.

Senior citizens also got good news: They continued to do better than the nation, with just 8 percent of those 65 and older in poverty, below the national rate of 9.5 percent.

Source

___________________________




Welcome to Detroit

Denver Police Arrest 91, Fire Pepper Spray & Pepper Balls At Protesters




Denver Police Arrest 91, Fire Pepper Spray & Pepper Balls at Protesters


As the Democrats celebrated inside the Pepsi Center on the opening day of the convention, outside on the streets police pepper-sprayed protesters and rounded up dozens of them in mass arrests near Civic Center Park.

Source

AMY GOODMAN: As the Democrats celebrated inside the Pepsi Center on opening day of the convention, outside on the streets police pepper-sprayed protesters and rounded up dozens of them in mass arrests. The incident began near the Civic Center Park around 7:00 p.m., where a few hundred protesters had gathered to march. The police arrived in full riot gear, surrounded the protesters, blocking them in before firing pepper spray into the crowd. Protesters fled across the park, where they were met by dozens of police officers who boxed them in. Many of the marchers sat down in the street. Nearly a hundred people were arrested.

Democracy Now! arrived on the scene moments afterwards and spoke with some of the eyewitnesses.

    JACOB: My name is Jacob, and I work with Berkeley CopWatch. We go out, we watch the police when they’re interacting with people. So, obviously, we’re here at the DNC to ensure that police are not utilizing tactics that are against law.

    And what took place about an hour ago is, we had a big group of protesters start marching, and what happened is they cordoned off the block on both sides, and without any warning or nothing, they initiated arrests. Now, the rest of the people that should have had an opportunity to leave were asked to go up the street and then were also enclosed. So, basically, what the police did is they just did a mass arrest with the intention of keeping people in jail for the next two days, so they won’t be out tomorrow, they won’t be out the day after, to protest.

    STEPHEN NASH: I’m Steve Nash with Denver CopWatch. We’re a police accountability group that observes the police, and tonight we watched protesters block the street about a block from here. It’s about fifty protesters in the street. The police came at them in riot gear from both sides and hemmed them in. Then they refused to let anybody out, including people who were just on the sidewalk in the group, who were not actually trying to block the street. I saw one older legal observer who begged for the police to let him out, and they refused. They pushed him back into the crowd. Then they donned their gas masks and began pushing the media and legal observers and the public a block away in each direction and in a very aggressive manner.

    JACOB: 99 percent of the officers tonight that are operating—look behind me—have no identification, which is against the law. An officer has to be identified by a badge or a nameplate. If you look behind me at all these sheriffs, there is not one of them identifiable. As you can see, these guys could hurt us at any given time, and we would not know how to hold them accountable. We can’t identify these guys. These guys are operating with complete impunity.

    JOHN TARLETON: People were generally very calm. There were several legal observers there from the National Lawyers Guild who gave everybody their legal number, because we were—what was, you know, unclear at that moment was whether the police were going to do a mass arrest.

    UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: A couple of cops came in and grabbed us and literally picked us up and took us to the processing station behind the building. And one cop was like, “What are we doing with them?” Another officer was like, “We’re arresting them.” Another officer was like, “I don’t know what we’re doing.” Another officer was, “We’re letting them go.” And so, everybody just kept going back and forth. Nobody knew what was going on. And so, eventually, they finally just took mug shots, took pictures of me with my ID, took pictures of me, profile and everything, and one officer was like, “Are you sure we’re letting them go?” He was like—another one was like, “I’m not sure.” And so, they finally just let both of us go.

    RON KOVIC: I was inside of the Sheraton Hotel watching the convention. I had just heard Ted Kennedy’s inspiring speech, and someone whispered in my ear that there’s a riot outside. I immediately left. I left the hotel with a friend, and we came outside. We came outside to see what was happening. I came outside because of my concern for you, because of my concern for the young people who are demonstrating.

AMY GOODMAN: And that last voice was by Ron Kovic, the paralyzed Vietnam veteran, antiwar activist, who arrived on the scene soon after the protesters were arrested. Special thanks to Democracy Now! producer Hany Massoud for that report.

Eileen Clancy is with I-Witness Video. We just have a few seconds for Eileen to comment on what has happened. The behavior of the police that you’ve come to watch as you’ve watched in conventions past, Eileen?

EILEEN CLANCY: One thing, I have never seen more police officers with fewer identification marks on them as I saw last night. It’s a big problem. They have spanking new uniforms. Yet somehow the nameplates didn’t manage to remain attached.

_________________________________

I never saw squat on this on television and I don't have a job so all I do all day is watch friggin TV and look for work online....total blackout on this as far as I am concerned.

Google has almost nothing on it, strange days indeed.

Can't wait for the GOP convention...woohoo!



Welcome to Detroit