What's Good For The Goose...

In what sounds like something straight out of the Onion, a couple in Florida had a Bank of America office foreclosed on after the bank failed to pay legal fees as ordered by a judge.

Really, I don't know if I can add anything to this, except to say that you can read more at the WFMY News page I found this on.

ISM! Construction Spending! Dead Birds!

We have metrics on a Monday morning! Inconceivable![1] This is not a normal thing.

And what is it we're going to have? The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing survey for December 2010 (expected to climb 60 bps to a level of 52.2) and Construction Spending (expected to be increasing, but with the rate of increase slipping to be up only 0.1%). The ISM survey is a huge market mover, because its seen as indicating the health of the manufacturing sector. Construction spending isn't as huge, although it is still examined. Rising construction spending is seen as an indicator of economic health and stability, but it doesn't point to the same sort of economic trickle-down that you would expect from - say - new home sales. Still, the Street will be disappointed if construction spending is unexpectedly bad. Particularly if the manufacturing survey misses expectations.

How did we actually do? The ISM Manufacturing Index came in at 57.0, missing expectations (but not badly). Construction spending handily beat expectations, coming in at 0.4% increase.

Looking to the news, China[2] has committed to continue to prop up Spanish soverign debt. "China is a responsible, long-term investor in the European financial market and particularly in Spain, and we have confidence in the Spanish financial market, which has meant the acquisition of its public debt, something which we will continue to do in the future," was the statement from Chinese Vice Premier Li kequiang.

Barron's has decided to join the "well, duh" club early with a news item predicting that, when the government begins selling off the $70 billion worth of AIG stock it owns, the price per share of AIG could drop. I'm sure everyone appreciates their insightful commentary.

Bank of America is back in the news, this time paying $1.28 billion to Freddie Mac as part of an agreement to end all claims related to mortgages sold by Countrywide[3], and also plans to record a Q4 "goodwill impairment charge" of $2 billion to its home loans unit. On the plus side for BofA, these particular bad loans weren't their fault. On the minus side, I'm not sure how much good will they have left to impair.

Look for the commercial real estate market to boom, based on the fact that the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate found that the United States is overwhelmingly the number 1 investment choice for overseas investors. That (probably) means climbing construction spending in 2011.

Oil is up above $92 a barrel, with some investors anticipating it will get as high as $100 per barrel. Coincidentally,[4] Russian Energy Ministry data showed that Russian oil output rose 2.2% in 2010 to a record 10.145 million barrels per day.

And finally, the city of Beebe, Arkansas rang in the New Year by watching about a thousand dead red-winged blackbirds drop out of the sky. Stone dead. For no reason anyone has been able to figure out, yet. Charles Fort would be proud.

[1] "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[2] Still not wanting to replace the US as the sole economic and military superpower in the world.

{3] Specifically described as mortgages sold with faulty paperwork and other problems.

[4] I think not.

Apps, Bills, Bonds, And Justice

Two important bills passed the Senate today. The first, known as the James Zadroga 9/11 health bill, provides 5 years of medical treatment (at a cost of $4.3 billion) for emergency responders with respiratory illnesses caused by inhaled dust from the World Trade Center. The up side is, of course, the simple fact that it's the right thing to do. The down side is that it adds another $860 million or so to the operating costs of the United States each year for the next 5 years, which will only compound everyone's concerns about the US budget deficit (particularly internationally, given the increasing concerns about sovereign debt). The other bill was the ratification of the nuclear arms control treaty with Russia[1], which requires both signatories to reduce their deployed long-range strategic nuclear missiles to no more than 1550, with no more than 700 deployed missile launchers. Peace in our time![2]

New York is in the news. Specifically, behold the new face of fear for Wall Street:

This is Eric Schneiderman, the New York Attorney General-elect. He has just named his deputies - I mean, his legal staff - and is getting ready to take over the civil fraud lawsuit against Ernst & Young.

Apple has dropped the WikiLeaks App[3], on the grounds that it violated Apple's developer guidelines. Apple does not appear particularly concerned about retaliation from Anonymous.

Oh, and last week saw the largest aggregate withdrawals from bond funds in more than two years ($8.62 billion, up from $1.66 billion for the week ending 12/8). Some analysts speculate that most of withdrawals were by instructional investors looking for better yields by directly buying bonds, although concern about interest rates drove some of it.

[1] Just check me on something. This is 2010, right?

[2] Pay no attention to the billions of dollars that will be spent to modernize the nukes that remain.

[3] Protecting banks that make money through the art of wrongful foreclosure? Yeah, there's an app for that.

"Outright Theft Is Consistent With Our Internal Policies"

Bank of America, which has seized the moral high ground by refusing to process any payments to WikiLeaks because it "may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments," is being sued for wrongful foreclosure.

Again.

In their defense, at least Ms. Ash was actually behind on her mortgage payments. This is not always the case.

Apparently, foreclosing on the homes of people who don't even have a mortgage is consistent with their internal policies for processing payments. It will be interesting to see what else is consistent with their internal policies.

Oh, and to quote WikiLeaks: "We ask that all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America."