Free Republic

Venezuela is really feeling the pinch from sliding oil prices. Now its bonds are in such bad shape that some investors are treating the country’s default as a near certainty. And they are taking action. How? Well certain banks have started to offer swap contracts that allow investors to fix the amount they can recover on insurance bought against a restructuring of the country’s debt, according to investors. If CDS contracts are triggered, the cheapest Venezuelan bonds trading in the market at that time will be used to determine payouts to protection holders. Those not wanting to take any chances...

WASHINGTON – Sen. Mitch McConnell appears on the verge of achieving his lifelong goal to serve as majority leader in the upper chamber after easily dispatching Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky Tuesday night, winning an unprecedented sixth six-year term in the process. The race was expected to be close according to the late polls but, as was experienced throughout Election Day, the surveys seemed to undercount Republican strength to a substantial degree. With all of the commonwealth’s precincts reporting, McConnell ended up with 806,689 votes, good for 56 percent of the total while Grimes garnered 584,625,...

First she admitted being part of a fraudulent green-card marriage -- now, a new report says Cylvia Hayes, fiancée of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, partnered to buy land intended for an illegal marijuana growing operation in 1997. KOIN-TV reported late Monday that Hayes partnered with a man to buy the $245,000 property in Washington state using a $15,000 down payment in November of that year. The man who sold the couple the land told the station that Hayes and her partner soon stopped making payments, and records showed that Hayes gave up her interest in the property in April 1998....

he collapse of talks with U.S. creditors sent Argentina into its second debt default in 13 years and raised questions about what comes next for financial markets and the South American nation's staggering economy.

Argentina on Tuesday will meet the U.S. mediator in its battle with 'holdout' debt investors suing the country for last-minute talks to avert its second default this century. Mediator Daniel Pollack said in a statement on Monday he received a telephone call from the Argentine government advising him a delegation of technical, financial and legal representatives will meet him at 11 a.m. EDT (11.00 a.m. EDT) on Tuesday in his office. "I again urged direct, face-to-face conversations with the Bondholders, but that will not happen tomorrow," Pollack said, referring to the holdout creditors. Argentine dollar-denominated bonds fell more than 3...

Linette LopezJuly 3, 2014Argentina has its back against a wall. On July 30 it may default on a sovereign-debt payment that could send its economy into a tailspin of rising interest rates, money printing, and inflation. It could be the worst economic tragedy the republic has seen since 2001. And the tragedy will be well deserved, because this is a drama of Argentina's own making, a figment of political imagination tied closely with its history and culture. In Argentina, debt is identity, and this specific over-$1.3 billion debt in question, purchased by a group of hedge fund managers back in...

Ratings company Moody's on Tuesday slashed Puerto Rico's debt rating by three notches into even deeper junk status after the US territory passed a debt-restructuring law. Moody's Investors Service cut the rating to "B2" from "Ba2" and said the outlook was negative, indicating further downgrades were possible. Now dubbed the "Greece of the Caribbean," the archipelago is, like Greece, reeling under massive debt. Over the past decade, the commonwealth's debt has doubled to nearly $70 billion and investors are growing increasingly worried the government is running out of cash. In a bid for debt relief, the Puerto Rican authorities recently...

Argentina's attempt to work around SCOTUS decision in favor of the 'holdouts' was rejected (under anti-evasion orders) last night leaving Argentina no alternative but to threaten to default on its debt. The government called it "impossible" to pay bond service due on June 30, because payment to holders of restructured bonds could not be made unless the 'holdouts' were paid $1.33 billion at the same time (and Argentina's economy minister argues could be up to $15 bn) which the distressed country clearly does not have. For the first time in 12 years, Argentina has agreed to negotiate with the...

This advice is worth what you paid for it. You see, after 90 days of not paying on a credit card, the bank charges it off and sells the debt along with hundreds or thousands of others to a collection agency for 1/100th of the value of the original debt. The debt buyer then tries to collect from the debtor and they keep all the money they can collect. They will take you to court and try and garnish your wages for 6 to 8 or 12 years. That’s when you ask the court to force the new debt holder...

If you have been waiting for the "global economic crisis" to begin, just open up your eyes and look around. I know that most Americans tend to ignore what happens in the rest of the world because they consider it to be "irrelevant" to their daily lives, but the truth is that the massive economic problems that are currently sweeping across Europe, Asia and South America are going to be affecting all of us here in the U.S. very soon. Sadly, most of the big news organizations in this country seem to be more concerned about the fate of Justin...

When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew recently gave notice that the federal government would once again hit the debt ceiling in February, the response from congressional Republicans—who twice took the nation to the brink of default—was decidedly muted. The official line? “We believe that defaulting on our debt is the wrong thing,” says House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “We don’t want to do that.” On Tuesday, the House duly voted to raise the debt limit without conditions, sending the action over to the Senate. This move represents a 180-degree turn from the previous strategy of trying to extract concessions from Democrats...

The U.S. is likely to exhaust its borrowing authority on the earlier side of what Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had estimated, he said in a letter to Congressional leaders on Wednesday. Lew warned in the new letter that Congress will likely need to raise the debt ceiling by late February to avoid a potential default on the country's obligations. As part of the bill to reopen the government in mid-October, the debt limit was suspended through Feb. 7. The Treasury can use so-called "extraordinary measures" after that point to keep borrowing and paying the nation's bills for a few weeks...

Venezuela can be proud: while the US stock market has gone exactly nowhere in 2014, the Caracas stock exchange of the socialist paradise has continued kicking ass and taking names, just today printing a fresh all time high.

On Friday, Chinese state media reported that China Credit Trust Co. warned investors that they may not be repaid when one of its wealth management products matures on January 31, the first day of the Year of the Horse. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China sold the China Credit Trust product to its customers in inland Shanxi province. This bank, the world’s largest by assets, on Thursday suggested it will not compensate investors, stating in a phone interview with Reuters that “a situation completely does not exist in which ICBC will assume the main responsibility.”

While foreclosure activity as a whole has been declining in the U.S., there are still some unnerving aspects to the housing and mortgage recovery. So, it’s time for “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.” The good. According to RealtyTac, overall U.S. foreclosure activity is down 23 percent year-to-date through October 2013. The bad. Foreclosure activity on properties in the $5 million-plus value range is up 61 percent from the same time period in 2012. And most of it is concentrated in Florida and Los Angeles. I designate Atlanta as an honorary coastal city since Georgia does have properties on...

According to the Federal Reserve of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, mortgages, the largest component of household debt, increased by 0.7 percent in the third quarter of 2013. Mortgage balances shown on consumer credit reports stand at $7.90 trillion, up by $56 billion from the level in the second quarter. Balances on home equity lines of credit (HELOC) dropped by $5 billion (0.9 percent) and now stand at $535 billion. Household non-housing debt balances increased by 2.7 percent, with gains of $31 billion in auto loan balances, $33 billion in student loan balances and $4 billion...

Scranton could be headed towards another fiscal crisis like the one that resulted in city workers having their pay cut to minimum wage in 2012... Moody’s warned investors that Scranton could be facing the threat of default or bankruptcy thanks to a $20 million budget gap for the fiscal year that begins Jan. 1. The city is supposed to approve a new budget by Nov. 15, which would have to close that deficit to balance the budget. ... A similar crisis hit the city in July 2012, which lead to Mayor Chris Doherty cutting all city workers’ pay to minimum...

P.L. 113-46, The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014, runs out on January 15th, 2014. * The continuing resolution (CR) funds the federal government until January 15, 2014 at the same level as in fiscal year * It also suspends the limit on the federal government’s debt until February 7, 2014. * The act sets up a process for verifying the incomes of people who apply for health insurance subsidies under Obamacare, the topic of the original version of the bill. *It provides back pay to the 800,000 government workers who were furloughed during the shutdown. * It also creates a joint...

Reuters may get the award for the worst headline of the year. “Detroit pension cuts ‘function of mathematics’ -investment banker.” It just told me that Detroit pension would be cut. But what you learn later in the article is pretty shocking: “Buckfire, a Detroit native and investment banker with restructuring experience, later told the court the city plans to pay unsecured creditors, including the city’s pensioners, 16 cents on the dollar. There are about 23,500 city retirees.” 16 cents on the dollar? Well, that is what happens when municipal government spends too much money (inefficiently) and suffers a decline in...

According to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau, 49.2 percent of Americans received benefits from one or more government programs in the fourth quarter of 2011. govtbene And, of course, When Obamacare is fully implemented on Jan. 1, 2014, Americans earning up to 400 percent of the poverty level will qualify for a federal subsidy to buy health insurance. Speaking of more and more people of the government dole, RealtyTrac estimates that 47% of the nation’s foreclosed homes are currently occupied. The percentage actually tops 60% in some hot housing markets, like Miami and Los Angeles. Those still living...