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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
July 14, 2020
Subprime Auto-Loan Delinquencies, After April Fiasco, Miraculously Healed by “Forbearance” & Stimulus Money
by Wolf Richter • Jul 13, 2020 •
“Extend and pretend” works wonders for a little while. But with auto loans, it gets dicey in a hurry. And then what?
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
Nearly all current or former taxpayers below certain income levels received the $1,200 stimulus payment. For a couple, it came to $2,400. If they had kids, more money was added. These moneys arrived in bank accounts in April, May, and June. In addition, there are currently over 32 million people who claim unemployment benefits under state and federal programs. They not only get their regular unemployment benefits but also the extra $600 a week in federal funds. For many laid-off workers, this adds up to more than their wages. This money has been a godsend to people who were behind on their subprime-rated auto loans.
And there was another godsend: “Extend and Pretend.”
Many lenders entered into forbearance agreements with borrowers who couldn’t pay. Much of the publicity about forbearance has been on mortgages, but this also happened with credit card loans and auto loans.
Forbearance means that the lender agrees not to pursue its legal rights to deal with a defaulted loan. With auto loans in forbearance, the lender agrees not to repossess the vehicle as long as the borrower sticks to the terms of the forbearance agreement.
Forbearance means delay in payments – the interest is normally added to the outstanding balance that is to be dealt with later. ..............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/07/13/subprime-auto-loan-delinquencies-after-april-fiasco-miraculously-cured-by-forbearance-stimulus-money/
Subprime Auto-Loan Delinquencies, After April Fiasco, Miraculously Healed by "Forbearance" & Stimulu
Subprime Auto-Loan Delinquencies, After April Fiasco, Miraculously Healed by “Forbearance” & Stimulus Money
by Wolf Richter • Jul 13, 2020 •
“Extend and pretend” works wonders for a little while. But with auto loans, it gets dicey in a hurry. And then what?
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
Nearly all current or former taxpayers below certain income levels received the $1,200 stimulus payment. For a couple, it came to $2,400. If they had kids, more money was added. These moneys arrived in bank accounts in April, May, and June. In addition, there are currently over 32 million people who claim unemployment benefits under state and federal programs. They not only get their regular unemployment benefits but also the extra $600 a week in federal funds. For many laid-off workers, this adds up to more than their wages. This money has been a godsend to people who were behind on their subprime-rated auto loans.
And there was another godsend: “Extend and Pretend.”
Many lenders entered into forbearance agreements with borrowers who couldn’t pay. Much of the publicity about forbearance has been on mortgages, but this also happened with credit card loans and auto loans.
Forbearance means that the lender agrees not to pursue its legal rights to deal with a defaulted loan. With auto loans in forbearance, the lender agrees not to repossess the vehicle as long as the borrower sticks to the terms of the forbearance agreement.
Forbearance means delay in payments – the interest is normally added to the outstanding balance that is to be dealt with later. ..............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/07/13/subprime-auto-loan-delinquencies-after-april-fiasco-miraculously-cured-by-forbearance-stimulus-money/
July 14, 2020
Jul. 11--MARTA says it will require passengers to wear masks on trains and buses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The agency expects to announce details of its policy Monday. The move comes as Atlanta and other cities in MARTA's service area have issued orders requiring masks to be worn in public amid the pandemic.
Late Friday the agency issues a statement saying it will incorporate enforcement of a mask requirement into its "ride with respect" policy. The policy will apply throughout the MARTA system -- not just in the cities that have required masks in public.
"Customers will have every opportunity to comply but violators could be suspended from riding MARTA," the agency said. ................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/safety-security/news/21145958/ga-marta-will-require-passengers-to-wear-masks
Atlanta: MARTA will require passengers to wear masks
Jul. 11--MARTA says it will require passengers to wear masks on trains and buses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The agency expects to announce details of its policy Monday. The move comes as Atlanta and other cities in MARTA's service area have issued orders requiring masks to be worn in public amid the pandemic.
Late Friday the agency issues a statement saying it will incorporate enforcement of a mask requirement into its "ride with respect" policy. The policy will apply throughout the MARTA system -- not just in the cities that have required masks in public.
"Customers will have every opportunity to comply but violators could be suspended from riding MARTA," the agency said. ................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/safety-security/news/21145958/ga-marta-will-require-passengers-to-wear-masks
July 14, 2020
Trump may be no good at leading America – but he's really, really good at lying
Richard Wolffe
US credibility has been contorted to protect the feelings of one man-child. No wonder he finds Anthony Fauci so offensive
(Guardian UK) It’s outrageous to say that Donald Trump is good at nothing.
He may be no good at leading the country through a pandemic and recession. He may be no good at healing a nation that is deeply scarred by racist power. He may be no good at diplomacy with his allies, or even recognising America’s enemies for what they are.
But he is really, really good at lying. An Olympic-standard, Guinness Book of Records fabricator of falsehoods. He regurgitates lies as rapidly and copiously as Joey Chestnut swallows hotdogs.
Trump represents the historic high-water mark for verbal cheating, which is surely the only part of his short legacy that will feature in US history exams in 2030.
According to the exhausted and exhaustive factchecking team at the Washington Post, Trump’s rate of lying is shaped remarkably like the country’s exponential rise in Covid-19 cases. ................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/14/trump-leading-america-lying-anthony-fauci
Trump may be no good at leading America - but he's really, really good at lying
Trump may be no good at leading America – but he's really, really good at lying
Richard Wolffe
US credibility has been contorted to protect the feelings of one man-child. No wonder he finds Anthony Fauci so offensive
(Guardian UK) It’s outrageous to say that Donald Trump is good at nothing.
He may be no good at leading the country through a pandemic and recession. He may be no good at healing a nation that is deeply scarred by racist power. He may be no good at diplomacy with his allies, or even recognising America’s enemies for what they are.
But he is really, really good at lying. An Olympic-standard, Guinness Book of Records fabricator of falsehoods. He regurgitates lies as rapidly and copiously as Joey Chestnut swallows hotdogs.
Trump represents the historic high-water mark for verbal cheating, which is surely the only part of his short legacy that will feature in US history exams in 2030.
According to the exhausted and exhaustive factchecking team at the Washington Post, Trump’s rate of lying is shaped remarkably like the country’s exponential rise in Covid-19 cases. ................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/14/trump-leading-america-lying-anthony-fauci
July 14, 2020
(CNN) With more than 2,000 patients hospitalized and hundreds in ICUs, "Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic," one infectious disease expert said, comparing the South Florida metropolitan area to the city where the pandemic originated.
"What we were seeing in Wuhan -- six months ago, five months ago -- now we are there," Lilian Abbo, with the Jackson Health System said during a news conference hosted Monday by the Miami-Dade County mayor.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, went into a 76-day lockdown in late January after a deadly outbreak infected and killed thousands. The first known cases of the virus were first detected in the city in December and by mid-April officials reported more than 50,000 infections. Miami-Dade County has recorded more than 64,000 infections so far, according to state data. ................(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html?utm_content=2020-07-14T11%3A03%3A04&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2Op_fzXXJG-jSoSHXpAuJ_N_sv6oydE9K3ocCC-gqDgOU4qiObCQv9Cps
Miami is the new Wuhan
(CNN) With more than 2,000 patients hospitalized and hundreds in ICUs, "Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic," one infectious disease expert said, comparing the South Florida metropolitan area to the city where the pandemic originated.
"What we were seeing in Wuhan -- six months ago, five months ago -- now we are there," Lilian Abbo, with the Jackson Health System said during a news conference hosted Monday by the Miami-Dade County mayor.
The Chinese city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the coronavirus crisis, went into a 76-day lockdown in late January after a deadly outbreak infected and killed thousands. The first known cases of the virus were first detected in the city in December and by mid-April officials reported more than 50,000 infections. Miami-Dade County has recorded more than 64,000 infections so far, according to state data. ................(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html?utm_content=2020-07-14T11%3A03%3A04&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_term=link&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2Op_fzXXJG-jSoSHXpAuJ_N_sv6oydE9K3ocCC-gqDgOU4qiObCQv9Cps
July 13, 2020
“Wild Ride to Nowhere”: APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB Soar to New High. Rest of Stock Market is a Dud, Has Been for Years
by Wolf Richter • Jul 11, 2020 •
The market has come to totally depend on the “Giant 5.” A scary out-of-whack weight on the way down.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The “Giant 5” – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook – had another good day on Friday, with their combined market capitalization rising by 0.6% to another new high of $6.64 trillion, continuing a spike that started on March 16 and now measures 62.2%. In dollar terms, five stocks gained $2.54 trillion in less than four months.
Since January 1, 2017, my “Giant 5 Index” has soared by 184%, or by $4.3 trillion, with two sell-offs or crashes or whatever in between.
Even these days, when trillions fly by so fast that they’re hard to see, that’s still a huge increase in market value of just five companies in the span of three-and-a-half years (market cap data via YCharts):
The market capitalization – the number of shares outstanding times the current share price – of the Giant 5 has reached a breath-taking magnitude:
How big are they compared to the entire stock market?
And I mean the entire US stock market, and not just the S&P 500. The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index tracks all 3,415 or so US-listed companies. And the market cap of all those companies combined rose today to $32.47 trillion, up 44.4% from its crisis low on March 23. ............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/07/11/wild-ride-to-nowhere-appl-msft-amzn-goog-and-fb-soar-to-new-high-rest-of-the-stock-market-is-a-dud-has-been-for-years/
"Wild Ride to Nowhere": APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB Soar to New High. Rest of Stock Market is a Dud..
“Wild Ride to Nowhere”: APPL, MSFT, AMZN, GOOG, FB Soar to New High. Rest of Stock Market is a Dud, Has Been for Years
by Wolf Richter • Jul 11, 2020 •
The market has come to totally depend on the “Giant 5.” A scary out-of-whack weight on the way down.
By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.
The “Giant 5” – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook – had another good day on Friday, with their combined market capitalization rising by 0.6% to another new high of $6.64 trillion, continuing a spike that started on March 16 and now measures 62.2%. In dollar terms, five stocks gained $2.54 trillion in less than four months.
Since January 1, 2017, my “Giant 5 Index” has soared by 184%, or by $4.3 trillion, with two sell-offs or crashes or whatever in between.
Even these days, when trillions fly by so fast that they’re hard to see, that’s still a huge increase in market value of just five companies in the span of three-and-a-half years (market cap data via YCharts):
The market capitalization – the number of shares outstanding times the current share price – of the Giant 5 has reached a breath-taking magnitude:
1. Apple [AAPL]: $1.66 trillion
2. Microsoft [MSFT]: $1.62 trillion
3. Amazon [AMZN]: $1.60 trillion
4. Alphabet [GOOG]: $1.05 trillion
5. Facebook [FB]: $628 billion.
How big are they compared to the entire stock market?
And I mean the entire US stock market, and not just the S&P 500. The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index tracks all 3,415 or so US-listed companies. And the market cap of all those companies combined rose today to $32.47 trillion, up 44.4% from its crisis low on March 23. ............(more)
https://wolfstreet.com/2020/07/11/wild-ride-to-nowhere-appl-msft-amzn-goog-and-fb-soar-to-new-high-rest-of-the-stock-market-is-a-dud-has-been-for-years/
July 13, 2020
A Black man reveals what he's endured, teaching 2 white friends what can be done when we talk
Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press
Published 6:00 a.m. ET July 13, 2020
He had just landed his first journalism job at a paper in the community where he’d grown up. He had a degree from the University of Alabama, a budding but solid credit history, and an eye on a new car when he walked into a local bank to apply for a loan.
He’d already paid off a car loan as he worked his way toward a journalism degree. With a job at the Tuscaloosa News as a copy editor, he figured his chances were good.
Then Vince Ellis sat with the loan officer that day back in the early '90s. He introduced himself, and when asked where he worked, he proudly told him.
You’d be proud, too.
“So,” the loan officer inquired, “are you a (newspaper) carrier?”
Ellis was shocked. The loan officer saw the color of his skin and assumed he wasn’t smart enough to do anything other than deliver the newspaper. ..........(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2020/07/13/black-man-white-friends-race-in-america-questions-and-learn/5421264002/
A Black man reveals what he's endured, teaching 2 white friends what can be done when we talk
A Black man reveals what he's endured, teaching 2 white friends what can be done when we talk
Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press
Published 6:00 a.m. ET July 13, 2020
He had just landed his first journalism job at a paper in the community where he’d grown up. He had a degree from the University of Alabama, a budding but solid credit history, and an eye on a new car when he walked into a local bank to apply for a loan.
He’d already paid off a car loan as he worked his way toward a journalism degree. With a job at the Tuscaloosa News as a copy editor, he figured his chances were good.
Then Vince Ellis sat with the loan officer that day back in the early '90s. He introduced himself, and when asked where he worked, he proudly told him.
You’d be proud, too.
“So,” the loan officer inquired, “are you a (newspaper) carrier?”
Ellis was shocked. The loan officer saw the color of his skin and assumed he wasn’t smart enough to do anything other than deliver the newspaper. ..........(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/shawn-windsor/2020/07/13/black-man-white-friends-race-in-america-questions-and-learn/5421264002/
July 13, 2020
'This is a war': the coronavirus disaster in California's hardest-hit – and poorest – county
About 17 patients are airlifted out of Imperial county every day, as the virus takes a devastating toll on Latino residents
Mario Koran
Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.00 EDTLast modified on Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.21 EDT
(Guardian UK) In southern California’s Imperial county, the chuff-chuff of spinning helicopter blades has become a familiar noise.
It’s the sound of coronavirus patients being airlifted out – 15 to 17 a day, on average. This remote region along the US-Mexico border is under siege from Covid-19, and hospitals are stretched to the brink.
Imperial county, population 181,000, is experiencing California’s worst outbreak, according to several public health metrics.
Over the last 14 days, the county’s infection rate was more than 588 per 100,000 people – by far the highest in the state. As of Friday, the county had recorded 7,759 coronavirus cases and 132 fatalities.
Adolphe Edward, the CEO for El Centro regional medical center, one of only two hospitals in the county, is reminded of medical operations he has overseen in Turkey, Oman and United Arab Emirates. More than 500 patients have already been transported out of the county to other medical facilities, and still the cases keep coming. .............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/coronavirus-imperial-county-california-latino
'This is a war': the coronavirus disaster in California's hardest-hit - and poorest - county
'This is a war': the coronavirus disaster in California's hardest-hit – and poorest – county
About 17 patients are airlifted out of Imperial county every day, as the virus takes a devastating toll on Latino residents
Mario Koran
Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.00 EDTLast modified on Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.21 EDT
(Guardian UK) In southern California’s Imperial county, the chuff-chuff of spinning helicopter blades has become a familiar noise.
It’s the sound of coronavirus patients being airlifted out – 15 to 17 a day, on average. This remote region along the US-Mexico border is under siege from Covid-19, and hospitals are stretched to the brink.
Imperial county, population 181,000, is experiencing California’s worst outbreak, according to several public health metrics.
Over the last 14 days, the county’s infection rate was more than 588 per 100,000 people – by far the highest in the state. As of Friday, the county had recorded 7,759 coronavirus cases and 132 fatalities.
Adolphe Edward, the CEO for El Centro regional medical center, one of only two hospitals in the county, is reminded of medical operations he has overseen in Turkey, Oman and United Arab Emirates. More than 500 patients have already been transported out of the county to other medical facilities, and still the cases keep coming. .............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/coronavirus-imperial-county-california-latino
July 13, 2020
Listen: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/09/coronavirus-economy-big-banks-pandemic
Coronavirus Economy: Are Big Banks On The Verge Of Financial Crisis? (audio link)
Listen: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2020/07/09/coronavirus-economy-big-banks-pandemic
July 13, 2020
'He's in trouble here': can Trump win this critical swing state again?
If he’s to stay in power, Trump needs to repeat his victory in Wisconsin. But the landscape is very different now – and support is shrinking
Chris McGreal in Milwaukee
Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) Donald Trump claimed to have done so much for African Americans that his campaign decided to open the first ever Republican office in a black neighbourhood of Milwaukee.
The office on Martin Luther King drive was decorated with “Black Voters for Trump” signs, and launched with fanfare in February in an attempt to win enough African American votes to repeat the president’s razor-thin victory in Wisconsin four years ago, which was crucial to winning the White House. Two weeks later, the windows were daubed with paint and “scum” scrawled across the door.
Not long after that, the coronavirus pandemic shut down campaigning. Now the office is back up and running, but in a very different electoral landscape to the one that existed in February. Covid-19 has shattered the illusion that Trump could take significant numbers of African American votes following his hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic – which has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour – has also been a factor.
Outside his apartment a block from the Trump campaign office, Cleophus Lobley acknowledged that he helped elect the president in 2016 by not voting. The African American truck driver said the events of the past few months mean he won’t make that mistake again.
“Damn right I’m not happy with Trump. To me, he’s really a very prejudiced person. He’s been bad for the black community,” he said. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/can-trump-win-swing-state-wisconsin-again
'He's in trouble here': can Trump win this critical swing state again?
'He's in trouble here': can Trump win this critical swing state again?
If he’s to stay in power, Trump needs to repeat his victory in Wisconsin. But the landscape is very different now – and support is shrinking
Chris McGreal in Milwaukee
Mon 13 Jul 2020 06.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) Donald Trump claimed to have done so much for African Americans that his campaign decided to open the first ever Republican office in a black neighbourhood of Milwaukee.
The office on Martin Luther King drive was decorated with “Black Voters for Trump” signs, and launched with fanfare in February in an attempt to win enough African American votes to repeat the president’s razor-thin victory in Wisconsin four years ago, which was crucial to winning the White House. Two weeks later, the windows were daubed with paint and “scum” scrawled across the door.
Not long after that, the coronavirus pandemic shut down campaigning. Now the office is back up and running, but in a very different electoral landscape to the one that existed in February. Covid-19 has shattered the illusion that Trump could take significant numbers of African American votes following his hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. Trump’s mishandling of the pandemic – which has had a disproportionate impact on communities of colour – has also been a factor.
Outside his apartment a block from the Trump campaign office, Cleophus Lobley acknowledged that he helped elect the president in 2016 by not voting. The African American truck driver said the events of the past few months mean he won’t make that mistake again.
“Damn right I’m not happy with Trump. To me, he’s really a very prejudiced person. He’s been bad for the black community,” he said. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/13/can-trump-win-swing-state-wisconsin-again
July 13, 2020
(The New York Times) LANSING, Mich. — Beyond being the women leading Michigan’s state government, Gretchen Whitmer, Dana Nessel and Jocelyn Benson have a lot in common.
All three are Democratic lawyers and part of Generation X, with long lists of accomplishments. Ms. Whitmer was the first woman to lead the Democratic caucus in the State Senate. Ms. Nessel argued before the Supreme Court and helped pave the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage. And Ms. Benson, a Harvard Law School graduate, was the dean of the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.
By 2018, the three were swept into statewide office on a wave that flipped much of Michigan’s leadership from red to blue and put three women — Ms. Whitmer, the governor; Ms. Nessel, the attorney general; and Ms. Benson, the secretary of state — in charge of running the state for the first time.
Now these women share another distinction: They’re all targets of President Trump.
Trailing in polls to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in this key battleground state, the president has taken aggressive aim at Ms. Whitmer — “that woman from Michigan,” in his words — and her counterparts, zeroing in on their mission to expand voting rights in a state where his 2016 winning margin of just 10,704 votes was the narrowest in the country. ...........(more)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/us/politics/trump-michigan-whitmer-benson-nessel.html
Trump vs. the Women Who Lead Michigan: A Battle With 2020 Implications
(The New York Times) LANSING, Mich. — Beyond being the women leading Michigan’s state government, Gretchen Whitmer, Dana Nessel and Jocelyn Benson have a lot in common.
All three are Democratic lawyers and part of Generation X, with long lists of accomplishments. Ms. Whitmer was the first woman to lead the Democratic caucus in the State Senate. Ms. Nessel argued before the Supreme Court and helped pave the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage. And Ms. Benson, a Harvard Law School graduate, was the dean of the Wayne State University Law School in Detroit.
By 2018, the three were swept into statewide office on a wave that flipped much of Michigan’s leadership from red to blue and put three women — Ms. Whitmer, the governor; Ms. Nessel, the attorney general; and Ms. Benson, the secretary of state — in charge of running the state for the first time.
Now these women share another distinction: They’re all targets of President Trump.
Trailing in polls to Joseph R. Biden Jr. in this key battleground state, the president has taken aggressive aim at Ms. Whitmer — “that woman from Michigan,” in his words — and her counterparts, zeroing in on their mission to expand voting rights in a state where his 2016 winning margin of just 10,704 votes was the narrowest in the country. ...........(more)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/12/us/politics/trump-michigan-whitmer-benson-nessel.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,078
