Commercial Real Estate Crash Expanding

As Vacant Office Space Grows, So Does Lenders’ Crisis

clipped from www.nytimes.com Vacancy rates in office buildings exceed 10 percent in virtually every major city in the country and are rising rapidly, a sign of economic distress that could lead to yet another wave of problems for troubled lenders. Jeffrey DeBoer, chief executive of the Real Estate Roundtable, a lobbying group in Washington, is asking for government assistance for his industry and warns of the potential impact of defaults. “Each one by itself is not significant,” he said, “but the cumulative effect will put tremendous stress on the financial sector.” Stock analysts say commercial real estate is the next ticking time bomb for banks, which have already received hundreds of billions of dollars in capital and other assistance from the federal government. Big banks — like Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — each hold tens of billions of dollars in commercial real estate securities. The banks also invested directly in properties.

According to Mark Tinker of Axa Framlington Gemini, what do Walmart and McDonalds have in common?

CNBC Bonus Bucks Trivia Answers
CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Squawk Box

According to Mark Tinker of Axa Framlington Gemini, what do Walmart and McDonalds have in common?

Answer: Get the Answer at EF Hutton

TauRx Therapeutics-- New treatment halts progress of Alzheimer's disease

clipped from alzheimersreadingroom.blogspot.com The results of the Phase 2 study of TauRx's new treatment strongly suggest that it is possible to halt progression in mild and moderate Alzheimer's. TauRx is continuing to refine its treatment and hopes that restoration may be possible at least at the earlier stages with improved versions of its drug. Tangles are already destroying nerve cells in parts of the brain critical for memory in people in their fifties and upwards. The ultimate goal is to develop a product that is convenient for patients that could be widely used at the very earliest stages of the disease, long before patients experience the first symptoms of Alzheimer's.

CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Bonus Bucks Answers

Squawk Box
According to Boone Pickens, how much is the U.S. sending overseas for oil?
Answer: 4x the Iraq War’s cost

Squawk on the Street
On Tuesday, Jim Cramer said it was “time to ring the register” and sell. But what railroad stock was he BULLISH on? Answer: CSX

The Call
Short seller Doug Kass mentioned Warren Buffett and a famous tyrant in a CNBC interview. Which tyrant?
Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Power Lunch
Which “gloom & doom” figure told CNBC Monday “I think the economy really stinks”? Answer: Marc Faber


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EF Hutton: Final CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers for Monday May 12

EF Hutton: Final CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers for Monday May 12

CNBC Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers
CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers


1. Squawk on the Street

In his Trader Talk blog, Bob Pisani had one April entry entitled Hot Fertilizer. Name one of the stocks he discussed.

Answer: CF Industries

2. The Call

On Monday, April 28, James Altucher of Formula Capital recommended which food-inflation trade to CNBC viewers?

Answer: Sadia

3. Power Lunch

On April 25, Tech Check’s Jim Goldman blogged on Microsoft’s Yahoo bid. How did he describe Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s rule?

Answer: Iron-fisted

4. Street Signs

Mark Travis said he likes “redneck stocks.” On April 24, The CIO of Intrepid Capital Funds recommended

Answer: Comcast

5. Closing Bell

Question: Jim Cramer has a cameo in Iron Man, judging the mythical Stark Industries. What is Stark’s make-believe ticker symbol?

Answer: SIA


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Maybe Obama is on to something....

clipped from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com from Andrew Gelman: Church attendance and income by state: Notice the cluster of poor Southern states at the upper left, which accounts for most though not all of the relationship.

Boone Pickens: ‘I Missed’

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said he expects the price of oil to rise “substantially higher,” reversing an earlier short position. he had erred in predicting earlier this year that the price of oil would fall to $90 a barrel by the second quarter. “The position is long, not short,” Mr. Pickens told reporters when asked about his current position after addressing a group of Georgetown students. “I covered the short position. It was a mistake on my part. I missed.” “There are only 85 million barrels of oil in the market every day,” Mr. Pickens added. “I don’t think you can get it above 85 million – lock that number in, and we’ll see if I’m right.” “I’m hoping that he’ll get better informed and come up with better ideas about energy than I’ve seen up to now,” Mr. Pickens said of Mr. McCain. Asked his opinion of Mr. McCain’s overall energy platform, Mr. Pickens replied “what is his energy platform?”

Understated spreads?

clipped from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com The WSJ has an interesting, slightly scary article about LIBOR. It includes a nice chart showing the three waves of the financial crisis as indicated by the TED spread, and the failure of even the Fed’s huge interventions to bring things back to normal: But the big news in the WSJ piece is that LIBOR may be higher than reported, and the spread even worse than it looks, because banks aren’t honestly reporting the interest rates they have to pay: The concern: Some banks don’t want to report the high rates they’re paying for short-term loans because they don’t want to tip off the market that they’re desperate for cash. The Libor system depends on banks to tell the truth about their borrowing rates.

Volcker: Fed ‘at Edge of Its Lawful and Implied Power’

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker roundly criticized the central bank’s extraordinary response to the financial crisis that’s been gripping markets since late last summer in a speech Tuesday. “The Federal Reserve judged it necessary to take actions that extended to the very edge of its lawful and implied power, transcending certain long embedded central banking principles and practices,” Volcker said, according to a copy of his speech. Actions taken by the Fed “will surely be interpreted as an implied promise of similar action in times of future turmoil.” “What appears to be in substance a direct transfer of mortgage and mortgage-backed securities of questionable pedigree from an investment bank to the Federal Reserve seems to test the time honored central bank mantra in time of crisis - ‘lend freely at high rates against good collateral’ to the point of no return,” Volcker said.

Economic Cleansing

clipped from bp1.blogger.com clipped from angrybear.blogspot.com The unemployment rate rose from 4.8 to 5.1 percent in March, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to trend down (-80,000) clipped from corner.nationalreview.com An Economic Cleansing   [Larry Kudlow] Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We’ve had two in the last 25 years. And it looks like we are entering a third one after today’s jobs-loss report. A lot of Keynesian economists expect the tax rebates will promote recovery Recessions are therapeutic. They cleanse excess from the economy. Recessions are curative: They restore balance and create the foundation for the next recovery Despite the housing and credit problem and the sub-prime virus, banks are still lending to businesses. So we don’t have a genuine credit crunch across the board. That is very good. domestic corporate profits are down 20 percent from their peaks of late 2006. Since profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, businesses, and the economy, we will need to see profit improvement before the recovery-turn can be called.