Obama Henchman: “We Found Out About Goldman Sachs When It Hit The News”

Posted on April 20, 2010 by steve

Rham “never let a crisis go to wast” Emmanuel was blindsided by the news that Goldman Sachs was being sued by the SEC:

It’s like Obama is completely detached from the happenings around the world. Yet, strangely, Obama and his henchmen already have a sophisticated PR campaign deployed:

A new White House ad that pops up on Google searches for “Goldman Sachs SEC” features a plea by President Obama for financial reform, and is creating its own controversy. The ad is triggering praise as a smart bit of cyber marketing, but is also being cited as possible evidence of White House pressure in a financial investigation.

The first result for a search of the terms “Goldman Sachs SEC” brings users to a sponsored link titled “Help Change Wall Street.” Clicking the link takes users to a page on barackobama.com, featuring a photo of the president accompanied by a quote about Wall Street reform and a prompt to register with the site.

“We’ve seen and lived the consequences of what happens when there’s too little accountability on Wall Street and too little protection for Main Street. It is time for real change,” the quote reads.

A Democratic Party source confirmed the ad was bought by the White House political wing, Organizing for America, and said it was part of a strategy to purchase Internet ads pegged to the most talked about issues on any given day. The organization buys ads targeting the words people are most often searching. In recent weeks the White House political arm has bought ads with the keywords: “wall street reform,” “AIG” and “big bank bailout.”

“It is another great example of why the Obama Internet guys are the smartest guys on the block,” said Phil Noble founder of Politics Online, a Web site that tracks how the Internet is used in politics.

Either their PR guys are the smartest guys on the block or they had a head start. Remember, this is the same government that can’t get ObamaCare rolling until 2014…

More Hope & Change: Foreclosures moving to mid-to-high end

Posted on April 20, 2010 by steve

“We are seeing signs that the worst may be over in the hard-hit entry-level markets, while problems are slowly spreading to more expensive neighborhoods. We’re also seeing some lenders become more accommodating to work-outs or short sales, while others appear to be getting stricter about delinquencies. It’s very noisy out there,” [John Walsh, DataQuick president] said.

The state’s most affordable sub-markets, which represent 25 percent of the state’s housing stock, accounted for 47.5 percent of all default activity a year ago. In first-quarter 2010 that fell to 40.9 percent.California’s mid- to high-end housing markets were more likely to have seen a rise in mortgage defaults last quarter, though the concentration of default activity – measured by defaults per 1,000 homes – remained relatively low in those areas.

For example, zip codes statewide with median home sale prices of $500,000-plus saw mortgage defaults buck the overall trend and rise 1.5 percent last quarter compared with the prior quarter, while year-over-year the decline was 19 percent versus a 40.2 percent marketwide annual decrease. Collectively, these zips saw 4.5 default notices filed for every 1,000 homes in the community, compared with the overall market's rate of 9.3 NODs for every 1,000 homes statewide.

In zip codes with medians below $500,000, mortgage default filings fell 5.8 percent from the prior quarter and declined nearly 43 percent from a year earlier. However, collectively these zips saw 10.5 NODs filed for every 1,000 homes – more than double the default rate for the zips with $500,000-plus medians.

via Calculated Risk: DataQuick: Foreclosures moving to mid-to-high end.

Four Door Fiat 500 Coming to The US

Posted on April 20, 2010 by steve

Fiat is bringing a four-door version of the 500 small car to North America, three company sources say. The vehicle will appear in Europe at the end of 2011. Timing for the United States is still uncertain. Chrysler Group has not decided how many of its dealerships will sell Fiats.

Chrysler also may bring a subcompact sedan to North America from a factory Fiat owns in Serbia, sources say.

On Wednesday, Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler and Fiat, and other executives will spell out Fiat's five-year plan here. The arrival in North America of the four-door 500 may or may not be announced, sources say, but it has been approved. The four-door version of the Fiat 500 is code-named L0. The vehicle would be classified as a small minivan in Europe because it has a hatch in the rear and a high roof. In Europe it competes with other small minivans, such as the Opel Meriva. Fiat will build the vehicle for export at its Mirafiori plant in Turin on a longer and wider platform than the two-door 500. North American versions of the two-door 500 will be built at Chrysler's factory in Toluca, Mexico.

via 4-door Fiat coming here | The Car Tech blog – CNET Reviews.