February 9th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
People are asking, “Where is my high-speed Internet?”
The Obama administration knew that there’d be a lot of interest in the $7.2 billion for high-speed Internet projects it included in last year’s huge economic stimulus package.
The goal was to quickly create tens of thousands of jobs and connect millions of poor and rural communities to broadband, a technology that’s essential for economic development, modern medicine and education.
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But officials had no idea that the demand for the cash would be so overwhelming. They also were bombarded with questions and challenges from large cable and phone companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
The combination has swamped the agencies in charge and created a bottleneck that might threaten disbursement. After nearly a year, about 7% of the funds has been assigned to specific projects.
As a result, “There’s significant doubt as to whether the monies can be awarded before the end of September,” when the funding authorization expires, says Dan Hays, who directs the communications practice at consulting firm PRTM.
Officials scrapped their original plan to assign $4 billion by the end of 2009, followed by two more funding rounds. Instead they’re poised to hit as much as $2 billion when the first round ends this month, as they begin to consider applications to the second — and last — round up to March 15.
The effort to spend that money quickly but responsibly is like “trying to use a fire hose with a garden hose nozzle,” says Craig Settles, an independent consultant who helps companies develop broadband strategies. “Getting broadband to the American public is not going to be easy.”
Such concerns have trained a spotlight on two agencies grappling with the biggest telecommunications program either has ever handled. Congress gave the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) responsibility to allocate $4.7 billion. The remaining $2.5 billion is being handled by the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS).
The agencies say that they’ll meet the Sept. 30 deadline for allocating the funds.
“We’re expecting quite a few announcements in the next month and a half,” says NTIA Administrator Lawrence Strickling.
Affordable broadband
The grants are designed to address a real need: As many as 10 million households, representing about 9% of the country, “will have significantly inferior choices in broadband” in 2013, Columbia University’s Columbia Institute for Tele-Information said in a November report.
And people who live in rural communities are 29% less likely than the rest of the country to have a broadband connection, research firm Parks Associates found in two surveys.
In many cases people simply can’t get broadband at an affordable price.
“Without government loans or grants, it’s often too expensive to (lay broadband lines or build transmission towers to) reach such areas and still generate an adequate return,” says William Wallace, founder of rural wireless broadband firm DigitalBridge, a leading applicant. “They’re low-density areas.”
The broadband stimulus awards target areas that need the most help. For example, last month NTIA gave $33.3 million to a firm that will build a 955-mile fiber-optic network through an area in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula that includes 886,000 households and 45,800 businesses.
In December RUS awarded a $985,000 grant to a Bretton Woods, N.H., phone company that hopes to promote tourism by building out broadband services. The connections will enable people to stay in touch with their businesses while they’re visiting the area.
Officials discovered the magnitude of the problem they’re trying to address when invitations went out in July for applications for the first round of allocations. They received more than 2,200 requests, asking for a total of $28 billion, four times the amount up for grabs. Most included hundreds of pages of technical details about proposed projects that included build-outs of fiber-optic lines, wireless services, computer labs and municipal networks.
“We were surprised at the number of applications that we got,” says Strickling. “We had to have three reviewers review every application. That clearly became a challenge in terms of getting that process done as quickly as we could.”
On top of that, cable and phone companies flooded the agencies with objections to the proposed projects. “There are 11,000 public comments (about the funding applications), and I’m willing to bet that 9,000, at least, were a challenge or protest of one sort or another,” says Settles. “We’re at a point where it’s the general public’s interest vs. the entrenched incumbents.”
In many cases, challengers said that they already provide broadband in areas targeted by applicants for federal assistance. “You don’t want to fund projects that will be replacing private investment with government investment,” says James Assey, executive vice president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, an industry trade group. “That’s going to set broadband policy back and not necessarily scratch the itch you’re trying to scratch on the (economic) stimulus side.”
For example, Comcast, Charter Communications and AT&T questioned an application for $13.5 million to provide broadband services in Columbia County, Ga. And Time Warner Cable said it offers broadband to more than half of the homes in an area of southwestern Ohio and northern West Virginia to be covered by a $12.6 million application to build a 710-mile fiber-optic ring.
AT&T says that its filings were “not objections,” but “provided information about areas where we currently offer broadband service.”
Most of the big broadband companies did not apply for stimulus funds. The rules require recipients to open their networks to everyone and agree to network neutrality requirements, meaning that they can’t favor some Web services over others.
“It wasn’t worth the uncertainty,” Assey says.
Still, the protests against those who did apply for help added to the bureaucratic burdens.
“We take very seriously any claims that there is service in an area that we’re planning to fund, and we get to the bottom of that before we make any final decision,” RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein says.
Mapping out the need
Determining service gaps is more complicated than you might imagine.
“Because the United States has not taken (broadband needs) seriously until the Obama administration arrived, we don’t know exactly how many people are unserved” by broadband, or precisely where they are, Adelstein says.
NTIA has begun to fund projects that will draw maps showing which neighborhoods either can’t get broadband, or have access only to services that are relatively slow or expensive.
Assey says that it’s “a little backward” to move forward without better information. “It’s far more important that we do it right, than that we do it right now,” he adds.
It also will be hard to judge the effectiveness of the broadband stimulus effort, because it does not have clear benchmarks for success.
“We’re just not sure what money will come forth and how or if it stimulates jobs,” says Parks Associates CEO Tricia Parks. “We’re not even sure of the goal.”
Strickling says, “We’re learning as we go.”
While that’s taking place, the agencies tend to give applicants the benefit of the doubt when there’s a dispute over whether an area is covered. In addition to looking at whether a company serves an area, they consider the speed of the broadband and how many people subscribe.
That pretty much rules out satellite broadband services, which blanket the country but tend to be slow and expensive.
If the government considered only whether there’s a broadband service that could connect people in a community, then “many of our areas would not have qualified,” Wallace says. In some cases, as many as 80% of homes could get broadband. “But it’s adoption that becomes problematic,” he says, often because the existing broadband provider charges too much.
The NTIA made things easier for applicants last month. For the second round of allocations, it got rid of the requirement for funds to go to unserved or underserved areas, although Strickling says that projects that fill that need “will receive additional consideration.”
Some analysts say that while the funding approval process may speed up now, another change in the NTIA requirements may slow the process of connecting homes and businesses.
The agency says that it will focus on projects to build what’s known in the industry as the “middle mile” — taking the Internet from national trunk lines into the community — instead of the “last mile,” which connects people to the Web.
“It’s going to significantly delay the realization of benefits to the end user,” Hays says. “The applications and interest that’s been shown in last-mile solutions demonstrates a level of demand that the program isn’t meeting.”
Although Hays says he doesn’t know what accounted for the shift, the early protests from cable and phone companies “probably gave pause to NTIA and RUS about just how many last-mile applications they should fund. Middle-mile applications are less controversial.”
Regardless of how or why the change was made, the middle-mile projects make sense, Strickling says, because the infrastructure’s available to everybody and will “increase the chance that a last-mile project will be successful.”
The Obama administration knew that there’d be a lot of interest in the $7.2 billion for high-speed Internet projects it included in last year’s huge economic stimulus package.
The goal was to quickly create tens of thousands of jobs and connect millions of poor and rural communities to broadband, a technology that’s essential for economic development, modern medicine and education.
But officials had no idea that the demand for the cash would be so overwhelming. They also were bombarded with questions and challenges from large cable and phone companies including Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
Continue Reading »
February 9th, 2010 at 11:05 am
ET: waiting for your call?
If you had the chance to send a message into space, what would it say? “Greetings, fellow sentient beings”? “We come in peace”? “Hi… we’ve kind of messed up our planet, and we wondered if by chance anyone out there had a spare one?”
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Directed panspermia missions could target interstellar clouds such as the Rho Ophiuchus cloud complex located about 500 light-years away.
Eventually, the day will come when life on Earth ends. Whether that’s tomorrow or five billion years from now, whether by nuclear war, climate change, or the Sun burning up its fuel, the last living cell on Earth will one day wither and die. But that doesn’t mean that all is lost. What if we had the chance to sow the seeds of terrestrial life throughout the universe, to settle young planets within developing solar systems many light-years away, and thus give our long evolutionary line the chance to continue indefinitely?
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am
Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, moved more than $110 million in suspect funds into U.S. accounts
Foreign officials with potential corruption links are exploiting weaknesses in federal anti-money-laundering safeguards to move millions of dollars into U.S. bank accounts and properties, according to a Senate report released Thursday.
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:20 am
“We don’t stop living when we go to work and, very often today, we don’t stop working when we arrive home.”
The line between work and home is disappearing, says former Financial Times columnist Richard Donkin in his new book. “We don’t stop living when we go to work and, very often today, we don’t stop working when we arrive home.”
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February 9th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Google hopes to build on its existing translation database of 52 languages.
Search giant Google has said that it is working on a phone that can translate live, automatically between languages.
Live language translation on mobile phones could be just two years away, according to search giant Google. The company already offers text translation services and voice recognition, and Franz Och, head of translation services, says that work has already begun on combining the two.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Ford Figo
Ford Motor Co. (F) Friday began producing its first small car in India and its engines as the U.S. auto maker tries to challenge Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269.TO) and Hyundai Motor Co. (007380.SE) in this growing market for automobiles.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Mimetic races of Heliconius erato (left) and Heliconius melpomene (right) from the Tarapoto area of Peru.
How two butterfly species have evolved exactly the same striking wing colour and pattern has intrigued biologists since Darwin’s day. Now, scientists at Cambridge have found “hotspots” in the butterflies’ genes that they believe will explain one of the most extraordinary examples of mimicry in the natural world.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:10 am
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NIST postdoctoral researcher James Chin-wen Chou with the world’s most precise clock, based on the vibrations of a single aluminum ion (electrically charged atom).
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built an enhanced version of an experimental atomic clock based on a single aluminum atom that is now the world’s most precise clock, more than twice as precise as the previous pacesetter based on a mercury atom.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:09 am
A new study sheds light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants.
A study published in Science, by researchers at Rothamsted Research (an institute of the BBSRC), the Met Office, the Natural Resources Institute, and the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and York, sheds new light on the flight behaviours that enable insects to undertake long-distance migrations, and highlights the remarkable abilities of these insect migrants.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Artist’s rendering of cell structure.
Monash University biochemists have found a critical piece in the evolutionary puzzle that explains how life on Earth evolved millions of centuries ago.
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February 8th, 2010 at 10:03 am
3D illustration of the knee. Damaged cartilage can lead to joint pain and loss of physical function and eventually to osteoarthritis.
Northwestern University researchers are the first to design a bioactive nanomaterial that promotes the growth of new cartilage in vivo and without the use of expensive growth factors. Minimally invasive, the therapy activates the bone marrow stem cells and produces natural cartilage. No conventional therapy can do this.
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February 8th, 2010 at 9:57 am
Teenagers and young adults spent less time blogging during the past three years as social networks like Facebook became more popular, according to a Pew Research Center study released Wednesday.
Still, one social network, Twitter, has failed to catch on with the vast majority of younger teenagers, according to the Pew study of social media and mobile Internet use among teens and young adults.
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February 8th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Such a fine place for old pussies to hang out!
Homeleigh retirement village is a perfect place to spend the twilight years, with staff to clean and cook, a garden and immaculate quarters. But forget about signing up – unless you are a cat.
Inside a fully functional house next to Keysborough Animal Shelter in outer Melbourne, the only residents are twelve aged felines.
A shelter staff member visits every morning and night to feed the moggies and human visitors pop in to spend a few hours.
February 8th, 2010 at 9:44 am
One important factor that can explain Avatar’s success at the box office is certainly the 3D experience viewers can have when they walk into the right movie theater. But what about watching Avatar in “4D”? In Korea, you can.
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February 8th, 2010 at 9:37 am
The British Library has announced that the Klencke Atlas will have its first-ever public showing this summer as part of a map exhibition.
It is almost absurdly huge – 1.75 metres (5ft) tall and 1.9 metres (6ft) wide – and was given to [Charles II] by Dutch merchants and placed in his cabinet of curiosities.
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February 8th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Towns move back to the concept of a walkable multiuse town center.
Demographic shifts and changing values will increase demand for pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use communities in both urban and suburban settings, according to John McIlwain of the Urban Land Institute. “The age of suburbanization and growing homeownership is over,” McIlwain said in a recent report, “Housing in America: The Next Decade.” “The coming decades will be the time of the great reurbanization as 24/7 central cities grow and suburbs around the country are redeveloped with new or revived walkable suburban town centers.” This transition will be fueled by the growth of two-person households, an end to baby boomers’ suburban infatuation, and public policies designed to stimulate compact development. In his report, McIlwain points to four key demographic trends to watch going forward:
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February 8th, 2010 at 8:00 am
Super Bowl viewers were rubbing their eyes at the sight of a TV spot pairing CBS late-night host David Letterman with longtime NBC archrival Jay Leno, plus media magnate Oprah Winfrey.
Appearing early in the CBS-aired game Sunday, the ad depicted Letterman and Leno glumly sharing a couch watching the Super Bowl, with Winfrey seated between them trying to make peace.
Letterman grumbles, “This is the worst Super Bowl party ever.”
“Now, Dave, be nice,” Winfrey urges.
A disgruntled Leno replies that Letterman is only complaining “because I’m here.”
In a whiny high voice, Dave mocks what Jay has just said.
Oprah shakes her head and sighs.
That’s it. The spot only lasts 15 seconds.
It revisited a promo from the 2007 Super Bowl with Letterman and Winfrey watching the big game. But with the surprise addition of Leno, the 2010 version addresses in compact form the talk-show turmoil at NBC, and the soon-to-be-rekindled competition between Letterman and Leno when he reclaims NBC’s “The Tonight Show” on March 1.
In the age of “Avatar,” some viewers might have thought that getting Jay and Dave, plus the super-busy Oprah, together in the same frame was probably accomplished through sophisticated computer-graphic imagery.
But no, the spot was produced the old-fashioned way, according to Rob Burnett, executive producer of “Late Show with David Letterman.”
And it was put together quickly. And very hush-hush.
According to Burnett, CBS offered “Late Show” a slot for a promo to air during the Super Bowl.
“Dave had this idea, ‘What about getting Jay and Oprah together with me?’ and he wrote it,” Burnett explained by phone shortly after the spot had its single airing Sunday. (It is posted on the CBS Web site.)
“We said, ‘This is too funny to pass up.’ First we called Oprah.” Then Leno was approached, and he, too, signed on. That was two weeks ago.
Arrangements had to be made to get the Los Angeles-based Leno and the Chicago-based Winfrey to New York for filming – and do it without word getting out.
“Security was a big priority for us,” Burnett said. “We really wanted to keep this under wraps. There were a lot of internal logistical conversations about how to even get Jay and Oprah into our building secretly.”
Filming took place last Tuesday at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of “Late Show.” According to Burnett, Leno arrived in disguise: hooded sweatshirt, dark glasses and fake mustache. (Viewers might recall that, last Tuesday, NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” was extended by an hour, pre-empting Leno’s soon-to-end “Jay Leno Show” and enabling his round-trip dash to New York.)
Filming took less than a half-hour, Burnett said.
“It was quick, it was easy,” he said. “The attitude was professional and cordial. Dave and Jay were fine with each other.”
Maybe so. But that very funny, very startling promo has neatly paved the way for a late-night battle between rivals that will resume in just weeks.
Super Bowl viewers were rubbing their eyes at the sight of a TV spot pairing CBS late-night host David Letterman with longtime NBC archrival Jay Leno, plus media magnate Oprah Winfrey.
Appearing early in the CBS-aired game Sunday, the ad depicted Letterman and Leno glumly sharing a couch watching the Super Bowl, with Winfrey seated between them trying to make peace.
Continue Reading »
February 7th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
A swordfish attack punctured an oil loading pipe in Angola recently, causing a three-day delay in tanker shipments of Girassol crude. Total, the French oil company which operates the pipeline, declared force majeure on shipments. Total later said that swordfish had damaged a flexible loading pipe. Declaring force majeure frees an operator from supply obligations due to extraordinary circumstances.
This isn’t the first time…
February 7th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
How many ways can you spell YUMMY!
The day when restaurants will serve garlic grasshoppers or beetle larva skewers is getting closer in Costa Rica, where scientists are “growing” insects for human consumption.
Entomologist Manuel Zumbado’s research into this alternative food source is inspired by practices in Africa, where insects have long been part of people’s diet.
With its rainforests playing host to countless insect species, including thousands that have yet to be identified, Costa Rica is a perfect breeding ground for the work.
From leaf-cutting ants to rhinoceros beetles and a dizzying flurry of butterflies, the Central American nation is also a haven of ecotourism. But is it the next hotbed of mouth-watering bugs?
February 7th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
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Credit card numbers are so passe. Today’s hackers know the real powerhouse data to steal is emission certificates.
That’s exactly what hackers went after last week when they obtained unauthorized access to online accounts where companies maintain their carbon credits, according to the German newspaper Der Spiegel.
The hackers launched a targeted phishing attack against employees of numerous companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan, which appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority. The workers were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority, where carbon credits and transactions are recorded.
When workers entered their credentials into a bogus web page linked in the e-mail, the hackers were able to hi-jack the credentials to access the companies’ Trading Authority accounts and transfer their carbon credits to two other accounts controlled by the hackers.
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February 7th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Customer records were stolen from
British bank HSBC’s operation in Switzerland
The German government says it plans to buy a CD containing customer data apparently stolen from British bank HSBC’s operation in Switzerland. The move has enraged Swiss officials, but it already appears to be bearing fruit. Berlin expects a wave of tax evaders to turn themselves in over the coming days in the hope of avoiding prosecution.
The German government’s plan to buy stolen bank data from Switzerland to nab tax evaders is already showing signs of success. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of the conservative Christian Democratic Union wants to purchase a CD with data reportedly stolen from a Swiss branch of British bank HSBC that allegedly contains information about German tax evaders for €2.5 million ($3.49 million).
The CD is believed to contain information about 1,500 tax-evading German citizens, who possibly owe a total of as much as €100 million. Despite criticism from within her own party, Chancellor Angela Merkel has made clear that she is interested in accepting the offer, which has been described as immoral and criminal by some critics. The last time the German government bought stolen data, it became a financial boon for the treasury and this time, too, Merkel and her government have money in their eyes.
Before the government has even purchased the CD, tax evaders across Germany are already considering turning themselves in. Finance Minister Schäuble has encouraged them to take this step. “I can only advise anyone who has evaded taxes in the past to turn themselves in,” he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
Lawyers around the country are reporting a flood of calls from clients. “There is strong interest in this possibility,” Munich tax attorney Jan Olaf Leisner told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The attorney is an expert on the issue. When the German government last bought a DVD with stolen tax evader data in 2008, Leisner represented 50 Germans implicated in the case. With this week’s developments, his phones are ringing again. “Today alone I have already gotten five calls,” he said.
In the meantime, the lines are also busy in Switzerland. “Our phones won’t stop ringing,” said one adviser at a foreign private bank who deals with wealthy German clients. Many Germans are in a “state of cold sweat,” he said.
Germany’s Federal Association of Tax Advisers sent out a press release on Tuesday advising people “to swiftly turn themselves in if they have secret Swiss bank accounts.” Anyone in Germany caught committing tax evasion in excess of €1 million could also face prison time. For many, that risk “has become considerable,” the statement said.
The statement also said that tax advisers are prepared to provide advice on how customers can submit amended returns and turn themselves in. “This could be the last chance for tax evaders to avoid prosecution,” it said.
Don’t Panic
But clearly it is not just the German government that is looking to make a fast buck here. A former employee of major British bank HSBC has denied media reports that he wants to sell data to the German government. Last year, the man sold French authorities data from Switzerland on thousands of people. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper also reported data may have been stolen from Credit Suisse bank. But the bank said there were no signs of any such incident.
Still, tax evaders are likely to be following each and every headline closely this week. And they may seek to contact attorneys like Leisner. “If people aren’t HSBC customers, I am advising them not to panic — the tax investigators won’t be arriving at their door overnight. But if a person is a customer at the bank in question, then they should turn themselves in as quickly as possible.”
German tax authorities, of course, are pleased that suspected tax evaders are getting nervous. “This speculation is the best thing that could possibly happen to us,” said a high-ranking official at a German state-level finance ministry.
Leisner, the Munich-based tax attorney, said Merkel’s clear words on the matter earlier this week, when she said that the government was determined to get its hands on the data, had had a major impact. “Great uncertainty drives people to turn themselves in — even if the government ends up not buying the CD,” Leisner said. “If the government now purchases the CD, all the dams will burst. It will open the floodgates for imitators (i.e. governments in other countries) to do the same.”
What Happens When People Turn Themselves In?
In 2008, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, purchased a DVD for close to €5 million with data from Liechtenstein’s LGT bank that helped the government track tax evaders who had deposited their money in the tax haven. The government at the time, a coalition of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democrats, was able to generate around €200 million in fines and back tax payments using the data. The most prominent person incriminated in the data was former Deutsche Post CEO Klaus Zumwinkel, who had to resign from his position.
At least 600 people then lined up to confess they had dodged their taxes, despite the fact that only 210 were listed on the DVD. “At some point people get fed up with the whole business: first it was Liechtenstein and now Switzerland,” Leisner says.
Leisner also suggested that people should turn themselves in even if their data isn’t on the CD. “These people will be playing safe,” he said, because by filing amended returns they can avoid prosecution. Others will only be able to escape prosecution so long as no case has been filed against them. The German Association of Tax Advisers is encouraging tax evaders to move quickly. “The window for turning oneself in is small in this case,” it said. It could close as soon as details of the bank in question becomes public or, at the very latest, at the point the data on the CD has been matched up against the returns filed by suspected tax evaders.
So what happens if someone turns themself in? As their attorney, Leisner said, he would first request the appropriate documents on their bank accounts in Switzerland. The data would be “kept in our Zürich office so that they don’t have to cross the border into Germany.” A person who had kept, for example, €4 million in a numbered account over a 12-year period without paying tax on the interest, which would likely have amounted to some €2 million, would have to pay around €1.35 million in back taxes, including interest. “Then the client has to decide,” Leisner said. “If he turns himself in, he can sleep easy again — knowing that he won’t have to pay any fines or face further sanctions.”
But amended returns take some time to prepare, if they are to be correct and complete. That’s something that the German authorities are also aware of: The official at the state finance ministry said that he expects a wave of people turning themselves in “by the middle or end of next week.”
The German government says it plans to buy a CD containing customer data apparently stolen from British bank HSBC’s operation in Switzerland. The move has enraged Swiss officials, but it already appears to be bearing fruit. Berlin expects a wave of tax evaders to turn themselves in over the coming days in the hope of avoiding prosecution.
Continue Reading »
February 7th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
a new study shows that many people, when faced with a financial crisis, are not putting their mortgages first.
TransUnion, one of the big credit bureaus, recently released a report showing that an increasing number of consumers are choosing to pay their credit card bills before their monthly mortgages.
My grandmother Big Mama had a key financial rule that I’ve followed throughout my life.
You can manage without a telephone, she would say. You can take the bus and get by without a car. But you can’t live comfortably if you don’t have a roof over your head. Big Mama always made sure she paid her mortgage — and on time.
Thankfully, Big Mama, who raised me, never had to skip payment on another bill to cover her mortgage. If it had come to that, there’s no question which bill would have been paid first.
But a new study shows that many people, when faced with a financial crisis, are not putting their mortgages first.
TransUnion, one of the big credit bureaus, recently released a report showing that an increasing number of consumers are choosing to pay their credit card bills before their monthly mortgages.
The percentage of people delinquent on their mortgages but current on credit cards jumped to 6.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2008.
“I think the biggest message that the data shows is that consumers’ priorities have changed,” said Sean Reardon, the author of the TransUnion study and a consultant for the credit bureau. “This is really a reflection of the housing bubble bursting and the ripple effect of the recession.”
The percentage of consumers current on their credit cards but delinquent on their mortgages first surpassed the percentage of consumers up to date on their mortgages but delinquent on their credit cards in the first quarter of 2008, according to TransUnion.
“The implosion of the mortgage industry over the last 24 months, the resetting of adjustable-rate mortgages and the weak job market have all come together to redefine how consumers are managing their finances and meeting or not meeting their credit obligations,” said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy in TransUnion’s financial services business unit.
Many people see their credit card as an emergency source of funds. They may not be able to afford a mortgage payment, but they can make a minimum credit card payment. For them, it’s not about buying flat-panel televisions or toys for their kids. Instead, they are using credit to buy food or gas or pay for other basic necessities. When faced with a choice at bill-paying time, they are opting to pay their credit card accounts so that reservoir of money doesn’t get snatched away.
For the study, TransUnion looked at consumers who had at least one credit card and one mortgage. The company examined 30-day credit card and mortgage delinquency data.
The shifts in payment behavior are even more pronounced in California and Florida, two states that have experienced high foreclosure rates and significant decreases in home prices.
TransUnion found that the percentage of consumers in California who are delinquent on their mortgages but current on their credit cards was 10.2 percent in the third quarter of 2009, up from 3.5 percent in 2007. In Florida, it increased to 12.4 percent from 5.1 percent.
The financial news continues to be troubling, signaling that this trend might not turn around soon. For the week ended Jan. 30, the Labor Department said the number of laid-off workers filing initial claims for unemployment benefits was 480,000, up 8,000 from the previous week. Forecasters expected new claims would drop.
A record 2.8 million U.S. properties received foreclosure notices in 2009, up 21 percent from 2008 and 120 percent from 2007, according to a 2009 year-end report from RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure activity throughout the country.
“In the long term, a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive of RealtyTrac.
Reardon said in an interview that many people are figuring that they may lose their homes, so they reason: Why pump more money into the mortgage? They cling to the notion that the plastic is their savior.
“It used to be people kept cash in the coffee can for an emergency,” Reardon said. “But times have changed. People don’t have coffee cans. Plastic has become their coffee can.”
I hope this trend is only temporary. Relying on your credit card is like having a life jacket with a slow leak. It may keep you afloat for a little while, but the protection is short-term. You’ll still sink.
Via Washington Post
A record 2.8 million home owners received foreclosure notices in 2009
A new study shows that many people, when faced with a financial crisis, are not putting their mortgages first.
TransUnion, one of the big credit bureaus, recently released a report showing that an increasing number of consumers are choosing to pay their credit card bills before their monthly mortgages.
Continue Reading »
February 7th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Google Store View?
New York retailer Oh Nuts experienced an odd thing the other day: a Google photographer came in and took pictures of the entire store in all directions, stopping every 6 feet. Sounds a lot like Google Street View, except inside a retail esteblishment.
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February 7th, 2010 at 11:35 am
BrightFarm Rooftop Greenhouse
Solar is not the only green feature appearing on affordable housing projects these days. In fact, a project in the South Bronx is hoping to combat food miles and food deserts at the same time, growing fresh, nutritious vegetables in a 10,000 sq ft rooftop greenhouse on top of a six story affordable housing project. But does the project make sense?
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