Before we get to the good reads!
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A Few Good Reads
Here are a few of my favorite reads from the past week.
1. Detroit submits plan to fix debt as US court agrees to hear bankruptcy case:
Detroit’s historic bankruptcy filing was challenged Friday as the US sixth circuit court of appeals agreed to hear a request to have it overturned.
City pension funds representing Detroit’s police and firefighters and others who face major losses in the bankruptcy proceedings go through won a hearing that could mark the case’s first step on the way to the US Supreme Court.
Detroit’s bankruptcy, announced last December, will proceed while the appeal is being heard, which will not take place on an expedited basis.
The news comes as Detroit’s city workers, pensioners, investors and art lovers were on tenterhooks Friday as the city prepared to set out plans to emerge from its historic bankruptcy. Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, filed a plan in bankruptcy court on Friday to restructure the city’s debt. Read more
2. No decision reached in debt talks:
Speaking at the end of the talks, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen said the joint meeting between government and opposition was internationally unprecedented, and claimed that all the participating parties found the discussions valuable.
”We had a good discussion, a good Finnish discussion, in which we covered the future of the economy. There is plenty of work to be done to reduce the national debt both now and by future administrations,” he said.
Katainen admitted that no actual decisions were made at the talks, but a consensus was reached about the current state of affairs, and that the economic austerity measures must be extended over a number of years. Read more
3. Will Vornado’s Asset Divestment Solve Its Debt?
I like to keep an eye on the developments of the real estate industry. Sometimes, I come across interesting investment options, like Vornado Realty Trust (VNO), which will be declaring its earnings this Monday 24th of February. This real estate investment trust has an interesting set of company assets, including office and retail properties in New York and Washington, D.C., interests in neighborhood and regional shopping malls, Merchandise Mart properties, as well as unconventional investments in J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (JCP).
However, over the past couple of years, the firm has divested many of these noncore assets, selling them for $3.5 billion, in order to focus business around the attractive leasing markets in Washington D.C. and New York, where $2.2 billion were invested for new asset acquisitions. This recent asset shift has made me focus this article on debt ratios and liabilities, as well as examine what analysts and other top investors think about this company. Read more
4. A Man In Debt Demolishes His House And Drops It In Front Of The Bank:
In the end of 2013 a man from Lovech-Bulgaria who could not afford to pay the mortgage for his house gave his last penny to demolish it right before the banksters take it away. The land that the house was built on was not included in the mortgage so the family decided to destroy the house and give it to its new owner.
The remains of the building were loaded on a big truck and moved to the central district office of the bank in the city of Teteven, where the contract for the mortgage was signed. Read more
5. Detroit files plan to fix debt, exit bankruptcy:
Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr this morning filed his historic plan to restructure the city’s $18 billion in debt and liabilities, Crain’s Detroit Business reports.
Mr. Orr has laid out his plan in two giant documents: first, a 120-page official plan of adjustment — which is all the legalese — and, second, a 440-page disclosure statement, which is more of a narrative describing what he has proposed.
The city’s debt-restructuring plan was filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit. Read more
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Carnivals
This That and The MBA was included in several carnivals over the last weeks:
1. http://www.saveandconquer.com/financial-carnival-for-young-adults-feb-23-2014/
2. http://messymoney.com/carnival-financial-camaraderie-olympic-hockey-edition/
3. http://yourpfpro.com/carnival-financial-planning/
4. http://www.aspiringblogger.com/aspiring-blogger-personal-finance-carnival-32/
Thank you for the mentions last week. I really appreciate it. Have a great weekend!
-Christopher-