CONSUMER CONFIDENCE: DOWN AGAIN

NEW YORK - Soaring gas prices and weaker job prospects made Americans gloomier about the economy in April, sending a widely watched measure of consumer sentiment to a five-year low, a private research group said Tuesday.

The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index, which had plummeted in March, fell again to 62.3 in April, down from the revised 65.9 last month and 76.4 in February. The number was in line with the consensus estimate of 62 from Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR, but the index remains at its weakest point since March 2003, when it registered 61.4, ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Truth to Power: LOOK WHO’S PROFITING ON WALL ST WHEN NO ONE ELSE IS: MASTERCARD’S EARNINGS DOUBLE AND SHARES SURGE

CREDIT CARD COMPANIES JACK UP FEES

FTC: WE HAVE BEEN “QUESTIONING OURSELVES”

As well they should. I have been raising the question of all the deceptive advertising by credit card companies and mortgage lenders on TV. Why didn’t th FTC step in.

FTC Responds to Sub-Prime Mortgage Marketing Concerns; Staff Being Shifted to Give More Financial Focus
By Ira Teinowitz

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) — A top official of the Federal Trade Commission said today the agency is stepping up its oversight of marketing of sub-prime mortgages and related transactions, responding to concerns that the government isn’t doing enough to stop misleading marketing.

“For the past several months we have been questioning ourselves on whether we could have done more,” Lydia B. Parnes, the FTC’s director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection told a panel of the Senate Commerce Committee today. She said staff is being shifted to help the agency devote more attention to the financial area.

The FTC doesn’t regulate federally chartered banks that make mortgage loans, but it does regulate advertising and marketing by mortgage brokers and companies that advertise aid to borrowers.

WHO IS GETTING HELP ON MORTGAGES?

Only 2000 homeowners reports The New York Times.

FT: FDIC HEAD ADVOCATES LOANS: US watchdog presses for mortgage rescues

The US should fight the housing crisis by using low-cost government loans to help borrowers pay down unaffordable mortgages, Sheila Bair, one of the country’s top banking regulators, proposes.Writing in the Financial Times on Wednesday, Ms Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, says the new government loans should cover up to 20 per cent of the value of the existing mortgages.

These loans, which would be interest-free for the first five years, would be used to pay down part of the existing mortgage. In return for the cash, lenders would reduce payments on the remaining part of the mortgage to affordable levels, defined as a proportion of income. They would also pay a fee to cover the government’s funding costs over the initial five-year period

Fears over Russian plan for ‘gas Opec’

Representatives of the world’s leading gas producers are discussing Russian proposals for greater cooperation, according to the Iranian Oil Ministry. Ministers from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum are meeting amid speculation that members are considering an Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)-style club for gas producers.

AS CHINESE WORKERS WANT MORE MONEY, MORE US COMPANIES LEAVE

BEIJING (AFP) — China is loosing some of its attractiveness to foreign investors as rising costs are forcing some US manufacturing firms to leave the country, the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) said Monday.

More than two-thirds of AmCham’s member companies surveyed in an annual white paper agreed that China was losing some of its competitive advantage in global markets due to rising costs.

Factors with the biggest financial impact last year included price pressures from competition and major customers, rising salaries and wages, changes in raw material prices, tax expenses and real estate cost inflation, the survey said.