Fannie and Freddie Don’t Deserve All the Blame

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From an interesting piece (found via Ed's blog) reacting to the Republican reaction to the Financial Crisis Commission's findings:

After 20 years of free-market fervor, the world of the mid-’00s had become one of overleveraged banks too big to regulate and trillions of dollars worth of derivatives bets that no one had track of — which in turn were helping to accelerate huge flows of capital coming in from abroad — and a Fed and government regulators who weren’t aware or weren’t watching.

And that was the real cause of the crisis, whose aftereffects continue to drag on the economy today. Fannie and Freddie were, like almost every other big player, both culprits and victims, but just two of many.

 

Sedgefield Sells

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Sedgefield Country Club has been sold by its members to McConnell Golf of Raleigh. From the Biz Journal article (subscription required):

Sources did not disclose the amount offered, but it is believed that McConnell will assume Sedgefield’s $2 million debt and invest at least that much in course and clubhouse upgrades.

Sale talk has been extremely heated at Sedgefield, known for its Tudor-style clubhouse, Donald Ross-designed course, rich golf history and being the founding location of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953. Older members believed the current debt was manageable and were not eager to cede control of their home away from home. Many such opponents aren’t fans of the Wyndham, either, disliking how it disrupts their access to the club for two weeks a year.

But advocates, including the board leadership and local Wyndham officials, have maintained for months that selling to McConnell could be the last best chance to keep the club not only vital but solvent.

Read more: Sedgefield approves sale of country club | The Business Journal

I'm hoping someone does a case study on the process the Club's board went through over the last year, because I suspect it would be a lesson in how to lead an organization through the process of making a drastic shift in strategic direction due to a changing business/economic environment.

 

 

Kirkman Lands in Florida

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Don Kirkman, former director of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, has landed in Florida and has been named the president of Florida's Great Northwest, an economic development group for the northwest region of Florida. From the release:

Florida’s Great Northwest, the 16-county, regional economic development organization of Northwest Florida, is pleased to announce the appointment of a new president, Don Kirkman. At the organization’s board meeting in December, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to hire Kirkman following a nationwide search. Kirkman will take the helm on Jan. 1 and operate out of the organization’s Destin corporate office.

A seasoned economic developer, Kirkman most recently served as president and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership in North Carolina, a 12-county economic development organization. He was chosen because of his extensive background in regional economic development including marketing, business recruitment, government relations and fundraising.

Kirkman left the Piedmont Triad Partnership earlier this year after a leadership change on its board led to the hiring of a new CEO.  After David Powell, the new CEO, arrived on the scene Kirkman stuck around as head of operations, but it didn't last long and he left the organization. 

I had the chance to meet Mr. Kirkman a couple of times and was impressed with his passion for promoting the Piedmont Triad, and I found myself nodding in agreement whenever he gave his presentation about building regionalism. It's nice to see him land another gig that seems like a good fit for his regional economic development outlook.

 

Farewell to the Winston-Salem Journal Copy Desk

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A video farewell to the 18 copy desk employees at the Winston-Salem Journal who lost their jobs thanks to Media General consolidating the copy desk operations for its three metro papers. Not sure how a city newspaper is supposed to function without its own copy desk, but I guess we're about to find out. (Thanks to Scott Dickson for sharing this on Facebook).

 

ATP Tour Event Moving to Winston-Salem!

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I'm a huge tennis fan so you can imagine my excitement when I read this morning that the ATP is moving a tournament from New Haven, CT to Winston-Salem.  I'd heard rumors that it might happen, but now that it's a reality I'm absolutely stoked.  I haven't heard any details yet, but I'm willing to bet a serious chunk of change that Don Flow was involved with this and if that's the case all I can say is "Thanks Mr. Flow!'

Update: Just did a little research to confirm what I thought I remembered, which is that the New Haven tournament has traditionally been a warm up for the US Open, played the week before the Open starts.  We won't likely see the Federers or Nadals of the tour, but usually it attracts its fair share of top-50 players like Baghdatis, Gonzalez, Robredo, etc. Even better, it has a doubles draw.  Did I mention that I'm really stoked?

Frodo’s Ring

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Tom Terrell's fantastic blog post on former NC Gov. Easley's plea deal contains a fantastic reminder for anyone in public service:

But the point, nonetheless, remains.  From lowly Soil and Water Conservation District representatives to the President, men and women elevated to elected and appointed positions have fiduciary duties to the public.  They exercise and are entrusted with powers we have handed them to take care of the rest of us. This power can be used beneficially for the common good, or it can be abused for all the reasons that gave rise to Shakespeare’s many tragedies.

The problem is that political power is like Frodo’s ring. When you possess it, it consumes you in ways you don’t understand, and it works its black magic before you realize it’s happening. All we can do is to be vigilant and to keep reminding ourselves of the weakness of the human spirit and the dangers inherent in power itself.

Our faith in our own cities and counties as well as our state and nation depends upon it.

 

Stagflation

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I'm old enough to remember the last period of stagflation our country suffered through, and even though I wasn't yet part of the working adult world I vividly remember the nightly newscasts as being both confusing and scary.  I'm starting to get a case of deja vu, and I don't like it.  From ZeroHedge (found via Fec):

A recent Bloomberg article talked about "leakage from quantitative easing (QE).” That is, American as well as foreign firms are increasing tapping the U.S. market for Fed’s cheap money, but instead of generating domestic jobs, the money is actually invested away from the U.S. and into emerging markets, commodity-based economies, commodities, and non-U.S. opportunities. 

So far, it is abundantly clear that a majority of the past two years’ worth of QEs–The Fed bought $1.7 trillion of bonds in QE1 and is now buying a second batch of $600 billion–is not trickling down to the real economy to create jobs as intended.

The easy Fed money is instead fueling Big Banks' speculative buying binges of commodities, incentivizing QE leakage, thereby brewing another "perfect storm" for stagflation, that is, high inflation coupled with high unemployment.   

Foreclosure Map of Forsyth County

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I'm going to warn you ahead of time that this is potentially a very depressing post.  Have you ever wondered how many houses in your area are in foreclosure?  No need to wonder.  Just go to Google Maps and do the following (found via Fec's blog):

Google Maps Foreclosure Listings

1. Punch in any US address into Google Maps.

2. Your options are Earth, Satellite, Map, Traffic and . . . More. (Select “More”)

3. The drop down menu gives you a check box option for “Real Estate.”

4. The left column will give you several options (You may have to select “Show Options”)

5. Check the box marked “Foreclosure.”

Below is a screen shot of a Google Map after I plugged in a Forsyth County, NC address and zoomed out.  Those aren't measles you're looking at.

WinstonForeclosureMap