Archive for the ‘builders’ Category
May 20th, 2009 | 
Author: The “Jack Welch” Portfolio Algorithm « CSS Analytics
Jack Welch is one of the most recognizable names in business as the former CEO of General Electric. His skills and leadership in running one of the largest companies in the world have been the source of numerous books …
Jack Welch Led Gossip Sessions « Leadership Freak
Jack Welch Led Gossip Sessions. With typical candor and color, Jack Welch said, “We always had one hell-of-ah gossip session after every meeting.” (ELP, 2011, NYC). At least two things happened at meetings Jack Welch …
Jack Welch, the former chief executive officer of General Electric Co., and author of “Straight from the Gut”, has been very busy on the talk shows and speaking circuit lately, and here’s what he’s been saying.
“The government has taken advantage of the economic crisis to get a tighter grip on the US economy, and this does not bode well for business”.
“There are so many things that bother me right now. Over the last couple of weeks, things have really gone south in the government relationships”.
“These guys, when they came in, said a crisis like this is impossible to waste. The government seems to think there’s a crisis and now we can get in here and do all the things that we dreamed about when we were at Harvard, when we were somewhere else”.
“The government now controls about 37% of the US economy, including health care, and this makes businesses uneasy, despite promises that the state’s role will shrink when the economy gets better. Now, these guys say they want to get out. Do you believe that? Do they want to get out?”.
“The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds, with the conditions attached to them, are also something to be avoided by businesses. And the news that six insurers secured a green light from the Treasury Department to receive funds under the TARP is not good news”. Referring to Obama, Welch said, “I don’t particularly like where he’s taking us. To get the money he needs, he has to have a fake budget. He’s fooling people about how we’re going to have the top line support the programs in the middle without enormous taxes”. Asked about the restructuring of Chrysler, he replied, “I didn’t like the terms. The creditors’ rights were trashed and the unions got 55% of the company”. He did have a couple of good things to say though, “The president’s plan to implement the nation’s first national standard for greenhouse-gas emissions was sound. This emissions plan is not one that gives me great trouble’. And on the direction of the economy, “I want new housing starts to go down, down, down. It’s the only way to get housing prices stabilized, and we need to stabilize housing prices. While the market didn’t like it, housing starts going down again I like it”.
Just released Commerce Department figures indicate that U.S. housing starts dropped to a record low of 458,000 in April.
A 13% decline to an annual rate of 458,000 was led by a 46% decline in multi-family starts, compared to March when builders broke ground on 525,000 homes.
Building permits, which are a sign of future construction fell by 3.3% to a record low rate of 494,000 and taken together the two declines suggest that house prices have not yet reached rock-bottom.
So called experts had forecast an increase to a 520,000 annual pace from a 510,000 previously estimated pace the prior month, and they also forecast that building permits would increase to 530,000 annual rate.
But to give credit where it’s due, Maxwell Clarke, who is the chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal Inc said even before the report came out that, “Weakness in housing continues. Declining prospects for developers should continue to act as a drag on investment and overall output in 2009″.
Overall the housing market is showing some signs of stabilization and confidence amongst U.S. homebuilders in May increased to the highest level since September, and although sales of new homes are still 70% below their 2005 highs, they have risen slightly from their record January lows.
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Posted in builders, building, building permits, Commerce Department, construction, consumer, consumer confidence, crisis, economists, economy, financial crisis, home buyers, home prices, home sales, homebuyers, homes, house prices, houses, housing, housing construction, housing market, Housing Starts, properties, property values, real estate, recession, single-family, US economy | 
Tags: builders, building, building permits, Commerce Department, construction, consumer, consumer confidence, crisis, economists, economy, financial crisis, home buyers, home prices, home sales, homebuyers, homes, house prices, houses, housing, housing construction, housing market, Housing Starts, news | 
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