Daily briefing for Tuesday, January 10, 2012; A real housing bust; a housing debt relief idea; the mighty Quinn

A real bust in a booming oil region
Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich sheikhdom that spent NZ$12.5 billion bailing out its biggest developer in 2011, will probably reach for its chequebook again as property companies in the United Arab Emirates face a stalled market and deadlines to repay debt. Real-estate values have fallen more than 60 percent in Dubai and 45 percent in Abu Dhabi from 2008 peaks after the global credit crisis caused banks to curtail lending and speculators left the market. Developers completing contracts are supplying thousands of homes and offices at a time when demand is dropping.

New is better?
According to the latest NZTA data, we bought 3% more new cars in 2011 than 2010, but bought 9% less used imports. That translates to 5,800 less total cars that came into the country. Seems we went up-market in our vehicle choices as we bought less. At the same time, commercial vehicle imports rose 12%.

Housing debt relief
Haircut talk has all been focussed on the eurozone, but the chief of the NY Fed has put the fear up Pimco and other bondholders by pushing for big cuts to the loan amounts owed by some US homeowners - paid for in part by bondholders. US taxpayers and mortgage bond investors should fund loan principal reduction for distressed homeowners, he says. “You could actually see a turnaround in the housing market relatively quickly, within a year or two,” he said. “What I’d like to do though is make that sooner rather than later. That’s why I think some of these programs would be helpful in that regard.”

Credit basics
"The only reason a great many American families don't own an elephant is that they have never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments."
Mad Magazine

more below ...

The fall of Ireland's 'mighty Quinn'
In many ways, Sean Quinn, once the richest man in Ireland, personified the nation’s boom. Now, he has come to personify its bust, reports the New York Times. The Quinn story is full of surprises. Every effort to claim and manage the assets that he used as collateral for his loans from Anglo Irish has run into mysterious - and sometimes violent - difficulties. 

Romney's record under the microscope
The Republican front-runner in the US primary elections previously headed up Bain Capital before he won the governorship in Massachusetts. But not everything Bain invested in worked out well - in fact some were disasters.