Wednesday Morning Links

As Drudge Report happily headlined for 2 days this week, the U.S. Government has given away $2 Trillion in aid to banks, financial companies, insurance companies or anyone who decided to call themselves one and refuses to account for it. Oh, if they told us where it went that would cause a run on those companies, and only hurt us they say. Then there is the $700 Billion dollar aid package that further nationalizes risk and amounts to a handout to banks who are happy to turn around and pay it out in bonuses and dividends- business as usual. What about the American homeowner who started this whole mess? Out in the cold, apparently. The mangy $50 Bil. for mortgage workouts has been scaled back. This paragraph from a NY Times article out today says it all. Quoting the head of the FDIC:

The plan “falls short of what is needed to achieve wide-scale modifications of distressed mortgages,” Ms. Bair said in a written statement on Tuesday. “As we lend and invest hundreds of billions of dollars to help institutions suffering leveraged losses from defaulting mortgages, we must also devote some of that money to fixing the front-end problem: too many unaffordable home loans.”

A Continuing disgrace.
White House Scales Back a Mortgage Relief Plan (NY Times)
Other links:
Banks Unwillingness To Lend An Ominous Sign For New Condos (The Real Deal)
Broker Looks For 4 Month, $6.5 Mil. Flip At Ritz Carlton (Observer)
The 20 Cheapest Apartments In Manhattan (Cityfile)
Construction Watch: Lincoln Center Shaping Up (Curbed)