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rffrydr
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 Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 6:11 am Post subject: |
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Why they envy china. So much of this drought was needlessly exacerbated by post-Katrina decision to run down reservoir levels to protect decaying levies. Of course a levy failure would have been politically indefensible--and there you go.
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HenryTo
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Location: Houston, Texas & Los Angeles, California
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| Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Californian farmers get a significant break:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575126012802287310.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond
| Quote: | The increase is made possible, Mr. Salazar said, in part because winter rains have helped replenish the state's biggest reservoir, Lake Shasta, which now stands at 81% of capacity, compared with 55% a year ago. A former Colorado farmer, Mr. Salazar said he moved up the announcement by a week or so "because people on the ground and farming need to have certainty."
The increases were welcome news across the parched valley, but in particular among farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where water allocations have been cut to as low as zero the past two years, following drought and environmental restrictions to protect fish. Water allocations are crucial not just for irrigating crops, but as a basis upon which bankers determine the size of loans to farmers.
"Growers can now go to their bankers with a firm allocation of some water supply going into this year," said Sarah Clark Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, which represents about 600 farmers south of the delta. That region has been one of the most economically devastated in California—with unemployment as high as 40% in some towns—as farmers have been unable to plant tomatoes, cantaloupes and other water-dependent crops. "This will now help them hire people again," Ms. Woolf said. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:07 am Post subject: |
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1st time ever no gain in Congressional representation on Census. Bloomberg reporting Oklahoman's second generation moving back to OK Oklahoma.
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:01 am Post subject: |
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Investment bankers laugh off Greece--and get all queasy talking about California.
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/03/01/161581/dimon-weve-hedged-greece-but-california/
Lewis was also focused on CA RE--which will ultimately drive budget control. This from a Redfin mailing today:
| Quote: | Buyers Stay In Their Igloos...
The shocker was Wednesday's Commerce Department announcement that January new-home sales fell 11%, though that was immediately contradicted by more optimistic reports from Wall Street analysts and from the home-builders themselves.
The other shoe fell when the Mortgage Bankers Association announced that last week's number of loan applications for home purchases dropped to their lowest levels in 13 years. The bankers blame the East Coast blizzard for the one-week blip but most economists remain worried about unemployment. Even in California where prices have been rising, sales have been slow.
...But Redfin Demand Has Been Strong
Within Redfin, we don't know what to make of this bad news. From December to January, visits to our site increased 34%. We set a record Tuesday for the number of homes we put under contract, which is very unusual for February. And it's not just us: of the offers we submitted to listing agents in January, 54% faced competition, which almost always results in the winner having to pay above the asking price.
Prices Increase Nationwide for Seventh Straight Month
Meanwhile, prices held steady in December. The Case-Shiller data released Tuesday for December 2009 documented a seventh straight month of price increases nationwide, with the strongest gains in California and the Boston area, while the Chicago and New York areas declined |
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:30 am Post subject: |
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The bright face of recession:
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2518998.html
| Quote: | | Both the university and the region have "a reputation of not being too open to risk, and we have to change that," said new UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who holds 16 engineering patents. She's appointed a committee to study why the university has not been more successful at tech transfer. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | FYI on CDS...
2/5/2010 1:37 PM EST
I feel like Goldman is basically running the CDS business at this point, especially off-the-run stuff. If you want to know something like where State of California CDS are, it seems like no one knows except Goldman.
I was joking internally that given the recent revelations about Goldman selling ABS-related products to clients, then retaining the long CDS (effectively net short) position in the ABS, what does that tell you about their position in California? You want protection on the Golden State defaulting, Goldman seems very willing to sell you protection. |
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 8:58 am Post subject: |
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In the great 1906 SF Earthquake it was man, not nature, that did the yeoman part of the damage.
The drought has been serious, no doubt, but after Katrina a political decision was made to reduce reservoir levels to bare minimums to take all the risk out of the "newly vulnerable" levy system.
"Not on my watch" can be its own kind of disaster.
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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Looking on the bright side of the recent storms - this will have a direct impact on California's agricultural industry:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drought25-2010jan25,0,2528270.story?track=rss
| Quote: | The precipitation shortfalls have been bad enough to prompt water restrictions for urban customers around the state and to cut irrigation deliveries to agriculture, forcing some farmers to pump groundwater and leave fields unplanted.
In the last century, Roos said, California experienced two droughts that lasted six years: 1929 through 1934 and 1987 through 1992.
A drought in the late 1940s lasted four years.
But more often, he added, "In three years it's done -- and the year that ends it turns out to be a wet one.
"We can't say that this is going to be wet yet. But I'm optimistic that it will at least be above average."
As of Friday, the snowpack in the Northern Sierra was 117% of average for this time of year. Statewide it was 107% of the norm. The snowpack season runs from December through March.
Shasta Dam's reservoir, fed by the northern end of the Sacramento River and its tributaries, rose 24 feet in 10 days. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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S&P takes a notch off.
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 9:50 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | As a state, too, we have ridden the wave: Californians who optimistically cast their lot with an untested movie star now resemble survivors on a reality show, trying to figure out which bugs to swallow in order to stay alive. California's -- and Schwarzenegger's -- flamboyant optimism has proved to be no match for hard reality.
Just one measure: In October 2003, when Schwarzenegger was elected for the first time, unemployment in California stood at 6.9%. In November, the last month for which figures are available, joblessness stood at 12.3%. |
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-week10-2010jan10,0,7209931.story
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rffrydr
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