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| Appraisals hidden from view, but experts say they fed fraud
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| In his report to Synovus Bank, real estate appraiser Glenn Greber said the Siesta Key house was in good condition and worth $6.55 million. But his report missed a crucial fact: The house had been stripped down to bare walls and turned into a paintball battlefield. When the owner defaulted on his loan just six months after refinancing, Synovus found itself foreclosing on a house worth far less than the underlying mortgage, its 2007 foreclosure filing alleges.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Federal minimum wage goes up to $7.25 today
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| Minimum wage workers in Florida will see a minor pay increase Friday when the federal minimum wage rate increases to $7.25 an hour. It will mean only a 4-cent increase for Florida workers as the state’s minimum wage was increased to $7.21 in January from $6.79 in 2008. The federal minimum is currently $6.55.
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| @ Bradenton Herald | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0315 EDST
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| No-closing time: Ditching condo deal may have been smart
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| Did you bail on a pre-construction condo purchase? Did you file a lawsuit against the developer to try to get your deposit back? Or did you just walk away, forfeit your deposit and refuse to show up at the closing table?
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| @ Palm Beach Post | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Orlando-area hotels reel from year of bad news
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| After more than a year of declines for Orlando's hotel industry, the market is nowhere near recovering from the worst downturn that U.S. hoteliers have seen in decades, experts warn. Across Orlando, hotels are showing signs of distress — from giving up their brand names to closing their doors entirely.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Illinois to offer $6,000 loans for down payments on homes
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| The Illinois Housing Development Authority is set to announce later today that it will offer qualifying consumers short-term, interest-free loans of up to $6,000 to be used as down payments on home purchases.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Cat exceeds expectations, posts second-quarter profit
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| Caterpillar Inc. continued to get slammed by a struggling global economy in the second quarter, but the company showed the value of its "trough strategy" when it posted a profit for the quarter, it announced Tuesday. Just one quarter after posting a net loss because of high redundancy costs related to layoffs and other cutbacks, Caterpillar had a net profit of $371 million, or 60 cents a share, well above the consensus estimate of 22 cents a share by industry analysts.
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| @ Peoria Journal Star | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Breaking SBA Lending Logjam
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| The Treasury Department is finalizing a $15 billion initiative to stimulate lending by the Small Business Administration by using funds from the federal bailout program to buy up SBA loans. After private investors grew reluctant last year about buying SBA loans from the firms that finance them, these firms found themselves weighed down with old loans, which prevented them from funding new loans for small businesses.
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| @ Washington Post | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Americans Concerned About Gov’t. Spending, Expansion
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| Fueled by the sentiments of Republicans and independents, a new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that 59% of Americans say President Obama's proposals to address the major problems facing the country call for too much government spending, and 52% say Obama's proposals call for too much expansion of government power.
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| @ Gallup | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Bank of England Weighing Huge New Cash Infusion
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| The Bank of England's rate-setting body was unanimous when it voted to keep its key interest rate at a record low of 0.5 percent and said it would assess whether it needed another 25 billion pounds to pump into the economy next month, minutes to the July 9 meeting showed Wednesday.
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| @ Money News | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0646 EDST
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| Why Japan Isn't Rising. It's mellowing as its population ages.
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| Japan's population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055. The ratio of working-age to elderly Japanese fell from 8-to-1 in 1975 to 3.3-to-1 in 2005 and may shrivel to 1.3-to-1 in 2055. "In 2055, people will come to work when they have time off from long-term care," said Kiyoaki Fujiwara, director of economic policy at the Japan Business Federation.
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| @ Slate | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Philippines Wins First Moody’s Debt Rating Upgrade in 12 Years
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| The rating on government debt was raised one level to Ba3 from B1, the rating company said in a statement today. That’s the first upgrade since 1997 and brings the measure to three levels below investment grade, the same as Indonesia’s and above Pakistan, Mongolia and Fiji.
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| @ Bloomberg News | Posted: 07/23/09 at 0655 EDST
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