Housing

More Investors, Vacationers Snap Up Homes – WSJ$

In its annual survey of investment- and vacation-home sales, the National Association of Realtors found that the number of homes purchased by investors rose 65% during 2011 to 1.2 million, accounting for 27% of all home sales. In 2010, investment properties accounted for 17% of all sales.

The number of homes purchased as second or vacation homes jumped 7% last year to 502,000—accounting for 11% of all transactions…

Investors Swarm Housing, Raising Concerns – CNBC

Preventing ‘Moral Harzard’ Issue for Principal Reduction – DS News

Fannie And Freddie Can Prevent Foreclosures And Protect Taxpayers Through Principal Reduction - ENews Park Forest

Economy & Europe

Window Dressing or Something More? - Barry Ritholtz

Many people seems to be crediting the market’s resilience to factors such as end of the month/quarter window dressing.

I remain unconvinced.

Is the Economy Growing Faster Than We Knew? – Economix

Whose Recovery? – Robert Reich

State Unemployment Rates “little changed” in February - CR

Amid Debt Crisis, Athens Falls Apart – Spiegel Online

Massoud is in a hurry. He wants to get home before dark, because that’s when the people who are out to get him come out.

The gangs of right-wing thugs, sometimes up to 20 at a time, approach their victims on foot or on mopeds, carrying clubs and knives. They are masked, faceless and fast. They appear suddenly and silently before striking.

The neo-fascists are hunting down immigrants in the middle of downtown Athens, in the streets north of the central Omonia Square. They call it cleansing.

They hunt people like Massoud, a 25-year-old Afghan from Kabul. He has been living in Athens for five years without a residency permit, even though he speaks fluent Greek. He studied geography in Kabul, but in Athens he works as a day laborer.

The gangs also hunt the dark-skinned man pushing a shopping cart filled with garbage and scrap metal through the streets. Or the woman with Asian features, who now grabs her child and the paper cup with which she has just been begging in the streets.

Eurozone ministers boost firewall to $1tn – BBC

The pain in Spain may not be enough – Telegraph

Misc.

Where Do Presidential Candidate Stand on Key Issues? - Barry Ritholtz

The evolution of prepaid debit – Felix Salmon

The End Is Coming: January 1, 2013 – BusinessWeek

Which is worse? One is reminded of the Woody Allen joke: “One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

A Field Guide to the American Male Peacock – GQ

The glare of his judgment is merciless. He is, in short, a monumental douchebag. And here is everything you need to know about him—including, most crucially, how not to become him.

The Outrageous First Homes of Billionaire Heiresses and Heirs - Curbed