There are many who are clamoring for financial reform in the US. The events of the last 2 years have amply indicated this burning need that one cannot afford to ignore or neglect. This is also something that the US Chamber of Commerce has been calling for because it is not too late to get things going and the situation under control of things start moving fast on financial reform. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Financial reform bill that will help to prevent a repeat of the financially disastrous events of 2008 that are still being felt in the US economy in terms of job losses, depressed demand and recession.

The chamber of commerce is also strongly and firmly opposed to setting up of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that is poised to create another layer of useless bureaucracy and which would make it tough for people and companies to get badly needed credit. The body is calling for an independent agency or bureau that would not be under the direct control of oversight by the Fed. The new bureau should only regulate financial firms and not small businesses and enterprises like dentists of retail stores who would qualify to giving credit if they accept money in more than 4 installments. This is quite ridiculous and would not really help matters as they stand.

Nevin Shapiro has been charged in a Ponzi scheme and has been arrested in New Jersey. Nevin is the president as well as the founder of Capitol Investments USA which is located in Miami Beach. The charge is that the Ponzi scheme has defrauded investors of around $900 million. This charge has been laid at the door of Nevin Shapiro by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) which said that Nevin Shapiro was guilty of selling securities that he called risk-free and which had promised to pay almost 26% interest to the investors who would be funding the grocery business of Capitol. The grocery business essentially buys groceries in one region and then sells them at a premium in regions where the prices afford profits.

The spotlight is clearly on Ponzi schemes right now given the fact that Scott Rothstein had swindled people to the extent of $1.2 billion. It may be remembered that Bernard Madoff had made off with around $65 billion in such a Ponzi scheme and is now serving 150 years in prison.

Jim Coyne the former Albany County Executive has taken up the role of manager of the properties of property developer Sandy Horowitz who was also a former Hollywood film producer. Horowitz is in trouble because of which Jim has been brought on board to get a handle on the problem and manage the property suitably. There might have been some code violations as well as try and get tenants to start staying in the properties. Jim Coyne agrees that Sandy has good vision for the properties and the properties are also quite good which is why they should be able to garner attention from prospective owners and tenants too. Sandy has, in any case, invested a great deal of money and it would be great if his project could come to some right standing instead of being pushed around endlessly.

Horowitz is known as a B-movie producer and he lives in California. He had really big plans for property in the Hudson River bank area and had also bought a number of signature properties there. On the other hand, Jim Coyne was the general manager of Washington Avenue Armory in Albany till last August, when he lost that job all of a sudden.

The real estate industry has never had to so bad. After all, the sub-prime crisis is what it all started with and that is why people are scared of anything to do with realty. No wonder you see so many companies in the real estate space just about falling apart and filing for bankruptcy, all so often. The latest victim in this jamboree happens to be First community Village which is a not for profit housing complex for senior citizens. This is a community that fell into problems due to an expansion plan and it wants to go in for Chapter 11 in order to circumvent the effects of the financial troubles that it currently finds itself in.

First community Village wants to get into a kind of re-structuring plan whereby it can make good its debts and also restructure and reorganize the business so that it can become a unit of the National Church Residences which is based out of Upper Arlington. This is an organization that is committed to furthering the cause of senior housing as well as health care. The entity has assets close to between $50 million to $100 million and around $90 million in debt. There are a few creditors who want their dues to be settled at the earliest leading to the chapter 11 filing.

CFS or Custom Food Solutions LLC as well as Tumbleweed Inc. have come out of the Chapter 11 after doing reorganization as well as getting new ownership and direction. These 2 companies are in the hands if new leadership and this is a company that believes in the tradition and heritage of Tumbleweed. This is why it is possible for the company to be sure that the strength of the brand would be done justice to and its values would be well protected in the long run. After coming out of Chapter 11, Tumbleweed has become to single member of CFS and this means that Tumbleweed has assumed some of the loans that CFS had taken from Fifth Third Bank.

There was a rush to save the brand because no one else had come forward to put through a plan to save the company and its fair brand name. The earlier owners were not in a position to provide the right leadership to help the company come up trumps in its quest to fight off obsolescence and insolvency. The new owners of Tumbleweed would do anything to ensure that it not only survives but also thrives and one of them is someone who had started out as a cook at Tumbleweed.

The US state of Oregon is 11th on the list of US states when it comes to the issue of foreclosures. This is as of the data emerging for the 1st quarter of 2010. There were as many as 12,076 notices of default as well as other such activities related to foreclosures in this state. This was a whopping increase from similar incidents over the same period in 2009 by 14.5%. This means that one in every 135 households in Oregon was affected by foreclosures. This is not a very healthy sign as it shows the extent of the effect of the recession which is forcing house owners to give up their lien on their houses due to foreclosures and related activity. This was a little less than the national average of one in 138, but it was dangerously close to the figure, which is really not that good.

As far as the US as a whole is concerned, around 932,200 auctions were held, which is a huge 16% rise over the last year. The severity of the foreclosures was also up, which bodes ill for the economy as a whole. All of this shows the enormity of the problem and the fact that all is not well as far as the US economy is concerned.

A couple of Skyscraper developers in Miami, Leon Cohen Levy as well as his father Mauricio Cohen Assor were arrested in New York on charges that include fraud as well as tax evasion. The charges against them are that they gas hidden a sum of around $45 million illegally in offshore accounts and they were misusing corporate funds to lead a lavish lifestyle on their ill-gotten gains. The Cohens were Skyscraper developers in Miami who wanted to build the Empire World Towers to be located at 330 Biscayne Blvd.

It is said that the Cohens had sold one of their New York Hotels on 2000 and generated around $33 millions. This was never reported in any of their tax returns, neither by them personally nor by any of the entities associated with them, making it a clear case of tax evasion and fraud. They are also said to have made use of tax havens in the Bahamas, Panama and Switzerland, just to name a few so as to defraud the US IRS. There are many charges of failure to file US tax returns, filing of false tax returns, and fraudulent preparation of false IRS forms which have cropped up against the duo.

One of the best indicators of the real estate sector in an area is the number of foreclosures that are happening. In the case of the city of New York, the number of foreclosures has gone up by 10% as compared to the same time last year. This is as per a survey by RealtyTrac and a study done by this organization during the same time. It is heartening to note that New York is still among the lowest in the US when it comes to foreclosure filings. During Q1, it was seen that 12,149 properties got a foreclosure filing in terms of scheduled auctions, bank repossessions or default notices and this is just 1 out of every 657 housing units in the state.

Across the country, it is average for 1 out of every 138 housing units to get some foreclosure action. So New York is much better off, and ranks 42nd among 50 states in terms of foreclosures. But the increased rate of foreclosures is some matter of concern, though. In the case of Nevada however, it is true that 1 in every 33 housing units gets some foreclosure action. This is the highest in the country even though the rate has fallen 16%.

Hollander 95 is a business park that was being developed on the east side of Baltimore. But now the company that is developing is has to go in for bankruptcy filing as it has missed a payment to the former Provident Bank. This is also being said that M&T Bank refused to give it forbearance agreements that would have allowed the company to get some time to get the required finances and come out of bankruptcy proceedings. This is something that has pushed the company to the jaws of insolvency leading to bankruptcy filing, which is what they all wanted to avoid but could not. It seems that the builder missed out a single $11.8 million payment, which is why it had to go in for the bankruptcy proceedings that are all so demeaning to any company.

The M&T Bank would not allow any time which is why the property was to go in for a foreclosure. To avoid this foreclosure, the property owners had to mandatorily file for bankruptcy even if it meant that their dreams of getting the project off the ground had to gets helved. This was unfortunate but true, because if a bank goes against you, there is very less that you can do.

There was a plan to start an Entertainment district in downtown Phoenix. But it seems as if the recession will claim another victim in the form of this Entertainment district. Te plan has run into financial troubles because one of the lenders had sent a notice to the developer. The company that was created to administer the loans of Mortgages Ltd which was due to the Chapter 11 reorganization that was taking place. The plan was supposed to have 20 blocks of mixed used buildings and while it was touted to be an Entertainment district it never really took off the ground and no construction ever took place.

The talk of the project wound down due to the global recession and it is quite in doubt that the Entertainment district will ever see the light of day. There have been a lot of discussions and meetings that have been going on in order to kick start the project. But if nothing takes off and there is a morass it could very well be shelved and the project could go into foreclosure. It certainly seems as if any talk of development and entertainment seems to be frivolous. These are just the signs of our times.