Nevada leads U.S. in investor-owned loan failures

In Nevada’s prime mortgage market, 29% of loans went to  investors in 2005 and 32% of current defaults are to investors.

Although the reporter’s language is a tad unclear, in Nevada’s subprime mortgage market I think 14% of loans went to investors, and 24% of defaults are to investors.

'LAS VEGAS DODGED A BULLET': Chlorine-hauling tanker rolls free

It could have gone either way.

For a brief slice of time Wednesday morning, the difference between disaster and a normal day in Las Vegas was hitched to a runaway train tanker loaded with hazardous chlorine gas.

The tanker, which escaped the Arden train yard, located south of state Route 160, picked up speed on the downhill and cut a 20-mile swath through the urban heart of Clark County, racing west of the resort corridor and past densely populated neighborhoods around the Union Pacific tracks.

When I heard that an unmanned rail car carrying chlorine gas had rolled through the Las Vegas Valley yesterday, I figured that it had gone at a leisurely pace.

Boy, was I wrong: it hit 50 miles per hour!

It's hard to fathom the level of incompetence that someone must have to allow a train car filled with deadly gas to accidentally leave the station. It's a miracle that there weren't any trains coming in the opposite direction.

The car traveled about 20 miles on the tracks; according to the police, the entire incident lasted from 8.49am to 9.05am, sixteen minutes.

If the car were traveling at 50mph, it could only cover about 13 miles in those sixteen minutes. So either:

- the car was going faster than 50mph
- the police weren't notified until it had already gone 7 miles
- it didn't really go twenty miles

Scary.

Sports and politics do not mix!

In 1991, residential mortgage debt totaled about 50% of GDP. Now it's about 83% of GDP. During that same time, the homeownership rate increased by about 8%. The median home price also kept pace with GDP growth. Now, however, the New York Times reports that the median home price will fall.